But the law didn’t go far enough to shift the country from a disease care system to a health care system, and outrage soon swept over me in two waves.

The first was when the premium for my health insurance tripled. This left me with a choice between paying to prepare for a possible disaster and paying to avoid one that was knocking on my door. The insurance company lost the coin toss.

Then Medicare cut Mom’s home health services. Dad and I were forced to move her to a nursing home. The paperwork associated with the move almost drove me to join the Tea Party. (You think I’m joking, don’t you?)

After several months of this nonsense, the tide began to turn. Because ACA embraces the use of natural care, the state reduced our portion of the nursing home payment. We were able to show that because of our care choices, Mom had fewer additional ailments than most patients with her diagnoses. This allowed us to care for her ourselves for seven years, which saved the state money in nursing home fees. We also needed the funds to prevent our needing help from the state as well.

And ACA requires prescriptions for tax deductions on supplements, so I had to find a licensed provider in my area who understood that supplements often work best for a chronic illness. An incredible general practitioner, who charges low fees for patients who don’t have insurance, now works with a nearby naturopath to help me overcome lingering problems with fatigue. Their plan is working.

Our successes are not isolated. ACA gives health providers freedom to experiment with new methods that slash millions of dollars from the costs of treating the chronically ill. Chronic illness accounts for more than 75% of U.S. health care costs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Some primary care providers and specialists are joining forces to treat these patients through Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). The ACO receives a set fee to improve health while lowering costs for a group of patients. The providers distribute some of the savings if they are successful, and they decide what to cut. Their peers who depend on fee-for-service payments face constant threats of cuts chosen by Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers.

The mandate to buy insurance doesn’t take affect until 2014. With or without it, ACA is giving more freedom to providers and patients. Those who reject these positive changes will continue to lose money and live in poor health because they didn’t get everything they wanted, or because they’re afraid someone might ask them to eat broccoli.

© 2012, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

Does anyone in Washington listen to common people? While our leaders have wasted time debating the national debt to score points toward the next election, Gallup says the underemployment rate has climbed to 18.3%.

Though the unemployment rate has fallen to 8.7% from 9.2% this time last year, the number of part-time workers who want full-time jobs has jumped from 9.1% to 9.6%. Hello out there!

People who don’t make a living can’t buy necessities or pay taxes. Luxuries are out of the question. That’s bad news for an economy based on consumer spending.

The same groups who now blame each other helped create this mess. Some supported policies that sent jobs overseas where corporations pay employees slave wages for working long hours under unhealthy conditions. Others suppressed job creation by creating tax laws, business laws, and regulations only the wealthy can afford to obey or evade.

Now they focus on short-term costs while ignoring long-term effects on people. Current plans to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will only lead to the higher costs of treating uncontrolled chronic illnesses and slow death in the future. There are better alternatives.

1. Create jobs that pay enough for necessities, savings, and investments. We need jobs in both the public and private sectors. Neither sector can create jobs fast enough to reduce the escalating unemployment and public assistance rates. People who can support themselves have less need for public assistance. They’re also able to share with others who need help.
2. Simplify the tax code; write laws and regulations with businesses in mind; and give tax breaks to employers who pay fair wages, protect consumers and workers, and create jobs in this country. From 1950 until 2008, Toyota saved money during good times and avoided layoffs during down times by paying employees to upgrade skills and facilities. The company’s reputation for quality yielded legendary results. Toyota has topped U.S. auto sales since 2007 in spite of higher product prices. Massive recalls recently slowed that growth. Perhaps company leaders lost sight of what had put them on top as they tried to survive the recession while playing by the rules.
3. Stop allowing drug companies (Big Pharma) to run the health care industry. In her book Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher, ex-pharmaceutical sales representative Gwen Olsen seeks to educate the public on the dangers of prescription drugs. She says Big Pharma’s mission is to regulate illness, manage symptoms, and keep people trapped in a lethal cycle of chemical dependency. Cures are not an option. Drug companies also fund most clinical trials and continuing medical education, a clear conflict of interest.
4. Create a new agency to regulate dietary supplements, and make them available to people from all economic backgrounds. Former pharmaceutical industry executives often run the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and work to protect Big Pharma’s mission. The agency suppressed valid health claims for proven vitamins until a recent court ruling found the practice unconstitutional. Their next trick is to use problems with isolated supplements or manufacturers to create expensive regulations that drive small, honest companies out of business or force them into mergers with pharmaceutical companies. In spite of all the media hype about the dangers of supplements, there are few reports that link them to death or damage. Prescription drugs are more dangerous. According to Melody Petersen, author of Our Daily Meds, 100,000 Americans die each year from prescription drugs. That’s 270 per day, more than twice as many who die in car accidents.

