Paradox and Indifference
They knew in 1971
They want us all dead. The Empire wants to thin the herd. This is why 400,000 annual deaths related to tobacco is a good thing. Like what applies to developing alternative fuels on a mass scale. Anyone who could cure cancer would be disappeared. The same applies to anyone who invented a real method to permanently end nicotine dependency. Since the 1950s, a cure for cancer “has been” around the corner. Plus, tobacco is legal. Corporations and growers make money from it and states can heavily tax it. A sin tax.
I will tell you the real reason marijuana has not and probably never will be legalized. First, look at the benefits. Legalize and regulate it and illegal pot trafficking and associated crime is drastically reduced. It can be taxed like tobacco and generate revenue. Studies are inconclusive, but in my limited view, marijuana is not a “gateway” drug. Politicians, the puppets of the Empire, do not want it legalized because they cannot tolerate the citizenry feeling good. Pro-pot proponents (say that five times fast) generally claim it makes you feel better than alcohol. At least in Orwell’s 1984, the State (Oceania) provided Victory Gin to the masses, cheap, although not free.
As an aside, based on current conditions in this nation, there are at least two literary classics we would do well to revisit: Orwell’s 1984 and John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. In the case of the latter, we may yet see again dustbowls and tumbleweeds.
History of Health Care in America
There are many expert sources on this topic and it would be disingenuous of me to regurgitate them here. I will share one bit of information I discovered that I found rather surprising when I watched Michael Moore’s Sicko (2007). This is summarized neatly on Moore’s website by guest commentator, Rose Ann DeMoro of the Contra Costa Times:
Moore unearths 1971 White House tapes in which President Nixon and John Ehrlichman discussed the pending bill to promote managed care.
Ehrlichman reassures Nixon that "all the incentives are toward less medical care ... because the less care they give 'em, the more money they make."
Three decades later, Moore shows the inevitable evolution of this scheme, partly through two industry whistle-blowers who agonize over their role in denying care.
"You're not slipping through the cracks. They made the crack and are sweeping you toward it," one says.
In an intimate final screening in New York with the real-life stars of "Sicko" that the California Nurses Association was invited to attend, Moore made clear his view on whether the bandages and sealing wax that some politicians and presidential candidates favor can fix this callous system.
"We have to eliminate the private insurance companies. They have to go," Moore said.
Such sentiments may not be widely popular on Capitol Hill; after all, "Sicko" notes, the insurance industry's "biggest accomplishment might be buying our U.S. Congress."
Nixon! Like Jerry Seinfeld on his show (Newman!). And as we remember from our reading, “when the President does it, it’s not illegal.” Dark forces began to move. Part of the birth of the Empire’s rigorous Poverty Engineering program.
Anecdotes without Antidotes
Here, a discussion must be included on how Americans view their health and, like education, we exhibit a split personality: we want to be fit, but we can’t keep our fat asses out of the fast-food joints.
Propaganda
We employ similar propaganda tactics as evidenced in Orwell’s cautionary tale through advertising. Craig Clough, staff writer for lifewhile.com, wrote:
"Since the FDA loosened up television direct-to-consumer advertising standards for drug companies in 1997, it's difficult to sit though an evening of watching your favorite shows without seeing an advertisement for some prescription drug.
A humorous side effect of these TV commercials can often be the side effects that come with the drug. Who can't help but crack a smile when they see that Viagra commercial saying if you experience an erection that lasts for more than four hours to call a doctor?
Before 1997, drug ads had to list broad information about side effects, which made advertising not particularly viable. But after '97, drug companies only had to list common side effects, which seem to be getting weirder and weirder.
Consumer's Union conducted a poll that shows one in six Americans have taken a prescription drug and experienced a side effect serious enough to require a doctor or hospital visit.
A commercial for Mirapex -- which is given to treat Parkinson's disease as well as restless leg syndrome -- says at the end to tell your doctor if you experience increased gambling, sexual or other intense urges.
Vasotec, given to treat high blood pressure, can cause a loss of taste sensation.
