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Featured, Health Policy, Politics, What's New

America Out Loud PULSE: A Pharmacist Tells All

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From my America Out Loud Pulse podcast with Kenneth H. Schell, Pharm.D – https://www.americaoutloud.news/kenneth-h-schell-pharm-d-a-pharmacist-tells-all/

Medications have changed the face of medicine. Untreatable conditions became treatable. Many surgeries were made unnecessary.

Prescription medications can be lifesavers or a substitute for a comprehensive look into a patient’s health status, including family and work life. Let’s look at prescription drugs by the numbers.

We love our pharmaceuticals but we hate the prices. Sometimes paying cash is cheaper than using your insurance. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has a set of provisions (Sections 11001(c) and 11002(c)) aimed at lowering prices for Medicare program starting in 2026. Medicare plans to negotiate prices for up to 60 drugs over the next four years, and then up to 20 more drugs every subsequent year.

The program starts with 10 drugs that account for the highest Medicare spending—$3.4 billion in 2022. The list includes Eliquis® and Xarelto®, for preventing strokes and blood clots. They now cost about $450 for a 3 month supply. Also included is Entresto® for heart failure that costs $650 per month. Others are Jardiance® for diabetes and heart failure, Januvia® for diabetes, Farxiga® for chronic kidney disease, Enbrel®, for arthritis and other autoimmune conditions, Imbruvica®, for blood cancers, Stelara®, for Crohn’s disease, Fiasp® and NovoLog® insulin products, for diabetes.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the negotiation program would save the government $98.5 billion over 10 years.

Not so fast. Even the CBO admits that the program would result in decreased research and development of new drugs. One economist estimates that 135 fewer drugs will be brought to market, resulting in loss of 331.5 million life years in the U.S.

Additionally, the new drug program is coercive. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) set the deadline at October 1, 2023 for drug companies that manufacture the selected drugs to sign agreements to participate in the program. A manufacturer that does agree to the negotiation process will be assessed an escalating noncompliance fee levied as an excise tax, potentially increasing to 95 percent of product sales. CMS plans to send an initial price offer to companies by Feb. 1,2024 and the drugmakers have 30 days to either accept the offer, make a counter-offer or decide to withdraw their drugs from coverage under Medicare and Medicaid. CMS will only have 3 negotiating meetings. Worse, there are many aspects of the program that are exempt from administrative or judicial review.

Consequently, several companies and industry groups have sued to block the program, arguing that the negotiations will stifle drug development and that the program is unconstitutional, saying it violates the First Amendment (compelled speech), Fifth Amendment (due process and unlawful taking), and the Eighth Amendment (excessive fines) as well as other constitutional harms.

We want lower prices but not at the expense of the Constitution and advancements in research and ultimately of our health.

My guest is going to talk about the world of pharmaceuticals and what we can do to improve access and affordability.

Bio

Kenneth H Schell, Pharm.D earned his Doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of California, San Francisco. He has almost 40 years’ experience in clinical pharmacology and pharmaceutical science, including overseeing pharmacy operations in managed care, pediatric and adult hospitals, medical groups, home infusion, hospice and mail order organizations. Dr. Schell served as president of the California State Board of Pharmacy and on the Board of Directors and as Presidential Officer of the California Society of Health System Pharmacists. He is also lectures at the Skaggs UCSD School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences where he teaches Pharmacy Law and Ethics. He currently serves on the Sharp Healthcare Institutional Review Board for research projects.  He also served in compliance and privacy as Chief Compliance and Privacy Officer at a major Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM).

Dr. Schell also serves on several other Boards including Disability Rights Now, which champions disabled individuals seeking to become attorneys and ACTG Biopharma, an organization seeking to support novel therapies for individuals with brain injuries.

Doctors, Featured, Politics, What's New

America Out Loud PULSE: Doctors Preparing for Disasters

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From my America Out Loud Pulse podcast with Jane M. Orient, MD –https://www.americaoutloud.news/doctors-preparing-for-disasters-with-jane-m-orient-md/

Natural or man-made disasters are always on the horizon. Throngs of people begging for help from government entities is a lasting memory of Hurricane Katrina. The stranded folks soon learned the local, state, and federal responses were inadequate. Over as dozen train derailments have occurred so far in 2023, some with the release of toxic cargo.  Wildfires in Maui brought sudden destruction and death.

