Health Care vs. Disease Care

I have been trying to decode the mystifying Health Care System since I was a child. At age seven I was diagnosed, behind closed doors, as having "Green Bay Throat". My Mother, being ignorant, asked what could be done about it. The doctor said, "Move away from here." Back then there were still a number of practical souls working in the field of medicine. He would tell us in private that the he and his colleagues knew that the chemical soup we were breathing day in and day out had the effect of depleting my immune system and that there was no way to counter the damage that pollutants were doing to my body. We asked if he would document this Green Bay Throat, but he refused. Citing the fact that he would never work again if he stood up to speak the truth in a town run by the paper mills.

I know now that virtually everyone looked the other way regarding the use of air and the water as dumping grounds for all kinds of hazardous material. The practice still takes place, although we have reigned in some of the most obvious and easily reduced waste streams. Now we face the insidious onslaught of chemicals that are harder than ever to clean up or avoid. Doctors still tell us precious little about the effects of prescription medication, lawn "care" chemicals and agricultural waste in our drinking water, the hazardous compounds created by chlorination of water, or the over four hundred toxic chemicals routinely found in the air we breathe in most major cities. We have not stopped looking the other way. This in turn leads to hazards to our health, well being and ability to lead lives that are characterized by optimum health. We spend more on health "care", as a percentage of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) than any nation, but our outcomes for this spending are way down the list. Last I heard, we rank 47th in most major indicators for health. Oddly enough, with all the talk about Health Care Reform, why are we not asking why people in 46 countries are healthier while we continue to spend wildly and get so little in return?

The most recent flap, characterized by the right-leaning tax and spend Republicans as "Why are you taking away our mammograms? This is the beginning of Health Care rationing!" Is pathetic. I know that we live in a time of serious mathematical illiteracy, but I will try to keep this simple. Average cost of a mammogram in the US is 1,000 to 6,000 dollars. Why this should be, having a six-fold variation in price for the same procedure sounds criminal, is about as clear as the x-rays themselves. If mammograms are performed on 1,900 women between forty and fifty years of age, annually for four years, it would save one life. That would be a cost of between 64 million and 384 million to save one life. Of these tests, 60% show false positives, scaring the bejeusus out of the majority of the women, adding undue stress to their lives and leading to biopsies that incur even higher costs, risk infection and a higher percentage of false negatives because they are performed much more rarely. The math on that is a bit complicated, so I will spare you that. Keep in mind the key part, to save one life!

1,140 women would be told that there was something to be concerned about on the x-ray. When actually only one would be at risk from the disease! Yet why would the doctors not mention any of the preventative steps we should all be taking to win the fight against Cancer? The over four hundred man-made chemicals that I mentioned earlier have all been implicated in genetic damage and/or Cancer. We know more about prevention than the medical establishment is telling us. To truly reform our inefficient system, we need to start with the easiest things first. Cleaning up our act with regard to poisons in the environment would be logical. Of course, it may cause some people to do things they don't want to do. It may require people to get out of certain polluting industries or devise new ways of doing things that have made them fortunes. In the future many things will change. If we are to live healthier lives, some sacrifice will be required. Business as usual has a proven track record and it is uglier the deeper you look.

When I was a child, I lost both of my grandmothers to cancer. Back then, the doctors claimed that they would decode the disease and win the battle with it scientifically. Now it has become chic to "walk for cancer", wear pink, ride for a cure, etc. Yet we still allow BPH (Brominated Phenolic Compounds) to line our canned goods cans, leach out of baby bottles, and nipples, and come in contact with our food and water. We know that they are implicated in causing Cancer! Chlorinated Organic Compounds, created when we chlorinate water, mimic Dioxin (an ingredient in Agent Orange) and PCB (Polychlorinated Biphenols). I continue to lose friends and family to Cancer. They are dying at younger and younger ages. Living proof that we are not only at a loss for winning the fight against Cancer, but pointing out the pressing need to stem the flow of toxic compounds into our bodies. At what hazard do we refuse to see the writing on the wall? Cancer is not cute. I don't think the billions spent thus far on cancer research has yielded satisfactory results. The simplest way to beat cancer is still being overlooked and my sense is that as long as doctors are in charge, they will continue to turn away from the facts regarding prevention.