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The Myth of U. S. Healthcare - The Lies that Are Killing Us

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The Myth of U.S. Healthcare - The Lies that Are Killing Us JoAnn Guest Aug

08, 2003 19:15 PDT

The Myth of US Health Care

 

 

The Lies that Are Killing Us

 

 

By Cheryl Seal

27 January 2003

 

http://www.newsinsider.org/seal/myths_US_healthcare.html

 

" Of all forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most

shocking and most inhumane " -Martin Luther King, Jr. Need a good

laugh? Here's a joke for you: America's standard of health care is

the best in the world and therefore we should be willing to pay for

it (as in high insurance premiums, high drug costs, high everything

medical) so that we can continue to enjoy the best health in the

world. Now, when you have stopped rolling on the floor with helpless

mirth, your tears of laughter will turn to tears of frustration and

grief as you read the following sad litany of facts:

 

The US has the newest medicines in world, spends more of GDP on

medicine than any other nation, and yet has the highest rates for at

least 10 cancer types and the highest infant mortality rate of all

developed nations. The conservative politicians say socialized

medicine is bad because you might have to wait your turn for some non-

emergency services, up to a few months. Why is that such a bad deal

when 42.6 million Americans face an even longer wait than that for

all services because they have no insurance? That's the highest

percentage of people without access to medical care in the world. We

also have the highest number of uninsured of any developed nation,

currently 42.6 million.

 

So, check out where we really stand compared to the rest of the

world, according to statistics compiled from World Health

Organization data and a Harvard University study:

 

The US ranks NUMBER ONE in COST of health care, but NUMBER 24 in

disability-adjusted life expectancy, and NUMBER 37 in the overall

performance of its medical system and NUMBER 40 in the level of

satisfaction recipients express for their care.

 

Nearly half of all people in the US with below-average incomes report

that it is " extremely, very, or somewhat difficult " to get medical

care when they need it.

 

They say the gauge of the quality of a society is how they treat

their infants and elderly. Looks like we're a second rate banana

republic:

 

INFANT MORTALITY RATE per 100,000 births

 

Sweden: 382 Japan: 396 Norway: 413 France: 476 Austria: 492 Denmark:

551 Canada: 552 UK: 586 Israel: 662 US 772

 

It is not surprising that the two most hawkish nations, bent on death

and destruction, have the highest infant death rates in

the " developed " world.

 

ELDERLY CARE (From 2000 Harvard School of Public Health report -click

here and here):

 

More than 1 in 4 (29%) elderly Americans have a difficult time

meeting their basic monthly expenses. Additionally, 32% of US elderly

have no drug coverage, 20% of US elderly pay $50-$100 per month out-

of -pocket for drugs, while 16% pay more than $100 per month. By

contrast, under 5% of the elderly in four other developed countries

pay more than $100 per month. Finally, 15% of elderly people have

foregone filling prescriptions because they could not afford it,

while 18% have problems paying medical bills.

 

The US also has the greatest disparity between the health of the poor

and that of the wealthy of all industrialized nations. Black infants,

for example, have a mortality rate that is more than twice that of

white children (14 versus 6 per 100,000).

 

Cancer Capital of the World:

 

If you believed what the drug company ads and the medical industry

lobbyists tell you, you would be sure that America is just a

heartbeat away from beating cancer, that our cancer patients are damn

lucky to be living in the good ole US of A. Well, think again. In

addition to having the highest rate of prostrate cancer in the world

as a nation, the US also boasts the worst prostate cancer rates in

world for a specific population: Black men in Atlanta Georgia, while

black men in New Orleans have the second highest lung cancer rate in

the world, after the Maoris of New Zealand.

 

The US also has the highest rates in the world of the following

cancers: colon cancer in males, cancer of lung, breast, oropharynx,

larnynx and bladder in women; and for both sexes: pancreas, thyroid,

non-Hodgkins lymphoma, multiple myeloma, myeloid leukemia. America's

five-year cancer survival rates for all types of cancer for all

races: 4% (whites 5%; blacks: 2%).

