my 2cents on Health Care

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from online members forum @ www.drfuhrman.com

 

Old 10-04-2009, 09:09 PM #1

Anatol

Nutritarian

 

 

My Letter to Newspapers, Congressmen, President Obama

Dear President Obama,

 

I strongly believe that it is better, much better, to stand for truth rather

than compromise with untruths. Here is my $.02 POV on truth about America's

health care or lack of it.

 

While I strongly support your efforts to improve our Health Care, I am deeply

concerned that:

 

1) the opposition is all based on greed, lies, and fears financially promoted by

the insurance companies.

2) too many Senators( ... ) and Representatives are representing the special

interests and their own greed instead of the people.

 

How to make a Real Health Care system work:

1) my own POV is that the only reasonable honest workable approach is to have

" Medicare for All " with improved regulations to make it financially sound and

with a very strong PREVENTION PROGRAM included. PREVENTION is the key that would

make everyone healthier which in turn would make the MEDICARE FOR ALL a real

HEALTH CARE approach instead of simply " disease management. "

2) I strongly oppose mandatory insurance and point out that we are the only

industrial nation in the world that lacks the compassion and good common sense

to have a universal health care system that provides better health at lower

costs. Their key is healthier citizens, while Americans are 80% overweight, 30%

obese, 50% heart disease, 30% cancer, diabetes, allergies, arthritis, etc etc,

all of which can be greatly reduced with appropriate dietary changes based on

science like the worldwide research @ www.thechinastudy.com

3) Only healthier happier citizens can transform a sick health care system into

a real health creation system.

 

Thanks for listening and God Guide America to selflessness, better health,

happiness, and real prosperity!

Anatol

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Old 10-05-2009, 08:46 PM #2

AlluvialPhil

Nutritarian

 

 

Anatol -- Good for you!

 

The way I think about your point #1 is that the involvement of private insurance

companies doesn't add ANYTHING to our health care financing system. Why do we

even HAVE a " PRIVATE option " for financing health care?

 

But on the other hand, vis-a-vis " PREVENTION " (if we're serious about that)

maybe private insurance companies WOULD need to have a role IF we ALLOWED them

to give people a MONETARY INCENTIVE to become healthy (i.e. the sort of thing

Don Stewart, donandpat, would suggest). That is, to cover very expensive care,

an insurance company might set premiums by one's waistline in relation to

height. (That sort of idea generally sits quite badly with those of us favoring

publicly provided health care). The thing is, it would be a political nightmare

to suggest that the government would prescribe such a health/premium standard --

it just wouldn't ever happen. And so the " prevention " idea wouldn't be much more

than lip service. OR, what do you think would work?

 

I'm truly confused about what to suggest.

 

But I'm totally with you regarding basic primary and preventative health care

being publicly, virtually-freely provided (or paid for) -- as all other western

societies have figured out to do, in one way or another.

 

I do recommend, in general, revisiting Dean Ornish's essay on Resuscitating

Health Care Reform.

 

Anyway, Anatol -- good for you!

 

-Phil

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Old 10-09-2009, 12:10 PM #3

Anatol

Nutritarian

 

Reply to Phil's post:

 

Prevention has to be an educational type of thing, not mandatory standards.

 

Although many( like Dr Fuhrman, Dr Ornish, the China Study, others ) are

contributing to this education, it doesn't seem enough yet. However, there is

the disputed " hundredth monkey effect " which offers hope if you want to believe

in it. " The hundredth-monkey effect is a supposed phenomenon in which a learned

behavior spreads instantaneously from one group of monkeys to all related

monkeys once a critical number is reached… " from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth-monkey_effect

 

So, if enough of us plug away and gently persuade some of our friends, maybe the

threshold will be reached soon. Some believe " the hundredth-monkey effect " is

similar to a threshold, like reaching the boiling point of water, during which a

distinct phase transition occurs.

 

One way this could happen is: some billionaire like Oprah opens a nationwide

chain of GREEN Restaurants featuring ETL diet or something in that direction.

 

I also believe that enough of us praying for the health of everyone on planet

earth will help.

 

Phil, I agree with your point that " involvement of private insurance companies

doesn't add ANYTHING to our health care financing system. " Here's my 2cents

about insurance. Insurance works fine only if a small percentage of participants

actually need to use it, like for automobile accidents and home disasters. It

doesn't work for health care because everyone needs health care, at least the

basics. It seems that nations that have universal health care and universal

education, have realized that insurance cannot work for something that everyone

needs and that they need to set aside the appropriate funds for this which

everyone has to contribute in a universal way. I think, it's called common sense

and compassionate sharing and caring for each other.

 

Perhaps, another educational point being missed is that neither insurance nor

medical care is the primary cause of good health.

 

Thanks for listening,

Anatol