Health Care Deformity

Back off, you bugaboos! Take a break. Take in a great big breath. Not only is this a proven method of relaxation but it also provides a good dose of oxygen for a healthier brain, thus a positive prognosis for the all too contentious debate on healthcare reform.

All of the knee-jerk reactions on the debate of providing medical coverage to the uninsured have gotten everybody’s panties in a bunch. The hate factor among all the interested groups won’t resolve the issue to anyone’s satisfaction, except possibly President Obama and a number of die-hard Democrats. Currently, there is no dialogue that will provide a cure-all for what ails uninsured Americans.

For years, the high cost of providing health insurance through employer-based coverage has made American business at a frightful disadvantage for competitive product pricing in the broadening realm of globalization.

Corporate medical contributions to employee benefits come to an annual expense of about $15,000 – for government employees the un-taxed benefits are even more obtuse at $19,000. These costs continue to be a prominent reason for the outsourcing of jobs to foreign lands. We’ve painted the survival of American enterprise into a corner, but there are steps that can be taken to correct this poor state of affairs.

Before providing “universal” coverage, the cost factors of health care must be addressed.
Three years ago Massachusetts enacted the most comprehensive subsidized insurance fee-for-service public offering and cut the rate of uninsured residents from 8% to 2.6%, the lowest in the country. Although an addition 428,000 people were given affordable coverage, it has resulted in an insurmountable budget crisis. The state is on the hook for an additional $595,000 than it was in 2006, a 42% increase.

Enacting universal coverage in Maine in 2005 resulted in a 74% increase in premiums, pricing many of the uninsured out of the market and dropping coverage. The uninsured rate is 10%, the same level as before legislation was passed.

Neither Maine nor Massachusetts bothered to address a means to implement cost-cutting measures of medical pricing. For decades, private insurance companies have maintained what could easily be considered price fixing since in-state health options are generally restricted to two or three major providers.

This lack of competition defies the intent of the free market system. The self-interest of insurance companies, service providers and drug companies is too impressionable on elected officials. The inherent power of lobbyist groups set up by former legislators are too influential on the course of action of Congress. They know the ropes. They have the contacts. The have access to funds for campaign contributions. And they have too tight a grip on the health of Americans.

Rather than accuse Obama of promoting a death forum for the elderly, the feeble and the less-than-productive members of society, put the blame on insurance companies for limiting and denying medical procedures that would otherwise enhance the lives of the unfortunate.

Pharmaceutical companies are major culprits in themselves. When the Medicare Drug Plan was enacted in January 2006, they raked in an additional $8B in profits in the first six months alone. The industry has promised an $80B sacrifice over a ten-year period as a buy-in to healthcare reform, a minor contribution toward the health of the country considering their huge profit margins.

The U.S. has the most profitable pharmaceutical business in the world with revenues of $315B in 2007. As a comparison, the illegal drug industry has profits of approximately $300B in revenue per year, globally speaking.

What could be considered an unethical tactic of pharmaceutical companies is the “pay-for-delay” scheme that keeps generic drugs off the market by providing attractive monetary incentives to maintain an extended monopoly over less expensive drug manufacturers. The FTC estimates Americans are cheated out of about $3.5B per year. Then there’s the practice of putting “name brand” generic versions on the market for drugs whose patents have expired, affectively making it unprofitable for true generic companies to offer competitive pricing for an additional six months

Pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies are keeping Red Bull Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats at bay, caged in dollar signs of influence.

It’s understandable that Americans are leery of healthcare reform. Obama claims his efforts will be deficit neutral. Even if an attainable goal, through higher premiums, increased deductibles and restricted coverage, a redistribution of health wealth will help some but will come at a great cost to the currently insured. Town Hall Brawls are not the answer.

Containing costs in all aspects of providing ‘universal medical coverage’ must be addressed before continued debate gets out of hand and people’s health conditions deteriorate. Is this an orchestrated script by insurers and providers to further increase profits? Depending on whether or not you have health insurance, you can bet your life or death on it.

Drug Talk

Dial a wrong number and what do you get? An unknown someone and indiscernible of sex on the other end who speaks in slurred English, apparently in a hazy daze from the affects of medications, possibly subscribed for pain management, or just as likely bought on the sly from unscrupulous pill-pushers. Mention the word “oxy” and the tone would have changed to a perky mood at the prospects of making a friend - one more contact to feed the need.

Witness a delivery truck dislodge a mailbox, then discuss the situation with the greasy-haired and rotten-toothed driver, and where does the conversation lead? To avoid an insurance claim the guy pays cash out of hand and, in response to relating a story about a friend who had done the same to multiple mailboxes because he was on too high a dose of mood stabilizers, his interest is apparent when he mentions he might be interested if the meds are of the right mixture. Not what he was hoping for.

Go to an emergency room and what does the doctor tell you? That too many people just like yourself seek medical attention in desperation from the negative affects of being too long on certain prescription drugs. The medical professional also states that 25% of emergency room patients are there for the same reason.

Every age group, from teens to the eighty’s, find their minds and bodies unable to cope with the withdrawal of the opiate ingredients found in oxycodone products manufactured as Percocet, Percodan, OxyContin and Vicodin.

Intended to be time-released, habitual users crush the tablets, dissolve them in water and shoot the mixture directly into the bloodstream for a quick fix. Better yet, “roxies” are made to order without the added step of injection. Since oxycodone is extremely habit-forming, once a person is hooked, the dosage must be progressively increased.

Roxy Music, a 70s rock group fronted by Brian Ferry and a major influence on punk rockers, compared drug use with lovemaking. In fact, a YouTube music video of their first pop hit “Love Is A Drug” displays the lyrics superimposed over the image of two hearts with a syringe taking the place of the traditional arrow – a heart-breaking picture.

How about the words and music of Amy Winehouse, “They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no”? A very catchy tune but face it, not exactly the type of music a parent wants their kids to admire.

The same goes for Lil Wyte with the chorus “Oxycontin, Xanax bars, Percocets and Lortabs. Valiums, morphine patches, Ecstacy… and it’s all up for grabs”. Second verse same as the first… all together now… It’s a rapper’s paradise of fortunes at the expense of youth.

Drug use has become a national heritage, a war against which was doomed when President Richard Nixon first introduced the term “war on drugs” in 1971. It was primarily about marijuana but over the years it’s encompassed all kinds of nasty concoctions we’ve become familiar with, especially in the past decade: cocaine, heroin, opium and methamphetamines – they’re all a “crack” in our social makeup – a bad complexion.

Take a hard look at where our society is right now. Baby boomers, who were the initial users of hallucinatory drugs, have delivered to our institutions greed and self-interest as never before in history. Too many have shamed our generation as we all pay the price for their deranged guidance. Flower power wasn’t supposed to include poppy seeds.

What does the future hold for this country? Two decades from now, those on drugs now may have finagled through their 20s and founded a degree of success to gain access to influential positions, with executive privileges, and put America through another round of economic and political indiscretions.

Hopefully, my assumptions of the affects of drug use by our leaders are unfounded.

These little story quips come not from personal experiences but as told by friends. But there is a tale of a friendly acquaintance who was legitimately on pain medications, oxy’s, that he quit cold turkey by choice. It took a month to become fully un-hooked but, due to an unemployment situation, the lucrative business of selling (dealing) prescriptions for a profit (a couple grand a month) keeps the doctor with cash in hand and the individual being able to meet living expenses.

It’s a game of successful entrepreneurship. Without drug trade the economy would be further in jeopardy. It keeps money in circulation, flowing freely thanks to supply and demand. The costs in lost wages, government-subsidized health care and jail time costs will widen the cracks in taxpayers’ piggy banks. Oh ya, the affects on people's lives is a major concern too, if anyone really cares.

Bedroom communities, such as Hernando County, Florida, have been ripe for excessive drug abuse because they were planned development areas to attract retirees and not working class children. These poor unfortunate kids are the ones faced with not enough options to keep themselves busy and stay out of trouble with the law, whether by use of drugs or joy riding that result in traffic violations. The combination of both keep them in a vicious cycle of confrontation with law enforcement, a virtual career in offenses that lead to jail if not prison time.

Too many retail jobs and menial manual labor with parents finding themselves also in a bind to find sustainable upward moving employment opportunities should have found parents picking up their families and relocating, possibly out of Florida entirely. The economy is too reliant on low-paying jobs in the family entertainment business - amusement parks - where minimum wage and few, if any, other benefits are poor career choices.

No wonder Florida has a poor educational system and youth and young adults, if not their parents, are reliant on drug-induced personal entertainment. Too much idle, unproductive idle time on their hands and minds.

It’s a lost cause to expect responsible parenting. There are too many outside, easily accessible influences that undermine the otherwise sensible minds of innocent children.