NEWS: Health Care Crisis Debate Heats Up Behind the Scenes

Most modern diseases are very slowly progressive - insurance providers say early symptoms are benign, and that intervention is not "cost-effective" until life-threatening symptoms occur. So health insurance does not cover investigative diagnostic testing or preventive treatments. As a result, family doctors' hands are tied, ER doctors are under pressure to cut costs, and the health care system reacts mainly to life threatening crises. New studies challenge the legitimacy of established "cost-effective treatment strategies" - and show even early symptoms can be dangerous.




Life threatening "symptoms" like heart attack, cancer and stroke are the leading causes of death in America today - and generally occur only after an underlying disease already has progressed, often for decades. Early warning symptoms are classified as benign - like mini-strokes, chest pain, arrythmias, headaches and body pain and until recently, high blood pressure. Insurance does not cover diagnostic testing to find the cause of "benign" symptoms, nor treat underlying causes in the early stages of disease. Preventive treatments are never covered. Many diseases are not diagnosed until it is too late for treatment.

From 1990:
"Focal fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) of small coronary arteries is not so rare as it is unrecognized. �functional consequences are coronary spasm, coronary reserve, chest pain, electrical instability of the heart, �hypertension, myocardial hypertrophy and heart failure."
nih.gov

...the Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery reported in 1993 that death in patients diagnosed with FMD came very slowly, and was caused 44.4% by heart attacks, 33.3% by cancer and 22.2% by stroke.
nih.gov

According to the last publicly available report, FMD in adults in the USA is reported officially at an incidence rate of 1.7% � with 65% of reported cases diagnosed in autopsy.
emedicine.com

So every single day of 2003, almost 7,000 American adults were diagnosed in autopsy with FMD...

www.abovetopsecret.com...


One of the arguments against early diagnosis and treatment is that disease progression varies greatly from one person to the next. Medical dogma says it is almost impossible to predict who will succumb, how or when. Progression is difficult to predict because modern diseases are "multifactorial" - meaning several factors interract to speed progression and often, change the course of the disease.

Besides underlying infectious disease and super-imposed infections, pollution is an extremely important factor influencing disease progression.

"Air pollution clearly causes immediate damage to the heart, including heart attacks, ...The more pollution, the higher the rate of heart-related deaths, emergency room admissions, visits to doctors and (other) "events"... ...cardiovascular disease incidents in general went up in winter and were associated specifically with higher levels of ozone, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide and of tiny particulates. ..."Numerous studies point specifically to sulfate and sulfur oxides pollution from coal combustion as strongly linked to health impacts and premature deaths," ..."

heartcenteronline.com

The real debate is about cost.

Those who argue for early diagnosis and treatment say that prevention is less costly in the long run: to individuals, families, the economy and the nation. They advocate higher front-end costs to avoid long term disabilities and back-end take-up. The anti-early-treatment faction wants to avoid the front-end costs. They fear that early diagnosis and intervention will lead to long term insurance pay-outs and also, threaten drug industry profits.

Strategy is important too: accepting the 'need for prevention argument' means acknowledging underlying infectious cause and the role pollution plays in disease progression. Such an admission would open a whole other can of worms - and lead from allegations of liability, to huge clean-up costs for food production facilities and water treatment plants, to costly pollution controls.

The Bush administration is more inclined to de-regulate infectious controls, down-regulate pollution clean-up and underfund established protection programs.

"Lack of money slows cleanup of Superfund sites: Federal toxic waste program�s budget is stagnant"
msnbc.com

"...the Environmental Protection Agency is close to issuing new guidelines for sewage treatment. The new guidelines would make it easier to dump partially treated wastewater during periods of heavy rainfall, thus saving billions on treatment plant upgrades."
www.atsnn.com...

"Idaho Superfund Site Review Panel Members Challenged - According to documents filed with the NAS by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, six of 19 members of the panel have ties to mining, electric power, chemical, and other polluting industries."
ens-newswire.com

Slow-acting infectious agents are commonly spread through water and food; most are newly identified and unregulated. Chemicals that speed disease progression permeate food, water - and air. Almost everyone is subjected to a constant barrage of inescapable disease-causing contamination. New nano-filter technologies and more effective decontamination procedures are available but are not required, regulated or used. Even old regulations are not enforced. As a result, the medical system is overwhelmed.

