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Gypsy & Willy - The Original Libertarian Bloggers

How Can You Laugh at a Time Like This?

Gypsy & Willy

No. 391

We have met the enemy...

July 15, 2002

A few weeks ago, we wrote and article entitled Doctors cause cancer! dealing with one of the aspects of the medicalization of American society...namely, the excessive...almost obsessive...attention being paid to "health" by the public. We reasoned that this might be doing more harm than good, actually CAUSING bad health. However, some didn't get far enough past the title...which we admit was over the top...but, hey, we have to get your attention somehow! They came away with the impression that we hate doctors...or something like that. So, this week, we are going to re-visit the topic in more detail, plainly stating what we think is going on.

And what is that? The process of medicalization...as signaled mainly by the preponderance of "health" news in the media... results AT LEAST in the following negative outcomes, in addition to worrying constantly about one's health. Doctor's say that a majority of their patients do not need medical attention. Then why have these patients allocated time and money to visiting the doctor? The media tell them to! Their symptoms, rather than indicating the common cold, may instead be AIDS, cancer, diabetes, attention deficit syndrome...God knows what!...and the only way to be sure is to "ASK YOUR DOCTOR." Forget that someone, somewhere must pay the cost of "asking your doctor."

Once behavior or symptoms have been linked to a "disease," then they are no longer the responsibility of the victim, since the "cause" is some outside agent over which he or she has no control. Thus people committing horrible criminal acts are "excused" on the grounds that they are mentally ill. Consider the "disease" of addiction. Not only is the addict excused from his or her behavior...because he/she can not help him/herself...but many people are coerced into "treatment" who are doing nothing more than medicating themselves, using their own personal definition of health and happiness.

Our societal obsession with health and health care sets up a situation wherein all participants are placed into antagonism with one another. It used to be true that all cooperated in the principal goal, the treatment of real, treatable ailments...healing. Now doctors fight with insurance companies, drug companies, the government and the patients themselves. Patients struggle with insurance companies and the government. Hospitals fight with all of the above.

Last but certainly not least, the costs of medical treatment are spiraling out of control, far outpacing all other inflationary pressures.

So, who are the villains in this melodrama? Just as many people thought that we were blaming the doctors, they in fact do just that. Reasoning that doctors make a whole lot of money, live in big houses and are unconcerned with the real wellbeing of their patients, they call upon the doctors to reform the system. But, it wasn't the doctors who mandated socialized medicine that creates a blizzard of paperwork...which SOMEBODY has to do and SOMEBODY has to pay for. It wasn't doctors who created the VERY expensive drugs and hi-tech gadgetry which has come to dominate medical care. They all know, from experience, that ALL healing is done by the patients themselves, that their job is to shepherd us through the difficult times while our bodies are healing themselves. They can sew up our gashes, provide us with substitute organs and limbs, provide us with substances which will speed and facilitate recovery, but in the last analysis, we heal ourselves.

Well, if it isn't the doctors, maybe it is the hospitals, the nurses and the swarm of other people...many highly paid...who surround doctors these days. Hospitals urge doctors to prescribe expensive tests...just in case the preliminary diagnosis masks something more serious...but also to pay for the enormously expensive equipment in which they have been mandated to "invest." Medical professionals all have unions or professional organizations that lobby incessantly for higher wages and more benefits. But all these players are merely doing what comes naturally, looking out for the best interests of...well...THEIR interests. This is how "business" works, and the medical establishment has become, if nothing else, BIG business.

So, it must be the insurance companies. Like bookies, they make bets that their costs can be kept lower than their income, based on elaborate probabilities. To do so, they must continually press hospitals, doctors and other health professionals to keep their costs down. To make sure that they are trying their best to do so, insurance companies...and the government...mandate mountains of paperwork to check up on just that. But, are they not just free market capitalists doing what free market capitalists do?

Drug companies are constantly releasing new "wonder" drugs, some simply recreational drugs...like viagra...masquerading as medicine. Others are created to treat diseases...like attention deficit syndrome or generalized anxiety syndrome, that didn't even exist fifty years ago. So surely they are just a bunch of pirates getting rich off us suckers. They retort, not unreasonably, that government regulations force them to spend enormous sums of money just to research and test new drugs before they can be sold to the public. They have to recover those costs somehow, or they will cease to exist. Then where will the REAL wonder drugs come from?

The media are certainly major players as well. You can't turn on CNN for five minutes without hearing about the latest "findings" concerning YOUR health...so pay attention, dammit...your life may depend upon it! Newspapers and other periodical often have a regular health column in addition to frequent articles about YOUR health. After all, who is it that is constantly reminding us that we are all victims of cruel destiny, afflicted with myriad diseases, cast adrift on the storms of fickle fate. Life's a bitch...and then you die!

But, why do they publish and broadcast all this stuff? Because YOU want it. Because YOU do not want to overlook a single chance to make your life healthier and happier...neglecting, of course, to take into account just how much all this concern is costing you.

If you are a loyal fan of this column, you think you know what's coming next.

But, we are not going to blame government either. Most of the changes that brought about the current situation were actually OPPOSED by most politicians at the time they were first mentioned. It was we who eventually convinced them that they had to make the government a servant of the people...actually as well as figuratively. That the government should watch out for things that might hurt us and protect us from ourselves. Unable to grasp the reality of who pays for government intervention...we do...and filled with post-modern good intentions toward the "less fortunate" than we...we FORCED the government to give us what we now have, a nightmare of total lack of common sense.

We have met the enemy...and he is us! - Walt Kelly, via POGO

Talk to you later...

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