Wednesday, August 8, 2001
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Wednesday, August 8, 2001 |
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Socialist medicine is dangerous to your health Re: lack of child health care is an American shame What is a Nazi? A National Socialist. What is a Communist? A Collective Socialist. Which political system killed more people in death camps, gulags, and death zones? While the Nazis killed about 12 million people, the Communists killed between 75 million and 135 million people. This does not include the 40 million Soviets killed by Nazis who attempted to persuade the Soviets that German Socialism was superior to Soviet Socialism. Why is Herr Rückl so happy to be called a (mass murdering) Socialist? Herr Rückl, Ph.D., stated, "Bill Bryan's contribution was a classical redneck hate piece." Is it hateful to point out Rückl's deceptive use of health statistics? Herr Rückl stated that U.S. life expectancy was 70, when in fact it is 73.9 for men and 79.4 for women, per the Clinton era National Center for Health Statistics (1998), U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services not some "Republican spin meister." Oh, yes! I checked out the WHO site that Rückl used to come to the 70 figure. It's called Disability Adjusted Life Expectancy (DALE) and is a rather new concept. Unfortunately, the numbers are squishy and can be manipulated for a variety of political agendas as Rückl attempts to do. Is it any wonder that (surprise!) the U.S. was rated as low as it was by the Socialist-controlled WHO? Also, even before DALE, how patient histories were entered in other countries varied enormously. As to the change that I'm more interested in the political than the medical, it was the unrepentant Socialist, Herr Rückl, who lambasted Capitalism as the reason that U.S. health care is so inferior. Dear readers and Herr Rückl, please note: U.S. health care would be much better if it were not for government interference. One of the reasons that hundreds of thousands of Americans travel to Canada and Mexico each year to buy cheaper drugs and receive medical services not available in the U.S. is government interference via the FDA and DEA. For instance, about 20 years ago former Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox was told he had a terminal cancer and was advised to get his affairs in order because he had less than a year to live. Via a friend who'd had a similar cancer cured, Gov. Maddox went to Mexico to receive cancer treatment. Why? Because our FDA would not allow any doctor in America to use that form of treatment. As far as I know, Lester Maddox is still alive and people who have this form of cancer still have to go to Mexico to obtain lifesaving treatment because the FDA still forbids using that treatment. There are so many, many ways to improve the quality of medical care in the U.S., but most of those are blocked by the FDA, DEA and a host of other federal, state, and local agencies. A few items: 1. According to a world-class surgeon whose practice consists of 50 percent clients from Europe, Mid-East and Far East, "I could develop and train a high school graduate with average intelligence (IQ of 100 and SAT scores 1150) and great manual dexterity to be a phenomenal surgeon in my specialty in three years four years tops." Why then is medical training so much longer and more expensive? Why do you have to get a degree before you get into medical school? Answer: Government trade restrictions lobbied for by the American Medical Association (AMA) and enacted into law which restrict the number of surgeons so as to increase the fees of surgeons. This is an example where Capitalism is limited by government decree to the detriment of the general populace. 2. Why are there so many medical lawsuits? According to the Journal of American Medical Association, about 80 percent of medical malpractice lawsuits are without merit a type of legal blackmail. However, also according to JAMA, about 80 percent of the cases where malpractice caused death or serious injury, no lawsuits were filed. How many people are injured or killed by medical malpractice? Again, according to JAMA, about 120,000 die each year due to heart-lung machines installed backwards, healthy kidneys removed by mistake, instruments left in the body cavity, penicillin given to patients who were known to be highly allergic, etc. But, by far the two greatest killers are caused by unsanitary behavior of the doctors and nurses that spread contagious and administering the wrong type or dosage of medicine. The old saying, 'A doctor buries his mistakes,' is still true today. In my July 11 letter to The Citizen, I asked my medical litmus test question: "If you, as a government medical bureaucrat, could enroll that same person in an inferior, Russian-style health care program for $4,000 per year; or, enroll that same person in a medically superior HMO run by Kaiser Permanente for $3,000 per year, which program would you select?" Herr Rückl refused to answer and whined that "I didn't even mention Russia, or East Germany, in my article." Regardless, would Herr Rückl please answer this question? Also, in Herr Rückl's July 25 letter to The Citizen he rightly criticizes our pathetic K-12 education system then wrongly mentions his expensive Socialist solution. Would Herr Rückl answer my education litmus test question? "If you, as an education bureaucrat, had $10,000 per year to send a child to an educationally inferior government school; or $5,000 per year to send that same child to an academically superior private or parochial school, to which would you send that child?" Would Herr Rückl please answer this question? At the end of Herr Rückl's letter he writes: "So, and now I guess I have to go and get a bulletproof vest." Most illustrative. I firmly believe in peaceful ways and means to improve society via dialog (Socratic Method), legal political processes using scientific method and the concept of best evidence, and Herr Rückl wants to get a bulletproof vest? Herr Rückl, admirer of blood-drenched Socialism, feels threatened by the peaceful and free exchange of ideas? Again, most illustrative, Herr Rückl, Ph.D.! William Bryan educationchoiceactivist@yahooo.com
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