I was on a discussion board where the question “Is Health Care a Right?” was asked, and someone responded with
Is it a “Right” for our children to have a K/12 education??
Is it a “Right” for the fireman to come when your house is burning down??
Is is a “Right” to have police protection??
Well, I felt a rant coming on, so I thought I’d share it with you. Now, I haven’t been following the news or Obama’s plan or anything. Why bother? I know it will ultimately provide yet more taxation and funnel this money to pharmaceutical companies and corporate interests. That is the function of entrenched government paid for by those interests.
The entire medical model is so deeply flawed and corrupt that nothing can fix it. It must be thrown out and rebuilt, and that’s never going to happen. So you have to take charge of your own health and disconnect from this flawed system.
K/12 education is not a right but a requirement by law. The responsibility for educating our children has been taken away from the parents and given to the state. Breaking free of this system requires a lot of work to comply with the state’s requirements. Most parents, I believe, are just too harried to homeschool their children. A stay-at-home mom can’t be taxed, so women were encouraged to join the workforce.
Corporations ensure children are indoctrinated into our system of compliance, conformity and consumerism. It is no education if at the end you do not know how to balance a checkbook, start a business, negotiate a deal, plant and harvest a food item, or know what constitutes food or how helpful a fever is. If you want a good education, you have to pay for it out of your own pocket.
Otherwise, your taxes pay to create nonthinking drones for the system, hopped up on food additives and high-fructose corn syrup, their cognitive development damaged by excessive media multitasking.
People who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time, a group of Stanford researchers has found. –Science Daily
Most children will go on to work for someone else, filling their employers’ pockets while they go into debt buying fancy toys to distract them from their emptiness because the song that sings inside them is silenced. Would-be artists settle.
Firemen only protect houses that are accessible and clear of fire debris. They will let houses burn that do not meet minimum requirements. Homeowners are responsible for caring for their property to ensure minimal risk of fire and making sure it is accessible to fire trucks. You don’t care for the property, you lose the home.
Police protect those who obey the laws. Again, there is an agreement that you abide by laws in exchange for their protection paid for by your tax dollars. If you flaunt the law, if you break it and are caught, you are fined or jailed. This money helps pay for the protection of those who obey the laws.
Same should hold true for people’s bodies. People abuse their bodies with poor diet, lack of exercise and sunshine, and too much stress, among other things. They buy cheap food and expensive TVs. They can spend hours in front of the TV but can’t be bothered to read a book on nutrition. Any little discomfort and they run for a drug to suppress it. They consistently work against the body and then expect doctors to fix them all up when the body finally breaks down.
Supersizeme © photo courtesy of Xhanatos
I pay a premium for meat direct from the farmer, but my taxes pay for the grain subsidies so others can eat their cheap meat from the grocery store. I buy organic produce when I can, but my taxes are given as incentives to farmers to grow conventional grain crops that I don’t even eat.
I educate myself on health matters and make changes to address cause instead of merely suppressing symptoms, but my taxes go into a system of Medicare that I don’t use and hope to never use. (I don’t mind helping others; I just don’t want to be taxed into poverty.)
I could go to the VA hospital for statins to lower my cholesterol, but I don’t believe the cholesterol theory of heart disease and choose to purchase my own supplements and eat healthy food to care for my heart. And I try to find and express the song inside me.
I am being taxed to death for services I don’t use and then paying a premium for items I do use.
The whole system is corrupt and designed to benefit the banking industry and corporate interests. Corporations control the government and enact laws to their benefit.
The dietary advice given by those we trust is deeply flawed. Nay, it is deadly and designed to produce customers for the medical and pharmaceutical industries. And most people are just too tired and confused to give a shit.
The low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet that’s been pushed on us since the 1980s isn’t working! Avoiding the sun is folly. Spending half an hour on a treadmill is deadly to the psyche. How boring can enjoying the body be? We’re fatter than ever. Half of us are depressed and on pharmaceuticals.
But we don’t have to be. You have power to change your health and your life and live the dream you desire. It just takes a bit of common sense. You don’t need to read scientific studies to understand the simplicity involved. My next post will discuss some of the things you can do to improve your health.
Additional reading:
The War on Terror Is a Fraud
Shopping Local Farms for Pasture-raised Lamb, Pork, Beef, Poultry and Eggs
Symptom Suppression Does Not Equal Healing or Cure
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I am surprised at the rant. I am an acupuncturist. I work in a natural healthcare setting. One of the people at our office who takes good care of her family had a child have their appendix burst. They are now $30,000 in debt to the local hospital. There were no other choices because they don’t have insurance and you MUST have surgery in that case.
