Unofficial Ron Paul for President 2008 blog - Universal Wellness Care or Universal Sickness Care

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Nov 7, 2009, 5:03pm

Unofficial Ron Paul for President 2008 blog :: Ron Paul - Issues: :: The Smorgas-board :: Universal Wellness Care or Universal Sickness Care

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likkerish
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Universal Wellness Care or Universal Sickness Care
« Thread Started on Jul 7, 2007, 7:03pm »

"Universal Health Care" is a gross misnomer.

Stand-up comic and humor writer, Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant asks insightfully, "[J]ust exactly how universal will health care be? If we end up with a system that simply provides the opportunity for every man, woman, and child in this country to see an M.D. for every sniffle, sneeze, rash, and unexplained eye tic, that’s not universal enough for me."

She points out humorously that she prefers a different option than "going to a doctor, sitting in a waiting room with other people who are coughing and sniffling, and getting a prescription for antibiotics that everyone knows do nothing to kill a cold, but somehow make you believe the visit was worth the time and effort." She prefers "staying at home with a hot cup of tea and practicing deep breathing between sneezes?" She likes this approach, "since I don’t charge myself a co-pay."

http://www.blueoregon.com/2007/01/how_universal.html

Jasheway-Bryant, thus, points out that one of the problems with the concept of UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE is that it is NOT universal at all, primarily because it has nothing to do with “health” and the individual right to choose how to take care of one's body.

As currently conceived, "Universal Health Care" should be more appropriately called "Universal Sickness Care.”

Or, even more appropriately, it could be called "Universal, Pre-paid, Bureaucratically-Managed, Sickness Care."

It will become, essentially, an “all-you-can-eat buffet” where one can ingest prescription drugs ad nauseam and get pre-paid attention on demand for every little headache, gas pain or “ouchie.”

And, it also really will not be concerned with “care” but with paying the bill out of a socialized system with funds confiscated from citizens, most of which will go to paying for the huge administrative costs of the bureaucracy needed to administer the system.

However, being the current, politically correct term, “Universal Health Care” has lately become an oft-repeated mantra, especially after the recent release of Michael Moore’s new documentary, Sicko.

The clever title of Moore's film is illustrative of our current plight. Our health care efforts are, indeed, “sick,” and we who remain attached to the concept of “Universal Sickness Care,” truly are “sickos.”

We don't need more sickness care, especially on a huge bureaucratic scale. We need "Universal Wellness Care" that is developed without the meddling of the gargantuan, inefficient, cost-raising, governmental, health bureaucracy. We need to encourage doctors to learn more about wellness and prevention and much less about sickness and invasive treatment through drugs, surgery, etc.

We especially need to take the control of medical education out of the hands of the pharmaceutical industry, which heavily influences the medical school curricula and the practices of doctors after graduation. The big drug companies are not especially interested in fostering wellness. They are invested in treating sickness with unnatural and fundamentally toxic drugs with the anticipation of BIG profits. They have more lobbyists in Washington D.C. than any other industry, far more than the number of members of Congress.

We also need to take the control of health research out of the hands of the Federal bureaucrats. But, to do so, we will need to change the basic philosophy of government in this country. And, we will need to become much more creative in thinking how we, as the American community in all of its small sub-communities, can work together to develop more effective wellness programs that we support, not leaving the important issue of wellness to government bureaucrats.

We need to give doctors the skills to keep us healthy rather than treating us after we get sick. Look at the epidemics of diabetes, obesity, etc., etc. Are we getting healthier as a result of all of the federal monies spent on finding cures for illnesses? Or, are we just learning more how to minimize the damage without addressing the root causes?

We need a program like the one that legendarily existed in ancient China. At that time, one paid a doctor to keep one well. If sickness ensued, then one stopped paying the doctor until health returned. That works for me!

Can there be any better example of the idiocy of federal management of health issues than the situation that existed in NYC after the 9/11 attack, when the city was covered by a cloud of deadly particles of asbestos, lead, mercury, and god knows what all? The EPA under the direction of the Bush Administration told New Yorkers after three days that the air was safe to breathe. You know the outcome of this story. Rescue dogs died. Many, many of the first responders also either have died or are suffering long term disabilities from breathing the toxic air.

Thus, “Universal Health (read Sickness) Care" is a political campaign slogan that plays either ignorantly or unscrupulously upon the health fears of America. Just as we are being terrorized by the government regarding the possibility of another 9/11, we are also being terrorized by the specter of epidemic sickness and out-of-control health costs.

It is not the big government democrats and Michael Moore who are going to solve this health care (sickness) problem. It will only be solved with the help of a president who will not use the Executive Branch to interfere with the creation of a community-based, affordable, and effective, health care (wellness) system. As Dr. Ron Paul, an OB/GYN who has delivered more than 4,000 babies, has pointed out, when government is in the picture, there is no free market control of costs. And, thus, doctors will tend to bill insurance companies for as much as they can, in order to pay for their incredibly high malpractice insurance. Remember the $400 hammers and the $600 toilet seats bought on Defense Department contracts?

It is reasonable to expect that President Ron Paul will be dedicated to getting the Federal Government out of the health care business. As a physician, who has practiced both before and after the federal government got so massively involved in the delivery of health care, he is uniquely qualified to lead the country to wellness. His reasoned position regarding "Universal Health Care" (note that he avoids use of the term) can be seen in the following two articles:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul339.html

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul345.html

For example, in the former article, Dr. Paul calls attention to the HMO Act of 1973, which represents an "illogical coupling of employment and health insurance, which often leaves the unemployed without needed catastrophic coverage." This is an example of mandatory health care "imposed upon the American people by federal law."

In the latter article, Dr. Paul further points out that: "HMOs did not arise in the free market....These non-market institutions have gained control over medical care through collusion between organized medicine, politicians, and drug companies, in an effort to move America toward 'free' universal health care."

It is also quite reasonable to expect that "We the People" can draw upon enormous cooperative resources to solve problems creatively...if we are not hamstrung by governmental regulations and the increasingly common expectation that government is responsible for solving the really big problems. Simply look at the tremendous grassroots ingenuity that is being reflected in the Ron Paul Revolution--a revolution in the political process which is explosively growing from the bottom up and not from the top down--a revolution in which the people at large are pushing this Freedom campaign forward, creating it on-the-fly and not waiting simply to support whatever the candidate or the campaign staff propose.

Just as we are generating a fresh perspective on the political process, one that stuns a lot of people accustomed to the old ways of doing things, we also need a fresh perspective on wellness...not the hackneyed focus on sickness.

We need a new movie called Hello, Wello, Goodbye, Sicko!

And, we need Ron Paul, not Michael Moore or Hillary Clinton, as its Director.

« Last Edit: Jul 12, 2007, 6:19pm by likkerish »

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