~~~ thanks Kathi ... great article! ~~~
Crime doesn't pay - the medical bills, that is
realhealthnews.comrealhealthnews.comOpen ↗
Just for the record: There's no excuse for crime, in my
eyes.
But that doesn't stop drug manufacturers, HMOs, hospitals
and insurance companies from shamelessly ripping us off left
and right for their poisonous pills, hazardous mammograms
and needless MRIs, does it? And what does our government do
while they fleece us blind? They sit back and collect those
nice, fat tax revenue checks as prices spiral up and out of
reach of average Americans. I ask you: Where's their
incentive to help trim our health care costs by freeing the
free enterprise system to do what it does best - create the
healthy competition that drives prices down...
This is the fundamental principle our system is based on,
but it's nothing more than a fantasy in this day and age.
Nowadays, there's really no such thing as competition in the
medical world. Why? Because doctors and hospitals
artificially inflate their prices for care because they know
someone other than the patient is paying the bills - which
is why in order to pay for our medical bills, we now NEED
those greedy insurance companies, HMO's, and government
handouts. The only other way to pay for your health care is
if you're independently wealthy...
Unless you ROB A BANK!
That's what one 71-year-old Florida man did just half an
hour before his wife's doctor's appointment. Caught by
police after the dye-pack in the money-bag exploded as he
left the bank, the septuagenarian told investigators he
needed the cash to pay for his wife's medical care! Like a
modern-day American Gothic version of Bonnie and Clyde, this
elderly man and his accomplice wife (she drove the getaway
car) are now in a heap o' trouble - ostensibly because
doctors cost so much. I guess they should look at the bright
side, though: Medical care costs nothing in jail.
This example is comical, sure, but it's also telling and
tragic. Gone are the days when medical care was an
affordable, cash-on-the-barrelhead proposition, just like
car maintenance, carpentry work, or buying livestock. Gone
are the days when doctors and hospitals had to keep their
prices low or else their competitor across town would get
the business. And gone are the days when YOU decide what
your medical options are, not some pointy-headed, bean-
counting pencil pusher who's paying the bloated bills.
Talk about robbery in the name of medicine, huh?
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***
Banned! Why the FDA slammed the door on nature's
best cholesterol buster...
While many Americans are popping risky and expensive statin
drugs for cholesterol control, the FDA is blocking the sale
of red yeast rice - a safe, natural source of powerful
lovastatin...
Why? Because the pharmaceutical companies and the FDA have
convinced our medical establishment that costly drugs are
the answer to all our health worries - despite their dubious
track record and often-deadly side effects...
Learn how one courageous M.D. has spent his entire career
proving that nobody does it better than Mother Nature.
Paper clip patch-up
Remember a while back when I told you about that whack-job
doctor (who's likely still licensed somewhere in this
country, by the way) who implanted a freshly sawed-off
section of screwdriver into a person's spine because he'd
misplaced in mid-operation the high-tech titanium rod that
was supposed to be installed? (Daily Dose, 10/17)
That kind of stuff makes headlines here in America for its
rarity - but apparently it's par for the course across the
pond in Britain!
According to a recent Reuters online article, British
surgeons are commonly using such household items as PAPER
CLIPS and CLOTHES PINS during common medical procedures.
Not emergency measures in the field, mind you, but routine
operating-room scenarios. Relaying the findings of a
Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency report, the article
outlined instances in which common paper clips (and
urinary catheters) were used to close wounds - and wooden
clothes pegs were used to attach pulse oximeters to
patients' bodies...
Amusing? Not really. The report also cites instances in
which this type of medical improvisation led to some
disastrous consequences: Widespread use of ordinary tongue
depressors as splints for infants' limbs were directly
responsible for two deaths and one amputation from
infection!
I wonder: Is this the kind of thing we could expect in
America if our health-care system becomes governmentalized,
like Britain's? Believe it or not, many in left-leaning
socialized medicine circles tout the British health care
system as being one to emulate - even with such snafus (and
horrendous waiting times for even routines procedures, I'm
told) into the bargain. But you don't even have to look
that far to see the degeneracy of government medicine -
just a glance northward. Canadians swarm south to get
surgical care.
Don't know about you, but I'll take my chances here any day.
Waving a red flag because I don't want to live under one,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD