The brutality of the business of medicine has just been ruthlessly exposed in the cover article of the current edition of the popular magazine, Time. In an article entitled Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills are Killing Us, a mirror is held up to what can befall you if you become sick in the land of the free. Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness (engraved in the Bill of Rights) pretty obviously does not include universal health care.
This has culminated in what has been described in the article as ‘the ultimate seller’s market’ where the hapless buyers (also known as desperate patients) can go into life-long debt just because they have a strong desire to stay alive. These poor sick people (about 16% of the USA population which means about 50 million people) are those who don’t own that ‘get out of death free’ card, Americans call ‘Health Insurance’. If you don’t have Health Insurance in the home of the brave, you had better be very brave indeed.
So what has this got to do with us on the other side of the Atlantic? Well, news like this should make us all be enormously grateful for our universal health care in the form of the NHS. The case studies in the Time article simply could not and would not have happened here. Private medicine in the UK has certainly become more expensive and ‘business-like’ with patients often being asked for credit card details before seeing a doctor. However, this is merely uncouth because the alternative is the NHS – not unnecessary suffering or death.
Last year I produced an animated little cartoon on the worrying state of medicine in the USA. In the light of the life-destroying cost of medicine making the cover of Time, I think it timely to revisit it.
(Disclaimer: For entertainment purposes only)
Only a great soul like you who is dedicated to humanity which is God’s wealth, can only stand up for the divine gift of homeopathy as the only modern curative medicine. May your untiring efforts find true recognition and support in the old world on this side of Atlantic leaving the other side to the mercy of Atlantis!
Doc,
One comment, so far…and a pretty vapid one, too!
The cartelization of medicine has been perfected. Profit (hence, ‘shareholder value’) is the name of the game, and to hell with sick people who get in the way.
There is no sense in really dissecting the obvious maladies of the system. The business model is clear, and depends on the purchase of power.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-11/who-spends-most-dollars-lobbying-washington-dc
There IS sense in re-evaluating our values, though…before it is too late.
A brush with mortality has a way of stripping away the superficial and the false. I think of the film Ikiru (1952) by director Akira Kurosawa, in which the middle-aged protagonist discovers he has a terminal illness. With nothing to show for a career spent behind a desk, he sets out to build a children’s playground before he dies.
It is a sad statement that we often only awaken to value and meaning when we’ve run out of time to change the way we “invest” our time. The lyrics of Pink Floyd’s ‘Time’ perhaps says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xYxY_P8Vn3k
Regards,
Ruth
In the words of Pink Floyd: ‘Welcome, my son. Welcome to the macheeeeeeeeeeen.’
This wonderful ceaitron has had a very positive, focused affect on my son. My son, Ian, who is diagnosed ADHD & Aspergers was bouncing like a pinball at the Rennisance Festival last weekend we were trying to find him something that wasn’t a weapon, that would peak his interest. We stumbled upon Celtic art therapy. Ian obsessed over his plate the entire day. I can only say, I haven’t found anything to benefit my son in such a positive way!!! Thank you!!!