How We Got the Worst Health Care System Mountains of Money Can Buy

How We Got the Worst Health Care System Mountains of Money Can BuyBy Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello and Brendan Smith, TruthOut.org
Posted on December 16, 2008, Printed on December 16, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/113112/

As Americans respond to President-elect Barack Obama's call for town hall meetings on reform of the American health care system, an understanding of how that system came to be the way it is can be crucial for figuring out how to fix it. The American health care system is unique because, for most of us, it is tied to our jobs rather than to our government. For many Americans, the system seems natural, but few know that it originated not as a well-thought-out plan to provide for Americans' health, but as a way to circumvent a quirk in wartime wage regulations that had nothing to do with health.

As far back as the 1920s, a few big employers had offered health insurance plans to some of their workers. But only a few: By 1935, only about 2 million people were covered by private health insurance, and on the eve of World War II, there were only 48 job-based health plans in the entire country.

The rise of unions in the 1930s and 1940s led to the first great expansion of health care for Americans. But ironically, it did not produce a national plan providing health care to all, like those in virtually all other developed countries. Instead, the special conditions of World War II produced the system of job-based health benefits we know today.

In 1942, the United States set up a National War Labor Board. It had the power to set a cap on all wage increases. But it let employers circumvent the cap by offering "fringe benefits" -- notably, health insurance. The fringe benefits created a huge tax subsidy; they were treated as tax-deductible expenses for corporations, but not as taxable income for workers.

The result was revolutionary. Companies and unions quickly negotiated new health insurance plans. Some were run by Blue Cross, Blue Shield and private insurance companies. Others were "Taft-Hartley funds," run jointly by management and unions. By 1950, half of all companies with fewer than 250 workers and two-thirds of all companies with more than 250 workers offered health insurance of one kind or another. By 1965, nearly three-quarters of the population was covered by some kind of private health insurance.

This private, job-based insurance covered millions of workers who had never had health care insurance before. But this victory also set patterns that are responsible for many of the problems the health care system faces today.

Because this private system was tied to employment, millions of people outside the workforce were without coverage. Those most likely to be covered were salaried or unionized white men in Northern industrial states. Two-thirds of those with incomes under $2,000 a year were not covered, nor were nearly half of nonwhites and those over 65 years old.

Employer-based plans tied workers to their jobs -- something that benefited employers but not workers or the economy as a whole. The quality of the coverage was spotty -- some plans were excellent, others completely inadequate. Doctors accepted this revolution because it didn't challenge their power; but, as a result, the system provided no public control over medical costs.

This revolution had a subtle political effect as well. By giving much of the workforce health benefits, it reduced the incentive for them to pursue a system of universal care. And it gave unions a stake in the private, employer-based health care system. One opponent of publicly financed health care said the greatest bulwark against the socialization of medicine was furthering the progress already made by voluntary health insurance plans.

Since then, many layers have been laid on top of employer-based health care. Medicare and Medicaid provided government-funded health insurance for the elderly and impoverished. The "managed care revolution" led to the takeover of 90 percent of employer-based health care by HMOs, most of them driven by profit rather than health concerns. But most people continue to get their health care through their employer.

Many of the problems of American health care grow out of this history. The system is so complex that even experts -- let alone ordinary people trying to find care for themselves and their loved ones -- are unable to fully understand it. The system spends one-third of its cost on paperwork, waste and profit over and above the cost of actually providing health care. Yet, nearly one-third of Americans are without health insurance over the course of a year. In all other developed countries, more than 85 percent of citizens have health coverage under public programs. The American health care system is full of inequalities: People who work for one company may have high-quality insurance, while those who work for a similar company have none.

All of these problems are due at least in part to an employer-based system, the original intent of which was not to provide quality health care to all, but to circumvent wartime wage regulations. As we begin to debate how to reform health care, we should keep in mind that the American health care system was not created to express American values or to meet Americans' health care needs. And knowing that, we should not be afraid to change the system if we can come up with a better one.

This piece is excerpted from "Doctor Wall Street: How the American Health Care System Got So Sick," from a popular pamphlet on the history of the American health care system available for free download at http://laborstrategies.blogs.com/DoctorWallStreet.pdf


Tim Costello, Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith are the co-founders of Global Labor Strategies, a resource center providing research and analysis on globalization, trade and labor issues.

© 2008 TruthOut.org All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/113112/

A few good MEN

"Now, some may ask how, at this moment of economic challenge, we can afford to invest in reforming our health care system. Well, I ask a different question – I ask how we can afford not to." [Barack Obama, today.]