A deal to raise the debt ceiling with a deadline and mandate to reduce the debt over time is the only practical solution. When we have jobs and policies that support health, the debt will slowly die from natural causes. Our leaders can’t develop sensible solutions overnight.

This version has new information on points 1 and 2 and a new ending.

Sources:

Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment at 8.7% in June: Underemployment is at 18.3% — an improvement from May but the same as in June 2010

Where are the Jobs?For Many Companies, Overseas

Overseas Sweatshops Are a U.S. Responsibility

Economic Health Requires Revolutionary Change (Part 1)

Toyota Global Sales Up 8%

Learning from Toyota’s Snafu

Conflict Of Interest In Clinical Drug Trials:A Risk Factor For Scientific Misconduct

Doctors’ education: the invisible influence of drug company sponsorship

ANH-USA Wins Major Lawsuit on Qualified Health Claims

Herbal Medicine and Liver Damage

© 2011, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

Health reformers and deficit hawks can breathe easier. The Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the country’s first National Prevention Strategy today.

In spite of missteps with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), this strategy places much more emphasis on disease prevention. The strategy will involve business leaders, health professionals, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and you. Everyone will play a role in changing the system.

The National Prevention Council will help shape these changes. The council’s 18 members include the Surgeon General and most of the president’s cabinet. Their mission is to develop integrated policies that improve health.

Advisers for the group include pediatricians, the director of the Rural Health Education Network, an integrative medicine professional, and a disability advocate.

Only political partisanship, corporate greed, and your indifference stand in the way of a better, less expensive health care system. Affordable health care is the basis of long-term financial health for your family and the nation.

© 2011, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

The results of my very unscientific survey are in. Next time I’ll try a poll instead.

Though the survey received more clicks than many other posts, only three people responded. The responses were mixed.

Jason Hartig, a caregiver, was never in favor of government-led solutions for problems in the health care industry. He predicted costs would be higher, which would decrease access to care, and that coverage would not improve. So far those predictions have come true for his family.

Hartig, who has private insurance, said his health care costs have increased $130 a month. The letter that announced the change said reform was a factor. The only solution he could find has decreased access to care for his family.

“Changed to affordable plan with a high deductible, which actually makes us less likely to seek health care services because they will not be covered until the deductible is met,” Hartig said.

He also said the family has the same access to preventative services as it did before the changes. Their access to natural care has not increased.

Hartig’s opinion of the changes is naturally negative. He says the law is “onerous on businesses, heavy handed on individuals, bureaucratic, and universal on all except those privileged organizations who get special exemptions.”

Karen Campbell was recently accepted for disability and now has access to Medicare after several years of paying Blue Cross for coverage she didn’t receive.

The other respondent, who chose to remain anonymous, is both a patient and the loved one of a patient. She and her husband have Medicare and TRICARE coverage for miliarty retirees. They haven’t noticed an impact on any aspect of their care.

© 2011, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

© 2011, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

© 2011, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

Ongoing studies by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) show that better diets, regular exercise, and weight control can reduce cancer rates in developed countries by 33% and in poor countries by 25%.

Dr. Lorraine Day believes lifestyle is the strongest weapon against cancer. She was once Associate Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Orthopedics at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine.

Day now spends her time sharing the story of how she fought a large breast tumor without drugs or surgery. She says lifestyle changes were her only medicine.

