It is an abomination that the United States is the only First World nation that does not afford ALL of its citizens with Universal Health Care. Of course the Multi-National Corporations, which control the media, don't want the public to understand that it is Health Insurance Corporations that stand in the way of implementing Universal Health Care. 25 to 35% of Healthcare revenue goes into the coffers of the Health Insurance Industry. Unfortunately, if we migrate to a Medicare-based model we will no longer need the Health Insurance Industry to act as an intermediary and that is exactly where much of the savings will come from. And it is those very savings that will allow us to extend coverage to all Americans.
Reality appears to revolve around whose ox is getting gored. When corporate American decided to offshore millions of programming jobs and factory jobs, that was OK because it was just screwing a bunch of working, middle class, Americans. But when you start talking about goring the profits of stock holders and insurance companies -- who control the HMO's, PPO's etc. -- that becomes an affront to too many members of the elite. This is why real talk about Universal Health Care is so muted.
As the "New Economy" emerges we are finding that access to Health Care is declining right along with the quality of the available jobs. And this is further exacerbated by other factors including offshoring, an aging baby boom population, and increases in the severity of lifestyle related diseases such as Adult onset diabetes. At the same time, unpaid health care expenses are at the root of the record number of personal bankruptcies that continue to increase with each passing year.
Before closing this introduction on Universal Health Care I want to present an example of how "thinking outside the box" might be able to minimize the magnitude of the Health Care dilemma. About 25% percent of the adult population smoke, chew or snort tobacco. What most people don't realize is the fact that 95% of the tobacco related cancer is due to radioactive polonium that makes its way from the phosphate-based fertilizer, onto the tobacco and into your lungs. Then, when your autoimmune system declines in later life, those gamma emitters cause cell mutation and you get lung cancer. This explains why smokers who quit and still susceptible to lung, and other forms of cancer. Why not find a way to eliminate the gamma emitter from the damn fertilizer? Believe it or not, the government agreed with tobacco industry that this would be too expensive. Over 400,000 Americans die of smoking-related lung cancer each and every year. When you couple this fact with studies citing net savings in Social Security and other entitlements -- from tobacco smokers -- it is very difficult not to become a little bit cynical.
Other examples of thinking outside the box include the acknowledgement that stress is a major factor in strokes, heart attacks and other disease processes. Recent studies show that yoga, meditation and exercise can markedly reduce cortisol -- which is a major biological precursor of stress.
There have also been recent studies indicating that Marijuana may prevent age-related diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer's. Yet our government still refuses to understand that Marijuana is one of humankinds oldest and safest medicines. Inexplicably, the US government continues to arrest over 700,000 Americans each year for using this benign substance. At the same time the US government continues to support the use of pharmaceuticals, such as Viox, Celexa etc., which have been absolutely proven to do harm. Only in Lewis Carol's "Alice in Wonderland" does this make any sense at all.