On the occasion of Barack Obama's rollout of his health policy team, and given that, according to a couple of pieces of paper I have around here somewhere, I'm a doctor, this seems a good time to spout off -- yet again -- on the state of health care in the US. What it really boils down to is this: we need to reduce cost and raise quality. As long as the discussion is only about paperwork, ie, single payer vs current insurers, electronic vs paper records; and as long as the only real efforts to control costs are in reducing payments to providers, we'll be getting nowhere. As usual.

I've written about why I favor single-payer, and have acknowledged that among physicians I'm in a distinct minority. I've said pretty much all I know about that aspect of it. Moreover: as controversial as it is, it's really only nibbling around the edges. Solutions --REAL solutions -- will come from fundamentally changing the nature of care itself, and how we provide it. And if you think addressing insurance is complicated and daunting, you ain't seen nothin'

yet!......................................read the rest here

The HMO Death Watch 2 - How Shall We Regard Medicare Advantage?
December 12th, 2008 by DrRich

DrRich has never really understood the government’s rationale for funding Medicare Advantage.

Being a Milton Friedman capitalist, DrRich is all in favor of having plenty of robust, profit-seeking entities knocking about within the American economy, even within the healthcare sector of the economy. In principle, he is even in favor of giving for-profit health insurance companies a chance to prove that they can deliver quality healthcare with greater efficiency and better outcomes than certain non-profit entities, such as, say, the government. If the insurance companies can give us good healthcare at lower cost,

...............................read more here

NYT reports more Pharma scams...breast cancer propaganda

These so called scientific studies and expert articles are being controlled by the drug companies.....it is wide spread and includes lead Harvard doctors(Biederman), NPR radio show hosts...now drug make Wyeth....it goes on and on. The level of crap that we are bombarded with from drud TV ads to our confused family doctors is obscene. More than ever you must be pro-active to protect your family...especially since the FDA is caught up in this growing scandal. Here is a good place to start...go there after you read the TIMES article. Citizens for Health

Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company, paid ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles favorable to its female hormone replacement therapy Prempro, according to Congressional letters seeking more information about the company’s involvement in medical ghostwriting. At least one article was published even after a federal study found the drug raised the risk of breast cancer.

Read more here

Asthma Drugs Controversy

FDA Safety Scientists Warn About Deaths - 4 Asthma Drugs
The New York Times reports (below) "Two federal drug officials have concluded that asthma sufferers risk death if they continue to use four hugely popular asthma drugs - Advair, Symbicort, Serevent and Foradil...."Sudden deaths among asthmatics still clutching their inhalers have fed the debate." Full article here

NEW YORK TIMES SAYS...
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: December 5, 2008

WASHINGTON — Two federal drug officials have concluded that asthma sufferers risk death if they continue to use four hugely popular asthma drugs — Advair, Symbicort, Serevent and Foradil. But the officials’ views are not universally shared within the government.

The two officials, who work in the safety division of the Food and Drug Administration, wrote in an assessment on the agency’s Web site on Friday that asthma sufferers of all ages should no longer take the medicines. A third drug-safety official concluded that Advair and Symbicort could be used by adults but that all four drugs should no longer be used by people age 17 and under.

Dr. Badrul A. Chowdhury, director of the division of pulmonary and allergy products at the agency, cautioned in his own assessment that the risk of death associated with the drugs was small and that banning their use “would be an extreme approach” that could lead asthmatics to rely on other risky medications.

Once unheard of, public disagreements among agency experts have occurred on occasion in recent years. The agency is convening a committee of experts on Wednesday and Thursday to sort out the disagreement, which has divided not only the F.D.A. but also clinicians and experts for more than a decade.

Sudden deaths among asthmatics still clutching their inhalers have fed the debate. But trying to determine whether the deaths were caused by patients’ breathing problems or the inhalers has proved difficult.

The stakes for drug makers are high. Advair sales last year were $6.9 billion and may approach $8 billion this year, making the medication GlaxoSmithKline’s biggest seller and one of the biggest-selling drugs in the world. Glaxo also sells Serevent, which had $538 million in sales last year

................more at NY Times

Health Care Battles..get your facts Early

Be prepared for a lot of scare stemming from insurance and Pharma industry when it come to any health care innovative reform. They are the biggest pigs at the trough with the most to lose. People need to rise up and support mandatory health care for every person. People en mass need to reject propaganda and fear tactics from BIG Business. Here are some recent articles you should get familiar with.

Health Industry Finds strategy to influence the Public

"Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) recently summed up the dilemma in an interview with Politico, saying, "The big thing for Republicans is to communicate that it is not acceptable for 40 million people in America not to have health insurance. But it's also unacceptable to turn our whole health care system over to the same people who ran Katrina and ran the Iraq war and [are] running the bailout.""

