TO HELL WITH YOUR HEALTH
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Health care in the United States is not a service, but an
industry. It operates like any other industry, in that its
primary aim is to make profits for the corporations which
direct it. That direction is usually to exploit an existing
market, while creating new ones. Emphasis in determining new
markets is not based on the needs of the general public, but
rather on how lucrative a potential market me be. Medicine
in America is controlled mostly by large corporations with
diversified interests. The same companies that make drugs
are the ones who make candy, coffee, fast foods, and
cigarettes. Usually, supporting the very lifestyle which
makes people sick. They also directly (or indirectly) use
the media, advertising and research to determine the
public's attitude and interest towards health, doctors and
pharmaceuticals. It is more important for a product to be
profitable, than effective. Of every dollar spent on drugs,
25¢ to marketing, production, packaging, etc. Most of it
aimed at family doctors who will push the product on their
patients. Of that quarter, 10¢ or so goes to research, a
piece for development or the "new and improved" version of
an old drug. Moving product is more important than the
quality or safety of that product. The idea is to sell
first, ask questions later. Thus we've had chemicals such as
thalidomide deemed safe, only later was it found to cause
cancer and "flipper babies." Another example would be the
first birth control pills, which were huge on the market for
over ten years, until the cancer statistics came in. did the
corporations get rid of the pills? No, they just sold them
at half-rate to third-world nations. The drug companies are
literally drug pushers. Hospitals, medical suppliers,
geriatric homes… all are aspects of medical care which are
part of a vast marketing complex. The emphasis is on high
cost private facilities, but the poor's potential as a
profit source is not ignored. Controlled quality and
quantity of public facilities stratifies the market. If
county hospitals are crowded and facilities are inadequate,
people will turn to private facilities. Of course, the cost
of private hospitals and treatment is prohibitively high,
and people must then turn to the insurance companies, often
corporations who invest or even own the companies which
supply the sick person's needs. The poor, aided by Medicare,
Medicaid, (etc) form a vast market for second class
services. Hand-in-glove with the government agencies who
create medical care for those who otherwise could not afford
it. Seems great until you realize that now the corporations
are not only guaranteed a gigantic pool of consumers, but
also a hardy testing ground for questionable or untried
products. But the ultimate in guaranteed markets is the old
age/death market. A prolonged costly demise is the mark of
the American way of expiration. By keeping a patient alive
as long as possible, maximum profit can be realized. Dying
geriatrics are relatively trouble free, low maintenance… the
ideal customer, a captive class of consumer. The American
Medical Association (AMA) exists as the main body for
protecting interests of doctors, an elite group whose
training is aimed at maintaining the status quo while
realizing maximum profits. The AMA's means of control begins
at the source, the boards for accreditation and standards of
new doctors. The standards and requirements for entrance
into medical school, the numbers of new schools, tuition and
the like, are all AMA controlled. Only 5% of all medical
school graduates become general practitioners . emphasis is
on producing specialists, usually in a field which relies
heavily on high level technology. Even with the best
humanitarian motives, most survivors of medical schools end
up opting for high profit, low work load fields. After a few
years of high pressure internship and 20 hour days, patients
become a dehumanized commodity and a private, high paying
practice begins to look pretty good. Charity wards and
county hospitals are a create training ground, but it will
not get you that new BMW… brain surgery might. The AMA
defines and controls the numbers of physicians the medical
schools produce, insuring lack of competition and sure jobs
for AMA members. The AMA also defines and controls the
professional role of the doctor. The role being that of
illness and symptom removal as opposed to health
enhancement. Preventive medicine, holistic approaches etc,
are simply not as profitable as treatment of existing
symptoms would be. The doctor actually has a certain
investment in the illness of his patients: illness as
commodity. If they practiced"preventive medicine" and
prevented illnesses from attacking in the first place, the
office would be empty, so would their pockets. The role of
the doctor as omnipotent holder of a secret knowledge and
skills is still very well in place today, although most
information can easily be found in any book in any library
for any person to read on their own time. This role is
protected tough, by limiting the practice of those who do
not have and M.D. or PhD such as paramedics, midwives,
healers and legally even nurses are restricted from
performing even the most routine procedures which are the
exclusive realm of the M.D.. Lastly, techniques alien to
western medicine are suppressed or controlled. Acupuncture,
chiropractic, natural healing, etc. Are depicted by the AMA
and corporate media as quackery or fanaticism. Interesting
to note that in the case of acupuncture , an effective
technique that has been used and understood in Asia
thousands of years before the United States of America was
even thought. It's also quite interesting that and M.D.,
without any knowledge of acupuncture, can practiced it on
any patient so they choose, but a trained acupuncturist
cannot practice anything related to medicine, even if they
studied it for years. The AMA has systematically fought
progressive legislation, perpetuated a dual system of care
where one arm is for the rich the other for the poor. The
AMA has made inaccessible a free, equal, comprehensive
consumer controlled health care… in order to protect their
own "right to profit" from the health industry. Just writing
all of this is making me, well... sick.