Paxil is a drug that is prescribed for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
According to Drugs.com, possible side effects of Paxil include mood changes, anxiety, panic attacks, trouble sleeping, irritability, agitation, aggressiveness, severe restlessness, mania, thoughts of suicide or hurting yourself.
Are these really any different from the symptoms one suffers through with depression, or perhaps even worse?"
(April, 2008)
Every prescription drug advertised on TV ends with a disclaimer about their side effects, some including death which is a really bad joke. And how many over-the-counter drugs can you identify which actually work? We want to believe they help us. The only one being helped is the Very Big Pharmaceutical companies. Somehow, people seem to think that if they take drugs, supplements, diet, avoid fatty foods, spend hundreds of dollars on putrid Nutrisystem meals, join fitness clubs, monitor blood pressure and cholesterol, that we will indeed live forever. Was it a bumper sticker or t-shirt? “No one gets out of life alive.” If you read Politics/Government, you can understand if I say I’m glad I wasn’t born any later.
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
I jogged for 27 years, maintained a really good weight. However, all the benefits generally claimed by this practice were not forthcoming. It did not fend off depression. I had no endorphin rush. It did not make me feel healthier overall. It did nothing to assuage my insomnia. About five years ago, I lost the motivation and gained weight. So what? An aside about insomnia and fear (they are related)…People with insomnia have shortened life spans apparently (“Increased risk of mortality is associated with short sleep lengths”—from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, as reported by emedicine.medscape.com (June, 2009)). My Dad just turned 88 and he claims to sleep 2-3 hours a night.
I attended a seminar several years ago on insomnia. A medical doctor stood up before a sizable audience and said word for word, “If you are thinking of problems at night which are keeping you awake, then you must not think of those problems.” You can’t make this stuff up.
If greed and power rule our governing principles, then in the case of health care, we are ruled by fear. But there is another side to the propagandistic culture which sends us very conflicting messages: cheap fast-food value and convenience. What does the media throw at us? Back-to-back commercials: purchase a Bowflex “system”, then go to Denny’s for the mega-calorie Grand-Slam. My cable TV provider includes a Fitness channel. Beautiful people doing calisthenics, exercising on non-impact equipment 24/7. I saw a cook demonstrate in a studio kitchen how to prepare a healthy meal. The chef in question had to have tipped the scales at 300 pounds. I’m conflicted.
Fast-food nation is winning. Soon, we will all be so fat that, if invaded by a conquering power, we wouldn’t even be able to defend ourselves. We can always outsource and have foreign interests come in and take care of us.
Obesity and the Coming Diabetes Epidemic
Again the polarized sensibility of the nation comes into play. We decry the obesity epidemic, but I’m not sure who “we” is. Not the people who queue up at the McDonald’s drive-through. Not the McDonald's profiteers. In five years, I’ve gained over 30 pounds and I don’t even eat at fast food restaurants. I could cite pressures and stress, but know what? It’s my own damn fault, to borrow a quote from the Jimmy Buffet song. The roots of “growing” obesity in this country have complex or deep-rooted underpinnings. It all began with the demise of the one-income family (one of the Empire’s early stratagems in Poverty Engineering). Mom goes to work and there is no time to make wholesome home-cooked meals. It’s easier to pick up a bucket of KFC on the way home. And, as far back as 1954, note that
"Gerry Thomas [was] the man who invented both the product and the name of the Swanson TV Dinner. In 1954, Swanson TV Dinners fulfilled two post-war trends: the lure of time-saving modern appliances and the fascination with a growing innovation, the television. More than 10 million TV dinners were sold during the first year of Swanson's national distribution. For $.98 per dinner, customers were able to choose among Salisbury steak, meatloaf, fried chicken, or turkey, served with potatoes and bright green peas; special desserts were added later."
Although what constituted wholesome then, the current prevailing wisdom tells us was bad: red meat, fat, dairy. No one knew anything about carbs and cholesterol. This knowledge today is applied with fear. The health/fear industry has exploded in recent decades and people are unhealthier than ever. If you don’t think so, consider that some experts believe obesity will reverse the gains Americans’ life span.