.................Alternet/source.............

Melamine and FDA protection(er Lack of)

There are three things you need to understand about this issue: First, after the melamine scandal broke in China and sickened tens of thousands of babies, the FDA assured the American people that U.S. infant formula products were 100% safe and contained no melamine.

They were wrong.

Secondly, when the FDA's own tests discovered melamine contamination in U.S. infant formula products, it actively sought to hide the test results from the public. It only disclosed the test results after being forced to do so by a FOIA petition filed by the Associated Press. (We gotta thank AP for doing this, by the way. Nice job on their part!)

Thirdly, once the melamine contamination results were made public, the FDA abruptly announced that 1ppm (or less) of melamine in infant formula was suddenly "safe." This decision was based on no science whatseover and was obviously a panicked defense of the U.S. infant formula manufacturers whose products are contaminated with melamine.

...........Natural News/a must read...........

Autism and Vaccines"
Truth will always prevail...it can be manipulated and delayed by those motivated by greed and malice...but the souls of humanity will prevail. Age of autism provides great up to date info...here is some latest info....read it..
....

the list of scientists, doctors, public health officials and government leaders who now believe that a vaccine-autism connection is at the least possible, and should be researched further.

Earlier this week, Dr. Peter Fletcher, former Chief Scientific Officer at the UK Department of Health was added. Now, eight more prominent researchers have joined the group. (See list below – they are the last eight names added)."

...................Age of Autism/Kirby.........



Trickle Down Affect???
Big Pharma Conspiracy: Doctors Regularly Bribed
So when your local doc wants to put your kids on heavy drugs...he was most likely influenced un-wittingly by the top dogs at places like Harvard. So when you present a question or a concern, The docs will quip..."don't believe everything you read on the Internet!" because they perused their medical journal that was bought and paid for by big business...ask questions!

"....the Harvard researchers have also pushed for the aggressive treatment of the disease with antipsychotics, which are not licensed for such a use. The discovery that those same researchers concealed massive payments from the drug industry has cast further doubt on their motivations, and has led many to wonder if too many children are now being diagnosed and treated with potentially dangerous drugs...."

Watch this..

Real Doctor criticizes health professionals

I couldn't help but respond to a post in a blog I was reading....here is a snippet of this guys critique (source)

"One of the worst types of drivel is naturopathy. This "specialty" advertises itself as "medicine-plus", but really it's "healing-minus": minus the evidence, minus the training, minus intelligent thought."

Sounds harsh...but he goes on.......

..."First, like all fake doctors, this place has lots of testimonials in place of real evidence. I don't list testimonials at my office. It's tacky, and it doesn't give a measure of success in keeping people healthy. All it measures is how much someone liked a doctor as a person."

Well this "real" doc. is afraid to use his name in his rants about Naturopaths, but if you are so inclined...you can email him at palmd@whitecoatunderground.com

The link to this article is..here go read it and leave your own comment...I did! Here is what I said....

....."You sound threatened...!! We just lost our 9 year old to cancer at Seattle children's...what an education! after his death our Harvard educated doctor and others told us they knew he would die!! and that "they wanted us to have hope from the chemo and other treatment they provided". well that was a change from what they were saying during treatment...treatment that was essentially anything that came from a pharmaceutical company.
This selling us hope at a very high price is what the establishment is going after homeopathic and natural cure companies for!! shouldn't I be able to choose the type of hope..false or real that I want.
until you wake up and and open up to alternatives and integrate progressive approaches in your practice, you are only doing your patients and yourself harm. Yes, the problem is systemic and there are no easy answers...but clearly bashing as you say "well intentioned professionals" only discredits you!"

Obama appointees in question...Daschle?

I read an article in one of my favorite sites,Judicial Watch that was very critical of Obamas's pick of Daschle for Head of the Health and Human Services. The letter by Tom finton outlines how Obama has broken his campaign promise....

..."At issue is Mr. Daschle's work since leaving the Senate four years ago as a board member of the Mayo Clinic and a highly paid adviser to health care clients at the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird.
In a detailed list of campaign promises, Mr. Obama pledged that "no political appointees in an Obama administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years."

And then there is his wife...

..."Of course, in addition to Daschle's personal conflicts of interest, there is also the matter of his wife, Linda Daschle, who has been a lobbyist for many years."

SOURCE
This is concerning and worth watching..especially for health care advocates and reformers.

On the flip side, David Kirby a respected author made some important points in his article on the Huffington Post concerning daschle and his record.

