3/24/23: Is It "Health Care"...or Is It Really "Sickness Management"?
If you saw my March 10 article about Adrian Leeds, you have a sense of how enthusiastic she is about living in France and experiencing the whole French lifestyle. In one of her own blog posts from earlier this week, entitled “One of the Best Reasons for Retiring to France”, Adrian highlighted a particularly important advantage of living there, especially for those of us who are in the “mature” years of our lives—the excellent French health care system, which is consistently rated at or near the top of the list when compared to the rest of the world. And her article got me to thinking, as I often do, about the current state of our own “health care” establishment here in America. To quote from Adrian’s post:
“…the U.S. system of healthcare is based on profit, so the sicker you are, the more money everyone in the industry makes. Money in their pockets can influence the advice you are given, while in France, the healthier you are, the more money the government and the taxpayers save. This means that there is more preventative medicine, more alternative choices and it’s a lot less expensive.”
Now, using that point as a “springboard” for me to dive into the whole subject of health care in the U.S., below is a mini-tirade of my own opinions on this matter! (And I think you’ll see why, in today’s title, I suggested that it could more accurately be called “sickness management.”)
Certainly we can all agree that when it comes to acute, emergency medical services, America’s paramedics and other first-responders, as well as our brilliant trauma surgeons and their support personnel, are probably the best in the world—for which we can all be very grateful. And in those emergency situations, life-saving and pain-alleviating drugs certainly do have their place, as they do in end-of-life circumstances where patients must be made as comfortable as possible. But when it comes to preventing and treating chronic, degenerative diseases and other conditions, our “health care” system in the U.S. falls far short of where it could and should be.
Although this might come as a surprise, the United States has, overall, the sickest population of all the “first world” nations. When you add up all the chronic diseases that are rampant among our adult population (heart disease, cancer, strokes, diabetes, dementia, digestive issues, obesity, etc., etc.)—not to mention the shocking increase in autism and other childhood afflictions—that reality cannot be denied. And again, one of the main reasons for this sorry state of affairs is the uncomfortable fact that in America, medical doctors and hospitals make far more money when people are sick than when they are well. Dr. Richard Schulze, a brilliant, longtime natural health-and-healing expert (who will be the subject of a future article here), once told the story of how he managed to discreetly slip into a convention of hospital executives. One of the speakers was an owner of many hospitals in the United States, and his opening “joke” for the audience was: “Running a hospital is like running a whorehouse. You have to keep the beds full if you want to make money.”
That is not meant as a slam on doctors (or nurses, or other hospital personnel), as they are all trying to do their best—based on the training they received—to help their patients. But far too often, America’s health care system really does function more like a “sickness management” enterprise. Well-meaning doctors are trapped in a pharmaceutical industry-driven, insurance industry-driven morass that all-too-often does not work in the best interests of their patients. There are many factors that contribute to this—not the least of which is the reality that the pharmaceutical industry is calling the shots (no pun intended—and here I won’t even address the Covid-19 “vaccine” fiasco). You know the typical routine…no matter what kind of malady you may be seeing your doctor about, the “solution” is almost always a prescription for this drug or that drug. Which is great for Big Pharma and their stockholders, but not so great for you—especially if you are told that you must keep on taking those drugs (no matter what their damaging side effects may be) for the rest of your life.
It is no coincidence that the pharmaceutical industry provides much of the funding for America’s medical schools, where our doctors receive their many arduous years of training. And, as we all know, “he who pays the piper calls the tune.” So doctors are certainly well-educated on which drugs to prescribe for every condition, and they are further trained to believe that no matter what their patients might be suffering from, the use of patented pharmaceuticals is almost always the ONLY legitimate solution. Sadly, they are taught virtually nothing about proper nutrition or the benefits of high-quality vitamins, minerals, and other supplements; nothing about the healing properties of natural herbs (most of which have been known by cultures around the world for centuries); and nothing about chiropractic or other non-invasive protocols that can actually help people—without the side-effects of prescription (and many over-the-counter) drugs.
By the way, did you know that there are only two countries in the world in which prescription drugs are allowed to be advertised on television? They are the United States and New Zealand. I don’t know how that came about in New Zealand, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why it has been allowed in the U.S. ever since the 1980s. The pharmaceutical industry was powerful even back then, but now in 2023 it has become “king of the hill”—the No. 1 lobbying group in Congress and in most state legislatures. (In a future article, I will recommend a particular website where you can find out exactly just how much money each of your U.S. Senators and Representatives has been given by the pharmaceutical industry, as well as by other lobbyists.) And of course, every year Big Pharma pours billions of advertising dollars into our mass media. Think about it….when was the last time you watched any show on commercial television that did not include ads for prescription drugs? (Oh, and be sure to “Ask your doctor if _____ is right for you.”)
But one very significant change taking place now is the fact that more and more Americans are starting to “just say no” to this relentless, endless pushing of prescription drugs—every one of which seems to have a long list of potential side-effects, which should never be ignored. More and more persons who are suffering from one or more of those chronic, degenerative conditions are waking up to the fact that, not only are these drugs not getting them well, but they are often making the situation even worse. I do believe that, slowly but surely, the tide is turning in favor of using more sensible and safer alternatives. The only question is….how long will it take our medical establishment in America to step back from their drug-based “sickness management” business model and focus (once again, as they did in the distant past) on actually preventing disease and educating the public on how to stay well without the unnecessary or excessive use of drugs?
Comments or Questions? Please email me at robmann@substack.com.