The proliferation of fast-food in America has accelerated the sedentary lifestyle, consisting of television, DVDs, and video games. This is exceedingly well-documented in Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation—The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2004):
“Fast food is now served at restaurants and drive-throughs, at stadiums, airports, zoos, high schools, elementary schools and universities, on cruise ships, trains, and airplanes, at K-Marts, Wal-Marts, gas stations, and [ironically] even hospital cafeterias.”
Right across the street from me, they completely tore down a Taco-Bell. In its place, they put up…another Taco-Bell! WTF? At least some had construction jobs. How about a park? Playground, tennis, basketball courts? Fuck, no.
Physical education has been eliminated from all school curricula. You might notice that low-income families often have an obesity issue. Our knee-jerk reaction is to call them lazy. High-fat foods are the cheapest: pasta, potatoes, rice, snack junk food, soda.
With the pressures applied by Poverty Engineering, the unemployed/ underemployed cannot afford healthy food. A package of boneless chicken breasts at Publix, a southeastern grocery chain, can cost $8. How can that compete with a happy meal? The overworked (filling in for co-workers who have been sacked) have no energy to come home and cook in their kitchen. That’s why it’s standing room only at the Golden Corral, which probably works out as less expensive as well, but not healthy.
I recently had a routine blood test and my glucose was a few points high. Pre-diabetic, I guess. First time ever. My guess is it’s age and the added weight. Oh, and also the “Genetic Imperative”. My Dad is Type I. So is my uncle. My Mom was, too. I’m in the crosshairs. I told my physician I do not eat sweets. Seriously, folks. He says to me, “good, then, your glucose score would have been much higher.” What do I do, doc? “Cut back on the carbs, pasta, bread.” Goddammit! What else is there?
The diabetes epidemic will hit lower-income families hard, especially in the case of those without health insurance. But, like the tobacco-related deaths, this is a good thing for the Empire.
Mental Health Care in America: Flying Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Mental Health Nightmares. Off the radar. We’ve patted ourselves on the back with our modern understanding of psychoanalysis. That the days of snake pits and callously telling people to snap out of it are over. Bullshit, with special credit to Professor Frankfurt. Here’s the 2009 report card:
United States Grade: D
"Mental health care in America is in crisis. The nation’s mental health care system gets a dismal D. As the nation confronts a severe economic crisis, demand for mental health services is increasing -- but state budget cuts are creating a vicious cycle that is leaving some of our most vulnerable citizens behind. We must move forward, not retreat .
Our national mental health care system is in crisis. Long fragile, fragmented, and inadequate, it is now in serious peril. In 2003, the presidential New Freedom Commission presented a vision for a life-saving, recovery-oriented, cost-effective, evidence-based system of care. States have been working to improve the system, but progress is minimal.
Today, even those states that have worked the hardest stand to see their gains wiped out. As the country faces the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression, state budget shortfalls mean budget cuts to mental health services.
The budget cuts are coming at a time when mental health services are even more urgently needed. It is a vicious cycle that destroys lives and creates more significant financial troubles for states and the federal government in the long run.
One in four Americans experience mental illness at some point in their lives. The most serious conditions affect 10.6 million people. Mental illness is the greatest cause of disability in the nation, and twice as many Americans live with schizophrenia than with HIV/AIDS.
We know what works to save lives and help people recover. In the face of crisis, America needs to move forward, not retreat. We cannot leave our most vulnerable citizens behind. (source: Grading the States)
In Florida we have something called the Baker Act (Chapter 394 of the Florida Statutes is known as "The Baker Act" and as "The Florida Mental Health Act"). “A Baker Act proceeding is a means of providing an individual with emergency services and temporary detention for mental health evaluation and treatment, either on a voluntary or involuntary basis).” The duration is for a minimum of 72 hours and of late this is becoming the maximum. Part of the problem rests with inadequate facilities/beds and a shortage of mental health professionals. So, patients are prematurely discharged. The problem is that many just keep coming back straining and costing the system more in the long run. Few seem to be able to grasp this simple concept.