Doctors slap bandaids on the "work force" and send them back to the trenches. "Medical care" treats secondary symptoms, not underlying disease. It is designed to keep people 'healthy enough' to keep working - and counts on them 'going quickly' when their bodies and brains collapse from the strain. The drug industry is now the largest industry in the world and still growing by leaps and bounds - hustling 'medicine' to kill the pain and mask the symptoms of underlying deadly disease.

Public policies support the insurance industry - and blame the victims. "Personal Responsibility in Health" policies shift the 'prevention' focus to 2 or 3 disease-causing factors out of trillions, saying 'personal choices' are more important than infectious diseases or environmental contamination. Other campaigns highlight "genetics"
and imply disease results from 'genetic inferiority' - despite the fact that infections and pollution cause the
genetic mutations underlying most so-called genetic diseases.

See also:
"Understanding Gene-Environment Interactions"
nih.gov

"Genome research targets environmentally induced disease"
ama-assn.org

Government and industry have harmonized their message, "You're on your own: even though your food, air and water are chock-full of unregulated infectious agents and disease-causing chemical contaminants." Health is a personal responsibility. It's the neo-Eugenics creed. In the words of Herbert Spencer, "The preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality."

The current 'late-stage-intervention-only medical model' has been questioned by alternative medical groups for a long time, but traditionally is supported by the American Medical Association (AMA). Now, it looks like more doctors and scientists are breaking ranks to force needed changes.


[edit on 10-12-2004 by Banshee]

I've always kind of thought that there is an underlying cause of most illnesses. It would make complete sense. Good effort soficrow Very commendable research.

Originally posted by Kidfinger
I've always kind of thought that there is an underlying cause of most illnesses.

...What really grinds me now is the spin - they're already saying bird flu is a bio-weapon or something escaped from a lab. Duh. Not. This crud is all coming from the original bioweapon - released in the good old US of A back in WWI. It's been spreading and mutating since then, bouncing back and forth between people and animals. But no doubt, this administration will call it a 'terrorist attack' - and use it as an excuse to attack some oil rich nation.


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Originally posted by soficrow
Doctors slap bandaids on the "work force" and send them back to the trenches. "Medical care" treats secondary symptoms, not underlying disease. *snip* The drug industry is now the largest industry in the world and still growing by leaps and bounds - hustling 'medicine' to kill the pain and mask the symptoms of underlying deadly disease.

Public policies support the insurance industry - and blame the victims. "Personal Responsibility in Health" policies shift the 'prevention' focus to 2 or 3 disease-causing factors out of trillions, saying 'personal choices' are more important than infectious diseases or environmental contamination. Other campaigns highlight "genetics"
and imply disease results from 'genetic inferiority' - despite the fact that infections and pollution cause the
genetic mutations underlying most so-called genetic diseases.

Then there is the other side of the cost: doctors who charge more than they should. I know doctors who want you to come in every other month for nothing other than to shoot the breeze and write me a refill. Doctors who "consult" in the E.R. when it is not needed ( I have seen this done.)
Doctors who drop in on you in the hospital to say hello", and charge medicare.

Then there is the media barrage of new drugs. The media barrage of cleaning products with ingreients we cannot spell or pronounce. Personal care products our bodies can and should do without. Foods that become less and less natural. Vaccines we may or may not need. The development of performing surgeries when in the past alternative ideas were used.
The AMA playing God where alternative health care is concerned. Insurance companies doing the same.

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe

Then there is the other side of the cost:

...IMO - The system is based on ignoring the underlying disease (FMD) - it's calling secondary symptoms distinct diseases - and making money hand over fist treating these secondary symptoms. ...The symptoms don't go away because the underlying disease is still there.

...It's possible to prevent FMD's spread, but not done. It's possible to prevent disease progression, but not done. ...Everyone plays the system for cash, and ordinary people are left holding the bag.

So what's wrong with this picture?


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One thing that i want to point out. Doctors do not make that much money. Sure the specialists and surgeons make good money but if you hourly rate it given the hours most put in its not much at all given the repsponsability. General family docs make even less.

Originally posted by FredT
Doctors do not make that much money. ...General family docs make even less.

Duly noted and agreed. ...Doctors are boxed - they can't do anything except implement the agenda, or try to bypass the system. ...Either way they're losing patients and money.


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