Long Straight Highway (redux)

Shane - I agree - not simple.

Bad/Good people - all relative. Unfortunately the health care industry doesn't have any more highly evolved people than any other industry. When lives are on the line, this can be a sad fact - but a true one.

There is no "market" in our health care system. This is a big illusion. There are a few big players that own it all and they like it that way.

With all being said, I am hopeful.

Dave, I agree with everything you said. As you might have noticed from
previous posts,
a theme I rant on is that issues are seldom simple, there aren't good
people virtuously fighting the bad people, etc. Well, aside from Dick
Cheney. And market solutions are the most effective solutions at
solving the sort of things the market can solve, which is a tautology
but still true.
So yeah: follow the money. Look for the incentives in the system and
it's pretty clear pretty quick that the whole thing is at cross
purposes, just like you say. Which means that what we need is an
organizational system where the interests of the 'clients' (patients,
citizens) are aligned with the service provider. It's really not that
hard to figure out, but it's still beyond the
knee-jerk thinking of market apologists.

Markets are great for setting prices. They're demonstrably less great when
the pricing information isn't captured in the formulation of the system.
Like with health care. Or environmental degradation. Or protecting the
interests of people who have no votes (dollars) to spend in the current
marketplace.

Follow the money and you will often find the (or some) truth.

The "healthcare" industry is just as f'd up as the rest of the industries.Look into the history of the AMA, NCI, FDA, and others. It is not a pretty picture. There are many a bedfellows in this group and many have no interest in your health. It is an empire folks and our true health is not of concern.

Just a few things that may raise a bit of question in your mind:
- The top advertiser in the AMA journal for a long time - Tobacco
- The current top advertiser in the AMA journal - Pharmaceuticals, This journal is supposed to be a technical magazine for professionals in the medical field not People magazine. Whose interests will the AMA lobbyist fight for? Follow the money...
- Medical schools are funded by pharma companies
- Many pharma "studies" are done by universities/facilities that receive school funding from these same companies. Follow the money...
- Many power positions of pharma roll into govt positions (FDA, NCI, etc) and back out. Follow the money...
- Many pharma scientists are not focusing on curing anything. Mutate a current concoction we have so we can patent it. Then let's see how we can sell it. Where is the understanding of health and working to mirror it? Follow the money...
- Well respected scientists and doctors have worked on and developed low cost and non-patentable means of helping and curing people with cancer. The "powers" shut them down and forced those that believed in what they were doing out of the country. Follow the money....

In today's profit and power driven world, what incentive is there for people to be healthy? Really? Profit is not a bad thing, moral-less profit with power is down right scary and dangerous. We are talking about lives here, not stock prices!

Most doctors and medical professionals are doing their best with the tools they have. Unfortunately the "powers" have only provided the doctors a limited set of tools that make the "powers" a heck of a lot of money. Many times these tools are extremely expensive, intrusive, and deadly. This is the method used even though there are low-cost, non-intrusive, and low-risk methods of achieving the same or better results.

Critical care - our system is the best on the world! No question!

For everything else (which is a lot), I have many reservations.

You must take ownership of your own health! Give a damn about yourself.

We need a system:
- that truly focuses on health, not 100% symptom care.
- that is open to all methods of treatments with the best interests of the individual in mind.
- allows the individual an ownership role in the direction of care
- provides incentives to be healthy
- that won't force you into bankruptcy if serious care is required

These are a few of the items that I think would be important in a new system.

If there is a great amount of crap floating around about the disaster of socialized medicine, it is more than likely being pushed by the medical industry "powers" so it would definitely be worth investigating and considering.

So you are saying we didn't go to Iraq to "free the people"?

Goodnight Gracie!

Check this shit out:

"The report, released by Health Care for America Now (HCAN), uses data compiled by the American Medical Association to show that 94 percent of the country's insurance markets are defined as "highly concentrated," according to Justice Department guidelines. Predictably, that's led to skyrocketing costs for patients, and monster profits for the big health insurers. Premiums have gone up over the past six years by more than 87 percent, on average, while profits at ten of the largest publicly traded health insurance companies rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007."

Here's a link to the report:
http://healthcareforamericanow.org/site/content...

So I guess this means that anyone prone to blathering on about the glorious market should support a robust public option b/c the status quo only protects monopolization and not any sort of efficient market.

Why: because I like to beat up on people when their idiocy is causing real
problems in the world. It makes me feel better for the same reason I liked
to destroy people in basketball when they talked shit to me. Probably
indicative of psychological problems on my part, but that's not news to you.

"Just because someone has money and insurance doesn't mean they don't care
about those without."

No, but it _does_ mean that being uninsured is literally not their problem.
But that's not really answering the spirit of your criticism. So here's the
answer to that: the lion's share of the people who don't have to worry about
health insurance on their own behalves don't spend a second's thought on it
on anyone else's behalf, either. Look around you - there's the proof.

But not just health insurance - it's true of anything. Which is why I take
such extra-special delight about the pro-Iraq-war shitheads who listed "to
free the Iraqi citizens from a crazed dictator" as among their reasons for
supporting the war, when the truth of the matter is that they had never to
that point, and have never since that point, advocated any similar exercise
in any of the zillion other places on Earth where people are oppressed as
bad or worse by crazed dictators. Which isn't to say that you couldn't make
a case for the Iraq war; just that _that_ could not be your case.

But I digress.

I have a practical question.

Why?

Why do you want to smash them with a rhetorical hammer? Isn't there enough conflict in your life without seeking out more? I mean really, you're pissed off about health care, and with good reason. So you've got that cooking and now you're trying to bait people so you can get worked up and more pissed off? I don't get it.

I find the "Not Your Problem" statement particularly insulting. Just because someone has money and insurance doesn't mean they don't care about those without.

It is amazing to me how little people know about how healthcare currently works and how deeply embedded the propaganda against any sort of governmental reform is.

The one that gets me the most is "oh no - healthcare will be rationed by the government!" Its like they don't realize that healthcare is rationed right now, but not by the government, by health insurance companies trying to give their CEOs corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Consumer Reports has a big article this month in favor of healthcare reform, and obviously, written from a consumer perspective. It debunks a bunch of retarded ideas people have as well. I'd link but its behind a paywall.