Mental health care here for the chronically ill is abysmal. Especially if you are a Medicaid patient. I know someone (“Burt”) who, because of a chemical imbalance, resulting in mania and psychosis, has been “Baker-Acted” a few times. The last time, a couple of years back, this went on for three months. This was because they kept discharging Burt too soon. Finally, one facility came to its senses and kept him and stabilized him with the proper medication. Burt’s story turned out relatively well, although he suffered much along with his family and friends. Others are not so fortunate, some relegated to group homes with appalling living conditions. Many without encouragement and therapy stop taking their medication. Some become homeless. And to make it more shameful, a good deal of this displaced population is comprised of war veterans. One of our greatest national shames.
Burt is doing pretty darn well right now. He’s on Medicaid (aka third-world health care) and must see a psychiatrist every 60 days. It’s an arduous 30-minute trip on a white-knuckle freeway he calls the Punishment Visit. Here’s why…. The broken bodies and souls of these Medicaid patients cram a small waiting room, probably exceeding local fire ordinances. It looks like the scene in Dr. Zhivago (1965) when the doctor is kidnapped by revolutionaries and brought to a makeshift hospital where, with a single nurse assisting, is expected to treat dozens, maybe hundreds of wounded. He tells his kidnappers: “I can’t deal with this.” His kidnappers reply: “You’ll have to try.”
Sometimes, the wait can exceed two hours. When finally admitted to the shrink’s office, the visit may last between 90 seconds and three minutes and then a prescription is written for 60 days. Burt asked the shrink if the visits could be extended to 90-day intervals. No. Could his office call in or fax the prescriptions to the pharmacy? No. There is no therapy, only a few basic questions about sleeping and appetite. This guy should have a drive-through window like a bank or pharmacy. Ah, efficiency. Burt told me that when he enters his office that, before he’s seated, the shrink is reaching for his prescription pad.
Medicaid does not cover traditional psychotherapy. Anyway the trend seems to be more toward psychotropic drugs. Depression is common and can originate from within (the chemical imbalance). I think that medication has the best chance of success here, although some disclaimers for anti-depressants which are advertised on TV warn of suicidal thoughts as a side-effect. Hilarious. Another bad joke. Then there is what I call situational depression, that is, depression brought on by external factors. Anti-depressants cannot make reality go away. You need different kinds of drugs to do that.
The Medicaid accountants are instructing this doctor and all in its network what to do anyway. There are others more unfortunate than Burt. One patient has to drive 100 miles from upstate because there are no Medicaid psychiatrists in her area.
BTW, a jaunty note on suicide. Therapists, etc. always ask new patients “do you have suicidal thoughts?” The question is ill-formed. Who’s never had suicidal thoughts? Wondering about “the undiscovered country, from whose bourn / No traveller returns.” “Do you have suicidal plans?” may be more to the point. There’s a difference.
Fictional psychiatrist, Sidney Freeman on the TV series MASH (1972-1983) said, “Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.” Don’t commit suicide. Someone may still care about you. You might make a mess that someone else has to clean up. Finally, what if there is an afterlife, and the memories of the horrible feelings that drove you to suicide in the first place continue with you for eternity? Find a way to go back in time and prevent your parents from meeting, especially if they fought a lot during your childhood. If you never existed, you can’t be depressed enough to kill yourself. Still here. Guess it didn’t work. [If you’re still here, it didn’t work]
I cover afterlife scenarios at more length in An Existential View. After parsing this mess, it would seem that metaphysical questions like “why?” have to be asked. While I cannot provide answers, I have some interesting, and I hope entertaining theories. It would be well for me that, if there is a Deity, that he/she/it has a sense of humor. I think the Deity does, given the laws of nature which govern our world.
Technology Reducing Medical Costs
On December 6, Hans Nichols reported on Blomberg.com in an article entitled, “Obama Plans Largest Building Program Since 1950s” that:
"President-elect Barack Obama said he’ll make the “single largest new investment” in roads, bridges and public buildings since the Eisenhower Administration to lift the sagging economy and create jobs.
