Re: "The American Medical Care Scam"
By Letters To The Editor Roxanna Moser (01/14/06)
Malcolm Hedges in his column "The American Medical Care Scam" couldn't be more right. If anything is going to sink our economy, it's going to be the exorbitant rising of health care costs that can be attributed to three things: fraud and greed on the part of the health care industry - insurers and providers - and complete gullibility on the part of the general public.
The fraud part comes from the fact that health care insurers keep peddling the fiction that you can have all the health care you want for just a nominal co-pay. It would be much cheaper just to pay the full amount than having to pay the co-pay and the deductible and the premiums.
The greed part comes from the fact that providers are trying to bleed more and more money from insurers. A friend of mine, who was treated last year for breast cancer, told me that doctors are now trying to get people in every three months for one thing or another. My dad's, who got health and dental care as part of his retirement package, told me that his dental hygenist was making appointments for him every three months.
This leads to the gullibility of the general public, who seem to think that seeing the doctor all the time will keep them healthy. Doctors are like tobacco companies in that they need people to become addicted in order to keep making money so that they can keep building the medical buildings that are springing up right and left everywhere I look, not to mention their lifestyles. They scare people with "pre-hypertension" and "pre-diabetic" or "I want to keep an eye on this." Please doctor, save me. This is so much bull.
My friend who was treated for breast cancer told me that every single woman who was being treated for breast cancer at the same time she was, every single one including herself, had been on hormone replacement therapy. Another friend of mine had to go off HRT because she developed blood clots. Then there are the women who will develop breast cancer because they've had a mammogram every year, or who will die from breast cancer because the doctor can't read the film. Then there are the people can't fight off a cold because they have no immune system because it was only a short while ago that doctors were handing out antibiotics like candy. Then there are the people who have to take a second medication to counter the effects of the first medication that they probably didn't need in the first place. Cholesterol drugs might reduce your cholesterol levels, but they're destroying your liver in the process. Do you ever listen to the drug ads on TV? The side effect of one is TB, while the side effect of another is lymphona a/k/a/ cancer. The cure is worse than the disease.
Wake up people! Hospital negligence is the 6th leading cause of death in America. A landmark study done in 2000 (I think the first and last ever done) found that death by medical negligence was epidemic in America. Running to the doctor every time your nose runs is what will eventually destroy the entire system, thereby paving the way for socialized medicine. Doctors have no interest in keeping you healthy. They have every interest in making sure that you keep coming to see them and if putting you on medicine that will create a bigger problem down the road, well that's just more money for them.
Are all doctors like this? Certainly not. But how do you know who is more interested in you than his/her bottom line?
Roxanna Moser
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