The Long Evil History of Government Involvement in Healthcare

the combination of exempting health insurance from the World War II wage controls and then giving health insurance a significant tax break firmly institutionalized employer-sponsored health insurance in the United States.

Robert Wenzel writes. . . 

I recently reported on The Long Evil Role of Government in Creating the Education Monster, after reading Glenn Harlan Reynolds's book, The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself. 

Now, I am reading Reinventing American Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act will Improve our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System, the very evil Ezekiel Emanuel (Rahm Emanuel's brother),  who played a major role in the designing of Obamacare.

I suspect the book will ultimately outrage me but, in its early chapters, Emanuel provides a semi-decent history of government involvement in healthcare. He writes:

In the 1940s and 1950s the federal government fueled a huge expansion in the construction of hospitals...

The Hill-Burton Act of 1946 was the first major health care act that the federal government funded. Over  the next 25 years Hill-Burton contributed funds to approximately a third of all hospital construction...

Another postwar transformation in hospitals was the creation of Medicare in 1965. As Rashi Fein...has pointed out, many hospital administrators had plans for expansion...but were waiting for donors . . . 

Medicare obliterated the need for hospitals to provide free or subsidized care for poor elderly patients. In addition, to buy off hospitals and pre-empt any ideas of boycotting Medicare, the Medicare payments were made generous, Essentially Medicare paid hospitals cost plus a percentage...This wildly inflationary payment system lasted until DRGs and prospective payment were introduced in the 1980s . . . 

Before 1900...[there was] a constant battle between different sects: homoeopaths, meopaths, electics, osteopaths and allopaths... In 1904...the American Medical Association established the Council of Medical Education . . . 

To support the AMA's new standards, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advacement of Teaching commissioned Abraham Flexner, who was neither a physician nor a scientist to survey American and Canadian medical schools...Ultimately he recommended that there be fewer schools . . . 

[Note: In Making Economic Sense, Murray Rothbard provides a clue on how Flexner got his job and what was behind his decisions:

Abraham Flexner, an unemployed former owner of a prep school in Kentucky, and sporting neither a medical degree nor any other advanced degree, was commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation to write a study of American medical education. Flexner’s only qualification for this job was to be the brother of the powerful Dr. Simon Flexner, indeed a physician and head of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. Flexner’s report was virtually written in advance by high officials of the American Medical Association, and its advice was quickly taken by every state in the Union.

The result: every medical school and hospital was subjected to licensing by the state, which would turn the power to appoint licensing boards over to the state AMA. The state was supposed to, and did, put out of business all medical schools that were proprietary and profit-making, that admitted blacks and women, and that did not specialize in orthodox, “allopathic” medicine: particularly homeopaths, who were then a substantial part of the medical profession, and a respectable alternative to orthodox allopathy.

Thus through the Flexner Report, the AMA was able to use government to cartelize the medical profession: to push the supply curve drastically to the left (literally half the medical schools in the country were put out of business by post-Flexner state governments), and thereby to raise medical and hospital prices and doctors’ incomes.]

Physicians, still wary [in the early 1930s] of any financial intermediary between them and patients, were hostile to any form of health insurance that covered physician services . . . .

[But the AMA softened its position.]The Great Depression depressed the utilization of physician services and physicians' income fell. Furthermore, there were increasing calls for compulsory, government-sponsored national health insurance, but the AMA viewed private voluntary health insurance preferable to government insurance...In 1934, as a prelude to the battle over compulsory health insurance that they suspected would be in Roosevelt's Social Security legislation, the AMA specified principles that should govern any insurance for physicians...

The Stabilization Act of 1942 required that the president stabilize prices and wages at September 15, 1942 levels. The day after its passage President Roosevelt issued an executive order that . . . excluded insurance benefits from controls...As a consequence, by 1950  nearly two-thirds of working Americans had health insurance for hospital stays...

Thus, the combination of exempting health insurance from the World War II wage controls and then giving health insurance a significant tax break firmly institutionalized employer-sponsored health insurance in the United States.

Deadly 2014 California Flu Season: Vaccines & Sugar the Culprit?

