America’s faltering, tainted healthcare system needs some heroes. It needs heroes to say: “This system is not working. It is not caring. It is not serving. It is a deal-breaker for me. Let’s change it today!”
Where do we start? Deal-breakers aren’t the same for everyone. We are all so unique. Some of us are slow to anger; others ‘jump the gun.’ Some of us are quick to forgive; others need retribution to live. Some folks hate lies, abuse, trickery, and thievery, making them deal-breakers for them. Others need the hard core stuff, including bodily injury, child abuse, or death to ultimately seal the deal-breaker stance.
So let’s examine it and see. What is your deal-breaker, American Hero? What will spur you into action? Let’s take a look at a couple and see - - - -
MONEY: Is money your thing?
Is it a deal-breaker when Big Pharma, Big Medicine, and Big Insurance give a quarter billion dollars of your hard earned money to the top four legislators on Big Medicine’s ‘easy pay- back’ list. The legislator list is longer than four, much longer. There is actually a top-twenty list if you care to venture. But the pay-out in the higher numbers becomes astronomical, so for simplicity sake, we’ll stick to the smaller numbers here.
Or, maybe, you’d rather not pay for abortion. It’s really not your thing. Then you may not want your insurance to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars for abortions and over $1 billion for abortion related complications this year.
There are many other ‘pennies’ spent out-of-line. Maybe the annual cost of medical errors will grab your attention. According to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, the annual cost to a 300 to 500 bed hospital due to medical errors in the United States is $1 to $3 million a year! That’s just for one hospital, America. So calculate $1 to $3 million times hundreds or maybe even thousands of hospitals that are prone to errors.
We have just begun the money story. It doesn’t end here. We could include the ‘toy’ money Big Pharma pays our doctors for their prescription styles and their television commercials and propaganda hype. But we will be concise here. In just a few short paragraphs, we have discussed trillions of dollars squandered by the Big Medicinal Four. Yet, they blame the American consumer for expensive health care!
DEATH: Does premature death spur your deal-breaker senses?
Maybe the Vioxx disaster makes you think. Tens of thousands of people died because they trusted the system – Big Pharma, Big Medicine, Big Insurance, and Big Government – to keep them safe. According to an FDA whistle blower and subsequent news, those who knew that Vioxx was a danger purposefully kept we consumers uninformed and allowed the inevitable to ensue.
Or maybe, 44,000 to 98,000 unnecessary deaths each year due to medical errors will wake you from your slumber. The system excuses the deaths even though the deaths may have occurred because of improper documentation, poor staffing, withholding drugs, and negligence.
The last example may be the clincher. Yes, children’s deaths were planned and executed through American medical studies. Check out the Spina-Bifida and AIDS children’s studies in YOU and the Broken American Healthcare System. If these don’t jerk a tear or alert your deal-breaker sense, then maybe nothing will. Maybe you will choose not to be an American hero.
The violation list is so long! We could continue for pages. But I stop at this point and let you ponder this information. However, please allow me a couple of thoughts ‘for the road’:
The next one in that bed – the bed the system is ignoring or the patient they are killing – may be your baby, your lover, your mother, or your friend. Is that when you would engage the deal-breaker sense? Would you stand up and say what is on your mind? Would you become a hero at that time?
Please read: You and the Broken American Healthcare System, and focus on the person YOU so desperately love. Then - - -
Stand up today, American Hero, and say, “The American Healthcare System is a deal-breaker. Let’s change it today!”
You mentioned the cost to hospitals for medical errors. The cost of fighting and winning, or worse yet losing a malpractice suit, if you could even get a case going at all for less than loss of life or limb, and a minimum of $50k to start it, as several lawyers have told me, is astronomical to the family or individual, even if death doesn't occur. Lives is ruined either way. The cost of that is calculable to recover from, whether physical death or metaphorical death occurred in your nightmare. I could go on...but I will read the book, when I can afford to purchase it, since I had to quit my job to take care of my wife, due to a hospital medical "error."
Rockie Coppolella