McCain's Veteran Problem

There are countless failures, if not out-right crimes, by this illegitimate, appalling administration. Nevertheless, something good can come of it.

Anyone who seriously doubts the need for health-care reform by this time is in need of help, from a professional.

What we have now is a patchwork quilt of health-care schemes, most of which are failing, miserably, including the V.A's.

Why not simply have one-single payer program which can be administered by private companies who can bid for the government's business. (no no-bid contracts and transparency. Not a request but a demand.)

Insurance companies have been growing more and more out of control since the 70s. The cost of diagnostics, medical care and medications have kept pace. Physicians and other care-givers have to hire whole staffs that do nothing but try to get payment for services out of these health insurance companies or spend more time on getting paid than time with their patients. Physicians have it bad enough. Private practitioners in mental heath have it much worse, and in these days and times, that could actually be dangerous for more people than just the single patient.

Please, no more non-profit hospitals that are anything but non-profit. No one should have to pay $5.00 for a Tylenol tablet. Actually, Tylenol probably costs more now in hospitals like those owned by Humana and others like it. as I recall, these health care schemes were supposed to make things better. Well, it didn't work.

Physicians and other care givers have to be approved to receive payment from many of these so-called health insurance companies. The companies do not seem so much concerned with the care-givers credentials as they are with telling those caregivers, up-front, that they must agree not to even mention certain diagnostic procedures, more expensive but more effective treatment or other health care alternatives to the patient.

Big Pharma should be barred from advertising their products, period. It's bad enough that many physicians are corrupted with trips to "exotic places" to hear all about the latest and greatest medications from this or that pharmaceutical company. Just in case there are Americans out there who don't know this, Big Pharma lies like a rug, not only to physicians, but now to the public in general, and quite a few have been caught in the last few years, on things like fudging their research and not being transparent enough about the dangers of the medications they are marketing, sometimes for a disease or disorder the medication is not equipped to handle. The price of medication has gone up considerably since this practice began. Advertising, as we all know, is not cheap. Why advertise something that it takes an Rx to get in the first place? I'll tell you why. So, that people will bug their physician for the "latest and greatest," when there is an "oldie but goody" which is proven and will easily suffice. Of course, there are exceptions. Many of the newer medications are better and may not have as many side-effects. They may keep people out of the emergency room and/or the hospital, which is obviously more expensive and where no one with a lick of sense really wants to be. Hospitals can be dangerous places, if not to your health, to your pocket book.

Which bring me to another subject. I could hear the hue and cry when one or two of the Democratic candidates said that in order for his/her health care program to work, everyone would have to buy insurance. OMG!!!!! They are going to make us buy health insurance!!! This must surely be a Communist plot! Well, here's the real story, unless everyone contributes by buying insurance, we are still going to pay for everyone else's insurance. The young in this country, often don't see the the need for insurance until they marry and have kids (and can't afford it) or they get a job with a company that pays for it (as part of their salaries, of course.) We pay for the uninsured young guy/gal on the motor cycle or in the car who has a horrific crash or who simply comes down with some horrendous diagnosis or chronic condition which costs thousands, at least, to treat and may well prevent them from ever getting affordable insurance.

We also pay for E.R visits for everything from the flu to strokes and heart attacks in the young and those who cannot afford insurance at all.

As my Oncologist once said to me, when I told him that I didn't want to run up huge medical bills, as my diagnosis is, essentially, a death sentence, "the system will absorb what your insurance doesn't cover." Oh, really. The system? That would be the taxpayers. So, I get to pay for my insurance, the monthly payments for which were getting bigger and bigger every year before the diagnosis of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the lung, inoperable, but in remission, I get to pay more with my taxes as well.

This is why I say that the V.A. health-care system and Medicare should be shelved and in their place, affordable insurance for everyone; the same insurance we afford to our public servants. Who among us would pay for better insurance for people we hire than for ourselves. Our elected officials are hired by us, through our vote.

Our health-care system is a full-blown disaster! We are merely moving deck chairs on the Titanic and have been for more than 35 years.

I can already hear the hue and cry about how Vets have special problems and need to be treated together. B.S, I say. There is better treatment, right now, in the private sector for disorders associated with serving in a war zone, especially when it comes to psychiatric disorders.

If Vets are coming down with strange physical symptoms, like after the Gulf war, the medical community as a whole should be aware of it, as many people opt opt out of the V.A. system, either because it is too damned inconvenient or because the person wants no more to do with anything having to do with our government ever again.

In addition to that, the American people should know when our Veterans have been exposed to depleted Uranium and the like, by our own government. Those young people in every branch of our military belong to us. We pay their salaries, for their health care and other benefits, gladly in most cases. They are our blood and real treasure. Unfortunately, many of the corporations, the interests of which they are really defending, have moved off-shore or have found a gazillion other ways not to be taxed.

Change? We had all better believe that we need change, huge change. As Obama says, fundamental change in the way D.C. functions, but much more than that.

We the people, need to wake the hell up from our serf mentality and demand that change. If it it is not forthcoming from the people we elect, it will be sooner or later. Either the looming collapse, not just of the economy, but of many of our social institutions, will eventually bring about change, or the people will demand it in such a way that we cannot be ignored.

Either way, the times they are a changin'. This time, there is no doubt about that and it is going to be much more painful on most of us than when Dylan sang those words.