Covid-19 and the response that had patients needlessly die, children needlessly deprived of 2 years’ worth of schooling, and economic hardship for many, while others were overworked to the point of suicide in some cases. This led a large number of our fellow Americans wonder about the competence and efficacy of government public health planning.

Of course, the other issue that Covid brings to mind is the use of biowarfare. China (who hardly can be considered our friend) is linked to a secret lab with at least 20 infectious pathogens, including bacteria that cause tuberculosis and meningitis, and viruses that cause Covid and hepatitis. Right out of a spy movie, investigators found dead mice genetically engineered to catch and carry Covid. Bioweapons do not discriminate among its victims. As we experienced with Covid, a virus can spread around the world in weeks.  This is particularly worrisome given the current drug shortage and the demonstrated ineffectiveness for preventing transmission of the Covid shots.

For a while nuclear disaster was on our minds with talk of the potential for terrorists’ “dirty bombs”. Now the war in Ukraine and increasing aggression with the U.S. now supplying cluster bombs and the deployment of troops to the region have brought back the conversation of the real threat of nuclear war. It seems we have little control over our foreign policy but we do have control over ourselves.

The most important thing to remember with disasters is that you are your own best emergency manager. No one cares more about you and your family than you.

My guest will discuss some of these issues and how to prepare for disasters.

Some resources:

 Bio

Dr. Jane Orient, MD is the Executive Director of Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a voice for patients’ and physicians’ independence since 1943. She is also the president of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. Dr. Orient received her undergraduate degrees in chemistry and mathematics from the University of Arizona, and her M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Orient’s op-eds have been published in hundreds of local and national newspapers, magazines. She has written several novels and non-fiction books, including Sapira’s Art and Science of Bedside Diagnosis in its fifth printing.

Culture & Society, Featured, Health Policy, Medical Ethics, Politics, What's New

America Out Loud PULSE: Mental Health and Gender Care

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From my America Out Loud Pulse podcast with Lauren Schwartz, MD –https://www.americaoutloud.news/mental-health-and-gender-care-with-dr-lauren-schwartz/

Words mean everything. There is a growing movement in certain medical circles to change the name of obesity to make it more patient friendly. Adiposity-Based Chronic Disease (ABCD) was proposed in 2016 but hasn’t seemed to have caught on. Abortion services became reproductive health. That one stuck.

Sex-change surgery is now called gender affirming care. Sex-change sounded a bit clownish since most people knew you really could not change your sex. Except for some rare conditions, a person is born with a set of XX (female) or XY (male) chromosomes. Gender affirming care sounds so compassionate, so medically reasonable to physically change a person to comport with the gender by which he or she wants to, as they say, “identify as.” But it is some sort of delusion that injecting children with drugs will magically turn them into the opposite sex. The wordsmithing seems to have no limits. One child psychologist at a major medical center has suggested that children can identify as “gender hybrids.” The Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services agrees with eliminating the word “mother” in exchange for “egg carrier” or “gestational parent,” or birthing parent.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers advice on “chest feeding.”

Changing words is reminiscent of George Orwell’s “Newspeak,” used in his oft-cited novel, 1984.The point of Newspeak was to control the language and discourage individual thought and critical thinking. Unfortunately, the medical establishment has demonstrated that it is not immune from making medical decisions based on the winds of politics. It seems this frightening trend to put ideology over science will result in permanent scarring of some of our most precious and vulnerable human beings.

There is hope. More and more states and sports groups are recognizing the unfairness and safety concerns of permitting biological men to compete in women’s sports. Nineteen states have laws protecting youth from medical procedures that would likely permanently and do irreparable harm to their bodies. Mind you, we are talking about minors, not adults who are presumably mature and capable of thinking through a serious decision.

My guest will explore these issues and much more. She, like so many other good doctors, believes instead of injecting politics we should exercise our duty as physicians to treat every patient with developmentally appropriate, comprehensive care, dignity, respect, empathy and compassion through excellence in medicine and mental health.

Bio

Dr. Lauren Schwartz is a psychiatrist certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine with distinction and completed her residency in psychiatry at the University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center with additional training in psychoanalytic theory through Oklahoma’s psychoanalytic society. She is currently in private practice in Oklahoma, applying a psychodynamic approach to both psychotherapy and psychopharmacology. Most recently she has collaborated with Dr. Miriam Grossman and authored 2 appendices for Dr. Grossman’s book, “Lost in Trans Nation, A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness.”

