Healthcare Corruption

Healthcare is overpriced and underperforming. Patients refuse to understand that health insurance is a “cash flow” mechanism that prompts insurance providers to increase your premiums if your expenses are too high. It’s like a loan where lenders eventually want their money back from you or somebody else.

Healthcare’s golden era has passed. This golden era began after the civil war in response to the barbaric use of amputations. Part of the fix came from reducing bullet sizes and the rest came from advances in surgical restoration.

From the 1880s to the 1940s, the practice of medicine was well trained and well regarded. No cures were found for cancer or heart disease, but doctors were building their capability to understand these diseases and improving techniques for everything else. The doctors trained in this period were able to diagnose illness without expensive testing.

This golden era brought antibiotics in 1945 and ended premature death for millions who had died from small pox and similar diseases. Polio vaccine was introduced in the 1950s. The golden age ended in the 1960s with the creation of Medicare and Vatican II. After that, US healthcare followed the money.

Big Pharma didn’t find any cures for major diseases over the past 70 years, but spend their time on medications that treated symptoms. Later they invented pills that promised to reduce weight when simply eating less had always been the answer. When they had a drug that helped with a fatal disease, they spiked the price. So much of what they tried has failed.

The practice of Medicine changed to be more Big Pharma and expensive test equipment friendly.  Doctors branched into specialties and reliance on expensive equipment replaced their ability to accurately diagnose illness. Unlike auto mechanics, when things failed there were no guarantees, they charged more to fix it. One problem with medicine is that, unlike automobile transmissions, all patients are unique.

We spent decades watching cancer patients die from radiation sickness. Now, at least, doctors are attempting to localize the radiation to improve the patient’s chances.  There are side effects from drugs including pain pill addiction. Viruses do mutate to resist drugs like bugs who build resistance to pesticides. 

Medicine is largely “trial and error’.  It has always been and continues to be a guessing game.  It’s just more expensive now. Patients can and should try things to improve their “preventive” conditions. Simply taking Magnesium can curb hunger and allow weight loss. The cause of allergic reactions can be determined by the patient by fasting and then eating each food and condiment to see what causes the allergic reaction.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader