A lot of things going on in the world. Crazy election in this country. Crazy attacks in Europe. Police being targeted and shot here. Seems like the everything and everyone is topsy turvy.
One area that doesnt make the 6pm news is Healthcare. Folks that have listened to the Medic Shack Podcast have heard Cat and I talk about the falures of modern medicine. On the plus side we can fix SO many things that 10 years ago was impossible. We save more lives today than ever before.
BUT, (There is always a but), we have now a nation that is almost totally dependent on maintence medication. Hell I hate to say it but I am also. It is so much easier to take a pill than it is to try to fix the problem.
Now a lot of illnesses are not fixable with modern technology. Is it our doctors fault? Partially. The majority of the blame falls on us. The patients. We are the ones the caused the pandemic of drug resistant bacteria. How you ask? Our parents. Little Johnny has a sniffle. Johnnys mom takes him to the pediatrician and he says, Its a cold or allergies, but Johnnys mom throws a fit and DEMANDS he give her little boy ANTIBIOTICS . The WONDER drugs. And sadly to just shut her up the doc writes a script for some pennicillan and mom leaves happy.
Back to maintence meds. Type 2 diabetes. There is NO cure for it. But you can arrest it. Simple diet changes. But it is easier to pop a pill. And now Big Pharma has 5 new Type 2 Disbetic drugs. With a list of side effects that is amazing. Where as our European friends have dicovered that a simple chemical from certain plants does much better than the standard rugs and les side effects than the new one.
Is that the major issue with our health care?
No. In MY opinion its not. The SYSTEM is to blame. I know a doc at a different practice. One of the kindest most gentle men you would ever meet. Holds himself to impossible standards of care. And meets them. He truly tries to do what is BEST for the patient. Not what the inusrance company wants. Not what his practice partners want. What will give that patient the best outcome overall on LIVING. Not surviving. Actually living. What is best for the patient. That is a term we bandy about a lot. Today we pay lip service. But I digress. This doc tried to streamline a part of the process. And got shot down. Not that it would be worse for the patient or even the practice. It would make the process better. But he was shot down. Because it was different. He tried to get a patient off of a bunch of meds that where making her feel worse than the disease. He tried to get approval to actualy FIX her problem. He got a tidal wave of opposition. From his partners to the staff to the pharmacutical vendors and even the insurance. The procedure was expensive. Expensive TODAY. But tomorrow and from now on it would be been Zero. Nada. Zilch. Her quality of life would have been SO IMPROVED. But no. She is sentenced to a lifetime of medication that does not fix her problem and forces her to take more meds to conteract the side effects. And now we are losing that doc. Gave his notice. That is one of the MAIN problems with healthcare. It is more profitable to stretch out the life of a patient than it is to fix em. We are slaves to big pharma. Slaves to the insurance companies. Slave to the system that is clearly broken. Slaves to the overbearing hand of the government trying to manage a broken system and in the mean time breaks it further.
How do we fix it? Get Educated. Take Charge of your health and healthcare needs. Find doctors that have broken away from the insurance teat and charge cash for their services. Sounds expensive? How about this. My monthly insurance payments are about 500 bucks. EVERY 2 WEEKS. Find a doctor that has a payment plan. Pay him 200 a month as a healthcare savings account. Buy the minimum insurance to cover medication and what is called catastrophic heath needs. We looked at it and find that once we fix some chronic issues with my wife and I it will saves us 500 a month. Can you imagine the amount of prepping you can do with an extra 500 a month???
This is the reason I do the Medic Shack. To educate people that there are alternatives. I am not a doctor. I can not tell someone how to manage their healthcare. But I can help people when their healthcare providers and insurance companies can’t or wont.