Culture & Society, Current Events, Featured, Health Policy, Politics, What's New

America Out Loud PULSE: Can 5G Make You Sick?

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From my America Out Loud Pulse podcast with Dr. Patricia Powers, MD, Col., US Army (retired) – https://www.americaoutloud.news/dr-patricia-powers-col-us-army-can-5g-make-you-sick/

We are living in a world where a new technological device pops up every day. Many of these devices, such as cordless phones, cell phones and wireless internet routers use radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) or electromagnetic fields (EMFs). And then there’s smart meters many utilities companies have installed to monitor your gas and electric use remotely.

Although radio communications and human exposure to radio frequency energy have been around for 100 years, these energy fields seem to be inescapable these days. There is almost no business establishment, school, or library that doesn’t have wireless technology.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared 5G safe but note that more research is needed. Many physicians and scientists such as the BioInitiative Working Group, have concerns about its safety. Experts disagree about the interpretation of the studies, what standards to use, what level of proof is needed, short-term vs long-term effects, performing separate studies on the very young, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with illnesses vs the average person, and importantly excluding people with conflicts of interest in the outcome of the research.

Given the uncertainty of the effects of electromagnetic radiation, it is disturbing that the federal government in its effort to expand broadband to the whole country, (the American Broadband Deployment Act of 2023(HR 3557)) could eliminate state and local control in cell tower and cell placements – including schools and playgrounds.

My guest will discuss health problems and practical ways to reduce exposures to electromagnetic radiation.

 To find Dr. Patricia Powers:  drpattypowers.com

Virginia Medical Freedom Alliance – https://vamfa.org/

Virginians for Safe Technology – https://virginiansforsafetech.org/say-no/

Environmental Health Trust  –  https://ehtrust.org/

Electrosensitive Society  –  https://www.electrosensitivesociety.com/

Dr. Magda Havas PhD  –  https://magdahavas.com/

The Invisible Rainbow by Arthur Firstenberg 2020

EMF*D by Joe Mercola

EMF-Portal  –  https://www.emf-portal.org/en

Tech Wellness  –  https://techwellness.com/

Defender Shield  –  https://defendershield.com/

EMF Practical Guide by Lloyd Burrell 2019  –  https://ehtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/5G_What-You-Need-to-Know.pdf

Bio

Dr. Patricia Powers was an active duty Army doctor (pediatrician and then pediatric endocrinologist) for 25 years and retired at the rank of COL in 2004. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. Dr. Powers received her MD from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, in Bethesda, MD and had her residency in pediatrics at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She has trained in anti-aging and functional medicine and is a member of the International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illness and the National Association of Environmental Medicine.

Culture & Society, Current Events, Featured, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, Medicine, Politics, What's New

America Out Loud PULSE: Health Freedom Is More Than Insurance Coverage

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From my America Out Loud Pulse podcast with Charles Frohman –https://www.americaoutloud.news/health-freedom-is-more-than-insurance-coverage/

Covid brought out the brewing distrust of the government to do what is best for the general populace, not merely their biggest donors. There are attacks on our health freedom from many directions. The Biden administration wants to limit the duration people can have less costly short term health insurance back down to 3 months. Of course, there are drawbacks, including high deductible and co-pays, and no coverage for pre-existing conditions. But that is an area for transparency. If that’s is what you want, knowing the drawbacks, you should be able to get it.

Another ridiculous push from the executive branch is continuing and worsening the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA Section 6001) limits on physician-owned hospitals. Thanks to the ACA, with a few exceptions, new physician-owned hospitals cannot be built and they are prohibited from expanding facility capacity. This is despite evidence that these hospitals provide high quality care at lower cost. According to new transparency data, both commercial negotiated prices and cash prices in physician-owned hospitals were about one-third lower than their competitors across eight common services. Let’s hope the recently-introduced Patient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act of 2023 which would remove the ACA’s ban on the creation and expansion of physician-owned hospitals gets some traction.

