***Vote For Your Health

Bette Dowdell

Medicine is a mess. Doctors don’t even try to heal chronic illnesses, content to treat symptoms instead. Probably because that’s all they learned in medical school. But it means their patients--that's us--drag through life, out of gas, running on fumes.

Even worse, while some doctors are just bad doctors, more are totally hemmed in by regulations–from government and insurance companies, both of which are in cahoots with Big Pharma.

Obamacare will seal that coffin shut, and we’ll never again get adequate–let alone good–medical care. Don’t vote for anybody who thinks Obamacare is a swell idea. It’s not even about health care at all; it’s about control and power.

But Obamacare isn’t the only problem.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Ace of 1996 has a nasty, nasty provision that most people don’t know about. They may well have suffered its effects, though. This law says that doctors can’t do what they should do in patient care without risking jail time.

I kid you not, jail time.

The law disallows “medically unnecessary” tests. And just who defines the term? Insurance companies. And if doctors persist in taking good care of patients through appropriate tests the insurance companies don’t like, the insurance company reports them to the government. And the doctors face the possibility of jail time.

Interestingly, most so-called medically unnecessary tests dovetail nicely with conditions for which Big Pharma has no treatment. Provocative coincidence, that.

And what tests are disallowed? For one scenario, most people over 35 have low stomach acid, hypochlorhydria. And the symptom are the same as high stomach acid, so there’s no way to tell which is which without a test. And that’s important because taking the purple pill when you have low stomach acid makes things worse, much worse, endangering your health.

So, before prescribing the purple pill, then, doctors need to test. But testing for gastric acidity falls in the medically unnecessary category. Big Pharma has nothing to treat low stomach acid, but that purple pill is a big-time money maker, so that’s what you get. Unless the doctor’s willing to risk jail time.

I have a friend who took the purple pill for years. Now the doctor tells her she has Crohn’s disease. And I don’t believe it for a minute. That purple pill destroyed her stomach acid, making it impossible for her body to digest protein. As a result, the acidity of the undigested protein did a number on her intestines. She needs to get off the purple pill and get on probiotics and glutamine to heal her gut. But, no, the doctor has her chugging down crap for Crohn’s, doing even more damage.

Some swell idea, this unnecessary test business, eh?

And of course there’s more. Other “medically unnecessary” tests include testing for food allergies, heavy metals and gluten sensitivity. And on, and on. Health disasters all, if we don’t know what health problems are taking us down.

So, before you vote, check out this “medically unnecessary” testing business. If the candidate is an incumbent, did they vote for it? We don’t want people in office who don’t pay attention to what they’re voting on–although that seems to be standard operating procedure. Since we’re paying their salaries, why should we be treated as if our health problems don’t matter?

We need to elect people who will introduce legislation to get rid of this medically ignorant, health-destroying provision.

Let candidates know. Tell them your story. Demand that they help. Again, we’re the ones paying them. We have the right to expect at least minimal job performance.

Don’t let the people with the deep pockets be the only voices they hear.

We shouldn’t have to fight, but we do.