Obama, in his weekly radio speech today, said his plan to create or preserve 2.5 million jobs will also include making public buildings more energy efficient, repairing schools and modernizing health care with electronic medical records.” (source)
Paging Professor Frankfurt. Want to know how this last plays out? One of two things: hire minimum wage workers to scan medical record documents, you know, Wal-martization, 39 hours a week maximum. Or, we’ll simply ship the records one-way off-shore so they can be scanned and electronically returned to the States. When I worked as a technical writer for a security subsidiary of GE, we prepared a lot of technical manuals. We had a really good relationship with a local printer, whose service was timely and responded to sudden changes on our end. We could visit each other’s sites. Some middle- to upper-tier GE management drone gets the bright idea of having manuals printed in China because it’s a little less expensive. Aside from the good relationship we had with our local printer, there was the issue of lead time. Printed manuals would not return from China for six to eight weeks. Our technical environment was fairly volatile and product changes often came swiftly. The local printer was able to help us respond to this. A “China Syndrome” would not. The GE drone told us we had a bad attitude. So, let’s scan these medical records in China where the workers are paid 9 cents an hour.
Waiting Rooms to Empty Rooms
A neighbor in my development mentioned that his 92-yr. old mother-in-law broke her shoulder in a fall. At a local ER, her arm was put in a sling and she was incredulously about to be sent home. She stood up and promptly fainted and then voided her bladder. The ER physician then decided to keep her a day or two. The ostensible reason for this was that it happened over Memorial Day weekend, so that there was skeletal crew of doctors. Yeah, right.
What about stories of patients dying in waiting rooms (I typed ‘tombs’)? Never underestimate the subconscious. CNN reported the following in July, 2008:
“A 49-year-old woman collapsed and died on the floor of a waiting room at a Brooklyn psychiatric hospital and lay there for more than an hour as employees ignored her, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which on Tuesday released surveillance camera video of the incident.” (source)
They say life imitates art. As early as 1971, a dark comic film by Paddy Chayesvsky, entitled The Hospital, (movie poster at the top of the page) depicted, among other things, the burgeoning absurdity of the health care bureaucracy. It shows an emergency room in a chaotic urban hospital where an admitting administrator is attempting to get “Blue Cross/Blue Shield information” from a dead patient.
- Do you mind if I at least ask this gentleman to fill out his chart? May I have your AHS policy number, sir? Do you carry Blue Cross Blue Shield? Dr. Spezio! I think one of your patients in here is dead.
- Why do you say that, Mrs. Cushing?
- Because he wouldn't give me his Blue Cross number.
In recent years when I’ve visited someone in the hospital, I’ve noticed that many beds are empty (see Disappearing). Why? Not because medical technology has necessarily improved, but because there is more outpatient surgery and “inpatients” are discharged sooner. Everyone has heard of “drive-through” hysterectomies” and the coming drive-through psychiatric sessions as mentioned earlier.
Private Health Insurance
You pay for it if you can afford it, but you really don’t have it. I pay $241/month. They advertise on TV: $6 per day. See Professor Frankfurt. A recent PBS Frontline episode, Sick Around America (a kind of sequel to Sick Around the World) looked at the private individual insurers whose methods include medical underwriting, high deductibles, no prescription plan, co-insurance, exclusions, and more limitations. Darwinian insurance. My “insurer”, who will go unnamed, provides me the following: five doctor visits a year up to $100 per visit (that pretty much eliminates specialists), five diagnostic tests up to $100 (that pretty much eliminates everything except a simple blood test). One-thousand dollars a day for hospital stays. The average stay costs $6,000. Meanwhile they collect $2,892 a year from me. I needed an MRI. The neurologist who ordered the test said to tell the Imaging lab that I had no insurance, so it would cost me less out of pocket. I pay for it, but I really don’t have it. Don’t ask how the legislators allow this. They have no choice.
Dr. Strangelove (not Dick Cheney), well, in Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (1964) is asked about a Doomsday machine. “Is it possible?” He replies, “Not only is it possible, but it is necessary.” A broken health care system which kills people is necessary to the Poverty Engineering designs.