Our leaders can’t afford to ignore these reports. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that cancer costs in the United States alone reached $124.6 billion in 2010. NCI projects that at the current growth rate, those costs could increase 27% to $158 billion in just 10 years.

Health care reform legislation increased payments for preventive care. A system that leans mostly on testing and treatment for established diseases remains.

Without a greater focus on lifestyle changes and prevention, increased access alone can’t reduce the rates, effects, and costs of cancer and other diseases that threaten to bankrupt our country.

© 2011, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

Rules to reduce Medicare fraud and apply the savings to ACA have complicated my life. They’ll also cause Medicare to spend more money for my mother’s care. Let me explain.

Mom is a complete invalid. Dad and I care for her at home.

All three of us take dietary supplements and eat nutritious foods that reduce our need for medical care. We’re all healthier than most people with related issues.

Our routine has saved Medicare lots of money. Both parents take far fewer medications than their peers.

Because Mom doesn’t have most of the normal complications for her illness, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ordered home health to reduce her care until she finally stopped receiving any help from them. Since then we’ve been forced to do almost everything she needs with very little help.

Yesterday home health returned to provide the higher level of service accepted by Medicare because we can’t care for Mom alone. The only alternative is a nursing home, a much more expensive choice for everyone.

Mom qualified for this service more than two years ago, but we learned to survive without it. Eventually the cost of these types of choices will be passed along as higher taxes or cuts to services for all.

So the next time you read one of my rants about voucher programs, don’t think I’m ignorant or mean.

I’m not naive enough to think total deregulation will solve all problems. But too many regulations create as many problems as they solve.

© 2011, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

I thank our lawmakers for attempting to reduce medical costs, but plans from both parties are misguided. Our leaders fight about access. Lack of responsibility is the real problem.

Choices by individuals, business leaders, health providers, politicians and federal agencies work together to increase or decrease health care costs. Everyone shares the blame or benefits.

Preventable chronic disease causes more than 75% of medical costs. Prevention requires making right choices before disease sets in.

When we ignore warnings about behaviors, practices and policies that improve or destroy health, we have no right to complain about the results. We also have no right to pass the bill to others.

As a nation we face two choices: take responsibility for ourselves and others, or continue to pass the buck. If we continue to avoid our responsibilities, no one will be able to pay the bills.

© 2011, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

Plans to cut the national debt and repeal health care reform miss the main issue. We can’t pay our bills without people.

Dead people don’t make money, spend money, or pay taxes. Business and public policies in the U.S. kill people.

Policies Force Tough Choices

Some policies overlook bad working conditions; rules that help workers stress their employers.

Even fair employers cut jobs when the costs of regulation and paperwork run too high. These costs can kill or delay the dreams of entrepreneurs who want to create more jobs.

People who don’t have jobs can’t buy goods and services. When demand falls, tax proceeds drop and public employees lose their jobs.

Workers who keep their jobs work more hours. Longer hours leave less time for relaxation, personal business, and family.

Overwhelmed couples feel unable to give children the time and money they need and have smaller families or no children at all. Some seek abortion to protect unborn children from stress that never ends.*

Stress Kills

Uncontrolled stress increases the death rate by 40%, says a study by the late Hans Eysenck of the University of London. But most stress-related chronic illnesses, like heart disease, are expensive because they kill people slowly.

Conditions related to or aggravated by stress cause 70-80% of all doctor’s visits, says “Healthy People 2000,” a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The report also says the $200-300 billion spent on job-related stress each year includes absenteeism, productivity losses, and insurance claims. Private insurers or public programs pick up the tab when someone retires with a long-term disability.

Local, state, and federal governments increase taxes, and businesses increase prices to cover the costs. These bills decrease cash flow and cause more stress for all.

The costs of a slow death are much higher than the costs of a slow life. The national debt and health care costs will plunge when we make choices that reduce our stress. Without dramatic changes, a shrinking number of people will be left to split the bills.

* Note: The above statement was about reality, not my personal beliefs on abortion.

© 2011, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.