XPost: talk.politics.crypto, alt.flame.rednecks, alt.flame.cycle-sluts   
   From: okamuraj005@hawaii.rr.com   
      
   Is it a question of whether we should depend on private industry to provide   
   the healthcare needs of the people vs. the government providing for the   
   healthcare needs of the people, or is it a question of cost, as Obama said   
   it was, at the start of this healthcare debate?   
      
   "Negrus"  wrote in message news:Xns9F08A62247A69dds@88.198.244.100...   
      
   More proof that for-profit health care is an expensive, deadly failure.   
   Even wealthy right wingers go to countries like Canada, India and Costa   
   Rica for socialist health care because they're afraid of becomming a   
   statistic in one of the USA's slaughterhouses.   
      
   America was rudely awakened to a new kind of danger on September 11, 2001:   
   Terrorism. The attacks that day left 2,996 people dead, including the   
   passengers on the four commercial airliners that were used as weapons.   
   Many feel it was the most tragic day in U.S. history.   
      
   Four commercial jets crashed that day. But what if six jumbo jets crashed   
   every day in the United States, claiming the lives of 783,936 people every   
   year? That would certainly qualify as a massive tragedy, wouldn't it?   
      
   Well, forget "what if." The tragedy is happening right now. Over 750,000   
   people actually do die in the United States every year, although not from   
   plane crashes. They die from something far more common and rarely   
   perceived by the public as dangerous: modern medicine.   
      
   According to the groundbreaking 2003 medical report Death by Medicine, by   
   Drs. Gary Null, Carolyn Dean, Martin Feldman, Debora Rasio and Dorothy   
   Smith, 783,936 people in the United States die every year from   
   conventional medicine mistakes. That's the equivalent of six jumbo jet   
   crashes a day for an entire year. But where is the media attention for   
   this tragedy? Where is the government support for stopping these medical   
   mistakes before they happen?   
      
   After 9/11, the White House gave rise to the Department of Homeland   
   Security, designed to prevent terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Since its   
   inception, billions of dollars have been poured into it. The 2006 budget   
   allots $34.2 billion to the DHS, a number that has come down slightly from   
   the $37.7 billion budget of 2003.   
      
   According to the study led by Null, which involved a painstaking review of   
   thousands of medical records, the United States spends $282 billion   
   annually on deaths due to medical mistakes, or iatrogenic deaths. And   
   that's a conservative estimate; only a fraction of medical errors are   
   reported, according to the study. Actual medical mistakes are likely to be   
   20 times higher than the reported number because doctors fear retaliation   
   for those mistakes. The American public heads to the doctor's office or   
   the hospital time and again, oblivious of the alarming danger they're   
   heading into. The public knows that medical errors occur, but they assume   
   that errors are unusual, isolated events. Unfortunately, by accepting   
   conventional medicine, patients voluntarily continue to walk into the   
   leading cause of death in America.   
      
   According to a 1995 U.S. iatrogenic report, "Over a million patients are   
   injured in U.S. hospitals each year, and approximately 280,000 die   
   annually as a result of these injuries. Therefore, the iatrogenic death   
   rate dwarfs the annual automobile accident mortality rate of 45,000 and   
   accounts for more deaths than all other accidents combined." This report   
   was issued 10 years ago, when America had 34 million fewer citizens and   
   drug company scandals like the Vioxx recall were yet to occur. Today,   
   health care comprises 15.5 percent of the United States' gross national   
   product, with spending reaching $1.4 trillion in 2004.   
      
   Since Americans spend so much money on health care, they should be getting   
   a high quality of care, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case. Of the   
   783,936 annual deaths due to conventional medical mistakes, about 106,000   
   are from prescription drugs, according to Death by Medicine. That also is   
   a conservative number. Some experts estimate it should be more like   
   200,000 because of underreported cases of adverse drug reactions.   
      
   Americans today are used to fixing problems the quick way – even when it   
   comes to their health. Thus, they rely heavily on prescription drugs to   
   fix their diseases. For every conceivable ailment – real or not – chances   
   are there's a pricey prescription drug to "treat" it. Chances are even   
   better that their drug of choice comes chock full of side effects.   
      
   The problem is, prescription drugs don't treat diseases; they merely cover   
   the symptoms. U.S. physicians provide allopathic health care – that is,   
   they care for disease, not health. So, the over-prescription of drugs and   
   medications is designed to treat disease instead of preventing it. And   
   because there are so many drugs available, unforeseen adverse drug   
   reactions are all too common, which leads to the highly conservative   
   annual prescription drug death rate of 106,000. Keep in mind that these   
   numbers came before the Vioxx scandal, and Cox-2 inhibitor drugs could   
   ultimately end up killing tens of thousands more.   
      
   American medical patients are getting the short end of a rather raw deal   
   when it comes to prescription drugs. Medicine is a high-dollar, highly   
   competitive business. But it shouldn't be. Null's report cites the five   
   most important aspects of health that modern medicine ignores in favor of   
   the almighty dollar: Stress, lack of exercise, high calorie intake, highly   
   processed foods and environmental toxin exposure. All these things are   
   putting Americans in such poor health that they run to the doctor for   
   treatment. But instead of doctors treating the causes of their poor   
   health, such as putting them on a strict diet and exercise regimen, they   
   stuff them full of prescription drugs to cover their symptoms. Using this   
   inherently faulty system of medical treatment, it's no wonder so many   
   Americans die from prescription drugs. They're not getting better; they're   
   just popping drugs to make their symptoms temporarily go away.   
      
   But not all doctors subscribe to this method of "treatment." In fact, many   
   doctors are just as angry as the public should be, charging that   
   scientific medicine is "for sale" to the highest bidder – which, more   
   often than not, end up being pharmaceutical companies. The pharmaceutical   
   industry is a multi-trillion dollar business. Companies spend billions on   
   advertising and promotions for prescription drugs. Who can remember the   
   last time they watched television and weren't bombarded with ads for pills   
   treating everything from erectile dysfunction to sleeplessness? And who   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)