There is a crisis in healthcare. But it is not in coverage or the lack of it.
The core problem is drastically increasing costs which could destroy America.
The Dems’ solution is to spend a trillion or two new dollars.  (None of the healthcare cost estimates take into account the cost of servicing the new debt or the unseen costs of escalating medical benefits from those who are newly subsidized by the current House Bill.)
The Repubs’ solution is to hide their heads in the nearest sand spit.
The role of the President, regardless of party, is to protect the country. It is not his role to protect the uninsured.
Neither party seems to have grasped that basic fact. For twenty years, both have been moving America into bankruptcy by not preparing for the rising costs of healthcare and Social Security. Even the “surplus” of the Clinton years was based on false accounting methods which did not account for future healthcare and Social Security obligations.
Here’s what everybody should be debating: HOW TO REDUCE HEALTHCARE COSTS NOW.
There are several ways to reduce healthcare costs dramatically:
A. Declare an insurance moratorium on all “new diseases.” As the population ages, the number of people needing Medicare and Medicaid will increase. That’s just basic arithmetic. But if we keep adding new covered diseases at the same time, we will leap from arithmetic increases in healthcare costs to geometric growth – something we will never be able to control, let alone reduce.
Because all our covered diseases have not expanded the American lifespan beyond those of other countries which cover fewer diseases, and some less urgently, a moratorium on covering new diseases is an urgent necessity if we are to avoid financial chaos in America.
B. Eliminate Medicare and Medicaid coverages of “fanciful” diseases. When a medical group is successful in creating or identifying a new disease, four things happen in short order:
1. Government and private insurers are forced to provide coverage.
2. A veritable industry of drug sellers, medical device makers and care providers grows around each new disease. They all advertise for patients under slogans like, “Medicare pays!” New tests are created to frighten you with diagnoses of health breakdown or death.
3. Dishonest drug companies, doctors and medical device makers stretch the rules to enroll healthy people into each “new disease” program.
4. Finally, the crooks and scam artists enter the field to take their share of the golden pot.
There are many “fanciful” diseases and devices which should neither be treated or covered. A few examples:
1. Sleep Apnea, which is neither a medical threat nor a successfully treatable disease. But an expensive complex of doctors, insurers, drug makers and device makers has grown up around it. I heard “Medicare Pays!” 14 times in one visit to a “sleep specialist.”
2. Battery-driven wheelchairs. The “Scooter Store” spends a raft of
money on TV commercials promising to help you get Medicare to pay
the entire bill. People in the ads look too healthy to need a scooter.
Those using these devices as toys are avoiding the kinds of exercise that strengthen arm, shoulder and chest muscles – and lower blood pressure. If you think all people without use of their legs need scooters, you should turn your TV to broadcasts of the Special Olympics or to the U.S. (tennis) Open and watch the wheelchair matches, which are things of grace and beauty to behold.
3. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. There have always been boys who fidgeted, talked out of turn, and conducted themselves badly in the classroom. But never before in human history has such  behavior been diagnosed as mental disease. Yet boys are being put on Ritalin and other drugs, when the real problem is boring teachers, boring curricula, and the lack of gym and recess. How can any red-blooded American boy be expected to sit quietly and read a book like House of the Seven Gables, which was written for girls and old ladies? (When I was in this kind of English class, I used the textbook cover to hide what I was really reading – Forever Amber or a sports story.) Remember, Thomas Edison was officially classified as “addle-brained” and forced to be home schooled. What would the world have lost if young Edison had been put on some kind of drug?
4. Common Cold. It is beyond scandalous how a coalition of demanding patients, weak-kneed doctors and dishonest drug companies have prescribed antibiotics willy-nilly to treat the common cold – which is well known to be caused by viruses, not bacteria. The result is huge costs and the weakening of the nation’s immune system as new killer bacteria have formed which are impervious to the over-prescribed antibiotics.
5. Depression. In the days of “America’s Greatest Generation,” many people were depressed. The Great Depression and World War  II were huge issues for the average American to contend with. But our more modern, spiritually weak generation has taken “being depressed” into a disease called “depression,” which has resulted in a massive industry of psychologists, psychologists and drug makers – all living the good life off health insurance. “I talked with my therapist” has now replaced “I talked with my friend” or “I talked with my minister” -- with the consequential hit on healthcare costs.
This category has grown so huge that it is splintering in sub-industries like “postpartum depression,” “separation anxiety” and many others.
The way to prevent depression is to stop funding it with the kinds of money which could break America – and make everybody depressed.
C. Incentivize prevention over treatment. As your grandmother always said, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” We might add, “an ounce of prevention costs a great deal less than a pound of cure.”
To accomplish this, we must redesign the nation’s healthcare system to make the primary care physician and the nurse our control point in healthcare. How do we do this?
1. We must prioritize prevention over-treatment by rewarding doctors who create effective prevention programs in weight control, drug use, drinking and smoking.
By effectively reducing obesity, drugging, smoking and drinking, we will dramatically reduce the future costs of treating many chronic diseases -- heart and lung disease, diabetes, cirrhosis and many others.
2. We must train primary care physicians and nurses to be referees among all the specialists out there who often prescribe treatments which have negative impacts on other treatments.
Dermatologists constantly preach against the sun, warning about the potential of skin cancer. But they ignore telling you about the need for the skin to be exposed to the sun in order for the body’s largest organ to produce sufficient Vitamin D to avoid bone loss and other severe problems. Actually, all seniors should expose their skin to the sun at least 15 minutes a day and for best results, sunscreen should be avoided during that period.
“Eat your greens” is great advice – unless you are on Coumadin. “Jogging” seems like good heart-health advice, but too much can lead to knee replacement at an early age. Walking the golf course may seem like good exercise, but the backswing motion has ruined many a back. (I believe the expression “oh, my aching back” originated on a golf course in Scotland.) Excessive time at the computer can lead to carpel tunnel syndrome and serious back problems. Teaching a child how to lift objects off the ground can prevent serious back problems later. (Bending over creates massive negative leverage on the lower back. You should use your legs to lift while keeping the object being lifted as close to your body as possible.)
Primary care physicians and  their nurses should be trained in all kinds of prevention and be encouraged by insurance payments to create and maintain continual prevention programs.
Designing these programs should start with all the chronic health problems facing seniors. Prevention programs should be designed to prevent or minimize those chronic diseases and problems which account for the vast majority of healthcare costs. The programs should cross disciplines for their inputs. Preventing chronic back pain is an issue that the science of physics (the lever) understands a great deal about. Six simple back exercises begun in your twenties can transfer the absorption of lower back stress from the spinal cord to lower back muscles. Conflicting medications are best advised by the science of pharmacology. Conflicting treatments should be in the province of the primary care physician.
3. We must financially encourage healthcare prevention programs for infants and children. Many habits are formed by age seven, especially overeating and eating the wrong foods.
While it is easy to reform the adult’s sugar tooth and the salt tooth, it is virtually impossible to reform “fat addiction.” Cheerios may have too much salt and Honey Nut Cheerios have too much sugar, but both cereals form dietary habits which are simple to reform. But sweet rolls, doughnuts and bagel with smear cause a life-long fat addiction which is very difficult to break. It is normal for kids to want sweets because they wake up each morning with low levels of blood sugar. But we must train the mothers to make sure the kids are just getting sugars and not allow the dangerous fats to sneak in too.
What this country needs is a great deal more health wisdom and a great deal less health spending. At the same time, Congress could use a shot of financial wisdom to reduce its tendency to spend money needlessly.
You would benefit as an individual while Uncle Sam could avoid going broke.
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