Many people I see have no concept of how to eat because no one is educating them. Additionally they don’t have the money to buy grass fed beef and vegetables. Many are working multiple jobs so even trying to garden may seem overwhelming. Further, many are so sick that the idea of eating better sounds like more trouble than it’s worth because they can hardly get out of bed in the morning. Ask them to walk three more steps and their body may be unable to handle that.
These people are victims of the mindset of the world. They are not the bad guys. They don’t know they feel horrible because their blood sugar is 600 because they live on McDonald’s. They can’t go to a doctor to get checked out. They can’t afford it because they don’t have health insurance.
Saying eating better is a cop out. Saying you don’t want to pay for someone else’s healthcare is a cop out. I work public health and I won’t stop arguing about this issue. There are too many people dying needlessly because other people decided they could be thrown away. What happens to their children? Their spouses? Their brothers and sisters?
A public option is far cheaper than allowing these throw away people to rely on emergency rooms. If people had access to doctors they’d be able to have many issues taken care of at a minimal cost instead of having a hugely invasive surgery at the rates in the emergency room. However, we think that is the way to treat people.
I am tired of having to be a go to person because no one else cares. My education doesn’t allow it. I can’t do everything. At some point we need to realize that we are all connected and we can no longer ignore the millions who don’t have healthcare. I am sorry I am ranting on your blog but I’ve been in public health. I’m one of the people who sees what happens when you don’t have access to healthcare. It’s not pretty. Not all of it can be fixed by diet. Much of it can be and yes there are issues with the pharmaceutical industry but people like the docs at madashelldoctors.com talk about the issues of being a doctor under our current system but this doesn’t mean that we need to do something NOW to allow people to go to a doctor.
I have no pre exisiting conditions. I don’t smoke (never have). A major medical plan would be over $200/month for me. $5,000 deductible and covers no preventative care. Basically it’s so that if I have my appendix burst I don’t have to declare bankruptcy and go out of business. I’ve never used it. A government plan would cost about 1/3 of that. Believe me I WANT a government plan. I run a small business. If you are talking about preventative health, I would hope you’d support acupuncturists and realize that we give a lot to the community we live in. I don’t make enough money to be able to throw around $200/month. I need to eat. Grass fed beef is expensive too.
Taxes are only going to be raised on those who make more than $250,000/year which means no one will be taxed into poverty.
No one can control their environment and their actions to the point that they never get sick any more than anyone can control whether they ever need help. That’s why we have community. Government is there to be the community administrator of those things we can’t do for ourselves but what we can do collectively.
Bonnie, as long as your rant is respectful, you’re welcome to rant here. But I believe you’re bringing your own pent-up frustrations here and reading things into my post that aren’t there.
I didn’t say diet would cure everything. I also didn’t say I didn’t want to help pay for medical care for all or thought people were throwaways. My point is that the services mentioned above (school, fire, police) are not free and more taxation to pay for a corrupt and faulty industry is not the answer. I’ve written nothing about the proposed health care plan.
Half my income is paid in one tax or another. And because I choose to eat healthy foods, I pay a premium in addition to taxes to support subsidies for cheap food. In other words–TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. That’s my beef. If I wasn’t taxed so steeply, I might be able to afford a masseuse or an acupuncturist or a naturopathic diagnostic. Or grass-fed beef.
And people do need to take more responsibility for their own bodies instead of handing them to someone else. I’ve known people who are taking drugs and have no idea what they are or what they are for. I’m sorry, but that sort of ignorance is inexcusable.
I served four years in the military and have VA hospital benefits. If I didn’t have that, I’d buy catastrophic health insurance and then pay for my own diagnostic testing at places like EnteroLab. And money that would be spent on pharmaceuticals is spent instead on supplements and books so I can learn about my body and how to care for it.
Thanks for responding–I know I have been so frustrated because no one seems to want to help these people. It’s like they are bleeding out from an accident and people are saying, well let’s rebuild the hospital and then we’ll stop the bleeding!
It is very frustrating to not be an emergency room physician and then have to pick up the pieces afterward. I felt badly about having ranted so long on your post.
