From: Louise Bouta [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Bus strike hung up on health care To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The high and escalating cost of health care has been noted as the overwhelming reason for the bus strike.
One way to solve this issue is to give people a choice in the kind of health care they want and have it paid for by insurance policies and Medicare and Medical Assistance.
If all people were given a choice of the kind of health care they want and it was paid for, whether by insurance or Medicare or Medical Assistance, many would select alternative, integrative health cares that is based on treating causes of the presenting problem and not just symptoms. We could save (I estimate) 90% of the cost of care. Then, all people who want the latest, most expensive, intrusive modern medicine would have that available to them. There would be no need for rationing of health care because the money would be available for everyone’s choice.
Among the barriers to this happening is the conflict of interest the State has in refusing to allow healthful treatment for people struggling with emotional distress or problems in living that is often labeled “mental illness.” This was brought out in a March 5th Star Tribune article on the $43 billion in pension funds belonging to state employees and retirees. “The board’s prime responsibility under the law is to maximize gains for beneficiaries.” That emphasis on the bottom line kinda leaves out concern for the people. Another responsibility of the State, apparently, is to protect the jobs of the thousands of people employed in the medical/hospital/health care industry.
Suicide sometimes has been the result of the use of anti-depressant drugs. Eli Lilly, maker of Prozac, has been forced to pay millions of dollars in lawsuits across the country to families, as awarded by the courts.
Suicide as a result of depression has been implicated in the damage to our troops in this war. Among Iraq war soldiers, there were 29 cases by recent count. In January, a soldier receiving care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington became the second patient fresh from the front lines to commit suicide there in the past six months. http://www.inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=636_0_2_0_C
One may guess that these soldiers have been “treated” with the same drugs used on civilians here.
Another hazard modern medicine poses for our troops is the anti-malarial drugs. UPI on February 26th carried this article: “The Pentagon reversed course Wednesday and told Congress it would look into whether an anti-malaria drug developed by the Army might be causing suicides, one month after asserting the drug could not be a factor.” They are launching a study into side effects of Lariam, "to include suicide and neuropsychiatric outcomes." Pentagon health officials also said they would no longer use Lariam in Iraq because the malaria risk does not warrant it. This was after 21 Army soldiers from units in Iraq committed suicide, another five deaths are possible suicides, and there were six deaths among soldiers in Iraq who returned to the United States and then killed themselves.
I remember after WWII, a nurse told me that some returning soldiers were given anti-malarial drugs and it caused them mental problems. These delusions and hallucinations stopped when the drugs were withdrawn.
Would that we could all be so lucky now to have drugs withdrawn when they are no longer needed and when they make people crazy.
The American Psychiatric Association is not able to show any scientific evidence that the finding of “mental illness” is based on any brain disease. They cannot show any physical diagnostic exam –such as a scan or test of brain, blood, urine or genes that can reliably distinguish individuals with these diagnoses (prior to treatment with psychiatric drugs) from individuals without these diagnoses. They use such measures as: “She was not wearing socks.”
Louise Bouta Kingfield Well Mind Association of Minnesota 4003 Pillsbury Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55409 Phone: 612-823-8249 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.wellmindminnesota.org
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