Here’s the choice, as I see it:  The “Public Option”

versus The Status Quo.

Medicare for All versus Health Insurance for Most – affordable to the healthy and employed, but rationed to five (5) out of six (6) Americans. As Will Rodgers might have said, “Five out of six ain’t bad; Unless you’re number 6, and excepting that the five get exposed to whatever it is that number 6 has got.“

Health Care for all, versus Rationed Private Insurance Care that doesn’t cover 47 Million Americans that are over 18 and under 65, who’s taxes pay for Medicare for their parents and grandparents, their children covered by SCHIP, and for procedures given to charity care patients in hospitals.

In other words, “Health care By the People, Of the People and For the People,”

versus “Health care run By the Bean Counters Of the Insurance Companies For the Stockholders!”

Liz Borkowski

at The  Pump Handle posts on evidence of violence against ER nurses:

n a national survey by the Emergency Nurses Association, more than half of emergency-department nurses reported that they’ve been physically assaulted on the job. For many nurses, being assaulted is a recurring problem: Approximately one-fourth of the 3,465 respondents reported experiencing physical violence more than 20 times in the past three years. While all hospital staff are at risk of both physical assault and verbal abuse, the problem is particularly severe in EDs, and against ED nurses in particular.

Violence Against ER Nurses

I have a good full-time job. I buy the health insurance my Human Resources Dept tells me to buy. (This is not, by the way, a “free market” as described by Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, and other neo-classical economists.) I pay enough that I could be driving a Hummer  about 2,400 miles per month (at current gas prices).

But my coverage is rationed by insurance company beancounters. When I need a doctor, I see one of their docs.  A complete physical is free once a year. It takes about two hours and 30 seconds – two hours waiting and 30 seconds in which the doctor says “You’re breathing. That’s good. You’re blood pressure is high, if it gets higher we’ll put you on meds.”

That’s ok, or what passes for ok. As long as I don’t get sick I’m ok. That’s why my blood pressure is high. I’m worried about getting sick. Or losing my job. Or losing my job and getting sick. In that case I’ll lose my house.

One thing I don’t worry about is that my father. He’s well over 80, and he has good health, and good health care. He’s on Medicare. It’s great. Efficient.  Government run. Not sexy like the Apollo Mission to the moon, but very important. And for the health care that my kids teachers get. They go to public school. The teachers are in the unions. And the health care is good. The kids too get good health care. My kids, my kids friends, even if their parents work but don’t get health care, then, thanks to Presidents Clinton and Obama, and despite the efforts and vetos of President Bush, they get health care.

But one of the things that really gets me, the thing that makes my blood boil – which is why I’ll need blood pressure meds – is that close to 50 Million Americans – one out of six – have no health insurance. And it’s people between the age of 18 and 65. People who work, or would work, if they could find jobs.  This is wrong on many levels. It’s not just that I have friends in that position, and that I was in that situation – working hard, falling backwards, no health insurance – barely able to afford food. According to Paul Krugman, in the New York Times, “many of the protesters who don’t want “Government Run Health Care” are on Medicare.” While that’s almost funny, it’s also very sad.

Mindgrowth, a U.S.-Canadian company – distributes biofeedback equipment  – with and without tracking software – used for, among other things, pain management/reduction, treating PTSD, panic disorders, and other uses.The GSR2 (pictured below) is designed and manufactured in North America by Thought Technology, the largest manufacturer of biofeedback products in the world. There are more than 550,000 of the GSR2 in use worldwide, including the United States Veterans’ Administration medical system.

Biofeedback is no longer “experimental” – there’s no question that it works, not only for medical uses, but also in enhancing athletic performance and cognitive function. It has a substantial drawback in the context of the United States health system: once purchased, and used/learned, some people have lasting effects and never touch the equipment again – others need to return to the biofeedback equipment to “relearn” the original “lesson.” To keep this example simple – think of someone trying to unlearn a fear response to a particular stimulus – loud noises, for example.

What’s wrong with this is that it conflicts with the business model of companies which make medications – especially used on a chronic basis. (In the example above, think of clonazepam, or other benzodiazepines – Valium, Klonopin, Xanax, and the like). The analogy is that of an oil company’s feelings about solar power. If a house is well-insulated and solar/wind power used to heat the house – the oil company revenue from that house is diminished or disappears entirely.

Mindgrowth makes biofeedback equipment – in Canada, not China – and is able to sell it in packages FOR $80  USD

(without recording software) and under $100 USD with.software which not only increases the feedback functionality – also allows people to collect their own medical data – which presents physicians with a richer and more consistent data set when seeing patients on followup. (Or even between visits, since it is collecting electronic records).

Tramadol – just one of many pain medications – can easily cost several hundred dollars per month. ¹.

So biofeedback is a bad deal for drug manufacturers. And the more affordable – the worse it is for them.

Mindgrowth – their consumer systems, by our research, are several hundred dollars cheaper than their competitors – are doing what President Obama has asked for – find efficiencies in medical care that provide good care for patients and save money.

So why aren’t biofeedback devices regularly or universally covered by health insurers? We’ll try to address that in future posts.

1. After spending some time researching this, we are sorry to report that New York’s drug-price comparison site

   is embarassingly close to useless. We’ll be following up on this is in the near future; It tracks only 150 drugs – and without generic equivalents