An article by Sha'Tara, local writer and friend...

Health Care Industry and Related Issues

[thoughts from     ~burning woman~     by Sha'Tara]

Local observation:  Abbotsford built themselves a brand new hospital and "cancer" center.  Not to be outdone, Chilliwack is renovating it's own hospital.  An interesting aspect of this hospital building is a constantly changing billboard that (currently) shows two empty seats and the caption  "Imagine your own E.R. – don't wait to donate!"

I am trying to imagine what it would be like to own my own E. R. but first, I'd have to find out what that is.  Does it mean what I think it means: emergency room?  Wow.  Impressive. Instead of calling 911 next time I have an emergency, I just drive down to my very own E. R. and… ? Well, whatever.  Probably sit in one of those empty seats and wait for something to happen.  I can imagine someone in a green gown handing me a cup full of colored pills and a glass of water, then sending me back home with a fist full of prescriptions.

This makes me realize that life certainly cannot be complete unless two absolute necessities are met: First, and most important, one must own a burial plot, and enough money to place some impressively carved slab on it.  Two, one just has to own one's own E. R. however difficult it is to imagine that, or even dare have such a dream.  I know that if I manage both, my life will suddenly become filled with joy and laughter.  I'll have it made.  Nothing left to worry about.  After all, that pretty well covers it.

This makes we wonder about the whole health thing.  I don't have much to do with that; in fact I have steered clear of any health-related stuff for over a quarter century now (that sounds more impressive than saying "25 years" doesn't it?) so you could say I lack expertise in that area.  Nevertheless I'll hazard some dangerous opinions here.  Hospitals, to me, are just another kind of prison, and I've avoided those also.  I don't like being caged in and force fed, hence I quit school (more than once!), quit church (or churches, not sure which it was I ran away from) and quit every job that demanded I stay put in a building for several hours at a stretch day in, day out.  I like fresh air because I know that it is a channel for fresh ideas.

Forget hospitals.  Let's talk about health care workers, specifically the most important one: doctors.  They're so important because the only reason they do what they do is because they are empaths and they can't help themselves, so they are totally trustworthy.  It wouldn't matter to them if they got paid as long as they were provided for: they just want to make people well, whatever it takes.  Utterly selfless individuals, worthy of our full and constant admiration.  They are the healers.

Digressing a bit here, I have to state that prior to my personal satyagraha (that's non-violent non-cooperation for you out there who never watched the movie "Gandhi") regarding doctors, I had issues with them.  My problem was quite simply this: the unfairness of it all.  When I set out to fix something, or upgrade something, I had to made sure that I did the job right the first time.  If the thing didn't work, I had to return and make it work, and I can assure you that I didn't get paid the second time! 

So here I am, a grungy service tech, or equally grungy home handyman of all sorts, and I have to make sure my work, works!  I have to guarantee my results and stand behind them one hundred percent.  That's not only expected, it's the law.  But a doctor with his degrees, and his high-end salary does not have to guarantee results and not only that, he gets to charge over and over for the same unresolved issue.  You know what?  To me that's highway surgery… I mean robbery.  Back in the days of Sumer and our friends the Anunnaki (I talk about them once in a while, and not just because I like reading Zecharia Sitchin) when Earthians were trained to become "doctors" they did not have such leeway, nor did they have malpractice insurance.  What they got, according to the clay tablet records, was the equivalent of the firing squad if a patient died under their care.  I can't imagine my own E. R., but I can imagine what would happen to the "medical profession" if the same standards were put back in effect today.  Kill a patient, you die.  "You shittin' me?" says the prospective med student, as he packs up his gear in his Mercedes and heads up to trade on Wall Street.

This brings up the question, why are "doctors" increasingly getting public reputations once reserved for loan sharks, realtors, bankers, lawyers, building contractors, mob leaders, elected officials and their agents?  Isn't it because that particular profession has increasingly become a matter of money?  It was said long ago that "Money is the root of all evil."  Oh, how modern Capitalistic religions have fought to "correct" that statement by adding the precedent: "The love of" to it!  All you need do now to slip out of condemnation regarding your handling of money is deny that you love it.  You like making it, having it, playing the markets with it, buying with it, selling to get it, extorting with it… but you don't love it so no problem.  Money is not the root of all evil, or even of some evil.  BP did not drill that hole in the Gulf of Mexico looking for money.  They just wanted to keep everybody driving happily all around the planet and make a bit of extra money to play with.  What's wrong with that? 

Do doctors (especially the specialists) love money?  Well, do they drive expensive cars?  Do they belong to exclusive clubs?  Do they own lavish houses, usually on hilltops?  Do their kids go to the best private schools?  For the most part, yes to the above, exceptions noted: they always prove the rule, simply because if you point to an exception, then you re-establish the rule!

Why do doctors love money?  I think it has to do with their education.  Especially their medical school education.  A very expensive proposition, and the loans have to be paid back (or what:  they take away your staff with the snake crawling on it?  Or your Hippocratic Oath?  "Sorry, we know you're an excellent brain surgeon but you can't practice until your outstanding loans are paid.  Go work in the hospital laundry until your loans are paid.")

But that's not all.  We can go way back to grade school and see what goes wrong.  In grade school "they" begin to sort out the brainerds from the waywards and the dullards.  The brainerds have the ability to remember details.  They have a wonderful short-term memory and they can pass the tests with flying colors.  They can also learn the techniques of grammar and so write passably well, and they can do math and ace the sciences.  They remember how these things go together.  And, they are willing to eschew some social time to do research; to cram in piles of data, useful or not later on, as long as it is useful to pass the tests.  You have to pass those tests.  I know this, I was there a couple of hundred years ago.  And it was fun too.

I'm no spring chicken and I've met lots of people along the way.  I've met very few professionals I could care for, especially when acting in their professions.  But I've met ordinary people who reminded me that there are angels on this planet.  People who care about others, or about animals, or the planet and its woes.  This being a rich country with public education, most of these people had some rudimentary government-dictated "education".  They could read and write and some could stand in front of a room full of people and give powerful impassioned talks on certain subjects.  I don't remember ever admiring a professional—though I can remember thinking how contemptible most of them are—but I do remember admiring these simple people.  And I also knew they were going nowhere in this society.  They didn't have that rapine instinct working for them.  They weren't out to take by force, but just trying to help, sometimes demonstrating what really works and maybe convince some in the process.  And, they did not do it for the money: that's what always impressed me the most.  They earned their wages with real labor.

In my opinion, these are the people who should have made it through the medical schools; who should be in your doctors' offices and doing the rounds in your hospitals.  The System grades people on two things: scholastic achievement and financial solvency.  If you can remember enough facts long enough to ace the tests and if you can pay the tuition, you're a doctor.  And today you can even be a woman or a non-white person and become a doctor, if you can afford it, that is.  

Really, what should be measured is the degree of empathy and compassion a young person demonstrates under everyday circumstances.  But then where would the massive, BP-style oil drilling gusher profits be in the health care industry (yes, it is an industry, no different than manufacturing steel pipes—except these pipes do not need guarantees) if that was the case?  Where would Big Pharma be if you had healers instead of doctors in your hospitals and clinics?  And why would you need to own your own E. R.?  Hell, if things were handled properly, you might have a lot longer time to think about that burial plot and the slogan on the slab would keep changing.

So, dream on.