Weekend Walk-in Clinics
The price to quality of care comparison is worse than the rotting produce and inflated prices at our grocery store chains. I was dealing with a bad sinus infection. My family doctor was not available on a certain Friday. I couldn’t see him on Monday because I had a full slate of classes. So, after staying in bed most of Saturday, I ventured out to one of these “walk-in” joints. For $105 out of pocket, here’s what I received: no doctor, but a nurse practitioner. She asked for a little health history. I take meds to control atrial fibrillation, an intermittent arrhythmic heartbeat. My heartbeat is not checked, just my temperature and blood pressure (which I can do at home).
Next, I told her I had been dealing with a stubborn sinus infection for about six weeks. She does not look at my throat, ears, or nose. Huh? She then writes me a script for a 14-day mega-antibiotic. Done.
The Human Condition is Terminal
We should stop kidding ourselves. Life is a pre-existing condition. I lost my mom in September, 2008. Aggressive dementia/Alzheimer’s (I’m really looking forward to this genetic imperative—I have signs right now) and eventually systemic organ failure. She was in a “C-“ nursing home for almost two years. They made her as comfortable as possible. Near the end, Hospice was called in and cared for her well as I could tell. At the time, I recall a bumper sticker: “Hospice: every day is a gift.” I sat there with my mouth open as the light turned green and motorists behind me were honking. My mom was suffering. A lot. At the end, I was relieved that her suffering was over. I didn’t see her condition as a gift. Alzheimer’s will be like cancer. Fifty years will pass with a cure just around the corner. I don’t understand the logic or even the compassion. Perhaps it has something to do with making the survivors feel better that the afflicted are still with them. That strikes me a tad selfish.
How it Ends for Me (and maybe others)
Somewhere (I have to hunt down the reference), a state, maybe Wisconsin, had come up with a plan to save on health care. The proposal had something to with removing health care from terminal patients during their last six months of life. There are many cases where patients are told they have six months to live and they live five years. That would be okay, if I could have the morphine, but I suspect not. Who would pay for it? To get morphine or oxycontin these days, you have to have a shark take your leg off. Check it out:
What’s next? Voluntary euthanasia clinics? It’s legal in Holland. In the 1973 film Soylent Green, society’s future of 2020 (not so far away) is depicted pretty much as a dystopia, whose main problem is overpopulation and feeding said population. If you’re past a certain age you can report voluntarily to a clinic, where they place you on a table, show videos of the Great Barrier Reef, Grand Canyon, and the Swiss Alps, play Vivaldi, and then give you a lethal injection with brief euphoric side effects. I could live with that. "I'm checking in but not checking out." Click on this link.
I’m seeing my end a little differently. If not struck down in mid-stride by the most diabolical time bomb ever conceived, a heart attack, if it’s a prolonged illness, terminal, I’ll die at home. As long as I can see that palm tree outside my bedroom window, and the passing clouds across the azure backdrop of sky. Maybe I’ll have a home health care aide (on a work visa of course). Pain? Take two aspirin.
Conclusion: Afraid of Terrorists?
You have a better chance of being killed by your health care plan (or lack of one) than by a terrorist. Michael Moore talks about this in his book, Dude, Where’s My Country? (2003). He also stated in an interview that before engaging in a debate on health care reform, we have to ask a seminal question: “What kind of people are we?” It’s about our character, vision, values, and moral center. See the trailer for his film, Sicko, at the botom of the page.
The sad answer may be illustrated by the old Road Runner cartoons. Wile E. Coyote in one of countless futile attempts to catch the Road Runner, runs off the edge of a cliff, and hangs suspended for a moment, looking pleadingly at the Road Runner, who hands him an anvil to hasten his descent. On the whole I think that is how we Americans treat each other. Take, Katrina in 2004 and the Bush/FEMA response. There are of course exceptions like citizens who travel from other states to help victims of natural disasters and tireless charity workers.
The real reason health care reform will not take place in any meaningful way, if at all, is because if you have it, you simply don’t care about those who do not. Yes, YOU. Enjoy the clip....