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Medical Reform Activism -
A Mindful Approach
Shaun
Kerry, M.D.
Diplomate, American Board
of Psychiatry and Neurology
This site explains why many health-care
activism efforts are at an impasse. |
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We propose a plan that
will effect dramatic change in health-care without
additional expense.
Most health-care activists present proposals for
universal coverage, submitting a long list of
services that they desire everyone to have access to, and then
suggesting various sources of money to pay for these programs. The
financing, for the most part, involves taking money from one group's
pockets, and giving it to another.
You may feel that this is a noble and just
effort. But justice aside, there is a very large segment of the
population that resists having their pockets picked. Furthermore,
plans following this general model have been tried unsuccessfully in
many countries throughout the world. Their results have been far
from satisfactory. |
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A sizeable portion of
our population suffers from some
form of chronic illness; all the
money in the world could not buy these people good health.
The pharmaceutical industry is
burgeoning at a monstrous rate, due largely to the prescribing habits of
doctors. There are thousands of debilitating, chronic
illnesses that we
cannot diagnose; |
there are thousands more that we cannot
treat, even with the aid of countless prescription drugs, and billions
of dollars.
Doctors are the third leading
cause of death in the U.S. ...according to
the July 26, 2000 issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Association, Vol. 284. The actual statistics are probably higher,
due to
treatments that harm, rather than help patients. An
over-reliance on prescription medication is the primary cause of such
fatalities. It makes little sense for activists to fight for
universal access to a harmful and dysfunctional system.
Activism is like selling a product. If
you are going to be successful, your product must be
something that people will buy. If people won't buy your product,
then you will be forced to return to the drawing board and reexamine it.
The following is a step-by-step plan for health-care activism.
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