Sickening Health

Politics. That word and all it emotes in us. For you it may be the thought of Pork barreling from high school history class or the image of a round American man with a comb-over and perfect teeth. It may spark a fire inside, flamed with rage or disgust, or it may send a wave of Patriotism through each of your vessels. It has the strength to incite riots, to strap a bomb to itself and enter an ignorant place of public travel. This one word can shatter a family into fragments of misunderstanding and allow a nation to forget its purpose of better life for all who call its soil home. Politics inspires divisiveness and perpetuates resentment. It feeds corruption and buys values. It allows for growth all the while stifling change. It struggles to find its own meaning through charismatic debates and handshakes that seethe in untold truths. Politics.

Being married to a man who has the memory for details of historical fact and one-liners from movies such as Raising Arizona which rivals that of my father's for songwriters of the 60's, I have no choice but to be embedded in Politics. As the current election year continues to blast its ugly self in HD across all things electronic, I attempt to ride a wave to keep above it all if only for a breath. Although I have many opinions to share, I feel that my most important and valuable perspectives are those on the healthcare system. A highly conflicted topic, I know and one with which I personally grapple on a daily basis.

The current system as we Americans know it is absolutely unacceptable. According to an article from a reputable medical journal, JAMA, doctors are the third leading cause of death in the US, causing 250,000 deaths every year.
ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:

12,000 --- unnecessary surgery

7,000 ----- medication errors in hospitals

20,000 ---- other errors in hospitals

80,000 ---- infections in hospitals

106,000 ---non-error, negative effects of drugs

These total to 250,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!!

Does this mean that doctors are the problem? In some situations, yes, but being a licensed Naturopathic Physician myself, I surmise a faulty system that ties the hands of well trained practitioners both in education and in practice. My brother begs for more big business and less government. Yet big business, although a component and freedom of democracy, historically grows like cancerous cells unchecked and hidden from surrounding healthy cells. It does not self-regulate. If big business were allowed its wishes, our air would now be unsuitable to breathe and our water unfit for drinking. Our children would experience outrageously higher rates of asthma if the Clean Air Act had not come to fruition. If not for government programs and funding, we would not have roads to drive our choice of cars on or beautiful parks to escape from the city. Sure, private companies could do such things, but if left to the bottom line, which is without a doubt profit, there is just no incentive. The good of the people is no longer the priority and it is simply the good of the individual, or said business (remember, a corporation is treated as its own entity, a life in and of itself).

This brings me back to healthcare. Interspersed between mudslinging political ads are commercials about pharmaceuticals. Tell me one person who truly enjoys seeing erectile dysfunction discussions by none other than former politicians while waiting for the next scene on Heroes. Oh, wait the writers are still on strike so that's a mute point. And everyone except us with our rabbit ears has Tivo, so commercials don't affect them, but I am certainly offended by the media telling me what I should ask my doctor about. Hold it, I am a doctor. Fortunately in my field, my patients are asking me about alternatives to drugs instead of asking me to prescribe them "you know that one with the glowing butterfly or the happy faced rock". Pharmaceutical companies, aka big business, run the show. And although I know there are many drugs out there that keep people alive, there are many others, if not far more that shorten people's lives and absolutely ruin quality of life. Who funds the research? Who validates the efficacy of drugs? Who challenges the safety of an herb like licorice that has been used safely and effectively for centuries in China and the Americas and allows medications that have been PROVEN to kill people to remain on the market? Who inundates med students and doctors with clocks, notepads, free lunches, samples, and even textbooks in order to ensure that their product will be the first to be prescribed? Who lobbies politicians so that their drug will remain under patent longer to keep prices sky high--healthy competition, you say? Who creates a corrupt paradigm for research that could never apply to such practices as healthy lifestyle or energetic techniques like acupuncture which has been a traditional healing method for thousands of years? What is the bottom line?

And then there are the insurance companies. Not to pick on you, brother, but you say that anyone can walk into any hospital emergency room and receive appropriate care no matter what his or her insurance is or is not. Not true. I beg of you, don't take my nephews to the nearest Kaiser ER, then. That is unless you are covered by Kaiser, and then you'll be treated well. I bill insurance. I want people who work hard to pay for their insurance to be able to use it for my services (mind you, Bill and I are self employed and pay for ours and our children's health insurance completely) as well as people who choose not to or who do not have Naturopathic or acupuncture coverage and pay out of pocket. I see first hand the challenges of our system and the game that physicians must play in order for the insurance companies to say yay or nay. Why is big business dictating (or trying to, that is) how I practice medicine? As I recall, I am the one who sat in classes for six years. I am the one paying my loans. I am the one who did special training under the best Chinese doctors in cancer treatment. I am the one who learned every muscle insertion and origination of the body and drew blood from my partially trusting peers. I am the one sitting face to face with patients who tell me their challenges with health and life. I am the one who listens to their hearts and feels their pulses. I am not an insurance company. I am not a big business. I am a sole proprietor who aspires to practice safe and effective medicine and teach people how to optimize health. I want to pay my loans and contribute financially to my family. I want to have the freedom to buy land or travel. I don't need a million dollar home or a yacht. I want to contribute in a real way to the health of our nation by teaching individuals techniques to take charge of their health. And right now, compared even to some less "developed" nations, we are facing a crisis in our individual health and our healthcare system that is unprecedented. Who will check this unfolding tragedy? Politicians? Big business? I trust neither with the health of my children.