The article linked below explains a lot about the flu season this year.  Several weeks ago when I was sick I felt really weak.  I don't remember ever feeling so weak. I did not vomit.  My flu seemed mostly in my head and respiratory system. I noticed that when I covered my head with a towel while positioning it over a pot of boiling water that the steam worked well to clear up my sinuses and lungs.  But on two occasions I felt so weak that I felt like I was going to pass out.  Though I might get the occasional colds, I rarely get the flu. Some colds I have had have lasted for weeks.  Last year I had a cold that lasted the entire month of January. So when I got the flu I thought that this was a very bad flu season, particularly since the symptoms crushed me. The article linked ahead explains that the flu in California this season has been particularly deadly. According to the article, there has been a 4 to 5-fold increase in deaths in California due to the flu this season. But why?  According to the article, it's the increase in vaccines given.  I have never had a flu vaccine or any other vaccine. Don't want one. Won't ever get one.  But I think that because they are promoted so heavily everywhere--at local pharmacies, drug stores, and clinics--that it is creating low immunity in a lot of people.  Here's how.  If someone is feeling sick or feeling like their system is fighting a virus, it means that their Vitamin C stores in their bodies are low either because of stress, poor diet, or exhaustion. Vaccines, like so many other medical treatments today, are sold as quick fixes.  So people go get a shot, more often now at pharmacies and clinics, thinking that a vaccine is a kind of out-patient treatment.  While people are in pharmacies, they're more likely to pick up candies like Snickers, Milky Way, 3 Muskateers, or Hershey's bar.  Sugar depletes Vitamin C.  Lots of sugar in the form of candy bars at the check out stand at pharmacies depletes Vitamin C. Finally, there's the factor of over-the-counter medication at pharmacies.  And what do people take when they're sick? Aspirin or Tylenol.  Both deplete Vitamin C stores in the body. In fact, one statement from the above article that I linked to said this, "Flu shots administered from retail pharmacies rather than a doctor's office and clinics is a relatively new practice and it places three mortal flu factors under the same roof--acetaminophen (which depletes vitamin C stores in the body), sugar (candy at the check out), and the flu virus itself." Through the years I have always relied on Vitamin C to keep me healthy.  But since I've been in transition the last few months with all of my things in storage, I kind of got away from taking Vitamin C.  I rarely, rarely, rarely get the flu.  There was a flu epidemic in the US in 1918. Bayer introduced its aspirin shortly before.  During the flu epidemic, doctors prescribed it as a remedy for that epidemic. More people died as a result because the aspirin depleted the Vitamin C stores in people's bodies.  Medical history is interesting.  It reads like the history of war.  

Then there is this article on sugar.  It has been known for a very long time that sugar is bad for one's health.  Sugary foods were rarely given in families.  Sugar's history is also very interesting.  Its demand soared after WWII when the low-fat craze started by Ancel Keys from Minnesota.  It is fat that gives food its flavor; and we've learned since how important fat is for signaling between organs in the body.  "This was not what the food industry wanted to hear.  When devising their low-fat products, manufacturers had needed a fat substitute to stop the food tasting like cardboard, and they had plumped for sugar. They knew "healthy" foods were low-fat but had sugar by the spoonful and Yudkin's findings threatened to disrupt a very profitable business."  A friend of mine who grew up in another country asked me several months ago "Why do Americans appear so unhealthy?"  I answered that sugar seems to be one reason.  Because of the nutritional findings published by Ansel Keys, sugar became a standard of WWII military rations.  Think of all those men who came home from the war craving sugar?  And what do you think their children craved?  Candy.  Look at all of the holidays.  Each one involves candy.  My parents loved candy bars and sodas.  In addition to the excesses of sugar in sodas, the acids in the sodas wreak havoc on your over all health as well as your teeth.  Anyway, both parents enjoyed candy bars and sodas.  Symbols of innocence I suppose.  Part of re-living their youth. My sisters to this day pride themselves on their ability to create fantastic desserts.  And fantastic they are!!!  But they have lots of sugar.  So I think sugar when consumed in such large and daily amounts is unhealthy.  Not only does sugar destroy teeth, but no one knew or understood how sugar destroyed metabolism, leading in some cases to diabetes.  Though my dad or mom did not have diabetes, they certainly did suffer from metabolic complications, I believe, by a regularly ingesting sugary or sweetened foods.  Sugar was not treated as a toxin or as something bad people.  It was considered a treat, something special.  The article on sugar at the top of this paragraph explains that fructose, which is one of the two main carbohydrates belonging to refined sugar, is primarily metabolized by the liver; while glucose, found in starchy foods like bread and potatoes, is metabolized by ALL cells.  This means that consuming excessive amounts of fructose puts extra strain on the liver which then converts fructose to fat. Few people make the connection from sugar to being fat. Instead, they believe that fatty foods, like butter and cream and ice cream make us fat.  It's not the fat; it's the sugar. 