"By nominating Tom Daschle to head up the Department, President Elect Obama has selected a man who has demonstrated an unflinching willingness to question vaccine safety, and to fight for the rights of those people who believe they have been, or may be, seriously injured by certain vaccinations."

Daschle and Lieberman fought Dick Armey when he slipped a rider into the Homeland security bill at the last minute that protected drug companies and severely limited the rights of citizens injured.
Kirby also says

..."The military has reported that up to 2% of all military service members may have received debilitating injuries from vaccines they were given. That could mean upwards of 48,000 men and women, some of them likely wounded by the same anthrax vaccine that Senator Daschle was trying to kill.

Again, I am sure that Senator Daschle is not anti-vaccine, and I have no idea what his views are on the vaccine-autism debate today.

But I do know that, six years ago, he said that "mercury-based vaccine preservatives actually have caused autism in children." And I know that he tried to stop production of a vaccine that he felt was hurting far too many people.

Senator Baucus from Montana has already unveiled a plan on health care reform. The key issues are expanded medicaid and medicare, and requiring employers to pay for benefits.

This is gonna be ugly! We will see what it means for Monatnans

Holloween Candy danger...Montana

I should have named this blog ...Fear Factor! I am not a candy fan ...and you should be on alert. WHY?? remember the tainted milk powder from China well there is good reason to believe that tons of this tainted/poisonous product found its way into candy that is being sold now...here in the USA.

here is some concerning info...

---HARTFORD, Conn. -- The Department of Consumer Protection warned consumers Wednesday not to eat "White Rabbit Creamy Candy," imported from China and distributed by Queensway Foods Company Inc. of Burlingame, Calif.

The candy was found on several Connecticut store shelves the week of Sept. 29 by agency food safety inspectors and removed, agency Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr. said. Tests by the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station Laboratory have determined that the product contains melamine.....source

---The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a voluntary recall notice for the Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins. The candy, manufactured in China, is the latest product thought to contain the melamine-contaminated milk powder. The product is primarily distributed through Costco stores in Canada as well as some bulk and discount retailers there....more from source

---

---UTAH,A popular Chinese-made candy suspected of being contaminated with an industrial chemical remained on shelves of some Asian food stores in Salt Lake County on Thursday even though state agents have ordered the product pulled.
Complicating their efforts was the fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not included Utah on a list of states where the recalled candy,more

---FDA says.."On September 12, 2008, in light of reports from China of infant formula contaminated with melamine, the FDA issued a Health Information Advisory to proactively reassure the American public that there is no known threat of contamination in infant formula manufactured by companies that have met the requirements to sell such products in the United States." YET they then say...
The FDA is advising consumers not to consume the following products because of possible melamine contamination:

Koala’s March Crème filled Cookies
YILI Brand Sour Milk Drink
YILI Brand Pure Milk Drink
Blue Cat Flavored Drinks
White Rabbit Candies
Mr. Brown Mandehling Blend Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
Mr. Brown Arabica Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
Mr. Brown Blue Mountain Blend Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
Mr. Brown Caramel Macchiato Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
Mr. Brown French Vanilla Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
Mr. Brown Mandheling Blend instant Coffee (2-in-1)
Mr. Brown Milk Tea (3-in-1)
Infant formula manufactured in China ....more from FDA here


---info is endless

one more.........

Earlier this month, Chinese officials discovered melamine in powered infant formula made it that country. That contamination is blamed for the recent deaths of four infants in China and the illnesses of 53,000 other children in that country.

Chinese officials learned some dairy plants may have intentionally added melamine to milk products to make them appear to have higher protein levels.

The melamine contamination has since spread from infant formula to dozens of other food products sold around the world, including candy, coffee, and pretzels.

Melamine is a chemical used to make plastic and fertilizers. It is blamed for the illnesses and deaths of thousands of dogs and cats in the United States last year. more here

And I always reccomend checking out TvNewsLIES.org Jesse and his crew do a fantastic job over there.....if you like straight talk!

Cancer Confusion....

October 27, 2008
The Evidence Gap
Quickly Vetted, Treatment Is Offered to Patients
By REED ABELSON
After a surgeon removed a cancerous lump from Karen Medlock’s breast in November, he recommended radiation, a routine next step meant to keep cancer from recurring.

But he did not send her for the kind of radiation most women have received for decades.

Instead, the surgeon referred her to a center in Oakland, Calif., specializing in a newer form of treatment where radioactive “seeds” are inserted in the tumor site. It could be completed in only five days instead of the six weeks typically required for conventional treatment, which irradiates the entire breast using external beams.

To Ms. Medlock, it seemed an obvious choice. The newer treatment — given through a system called MammoSite — has been performed on about 45,000 breast cancer patients in this country since the Food and Drug Administration cleared it for use in 2002.

