Our economy is slowly decaying, but America and Europe continue to feed the Healthcare Industry. This monstrous Industry continues to remain virtually untouched by the financial privation that surrounds most of us. It is corrupt and failing critically, at a point when disposable income is dropping and insured populations continue to shrink. More people are reaching into their pockets for overpriced and often unnecessary procedures and bankrupting themselves. While the history of why we are presently suffering from this problem can only be provided in a weeklong seminar, the nuts and bolts of the problem are something we can all wrap our minds around.
One aspect that clearly must be examined is the market forces at work. Insurance companies as well as individuals are more likely to settle than litigate even if there is no harm. This drives up health care cost by forcing tests to prevent lawsuits. Testing should only be performed when the outcome will dictate treatment. This is rarely the case in today’s market.
Bean Counters take averages by actuarial figures per diagnosis, dictating treatment cost. The problem with this is that Doctors then select diagnoses based on higher payouts. While identical diagnoses may indicate complete different treatments based on an individual case, cookie cutter treatments are encouraged in the American, European, and Canadian models. There is no system to reward competency on the part of the Provider and no reward to the patient for prevention. Sometimes what appears to be cost cutting procedures can actually create chronic disease.
Chronic disease is seldom addressed. There is a deep concern only for the decrease and management of symptoms, rather than searching for true cause. Alternative approaches such as Chiropractic, Nutrition, Acupuncture, and Naturopathy are maligned at best and disallowed or paid at a pittance.
I had a case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome with a Deli Clerk from slicing meat and cheese with poor body mechanics and repetitive motion. His Workers’ Compensation company refused to allow him Chiropractic Adjustments and put him through Orthopedics and PT for about 8 months, finally insisting on Surgery to repair the problem. He decided to have me treat him on a cash basis and was well with 6 visits in 2 weeks. The cost was less than $500. His medical bills from Workers’ Compensation were about 20 times that and would have been 100 times that with surgery and subsequent treatment. This happens many times daily, costing our government billions and making complex permanent problems out of relatively simple issues.
According to the late Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, MD, today’s health care system is like a Religion.
“Doctors are so powerful precisely because they have, as priests of the Church of Modern Medicine, removed all the old guilts. Modern Medicine invalidates the old guilts which, strangely enough, held people to their old religions. Nothing is a “sin” anymore, because there is a physical consequence, the doctor has the power to fix you up. If you get pregnant, the doctor can perform an abortion. If you get venereal disease, the doctor can give you penicillin. If you are gluttonous and damage your heart, the doctor can give you a coronary bypass. If you suffer from emotional problems, the doctor has Valium, Librium, and other narcotics to help you get by without caring, or feeling. If those don’t work, there are plenty of psychiatrists.”
Religion and money are two great motivators in the world. The members of the religion will have no other, as referenced in my personal example earlier. Wellness has been lost in an obscuring mist of territorial testosterone spray. Instead of cooperating for the benefit of the patient, the Western systems, socialized and capitalistic resolve permanent ownership of the patient by the sickness and disease model, rather than a wellness oriented one. Taking care of the symptoms is deemed enough. Prevention is rarely defined as nutrition and exercise, it is 5 vaccinations at a time, preserved with Mercury, a known neurotoxin.
I am personally appalled at the volume of drug commercials in the media. There is always the happy music playing in the background at the end when they list the side effects. The irony is, about a year or two later you see attorney commercials for lawsuits due to the side effects mentioned after the commercials a year ago. Where is the role of prevention in health care treatment modalities? Oh, that’s right, they don’t treat with natural, noninvasive means. There isn’t enough profit in it, individually or corporately, because there is nothing to sell.
For Alternative Wholistic Health Care, it is the best of times and the worst of times. People are forced to alternatives because insurance coverage is slipping to Catastrophic care from Preventative Care. Prevention as practiced minimally as chronic diseases such as Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Arthritis (DJD) continue to increase. Chemical food additives, GMOs, and Refined Flour and Sugar are continuing to affect us over time. The only answer remaining is to educate ourselves so we can refuse to participate in a system designed for our bodies to fail. It is, after all, still your body. An educated “No” usually suffices, along with the application of a well thought out alternative treatment.