UPDATE

I was talking with a nurse friend of mine about vaccines after he'd read my comments on vaccines.  I asked him what drug manufacturers and retailers, who market flu shots each winter, mean by "there's a particular virulent strain of virus going around this season." He helped to clear things up a little.  First, the whole concept of viruses being more prevalent during one season over another is a marketing spin.  Viruses are with us all year round and are not seasonal.  What is seasonal are flu shots and our immunity.  As to flu shots, retailers and manufacturers sell more flu shots during the winter.  And they've got people believing that viruses go on vacation to Palm Springs from March to October. They don't of course.  But during the winter months it is our immunity that seems to retreat.  What makes people vulnerable to getting sick during the winter months is not new strains of viruses but our lack of sunlight and Vitamin D3 and activity. Since most people are indoors and the fact that there are fewer warm days during the winter, fewer days of glorious sunlight, our Vitamin D3 stores get depleted and our immunity is lessened.  Though I take Vitamin D3 throughout the year, it makes particularly good sense to be taking it during the winter months.  Vitamin D3 is found in foods like fish and eggs and milk, but it doesn't hurt to supplement during the months when we're indoors for so many days of the month and so many hours of the day. 

When drug manufacturers, retailers, and health organizations talk about flu season, it is false advertising.  It's a lie.  The flu does not come around ONLY or during the winter months as a sinister bandit and then fly south to Mexico from March to October.  Viruses are in circulation all year round. But because we're outdoors and active during the other parts of the year our immunity is stronger and vital.  If we get a flu, it means that in years past our bodies were not exposed to that particular virus.  And if we are exposed to specific viruses we've had in the past, we won't get sick from it because our immunity has already dealt with that virus.  And after we heal and recover from the flu, it's not like the virus finally leaves our system like an unwanted household guest.  The virus stays with us for life.  It's our immunity that keeps it in check, hopefully never to raise its ugly head again.  

Here are a few comments from my nurse friend:  

"The fact is that viruses do not have a "season."  They do not take a vacation after March and return in October.  They are around all year. There are no new strains, just people who have no immunity to the strains that are around all the time.  To isolate the predominant and infectious viral strains that are going around at any one time of the year scientists figure what vaccine strain was used 10-20 years ago under the assumption that there are many (people) alive now, not alive then, that have never had that strain and therefore no immunity response developed.  That is the best guess that can be made.  Those of us who were alive 20 years ago had the strain being pimped now so therefore, will probably not get it with or without a flu shot. I defy the true believers to take a  flu shot a day for 30 days and still tell me that they are "safe" and indeed good for you. I think their tone will change or some other sophisticated "spin" will be offered as to the alleged safety."

California Drought Forecasts Higher Prices

Clean Your Liver with Food

Clearly the one organ in your body that needs cleansing the most is your liver.  Without a periodic cleanse, fatigue and illness can set in.  The Chinese believe the liver and its function is more vital to life than your heart and your brain.  One can survive injuries to the heart and the brain, but if you're liver is injured watch out.  It is the biggest organ in your body.  And it is responsible for such life-enhancing functions and allows all the other organs and systems in your body to function well.  This is why if the liver is sick, all the other organs in your system will perform poorly.  For this reason, cleansing has its purpose--to keep you healthy and energetic.

Not only does garlic clean the liver, it also relieves high blood pressure.  It's nature's most potent antibiotic and it improves memory.  What's not to like?

But how does one clean the liver?  Maybe you're not into those deep-clay cleansings or enemas or juice purges.  There's got to be a way to cleanse an organ without destroying your routine.  There are foods that you can eat on a regular basis that can clean your liver continuously without having to be home-bound or put in an outpatient care.  That list is here.

1.  Garlic
2.  Grapefruit
3.  Beets and Carrots
4.  Green Tea
5.  Leafy Green Vegetables
6.  Avocados
7.  Apples
8.  Olive oil
9.  Cabbage
10. Lemons & Limes
11. Walnuts
12. Tumeric

I have at different times tried each of the items in that list, not specifically to cleanse my liver but rather to create an overall anti-oxidant effect.  The one for me that seemed to really boost my liver and make me feel good was raw, uncapsulized turmeric. Brussel sprouts and cabbage and spinach have each had a nice effect, but it was the raw turmeric that gave me a wonderfully feeling of relaxation and healing my body as I slept through the night.
 
Dr. Edward Group recommends a full liver cleanse.  He explains it here.  "Other liver cleanse foods not listed above include artichoke, asparagus, kale, and brussel sprouts.  Eating the foods listed above is a great way to help keep your liver functioning properly.  However, for best results, I recommend a liver cleanse.  Performing a liver cleanse at least twice a year will eliminate any foreign substances that may be trapped in your liver.

Health Food Humor. Thank You Sid Caesar!!!

I don't like the end of eras, but certainly Sid Caesar's passing closes one more window on my parents' era.  Wikipedia has some good quotations from the greats who worked with and wrote for Caesar.