David Custis Kimball - blog

AnnCoulter.com - Printer Friendly Article: LIBERAL LIES ABOUT NATIONAL HEALTH CARE: FIRST IN A SERIES
History, Human Affairs, Medicine

I once thought that if you were bent on socialization, give one basic, Spartan (with greek olives) policy. Everything extra is a la carte… and I didn’t figure on the separate state rule which would be abolished.

But then, people always want to screw up and have ‘mommy or daddy’ doctor fix it. My dad, before antibiotics used to practice medicine just out of medical training in 1939, under the assumption that everyone had Syphilus unless proven otherwise. It was so common, and so hidden for the shame. Now it’s ‘got viagra’ , ‘hey, I need a boob job; my husband hates me’, ‘I want a dick’, ‘Why yes, I’ll get a pussy, Bucko’ and other really not trivial bullshit.

My dad, also as I grew up, there was really not much health insurance. It was cheap to see a doctor. And if you had cancer, well ‘throwing good money after bad’ was the motto. He commented that once insurance got popular, prices would double. Bingo… double. To prove it, even with our second child; we couldn’t afford maternity insurance. Guess what, the OB guy charged half. But we did have emergency insurance against a catastrophe … so guess what, the NICU grabbed our son and almost killed him… an extra $20k, but insurance paid for it .. or most of it. In turn, a fee to the OB was probably in order, and I know that the pediatrician got one … he admitted it, bemoaning the fact that our breastfed daughter for 2.5 years was so healthy (she quit one day, asking her mother if she could make some apple juice)… It didn’t hurt to ask. And she got apple juice… never liked cows milk unless it had chocolate in it.

So increasing competition is great, but it also increases confusion and the old pea and walnut shell game…. ‘Can you find the benefits?’ And the page after page of what?

If the majority wants to get cradle to grave health care .. ok, but let’s make sure we don’t offer bullshit that makes doctors, hospitals, and drug companies richer while making the recipient no healthier … just supporting his or her lunacy, greed, vanity or stupidity.

And yes, I’ll even go out on a limb here, my dad got transfusions almost every other week because of his eplastic anemia until they just didn’t do anything. He was well into dementia. If at some point he was cut off, gathered the family together and he passed gently … I don’t think he would have minded. He was thinking of the excess, but thought that he was providing some research, perhaps a limit, on what could be done.

My mom, on the other hand, took Vioxx for her arthritis, could still drive a car at 96 during the day, and was cleaning up after a party when the tear to her aorta took center stage. Should she have suffered some more pain, with something not as lethal as Vioxx turned out to be? Probably, yes.

Well I was 300 miles away, and didn’t get a chance or take the chance to be there when they passed. I would have liked to be there. So there is something to say for an end to therapy… not at a certain age… not to make someone suffer, but above all: Do NO harm. To the individual and to the family.

My father in law, a war hero, shot up at Omaha Beach, traveled with the UDT team in subs to Pacific islands and dropped off a mile off shore for 10 days ‘to soften up the enemy’ on the island. He had a knife. He killed people for the rice around their neck. He used their stuff to destroy them. Well he’s 89 and has written a living will, but is concerned now that there are ways to break that and keep him alive… depleting everything he wants to leave to his child and grands. That does harm, too.

There’s too much money chasing greed and what may sound good, when looked at in the morning… sucks… The 3 day rule to cancel is a good idea too. No matter what you decide, if you wait for a second opinion, your mind might change. Mother-in-law may have chosen the cheaper route … doctor didn’t recommend … because it the poylps might regrow. She lost and they screwed up the operation …

Whatever, what doesn’t seem to change is that too much money is chasing greed, be it from the patient or doctor, hospital or drug company.

I personally don’t want health insurance. If it’s my time … bye. With insurance, I am afraid the doctor is maximizing his profit, like the mechanic who says you need a new evaporator coil when you only need a little freon and oil charge. No insurance, and the doctor trusts that I will pay … great. He’ll probably want to keep me happy and alive.

So universal care should be more like not having insurance. There are real and present risks and limits, but whatever is done is done well and based on the common database, you can be somewhat assured that it is the best practice … but man, the beerocracy needed to make that wish come true, how much is that? Like New Hampshire’s motto: Live, Freeze, and Die there’s a lot of need for a good warm coat in the winter and a nice fan in the summer. And few pesticides on food, more breastfeeding to increase immunity, and few boob jobs, Kapish?