Speaking of our health, I’d like to mention our food. They say you are what you eat. With our increasing diabetes and obesity, there is emphasis on eating more healthful foods. Food not only is made from gene-altered seeds but so-called real chicken is being made in the lab. Maybe it’s just fine, but the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved the lab-chicken as safe in one year. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave the final stamp of approval to two companies to sell the lab-grown or “cultivated” chicken. The companies will start by selling their product to high-end restaurants. Be careful where you eat. The way so many institutions consider informed consent optional, I wonder if and how this new chicken product will be labelled.

Today my guest and I will discuss various forms of unnecessary government intervention into our overall health and some solutions rooted in freedom.

Please visit Charles’ websites: Substack, Freedom Hub show, and NHF campaigns.

Bio

Charles Frohman is a lobbyist for the National Health Federation to restore informed consent, healer freedom, and end special interest capture of the bureaucracies. After graduating in 1988 with a Government B.A. from the College of William and Mary, he landed at the Cato Institute, and lobbied for a variety of nonprofits focusing on medical freedom. , including Health Ventures for Pain Medicine Rights, Consumer Health Reform, and Natural Health. Since 1990 I have helped politicians, trade associations, think tanks, nonprofits and corporations innovate – and raise their profile. Mr. Frohman is also connecting an innovative health plan with families, entrepreneurs and associations seeking empowerment of patients and healers. advancing the NHF’s health-freedom agenda.

Culture & Society, Doctors, Featured, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, Medicine, Politics, What's New

America Out Loud PULSE: Save Money on Your Medical Bills

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From my America Out Loud Pulse podcast with Marshall Allen –https://www.americaoutloud.news/how-to-take-charge-of-your-medical-bills/

According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), health spending represents 18.3 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP). Americans whether individually, through insurance, or through the government spent $4.3 trillion ($4,255.1 billion) or $12,914 per person in 2021. Out of pocket spending was 10.2 percent or $433.2 billion. Out of pocket expenses are coinsurance, deductibles, and services not covered by insurance but does not include insurance premiums.

As health expenditures grow year after year, politicians relish using costs and access as a campaign issue but only in the last few years have pushed for price transparency – that’s the buzzword of the day. Only in health care do we routinely make use of a product or service without knowing the cost beforehand. According to one study, employees who used a price transparency tool paid between 10 percent and 17 percent less than employees who did not have access to the service.

For the last few years, hospitals have been required to post online, in a consumer-friendly format, the rates they’ve negotiated with insurers for 300 common medical services. Unfortunately, these prices are written in billing jargon and hard to understand. Moreover, the prices differ within the same institution depending on whether the bill is paid by Medicare, private insurer or self-pay.

One thing we’ve learned so far with this data is that physician-owned hospitals both commercial negotiated prices and cash prices in physician-owned hospitals were about one-third lower than their competitors across eight common services and have higher quality care.

Recently, Congress has put forth a few transparency bills designed to let the consumer know the inner workings of their insurance contract. The Hidden Fee Disclosure Act (HR 4508) requires disclosure of the details of contracts of pharmacy benefit manager and third party administration services for group health plans contracts. The Health Data Access, Transparency, and Affordability Act or Healthcare DATA Act (HR 4527) would ensure that a group health plan’s fiduciaries may access de-identified information from providers, third party administrators, and pharmacy benefit mangers relating to health claims. The Transparency in Coverage Act (HR 4507) would  convert a 2019 rule into a law requiring health insurance plans to publicly share negotiated rates and cost-sharing estimates, and the number of claims that are denied, among other things.

But it could be that insurance is the root of cost evils. Even with the inappropriately named Affordable Care Act, the premiums have gotten higher every year. The average person in America pays $456 per month for marketplace health insurance.  According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), in 2021, the average cost of employee health insurance premiums for family coverage was $22,221. The average annual premium for a self-only plan was $7,739. Employers paid about 80 percent of those premiums.

Surveys published by the American Hospital Association in July 2023 looked at the effects of the practices of commercial insurers. The surveys found that some 80 percent of patients, nurses and physicians say insurer policies and practices are reducing access to medical care, driving up health care costs and increasing clinician burden and burnout.

So, what is the immediate answer for you to pay less for your medical care? My guest will discuss some tools for fighting a system that is not looking out for you.

Key websites to visit:

https://www.marshallallen.com

Newsletter – https://marshallallen.substack.com

Allen Health Academy (videos) https://www.allenhealthacademy.com

Medical Care Prices – https://www.fairhealthconsumer.org;
https://www.healthcarebluebook.com/explore-home/;
https://turquoise.health;
https://healthcostlabs.com.

