I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half. --the words of 19th century robber baron Jay Gould were on my mind as I contemplated the loud mob at Congressman Doug Lamborn's health care town hall meeting. No one had to hire them to speak against fixing America's medical system. Citizens of other developed nations surely pity Americans for ranking 37th in the world. They can puzzle at the American idiot's unwillingness to improve it, but how simply pathetic the idiot's preoccupation that no less fortunate should share it. We arrived at the Woodland Park event a couple hours early, and so from our car were able to overhear several earlybird teabaggers rehearse their arguments. They discussed lines that had impressed them from other town halls. As the wingnut numbers grew, the most frequent introductory joke was to cajole each newcomer as the insurance industry plant. I'm not cynical enough to suspect that any of the Woodland Park shrunken heads could have been paid agents. But I was emboldened to anticipate that without Rush or Glenn Beck present, these dittoheads might easily be disarrayed into a cacophony of bobbleheads, and I was right.
Tag: US Medical System
Kenneth Lewis’s Bank of America!
You know until this week, I don't think I had ever known about the US government's 'stress test'. You probably have never heard of such a thing either, and might have a picture in your head of Alan Greenspan, shirt off, walking rapidly on a treadmill at Dr. Sam's office? Put the guy on Lopid for God's Sake! Or is that Lowbid? These medicines have such cutesy names, don't they! However, it is Kenneth Lewis's Bank of America that needs some medicine (and not Alan), and about $34 BILLION of it! That's a lot of money and I just know the economy is doing great now! Bank of America to need $34 billion in capital: source Gosh! That's a lot of money and I wonder where they will get it? Kenneth for some reason is no longer with the firm, so he can't help out. And Lord knows that I have helped out BOA enough already, though when I went over my account by 2 cents to the red they left me with a $120 bill and a bad credit report, so I guess my money is no longer welcome with these nice people? So where will they at Bank of America get the money from for their medical bills after failing their stress test? We have a strange Medical System in America it seems... Wonder how my heart is doing? Got no insurance for one of those government stress tests. Maybe BOA's rich uncle can help the company out?
Diabetic care in America is a total mess
Diabetics skimp on lifesaving care in recession *Note, too, that how diabetes is treated in the US is a key indicator of how the Medical System as a whole is doing since diabetes is now such a common disease of aging. The system as is is actually a total failure as this Denver Post article underlines. So how's 'National Security' really going with all that money going for soldiers and hardly none of it going to help pay for the American people's needed medical supplies and treatments?
American medical facilities are spreading more dangerous runs of infectious diarrhea into the community
Mom, your kid has just come down with the Runs-from-Hell and you are without medical insurance, so what do you do? He needs hospitalization, but incredibly enough, it was probably hospitalization of Junior's aunt that gave him what he has in the first place! Your kid picked up C-diff, an infectious diarrhea, during his visit to her in the hospital! Diarrhea bacteria common in hospitals: survey According to the the American Journal of Infection Control, "Antibiotics don't kill it and most germicides used for environmental cleaning don't kill it. Only bleach does," and by the time patients are diagnosed, they have had a day or two to contaminate their rooms and everyone who has had contact with them. This study gives a really low undercount of this problem, too, since most facilities are not doing the testing and do not have the awareness about this disease that they should have. One big cause of the problem is the simple misappropriation of funds away from hiring enough nursing assistants to do decent care of the elderly in US hospitals and nursing homes. The money flows to the top reaches into the hands of people who do little to no actual hands-on work caring for the elderly and sick. I'm talking about insurance companies and all the administrative layers they create to pilfer funds away from the actual care givers themselves.
The Business of Medicine
Does 'your' doctor care? Of course he doesn't! It's simply a business relationship and his 'care' is quantified by money. Don't look to a doctor for understanding Got more money? Then you will get more 'care', though not necessarily care. You won't get it from the nurses either. Being sick, old, or both is a lonely situation. Your paid 'care' givers rarely show genuine care in our dollar society. They are not allowed to really. Our affections are reduced down by the business community to a paycheck at best. If you want genuine care you'd do better to turn to a dog or cat rather than to an American doctor or nurse. Heck, American business even tried to monetarily quantify that real care as a brief trip to a Petco or Petmart will have you lectured about being 'responsible' to their 'companions' whose supplies they want to sell to you. But the dogs and cats don't buy it unlike the nurses and doctors who do. They're not into money and thus can actually deliver the real McCoy... CARE. The doctors and nurses will mainly deliver a business service to you, and badly at that.
Medical Care in the US
Video shows death of US patient The video is pretty self explanatory and shows what can happen with a medical system that makes people wait 24 hours or more in the ER.
For our children’s sake, ban food dyes
Food dyes are a completely unnecessary product from a consumerist point of view. They add no value other than to hide away the bad visual effects of artificial food and badly handled food, so as such, they have value only for large manufacturing concerns trying to sell us trash foods. They are the true sign of factory produced food that looks like Fruit Loops, tastes as bad as Fruit Loops, and is as nutritionally harmful as this pseudo cereal is for your kids. Plus, food dyes are linked to hyperactivity. So why not just ban them altogether? Banning food dyes is just good public health policy. Of course, in the US there is no real public health policy at this time, since the capitalist 'free market' mentality is running rampant and destroying public health. It's time to change that. Ban food dyes in our US diet.