I think that there is a two fold need for change: In one case we need to do something to get people out of the emergency rooms and into some sort of care. Then we need the paradigm shift to better health. I think what you want is something that is going to ultimately help MORE but it takes longer to make changes. To make your changes we end up fighting not only corporate greed but also societal habits–and the sort of advertising that says our lazy habits and poor eating are Okay and should be done (you do not want to hear what I rant at advertisements when I happen to watch television)…
Bonnie, please don’t feel bad about commenting on my blog. Your perspective is valuable and needed. And don’t think that nobody wants to help. You do. I do. That’s two right there.
My emphasis is on education and self-determination. It’s not the only worthy emphasis, but it is the lesson I am trying to teach. I’ll leave health care reform to others. (Good luck on that!)
Short of another revolution, our country will probably continue to cater to corporations at the expense of the populace. I’m a big believer that we vote with our dollars.
You’ve heard the story of the boy walking along a beach littered with sand dollars. As he walked along he picked some up and hurled them into the sea. A man saw what he was doing and said, “Why are you wasting your time throwing those sand dollars back into the sea? Can’t you see there are hundreds of them? Throwing a few back won’t matter. You can’t save them all.” The boy replied, “Sir, it mattered to that one.”
Me, I’m throwing sand dollars into the sea.
Joanne and Bonnie,
I’ve come across your discussion rather late but still wanted to leave a comment. I think what the two of you have produced in your carefully considered and presented arguments is a very beautiful example of what thoughtful minds can create when they don’t succumb to defensiveness and ad hominem accusations. I don’t consider either of your statements a “rant,” because they were courteous, articulate, and thought provoking, each bringing additional information and perspective to the extremely complex situation.
I agree primarily with Joanne that there is no hope for an adequate healthcare system based on the current one. However, Bonnie is absolutely correct in pointing out that no amount of self-accountability can prevent a slip on the ice that results in a fractured skull, a car accident, or a burst appendix, and that is what insurance >should< be all about. However, it's not, of course–like almost everything else in human society, it's about making money. Like Joanne, I don't even follow the debate, because very little will change regardless of the outcome.
If the funding spent on the R&D of pharmaceuticals that "treat" the conditions caused by poor diet (just one example) were spent on educating the public and enforcing better diet in schools, then all of the money that could be freed up by the improved health could then be applied to insurance for genuine personal catastrophes. But, whatever comes of the healthcare debate, I'm confident that scenario will not result. I, too, find it infuriating that a single penny of my or my husband's income is spent paying for an obese smoker's medical care, but I'm not so ingenuous as to expect every other person to share my interest in personal wellbeing. I live near Boston, and I'm a complete freak for not being a Sox fan; and yet, if I'm unwilling to share that interest with all the members of the "Red Sox Nation," should I really expect them to share my passion for good health? Sure, I could justify my position by pointing out that health is rather more important that sports, but clearly it's not to them. They almost certainly believe that the pleasure they gain from watching a baseball game is equal or greater to that of feeling well.
Moreover, in their defense, I'd also have to add that I think many, many people have no idea how sick they are. They've been raised in a society that believes any health problem is just a nuisance to be erased by a drug; even the common cold, caused by a virus and therefore untreatable, is frequently "treated" with antibiotics and almost always with symptom-suppressing medications. People simply have no concept of homeostasis and don't realize that conditions they live with daily–digestive problems, headaches, skin disorders, mental illness, etc.–could be completely eradicated by diet and exercise. We don't blame children for not recognizing their health problems and correcting them, and much of the population, even highly educated people, are no more knowledgeable than children about their bodies. Until they are, they will continue to be part of this huge, bloated, inefficient system that wastes billions on unnecessary care such as treating colds and therefore requires billions in insurance to provide for catastrophic care.
As for me, I turn to bloggers like you, Joanne, and commenters like Bonnie to be reassured that there are thoughtful, responsible, articulate people who do recognize and practice self-accountability! Thank you both.
Ellen, I am very sorry it took so long to post your comment. It got caught in my spam filter. Thank you for posting your thoughts. I agree with all that you’ve said and share your frustration.
Some people, like you and me, concentrate our energies on health attainment. Some people concentrate them on politics or sports or raising a family. We have only so much energy to go around and everything is so complex in this modern world.
I’d like to share an article by Jon Rappoport called THE DEVASTATING TRUTH ABOUT THE OBAMA HEALTH PLAN. This article is especially pertinent to Bonnie who works in alternative health care.