 

And now here's a crowning fact in the cancer department. Billions

upon billions of dollars are donated each year to cancer research

from private, local, state, and federal sources. But cancer research

fundraising has become just another Enron-style cash cow and PR op

for the elite. Not surprisingly, Barbara and George Bush, sr. are the

darlings of the cancer fundraising circuit. A recent study of the

American Cancer Society (who awarded the Bushes their medal of honor

for 2002) shows that only 16% of the billions poured into cancer

research goes to cancer research. The rest goes to high-profile, big-

buck figurehead positions and schmoozing.

 

For example, one of Enron's CEOs was named to a top post at the

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Clinic. This person, John

Mendelsohn, was one of the primary forces behind Imclone, the company

now being investigated for fraud. After Mendelsohn got his post at

the clinic, Ken Lay donated $55,000 to the clinic -but only on the

condition that it went to a special fund set up in the name of his

pals, the senior Bushes. The Bushes are major fundraising figureheads

for that clinic. And, John Mendelsohn has been an advisor on key

issues -like stem cell research- to G.W. Bush, privately meeting with

him in August 2001 at the White House. Mendlesohn was caught failing

to inform drug trial patients that he, the principle investigator for

Imclone's drug Erbitux, has a vested financial interest in the

outcome. But has anyone noticed Mendelesohn's name in the news,

linked either with Imclone or Enron? Nope! All they can see is Martha

Stewart, who has been used, it would appear, as a big name

smokescreen to hide the real dirty linen.

 

" My overall assessment is that the national cancer program must be

judged a qualified failure, " says Dr. John Bailer, who spent twenty

years on the staff of the US National Cancer Institute and was editor

of its journal. Dr. Bailer also says: " The five year survival

statistics of the American Cancer Society are very misleading. They

now count things that are not cancer and, because we are able to

diagnose at an earlier stage of the disease, patients falsely appear

to live longer. Our whole cancer research in the past twenty years

has been a total failure. More people over thirty are dying from

cancer than ever before [...]. More women with mild or benign

diseases are being included in statistics and reported as

being 'cured'. When government officials point to survival figures

and say they are winning the war against cancer they are using those

survival rates improperly. " Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel Prize

winner, was even more blunt: " Everyone should know that most cancer

research is largely a fraud and that the major cancer research

organizations are derelict in their duties to the people who support

them. "

 

American medicine has become almost synonymous with drugs. To hear

the drug companies line every night on the evening news (where their

ads and free infomercials abound), they have an answer to every

ill...they are concerned, paternal outfits interested only in

a " better life for America. " The truth is very different from the

million-buck a minute ads. In reality, the pharmaceutical industry in

America can only be described as cutthroat -literally and

figuratively. The competition is so intense and the corporations so

secretive that the big companies have become more like the CIA -but,

if anything, less principled, less concerned for the 'collateral

damage.'

 

Drugs known to be dangerous are rushed to market now, the results

routinely fudged. They are hyped endlessly through the mainstream

media, which aids and abets the companies. Drug company infomercials

for new products are run on the nightly news as " medical news. " Then,

some time later, when the body count starts to mount up for drugs

whose deadly side effects were swept under the rug by tweaked results

during drug trials and FDA folk " helping out " the drug barons, the

drug is pulled, the companies sued. But, before the sh*t hits the

fan, the companies make billions -more than enough to consider the

subsequent lawsuits as a " cost of doing business. "

 

Cases in point: Baycol is a prime example of drug company evil: The

drug was put out in 1998 and hyped relentlessly. You could not watch

a TV show without seeing three ads, couldn't go into a doctor's

office without seeing the slick literature or name sprinkled about

(as on prescription forms provided by the company as a freebie). The

first deaths were reported within a year. Yet, despite maker Bayer's

own evidence of the drug's danger, they continued to defend and sell

the product, lobbying for approval of higher doses. It was not until

the confirmed death count reached 31, that Bayer withdrew the drug.

In addition, by then, over 1000 cases of rhabdomyolysis or muscle

weakness and/or damage were reported in association with the drug.

Since then the death count and disability attributable to the drug

has climbed (see here and here).

 

But just a few weeks after the first big lawsuits were filed.