Only when Ms. Medlock, 49, sought a second opinion did she learn a startling truth: MammoSite is still highly experimental.

The MammoSite system is among the thousands of devices the F.D.A. lets onto the market each year after only cursory review and with no clear evidence that they help patients. Doctors are free to use those products as they see fit, without telling patients that the devices are not proved. And because the doctors are frequently paid more by Medicare as a way to compensate them for the extra time and expense of adopting ......read more here

Plastic Toxic??

ok we just threw out a lot of plastic bottles, Plates and cups. We found ourselves heating up food in the microwave in plastic, and drinking coffee and hot cocoa out of containers that may leach toxic crap. we just had the youngest in our family die of cancer, he was 9 years old and seemingly perfectly healthy, like lightning he had bizzarre rare cancer of the kidney. follow one of the links here and educate yourself.....now!

And in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the crime of Bhopal, we present here 20 things to remember about Dow Chemical -- the company now responsible for Bhopal and a fugitive from justice.



20. Agent Orange/Napalm -- The toxic herbicide and jellied gasoline used in Vietnam created horrors for young and old alike --
19. Rocky Flats -- The top secret Colorado site managed by Dow Chemical from 1952 to 1975 that is an environmental nightmare for the Denver area.
18. Body burden -- In March 2001, the Centers for Disease Control reported that most Americans carry detectable levels of plastics, pesticides and heavy metals in their blood and urine.

17. 2,4-D -- An herbicide produced by Dow Chemical. It is still in use today. Used for killing lawn weeds, crop weeds, range weeds, along utility company rights-of way, railroads. ..... 2,4-D is the most widely used herbicide in the world.

16. Mercury -- In Canada, Dow had been producing chlorine using the mercury cell method since 1947. Much of the mercury was recycled, but significant quantities were discharged into the environment through air emissions, water discharges, waste sludge and in end products..........
15. PERC -- Perchloroethylene, the hazardous substance used by dry cleaners everywhere. Dow tried to undermine safer alternatives.

14. 2,4,5 T -- One of the toxic ingredients in Agent Orange. Doyle says that "Dow just fought tooth and nail over this chemical -- persisted every way it could in court and with the agencies, at the state and federal levels, to buy more time for this product. ..... And 2,4,5-T health effects litigation continues to this day."

13. Busting unions -- In 1967, unions represented almost all of Dow's production workers. But since then, according to the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, Dow undertook an "unapologetic campaign to rid itself of unions."

12. Silicone -- Key ingredient for silicone breast implants, made by a joint venture between Dow and Corning (Dow Corning). Made women large, but also made them sick. Ongoing illness and litigation.

11. DBCP -- Toxic active ingredient in Dow pesticide Fumazone. Doctors who tested men who worked with DBCP thought they had vasectomies -=96 no sperm present.

10. Dursban -- Chlorpyrifos, a toxic pesticide, a product that proved to have the nerve agent effects that Rachel Carson warned about. Also tested on prisoners in New York in 1971 and in 1998 at a lab in Lincoln, Nebraska. Took over for DDT when DDT was banned in 1972.
9. Dow at Christmas -- "Uses of Dow plastics by the toy industry are across the board," boasted Dow Chemical in an internal company memo one Christmas season --
8.The Tittabawassee -- River and river basin polluted by Dow in its hometown, Midland, Michigan.

7. Brazos River, Freeport, Texas -- February 1971 headline in the Houston Post read: "Brazos River is Dead." In 1970 and 1971, Dow's operation there was sending more than 4.5 billion gallons of wastewater per day into the Brazos and on into the Gulf of Mexico.

6. Toxic Trespass -- Doyle writes: "Dow Chemical has been polluting property and poisoning people for nearly a century, locally and globally -- . ... Dow Chemical must end its toxic trespass."

5. Holmesburg Experiments -- In January 1981, a Philadelphia Inquirer story reveals that Dow Chemical paid a University of Pennsylvania dermatologist to test dioxin on prisoners at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia. Tests were conducted in 1964. Seventy inmates tested.

4. Worker deaths -- Dow has a long history of explosions and fires at its facilities, well documented by Doyle in Trespass Against Us.
3. Brain tumors -- In 1980, investigators found 25 brain workers with brain tumors at the company's Freeport, Texas facility -- 24 of which were fatal.

2. Saran Wrap -- The thin slice of plastic invaluable to our lives. Produced by Dow until consumers were looking for Dow products to boycott.
1. Bhopal -- Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we seek to bring to justice those who trespass against us.

check out the links page there is a lot of great info...I especially recomend tvnews lies there are great videos and a nice daily news letter.