Health care debate misses the point.

There is all this talk these days about health care, but I think we are overlooking something very important in the discussion. People say we pay twice as much for our health care as other countries but have more sickness. People argue and worry about who will pay for all this sickness. These are not the right questions. The right question is: Why are we getting so sick?

We need a national campaign to get people healthy. If there is anything that the Nazi's taught us, it is that a good propaganda campaign can motivate the masses. As it is now, the government has no stake in our health. Right now there is a lot of money to be made (and being made) from the population being ill. In fact, the government has been complicit in our becoming unhealthy. By relaxing environmental protections, blocking proper labeling of food, allowing drug companies to do their own drug testing, promoting GMO's, putting dairy as a food group on the food pyramid when it has no place in an adult's diet, etc. There is money to be saved by jeopardizing the public health, and there is money to be made by selling sick people medicines. Big industry lobbies for the ability to poison us, then big pharma gets to sell us the remedy. If the state is giving away the remedies, they will want us to not get sick.

In China, they have a state supported health care system. I am not arguing that they have the best system (not necessarily even better than ours), but it raises an interesting point. When the government is paying for your health care, it is their best interest for everybody to stay healthy. This is why many Asian employers (in Asian and America) have their employee exercise on company time, why people in China are encouraged to go to the doctor at the first sign of illness. With our system, there is too much money to be made from us being sick. So we have developed this for-profit system to its breaking point. We now have too many people with too much illness for the system to support.

Diabetes is not a normal part of aging. Nor is cancer, high blood pressure, or any of the myriad malfunctions that are epidemic in our seniors (and younger). If the government is paying for the remedy, then they are on the right side of the equation; working for the benefit of the people. Lindsay Graham says that we don't want the government standing between us and our providers. Right now I have blue cross standing between me and my providers. If we have to have some type of middleman, is it better to have one who is NOT allowed to make money, or one who's sole purpose is TO MAKE MONEY. Now I concede that the government is not always the most efficient machine (think of road crews where one man in deigging a hole and four men are paid to watch him), so there will need to be good oversight of the program. But I don't hear congresspeople complaining about the government running their health plans. I do hear most Americans complaining about their health plans though.

90% of your medical expenses will be incurred in your last 10 years of life. It does not have to be this way. To control costs, we do need to make the system more efficient, but we also need to reduce demand. If we can unburdon the system, we will all get better care and need less of it. We need to get ourselves healthy again. The government should help.

I believe that health care should be a right and be provided by the government. The government is of the people; a healthy government needs a healthy populus. One necessary component of the system is that doctors should be well paid. Doctors, nurses, medical techs, and especially acupuncturists should be well compensated so that these professions can attract the brightest minds. Medicine need not be a million dollar a year profession, but it should pay well.

Another problem with the system is insurance. A graduating obstetrician in Illinois pays over $100,000 for malpractice a year. Hospital costs are inflated by the outrageous insurance costs they incur. This is from unrestricted court awards. Doctors should be expected to try their best to help. No medical person can ever guarantee a good result. If they are not overburdened, and if they went into medicine for the right reasons, they will do their best for every patient. If they do that, they do not deserve to be sued if things do not turn out well for the patient.

Chinese medicine is suited for treating and preventing disease in a cost-effective manner. Whatever health care plan we adopt should include chinese medicine and its preventative techniques.

first radio interview done

I just got off the phone with Stan Milam, a radio host from WCLO in Janesville Wisconsin. He interviewed me for 18 minutes on the air about "The Asian Diet". It was fun and I am very grateful to have the opportunity to spread the word about how adopting some of the principles of the diet can prevent disease and promote wellness. I will soon post a link to the podcast.

Today is Monday and I am at the Tiffani Kim Institute, performing acupuncture. I work half-days on Mondays. This afternoon my wife and I will take our daughter to the pediatrician. We are considering going to China this summer and want to discuss the health risks to a 6-month old. We don't want her to need too many vaccinations while she's still so young. The powers that be state that vaccines are effecive and safe, but I'm not so convinced. I worked in mental health for many years, and am very afraid of autism.

The CDC says they are safe and effective. The way they define "safe for vaccines is different that how they define "safe" for drugs. Drugs have to be compared to placebo, or no drug. Vaccines are compared to existing vaccines. So if we have an approved vaccine that is causing adverse effects in 16 out of 1000 people, and then the new one causes advers effects in 18 out of 1000, that difference is not statisically significant and then 18/1000 becomes the bar. As far as effective goes, there are a lot of people who still get the diseases for which they have been vaccinated. Now, I don't want to get all anti-vaccine here. It is a choice for the parents. Vaccines have saved lives. But I don't like the administration of multiple diseases at the same time, and I don't like vaccines being administered before they could be necessary. At birth, they want to give every child a hepatitis vaccine. My little girl would only be exposed to the Hep if my wife had it (which she does not), or through sexual contact or IV drug use. My newborn was not going to be engaging in these behaviours, so I think we can wait a few years for that. A generation before us, most people got the measles and did not die. It's not like the plague where no one can survive it.

There are some things that can kill babies, like menenigitis. So we are vaccinating for that. Not that you all need to know what we are choosing for our daughters medical care. This is a tangent- back on track. . .

I may be going to china to study some more this summer. Check out the newest reviews of my book on amazon. or go to theasiandiet.com and read more about the asian diet.

Well, I guess I'm not a very good blogger, having taken 2 weeks off since my last post. Right now I am between patients in my Wilmette office, A Center for Oriental Medicine, www.acfom.com. I am re-reading The Web that has no Weaver, by Ted Kaptchuk. It was the first book I read on acupuncture some 12 years ago. Ted wrote it as he returned from China and had just learned all about chinese medicine. He updated the book after practicing for 20 years. I am interested to see how his insights have changed. I also have to get re-familiar with it since it is the textbook that I will be teaching from when I teach my intro to Oriental medicine class in May.

I am also thinking about what I will tell the medical staff when I present Grand Rounds at UIC medical center. I have an hour to present, am and not sure what is best to tell the docs. Maybe about the theory, the research, the integration. I have a month to prepare the power point.

And I'm starting to think about how I am going to promote my book when it comes out. "The Asian Diet: Simple secrets for eating right, losing weight, and being well" is due to be in stores April 13th. I need to hire a press agent and start promoting it in the next month or so. I don't know anything about selecting a press agent, so I will have to learn.

Well, I have to go pull needles from a patient. Stay tuned. The excitement never ends.
Jason