Bio

Marshall Allen is a journalist who has spent more than fifteen years investigating the health care industry, exposing the insidious ways the system preys on vulnerable Americans: price gouging, sloppy billing, fraud, insurance denials, unnecessary treatment and more. He is also the founder of Allen Health Academy, which produces a curriculum of short on-demand videos to equip and empower employees to navigate the health care system. He is the author of “Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win.” Mr. Allen’s work has been honored with several journalism awards, including the Harvard Kennedy School’s 2011 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and coming in as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. He also has a master’s degree in Theology. Before he was in journalism, Mr. Allen spent five years in full-time ministry, including three years in Nairobi, Kenya.

Culture & Society, Current Events, Featured, Health Policy, Law, Politics, What's New

America Out Loud PULSE: Doctors and Patients or Bureaucrats: Who’s in Charge of Our Medical Care?

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From my America Out Loud Pulse podcast with Andy Schlafly, Esq. –https://www.americaoutloud.news/doctors-and-patients-or-bureaucrats-whos-in-charge-of-our-medical-care/

We live in strange times. Police, physicians, and patients are treated like criminals while thieves are given the green light to steal at will. Some activists have even decided that looting is reparations. According to Newsweek magazine, a Chicago Black Lives Matter organizer stated, “I don’t care if somebody decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike because that makes sure that that person eats. That makes sure that that person has clothes. . . That’s reparations. That is reparations. Anything they want to take, take it because these businesses have insurance. They’re going to get their money back. My people aren’t getting anything.”

Employees are forbidden from engaging thieves. The higher-ups do not want the liability—the possibility of injury or worse. But the message this sends to the thieves-in-waiting is “Come on in for your five-finger discount.” Of course, we all pay for lawlessness with higher prices and, more importantly, the loss of a sense of safety and civility.

Police risk their lives daily. Rather than merely on an Instagram post, we should be seeing on the network nightly news the numerous heroic acts of police, such as pulling people from cars engulfed in flames. (Georgia, Virginia, Ohio to name a few). Or showing the police connecting with the community, including having fun with children of color. Not a chance. The media prefer to relentlessly focus on a few incidents, mainly by bad apples. When all the facts come out—most times in the police’s favor—the story loses its luster.

Meanwhile, the thought police are in full force. The state of Michigan passed a bill (HB 4474) that could make using the wrong pronouns in a manner that makes a person feel threatened or frightened a felony “punishable by imprisonment for not more than 5 years, or by a fine of not more than $10,000.”  How is a person to gauge how a person will feel?

Maybe there is hope: In the Colorado web designer case, 303 Creative LLC et al. v. Elenis et al., the Supreme Court recently reaffirmed that the government cannot compel people to say things they do not believe in—even if they are “misguided or hurtful.”

Medical freedom for doctors and patients is becoming a distant memory. Physicians are afraid to go into pain management for fear of being labelled a pill pusher. They are bullied by medical boards with the specter of losing their licenses. Patients with chronic pain are resorting to getting heroin on the streets rather than be put in a government database.

Let’s make it our mission to tell anyone in power who will listen: Our bodies and minds belong to us, not to the government.

Attorney Andy Schlafly a wonderful friend of the show is here today to discuss some the recent cases challenging governmental authority over the practice of medicine and beyond.

Bio

Andy Schlafly is general counsel to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. He received a B.S.E. in electrical engineering and certificate in engineering physics from Princeton University. After graduating from Princeton, Mr. Schlafly briefly worked as a device physicist for Intel, then became a microelectronics engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He then attended Harvard Law School along with Barack Obama. For two years Mr. Schlafly was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, Schlafly served as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall Law School and worked for a large law firm before beginning private practice. Mr. Schlafly created the wiki-based Conservapedia in November 2006 to counter the apparent liberal bias in Wikipedia.

