'health' care

From the biography of Jonas Salk M.D.
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/sal0bio-1

“1947, Salk accepted an appointment to the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. While working there, with the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, Salk saw an opportunity to develop a vaccine against polio, and devoted himself to this work for the next eight years.

In 1955 Salk's years of research paid off. Human trials of the polio vaccine effectively protected the subject from the polio virus. When news of the discovery was made public on April 12, 1955, Salk was hailed as a miracle worker. He further endeared himself to the public by refusing to patent the vaccine. He had no desire to profit personally from the discovery, but merely wished to see the vaccine disseminated as widely as possible. “

No desire to profit personally
Take a moment and let that sink in

From Edward Jenner and the Discovery of Vaccination http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/nathist/jenner.html

"Edward Jenner (1749-1823), after training in London and a period as an army surgeon, spent his whole career as a country doctor in his native county of Gloucestershire in the West of England. His research was based on careful case-studies and clinical observation more than a hundred years before scientists could explain the viruses themselves."

A country doctor
Take another moment, grab a sandwich, we're just getting started

It took Salk less than 10 years to develop a vaccine for polio …… 10 years.
Jenner lived and worked in the 18th century.

No giant mega corps, no telethons to raise money and these guys found cures; CURES, not treatments, CURES. These guys, and others like them, worked on the side part time in primitive conditions, with limited funding, university backing at most.

Has anyone out there seen a CURE on the market lately? Hell no. all we see is treatment. Anyone think for a minute that the mega medicine corps doing the research today want a cure? There’s not enough money in curing things. No repeat customers to bill. Just treat the symptoms and people have to come back over and over. Keep them alive and kicking but sick enough to be dependent on the drugs.

Prescription Addiction. We’re prisoners of the health care system. We can’t live without our ‘maintenance meds’. We have to keep going back for more drugs.

Here’s the kicker. Each drug they convince us we need has some sort of side effect which,
(wait for it)
REQUIRES MORE MEDS !!

I’m not one for conspiracy theories really. But with all the money and all the technology and all the secrecy, one has to stop to consider the fact that all we see are new illnesses and costly treatment solutions. How long do we put up with it before it becomes ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ for the crime of being sick?

Our elected and soon to be elected officials have various opinions about solutions to the health care system. Frankly my friends, I don’t have a solution. There's so much wrong with it now I don’t know if I can even pick a specific aspect of health care that is broken, wrong or missing and say “this is the thing to fix”. I hear politicians saying 'we need to fix it', 'it needs to change', or 'it’s broken'. All good, all correct, all valid points in my opinion, but what do we DO to fix it? There’s no way to make the drug companies not love profits. There’s no way to make doctors not need patients; that’s where the money comes from to buy white coats, pay nurses and buy tongue depressors, not to mention all that insurance they have to pay for now. It’s simple economics really. Unless someone can put the CARE back in HEALTH CARE we won’t have HEALTH either. Sorry, couldn’t resist.

… wait ….. big business, mega corps, volume sales, return customers, profit margin……..it IS economics.

No wonder there’s no cure to be found. All the healers are dead and gone, replaced by businessmen. No wonder politicians think they know enough about it to fix it. Its business not medicine; do you think for a second if it was medicine a politician who’s never been involved in medicine EVER, AT ALL, could fix it?

I’ve heard people say ‘put the gov’mint in charge of the health care’. .. ugh, I’ve been a patient in the VA system for a while now and well.. um .. gee .. wow.. how should I put this .. ah .. they suck bad. So if that’s an indication of what’s to come then we’re in trouble.

From what I’ve seen our legislative branch can’t agree on diddley unless it involves a raise, more vacation time or the pointing of fingers at the other party. Who in their right mind thinks the gov’mint, as is, can pour piss out of a boot? Put them in charge of health care? Get real. Look at all the other stuff the gov’mint is in charge of and tell me all that stuff doesn’t need fixin’ already.

OK .. granted .. its soooo bad now we could put businessmen in charge of it to make it better, maybe, than it is now. Regulate prices and make it available for more citizens and stuff like that yeah ok. BUT, until we can address the QUALITY of the care it won’t be FIXED. If you want to settle for better than horrible instead of good, great or awesome go ahead. Personally, I think this is the USA and our stuff won't be FIXED until it's the by gods best in the world and then we should make it better.