In 1960 the cost of health care was 5% of the Gross National Product (GNP). Today it's 15% , still rising, and out-pacing any other inflationary expense by leaps and bounds. In 2005 Drug Companies spent $7.2 billion to promote drugs to physicians and $4.2 billion on consumer advertising, as per GAO. As the consumer becomes more educated or when "the well runs dry" it will become apparent there are too many expensive "middlemen" between the patient and the doctor.
Our political legislative body, for the most part, is a 2-party system: Democrats and Republicans. As a nation of free people, we accept the fact that our Congressmen and Senators are influenced to vote for bills in a similar fashion, i.e., along party lines. The Obama Health Care Insurance Bill was almost 100% supported by the democratic portion, and unanimously opposed by republicans. Nothing is be more indicative of a political agenda, nor less of a coincidence. There were an average of 3 health insurance lobbyists assigned to each of our 535 Senators and Congressmen during the legislative process known as the Obama Care Health Bill.
Now that our Supreme Court has decided corporations are actually "people," we soon will overtly witness blocks of legislators aligning "corporately," instead of along party lines, and Democrats and Republicans may soon be as common as the Whig and the Torie.
My belief is such a nationalized mandatory program contradicts 3 manifestos written circa 1776, which protects not only our freedoms as individuals, but also our states' rights to govern health care. I support the concept of 50 laboratories of democracy, as well as an individual's right to freedom of choice. And as a physician, I believe "We the People" should have been followed by the phrase "who posess a heart-beat," to keep corporations out of this. If our forefathers had forseen today's political process, I'm sure they would have included it.
The regulation of health care by non-medical agencies has adversely affected the physician-patient relationship. A one-hour visit at the doctor's office is usually filled with filling out paperwork, waiting, and often 10 minutes or less with an actual doctor. There are often more personnel handling paperwork than those caring for patients. Government and insurance company regulation needs to be reviewed and stream-lined, as its cost is actually higher than the amount spent on direct health care itself.
Our health care system is now driven more by self-interest than the spirit of charity. On a physical level, we receive the best health care in the world. Spiritually, perhaps it's now the worst. Overall. healing does not occur without a balanced trinity of mind, body and spirit. Raising children is a perfect example of the importance of spirituality: On a physical level, children grow up healthy when they are fed good food. On a spiritual one, they are healthy when they are provided security, love, hope, empathy, groundedness, assurance, and so on. Health care requires the same.
I wrote a satirical essay called "The Tale of the Flat Tire" which presents a nightmare called "Obama Car Health Insurance."
"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government." -Thomas Jefferson
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." - Thomas Jefferson
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." -Thomas Jefferson
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." -Thomas Jefferson
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A sample of America's basic health care knowledge:
In a recent study published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine 32 adults in Atlanta and Chicago were interviewed about their knowledge of over-the-counter pain medication:
44% had reading levels at or below 6th-grade.
25% did not know aspirin is the main active ingredient in Bayer.69% did not know acetaminophen is the main active ingredient in Tylenol.81% did not know ibuprofen is the main active ingredient in Advil.
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Dr Bolte runs an comprehensive integrated medical clinic in midtown Manhattan.
