Hillacare… the ghost of Magaziners past
Back in the late 1960s, early Clinton health care guru Ira Magaziner was the pride of Brown University. One might have argued that whiz-kid Ira and antiwar icon Dr Benjamin Spock were indeed separated at birth. But something funny happened on the way to Chicago. Ira received a foundation grant and started touring US campuses preaching the gospel of “a middle road.” Waved goodbye to the rads at SDS, the Liberation News Service and the old Cambridge Phoenix for a ticket on the gravy train and the corporate dining rooms of America. The operative term of the day was “cooptation”… still is. From where I sit, Hilla’s new plan pares down Iracare like Jefferson pared down the good book to create his “Jefferson Bible.” The moral equivalent of ex-pr flack and Mr 10%er Bill Novelli serving the greater good by fronting high dollary prescription drug pricing in the name of the President’s Medicare Drug Benefit. Hillacare does nothing to stop the managed care madness. Healthcare for the masses still rests in the hands of theocratic beancounters in places like Chatanooga, TN, Oklahoma City, OK and Lake Mary, FL. Nurse case-managers jacked up on Red Bull or 888 energy drink bringing the hammer down on patient victims from Bangor, ME to Vancouver, WA. Come home with a staph infection after day surgery? The managed care folks may have turned the sheets instead of changing them to save a few Confederate dollars It even happens to big name NFL stars. Prospective voters bite hard on the notion of access to low cost/no cost health care. But the issue of quality is the one that is on the bubble. And the interest span of voters is too short to deal with a debte (now known as a conversation) on the quality of care.  The doctor who treated Dem rockstars John Kerry and Ham Jordan for prostate cancer may be won’t to admit it but he doesn’t accept prostate cancer patients who have a Gleason index (staging- the severity of the prostate cancer) above 6 because would impact on his “cure rate.”  Instead of hogging the cancer media coverage, maybe the Komen Foundation should broaden the race for the cure and look at that. One more reason that Hillacare, and health care in general, will be a non-starter or a loser for the Dumbos.  Bonus question… anybody know the breast cancer and prostate cancer survival rates among the political classes in Iraq? In Afghanistan? In Chechnya???   As part of their deal with The Decider, do these folks get medevaced to Vienna or Harley Street?Â
Posted: October 1st, 2007 under Ain't That America, Biden, Bushco, Cheney, Dumbocrats, Economics, Edwards, GOP Debates, Gore, Gun Control, Hillary, Iraq, McCain, Obama, Oversight, Pelosi, Romney, Sir Rudy, We Are the Enemy.
Comments: 9
Comments
Comment from Nosebetter
Time: October 1, 2007, 3:42 pm
Groom:
It may just come down to one’s point of view. From my POV Hillarycare is better than no care. To the other 39, 999, 999 people with no health insurance and the families who love them, it is also better than no care. Access to medical care is a natural right. It should not be just for the privileged.
Comment from Pat
Time: October 2, 2007, 2:55 am
Cancer is the second largest revenue producing industry in the world next to the petrochemical industry, and there never will be a cure for it. At least not one that the media will tell you about. The medical community does not want to cure cancer, they only want to contain it with expensive drugs, and even more expensive medical treatments.
There is and has been a cure for cancer since the early 1900’s. It’s called essiac tea. It’s an herbal formula that you can use in the privacy of your homes without the approval of the AMA or the FDA. I am currently giving it to my husband for his leukemia. I’ll let you know how it works out, but in the meantime I would like to invite everyone who reads this to do searches on the following words:
Essiac Tea
Rene Caisse
Dr. Brusch
Comment from Josh Hammond
Time: October 2, 2007, 4:34 am
Pat, good luck with your husband. It sounds like he is at a stage where a variety of approaches are worth pursuing, if not for a “cure” at least for matters of quality of life.
I don’t think it is a case of finding a cure for cancer. Too many players are involved, including the patient. Lung cancer could be “cured” if everyone stopped smoking, but that is not going to happen.
I feel that there are cures for cancer and the progress of the past five to ten years is ample evidence. Now there is simply a cast of more prevalence, but there are more effective treatments.
What I don’t see from government are greater incentives for cures. We’d have to go back to Nixon for that!
Comment from I.B.Lever
Time: October 2, 2007, 6:01 am
Comment from Pat
Time: October 2, 2007, 10:28 am
Comment from Pat
Time: October 2, 2007, 2:03 pm
Josh, I want to thank you for the kind words, and at the same time apologize if I left the impression that putting my husband on essiac was an act of desperation. It was more an act of frustration. My husband’s condition wasn’t getting any worse, but it wasn’t getting any better, either. His doctor seemed to be unconcerned with my husband’s anemia, along with the fact that he had pneumonia twice last winter followed by a sinus infection. All he kept saying was “just keep taking your medication.” After the third round of antibiotics, I decided to spend a couple of days on the internet looking for information. That’s when I found out about essiac - along with a whole lot of information about nutrition and cancer. Since I put him on essiac, and change his diet, his red blood count is going up, he has a lot more energy, and he hasn’t had an infection in over 6 months. I don’t know if all of this will cure him or not, but it definitely has improved his quality of life.
On a different note, The SCHIP bill that bush calls federalize medicine, and plans on vetoeing is very similar to the healthcare system we already have in Pennsylvania. Every child in our state is eligible for health insurance, regardless of what their parents earn. We also have health insurance for low income adults whose earnings are above the poverty level. I know of 2 women who are on this insurance, and they each pay about $35.00 a month. This system has been in effect for years, and was actually started by a republican governor, Tom Ridge. If this system can work in a state where a lot of the jobs have been outsourced to Mexico and China, I don’t see any reason why it can’t work anywhere.
Comment from Groom
Time: October 3, 2007, 10:40 pm
Back in 1995-96 I tried various “brands” of Essica tea during my year of Moertel’s Therapy (5-FU & Levamisole sheep dewormer) which is a standard chemo regime for colon cancer. I was unable to measure how it helped or did not help. Drinkability just short of the lawwnmower mouth you get when swigging a couple shots of wheatgrass at Jamba Juice. I drank a lot of wheatgrass during that period as well, getting all the ju-ju going. There’s plenty of info out there about eh Quebecois-Native nurse Anna Caisse. I just can’t make a call because I don’t have the measuring skills/medical scientific background. I’ve been a colon cancer (Dukes C-3) since 1995. Use all reasonable weapons in the arsenal. But don’t wind up going out on a limb like Coretta Scott King. That was sad and once again, you’d think that the narcissistic Komen crowd would have reached out and spoken out loudly, regadless of whether Ms King had “their” kind of cancer. Shame on them… good luck to you and your man, Pat! GL
Comment from Pat
Time: October 4, 2007, 6:49 am
Groom,
You’re right, essiac tea is definitely an acquired taste.
Thank you for your concern, and good luck to you as well!
Comment from gossyk
Time: October 30, 2008, 7:37 am
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