Culture & Society, Current Events, Featured, Medical Ethics, Politics, What's New

America Out Loud PULSE: I Have 5 Words for These Legislators: Stay Away From Our Children

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From my America Out Loud Pulse podcast with Dr. Diana Blum –https://www.americaoutloud.news/i-have-5-words-for-these-legislators-stay-away-from-our-children/

Who on earth came up with the idea that having a race to the bottom would close the achievement gap among minorities and Whites and Asians. Some schools are going gradeless, and cancelling honors classes, and not informing students that they received National Merit scholarships. This is carrying diversity, equity, and inclusion too far. As Booker T. Washington said, “No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race, he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts.” The whole point is to raise the achievement level of underachievers, not to stunt the progress of the high achievers to even things out.

This reminds me of various programs in 1964’s War on Poverty that sought to raise people out of poverty but resulted in, for many, intergenerational dependence on the government and for many, stagnation at subsistence level.

The tactics of the War on Poverty included AFDC—Aid to Families with Dependent Children—where if there was a man in the house, there were no welfare benefits. What happened to keeping a family together during troubled times? What happened to encouraging families to lean on one another and discuss and hopefully resolve their financial issues?

The thought process behind AFDC was only the beginning of the state’s new role of in loco parentis. This goes beyond co-parenting: parental rights are under assault. Laws are emerging that allow teachers more control over the intimate details of our children’s lives than their parents have. In multiple states children can have abortions with no parental involvement, irrespective of possible harm due to abuse in several states.

A proposed California law (AB665) would allow any minor as young as age 12 to seek mental health services and go to a government “residential shelter” without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Current law quite reasonably allows parents to be out of the loop only if the child presents as danger of serious physical or mental harm to themselves or others or to be the alleged victim of incest or child abuse.

Another California bill (AB957) that has passed through the assembly “would include a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child.” This would become as factor in determining whether as parent is guilty of child abuse in custody hearings. How is this in the best interests of the child when this bill applies to children of all ages, not just, for example, 12 and up? So, the parent who “affirms” gets custody and the other parent is labeled a child abuser.

I have five words for these legislators: stay away from our children.

My guest and I will discuss some policies of some of our schools that intrude on parental rights, many times resulting in harm to children medically and educationally.

Bio

Dr. Diana Blum is a board-certified neurologist who completed her medical school training at the University of Chicago, Pritzker school of Medicine and her Neurology Residency training at Stanford University Medical Center. She is currently in private practice in Silicon Valley, California where she focuses on the chronic management of patients with Parkinson’s Disease. When not practicing clinical medicine, Dr. Blum is a fierce patient and physician advocate, defending Hippocratic oath medicine and the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship through education and activism.

Culture & Society, Current Events, Health Policy, Law, Politics, What's New

America Out Loud PULSE: The War on Drugs Is a War on All Americans

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From my America Out Loud Pulse podcast with Colleen Cowles, Esq. – https://www.americaoutloud.news/the-war-on-drugs-is-a-war-against-all-americans/

Soporifics and mind-altering drugs tap into man’s desire to avoid or lessen suffering whether physical or emotional. Throughout the world, alcohol, opium, mushrooms, and coca leaves have been used for at least 9,000 years. (After all, we are born with opioid receptors.) During our American Civil War, opiates were a boon to injured soldiers. Soon morphine became an ingredient in most health tonics. Cocaine was also widely used for its ability to generate feelings of well-being. Cocaine was even used to cure morphine addiction. But over the late 19th and 20th centuries, drugs were seen as a scourge on society.

The modern day War on Drugs started with the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1971. Despite billions and billions of dollars thrown at the War, we are losing.  Half of Americans aged 12 and older have used an illicit drug at least once. In 2020, 21.4 percent of Americans aged 12 and over (59,277 million) have used illegal drugs or misused prescription drugs within the last year. And 13.5 percent of Americans aged 12 and over used drugs in the last month, a 3.8 percent increase from the previous year.

According to a 2017 U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) report, approximately 20.2 million adults aged 18 or older had a past year substance use disorder (SUD). Of these adults, 16.3 million had an alcohol use disorder and 6.2 million had an illicit drug use disorder. This is not merely a Skid Row problem. Substance use disorder hits all socioeconomic classes.

Patients and physicians alike have been demonized and turned into criminals over the use of certain medications. Over thirty years ago, physicians were told that pain is the 5th vital sign and to treat pain with any medication available. Get that pain down to zero. They complied. Relying on pharmaceutical companies’ reassurance that’s their new opioids were non-addicting, physicians liberally prescribed them. Then we were told patients were becoming addicted and to stop with the prescriptions. Pain be damned. What happened? Opioid prescriptions have been nearly cut in half in 10 years due to the new guidelines and rules, but overdoses and illegal opioids have nearly doubled. The patients went to the streets and now are getting drugs tainted with fentanyl and accidentally overdosing.