Revenues started to dry up and Bayer's immediate money problems were

solved by the oh-so-lucky coincidence of the anthrax attacks

happening just then. This was combined with the even better fortune

of having all the media pushing their product to a terrified America

as the " only cure " for anthrax (Tom Brokaw even held his bottle like

an old-fashioned carnival pitch man), causing a huge run

internationally on the drug. Of course it turns out Cipro was not the

only drug that could treat anthrax -doxycycline, just a small

fraction of the cost of Cipro, works just fine and with also just a

fraction of the side effects of Cipro.

 

The week before the terrorist attacks in September 2001, an extremely

critical exposé or the drug industry broke -and, of course, was

quickly forgotten: Thirteen major medical journals from around the

world joined forces to expose and condemn the manipulation of drug

trial results by pharmaceutical companies. It seems the drug barons

have been pressuring the university researchers who conduct drug

trials into producing reports of results that will help gain drug

approval. In some cases, the researchers are not given access to key

data that might show an unfavorable result, or they are forced to use

trial designs that will skew results to the drug companies' advantage

while sacrificing accuracy. As a result, drugs with unknown, and

sometimes ultimately lethal, side effects and questionable efficacy

often make it far too quickly to market (see here).

 

So what is the answer to this systematic abuse of Americans? For the

Democrats it is to aggressively promote a universal healthcare system

which guarantees that every American has an equal shot at healthcare.

The misinformation about universal health care that is being spread

by the insurance industry and their henchmen in the GOP is appalling.

For example, promoting the lie that universal healthcare would

bankrupt the government. What a joke. study after study has shown

that the cost of administering a centralized single-payer program

would be less per citizen than the current ridiculous HMO system. In

addition, the reduced number of lost days due to sickness and

disability would be greatly reduced, as would the cost to the

taxpayer of taking care of people who have gone without healthcare so

long that they are, ultimately, thrown onto welfare or SSI

unnecessarily.

 

Healthcare MUST be independent of job. Corporate indifference to

employee well-being is notorious. Workers are routinely finding their

providers changed, 'edited' (as in covering less for more $) or the

cost jacked up. Then, when the company decides to throw its workers

overboard so the overpaid CEOs can hoard the lifeboats, right in the

midst of the stress of becoming jobless, workers are suddenly without

access to healthcare. In Silicon Valley, the free clinic, once the

only recourse for the very poor, now has to try to find a larger

building to accommodate the hundreds of jobless tech workers whose

benefits have run out.

 

Next, there must be an independent agency that oversees the

pharmaceutical industry. A board upon which no drug or insurance

industry employees -past or present- can sit. All donations to

political candidates from the pharmaceutical industries, and all

industries where human health is likely to be effected, must be

banned, even if no other campaign finance reforms are made. Do this,

and half the big lobbyist bucks thrown to candidates will be

eliminated. In addition, legislation must be introduced that makes it

illegal for anyone with any vested interest in the pharmaceutical

industry and any other industry directly affecting human and

environmental health to be appointed to any government position

related to that industry. Right now, the Bush cabinet is stuffed with

former pharmaceutical industry bigwigs. Donald Rumsfeld's biggest

claim to fame before coming into the White House and playing

Geriatric General was calling in favors in Washington to insure that

his company (Searle) was able to win FDA approval for its biggest

cash cow of all time, aspartame. That was despite mounting evidence

from trial results and medical testimony that the compound is not

free from serious side effects (the single biggest source of product

health complaints filed with the FDA has, for years now, been

aspartame).

 

In short, remove the incentive to screw America's health in favor of

ready cash, and the abuses will decline. Do nothing, and disaster is

just over the horizon. The aging of America -with more people living

longer but not without chronic ailments (diabetes, heart disease,

etc, will all climb commensurately), a system without adequate

healthcare in this scenario will be a nightmare, with America's

social landscape resembling an impoverished eastern European nation

from the 1950s more than the supposedly wealthiest, most 'advanced'

nation on Earth.

 

© The News Insider 2003

 

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-@s...

DietaryTi-

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/AIM.html

 

 

 

The complete " Whole Body " Health line consists of the " AIM GARDEN TRIO "

Ask About Health Professional Support Series: AIM Barleygreen

 

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/AIM.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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