The War to keep our countrymen free of illicit drugs was another government plan that sounded like a good idea at the time. Now, the tactics of the War on Drugs fits with Mike Tyson’s famous saying: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

My guest will discuss the endless drug war, its consequences and solutions to reduce harm.

P.S. Companies that made, sold, or distributed opioid painkillers are paying out $54 billion in settlements over the next 20 years. Cities, counties, and states have received $3 billion so far.

To find how much settlement funds your locality has received:

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/lookup-how-much-opioid-settlement-cash-by-locality/

Details on how states use settlement money: https://www.opioidsettlementtracker.com/publicreporting

Bio

Colleen Cowles is an attorney, author, speaker, teacher, advocate, and a mother who personally experienced addiction and chronic pain in her family. Her 15 years of research, interviews with experts, work with clients and personal experience give Ms. Cowles practical insights into this urgently important minimizing the pain that families experience, improving outcomes for those suffering from substance use disorder and/or chronic pain, and advocating for reform of the criminal justice system and overall drug policy. She offers proven solutions in her new book, War on Us – How the War on Drugs & Myths About Addiction Have Created a War on All of Us, and in her online course, A Parent’s Guide to Addiction: Moving Past Punishment.

Current Events, Doctors, Health Policy, Healthcare Reform, Politics, Socialized Medicine, What's New

America Out Loud PULSE: Freedom, Not Government Control, Is Key to Receiving Good Medical Care

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From my America Out Loud Pulse podcast with Dr. Elaina George – https://www.americaoutloud.com/freedom-not-government-control-is-key-to-good-medical-care/

Our medical care is too important to leave to the politicians. Over the years, doctors and patients have been squeezed out of the policymaking process. This has resulted in the powerful driving health policy toward government control of our medical care.

Germany’s Chancellor Otto von Bismarck created the model for socialized medicine in 1883. In the face of the rising Socialist Movement, he granted the nascent socialists free medical care to mollify them. One of the first acts of the Lenin’s new Bolshevik government was to institute national health insurance. It was clear: national health insurance gave control over the population and, importantly, over physicians. Doctors are a calculated target – they tend to be free thinkers and they must be reined in.

The 1930s Great Depression gave a window of opportunity for President Franklin Roosevelt to rally Americans to support government intervention on a massive scale. Thirty-seven new government agencies and reams of regulations were born. The creation of the Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance, better known as Social Security was the mother of government-sponsored medicine. Roosevelt wanted national health insurance as part of his Social Security legislation but political opposition led him to drop the idea in order to get the legislation passed. On Aug. 14, 1935, the 29-page Social Security Act became law and the role of the federal government was changed forever. The Social Security Act (which includes Medicare and Medicaid) is now over 3,400 pages.

Starting in World War II, the government became more and more involved in managing our medical care. It started in 1965 with Medicare and Medicaid. Through the years more regulations, prior authorizations, and patient databases became commonplace. The stake into the heart of physician autonomy and our medical privacy was slipped into the Stimulus Bill in 2009 (The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Care (HITECH) of 2009). In order to get full payment for physician services we had to use of electronic medical records linked to the government Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

My guest and I will discuss what we can do to decrease costs and increase access to care while maintaining the principles of good, individualized medicine.

To find an independent physician go to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons website, https://aapsonline.org/direct-payment-cash-friendly-practices/ and Join the Wedge (of Freedom) – https://jointhewedge.com.

To find Direct Primary Care practices: https://www.dpcfrontier.com

Bio

Dr Elaina George is a Board Certified Otolaryngologist (Ear, Nose, and Throat physician). She graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Biology and received her Master’s degree in Medical Microbiology from Long Island University. She earned her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Dr George completed her residency at Manhattan, Eye Ear & Throat Hospital. She is the author of Big Medicine: The Cost of Corporate Control and How Doctors and Patients Working Together Can Rebuild a Better System, a book which explores how the U.S. healthcare system has evolved and explains how patients and doctors can create a healthcare system that is based on the principles of price transparency with the power of the doctor patient relationship. She currently also has a radio show, Living in the Solution.

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