Health Care Crisis Legislative Solutions

Patients for Alternative Medicine, (PfAM)
November 2006. www.pfamhealth.com

Health Care Crisis Legislative Solutions Must Include People’s Choice

Problem - Health care is increasingly unaffordable for Washingtonians, employers and the state government. Health care expenditures (HCE) continue to rise, yet citizens are not getting healthier. Research shows no correlation between HCE and health in the current health care model. ¹ There are anti-competitive activities within the State that discredit, defame and bankrupt evidence-based businesses and health care professionals who provide access to alternative health care services and medicines. Citizens are not as healthy as they could be, are not receiving the right care at the right time and are not taking the responsibility needed to optimize their health.

Solution - Health care reform legislation needs to serve and honor people’s choice in health care. A reformed health care system must include evidence-based, clinical outcome based health care options of all forms including conventional and alternative healing modalities. New stake holders need to enter into the State’s health care system. Current anti-competitive activities against leading edge alternative health care professionals must stop. Litigations against these people need to be rescinded.

Health Care Crisis

Drug costs ², toxicities ³, government reimbursements ⁴, anti-competitive activities, inability to hold people’s trust, and not serving citizens needs ⁵ have imploded Washington’s conventional, institutionalized health care system. Legislation sought by the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Costs and Access will be multi-faceted, however it must contain health care choices for people from conventional as well as alternative medical modalities if it is to succeed. Medical health professionals within the State’s stakeholder pool currently have a dearth of medicines to support people’s desires for healthy aging and amelioration of chronic or highly specific symptoms without toxic drug side effects.

Health care stake holder’s costs are too high and current stake holders are ill prepared to fully educate citizens regarding the many gradations of health and illness that occur within them. There are 650,000 uninsured Washingtonians who face the practicality of taking more responsibility for their and their families’ health. The reality of personal health care responsibility will increase. Employers and government programs can no longer afford to sustain current capacity of this entitlement. People also will need to feel prepared to engage in honored and privileged conversations about dying and death, since this is increasingly necessary with Washington ’s aging population. ⁶

Not everyone responds well to conventional drugs; especially the chronically ill, those with targeted sensitivities, developmentally disabled and senior citizens. Citizens ⁷ are taking greater responsibility for health care, however denial of access to alternative healing modalities (AHM) are prohibiting citizens from the health care they need for survival.

Americans seek out AHM ⁸ as well as conventional medical models. The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 recognized, regulated and protected AHM separately from that of conventional medicine. ⁹ This l egislation was not passed because of political ideologies, rather from acceptance of a historical lesson; people self-medicate. ¹⁰ Today, many natural medicines are evidence-based demonstrating safety and effectiveness. ¹¹ AHM are demanded by 20 million baby boomers that pay 30% higher prices on average and out-of pocket ¹² for the natural health products they value . ¹³

Illegal Anti-Competitive Activities

Health care providers and big pharmaceutical companies (big pharma) are scrambling in all directions during this time of change and health care crisis. The drug companies are without the ‘intellectual property’ they need to serve the population’s health care needs related to chronic illness, aging and specific targeted illnesses currently plaguing the population. Lack of a predictable financial future, lack of time for new drug discoveries and current constrictions in patent protections motivates health care private interest groups to take short cuts, i.e. steal from and block ‘competitors’ from gaining precious market share. Insurance companies and big pharmas consider themselves ‘above the law’. They are willing to use contemptible acts if necessary in WA State to block small competitors from serving the people.

Anti-competitive activities contribute to the current health care crisis by blocking competition in the market place which consequently drives prices up. This health care industry influence negatively affects health care professionals using AHM. Extreme tactics are being used to stop potential new stake holders in the State’s health care reform process. Highly trained health care professionals, who happen to use complementary and alternative medicines, are specifically targeted. This is also the case with small businesses in the natural product industry. The anti-competitive techniques used go over the legal lines of civil liberty protections and constitute malevolence.

Washington’s Necessary Health Care Solution- Uniquely Serving People’s Needs

Seattle is rated number three (3) out of nine (9) US biotechnology centers for medical innovation. This prestige fuels economic development and international trade for Washington . Washington is also a mecca of natural medicine throughout the United States . AHM account for a $40 billion market place thus this market also contributes to economic growth. Natural medicine attracts businesses and people with values related to robust health, family, quality of life and a love for the environment . Part of WA State’s unique signature is– natural and conventional health care networks functioning side by side to enhance inner health and a consciousness to protect Washington ’s environment. Anti-competitive business and government activities covertly working to disrupt this balance harm the State’s reputation, economic core and population’s needs. Many Washingtonians, like a majority of Americans, identify themselves as within the Wellness Revolution ¹⁴ vs ‘the drugs and more drugs’ illness industry associated with pharmaceutical companies.

‘Wellness’ citizens are proactive, responsible, and voluntarily use AHM. AHM reaches beyond the use of herbs, good nutrition, lifestyle changes, or physical manipulations. AHM is woven into the fiber of family activities, organizations, employers, and educators. AHM is as fundamental to a person’s lifestyle and commitment to health as eating, working and selecting transportation. These citizens are willing to not comply with conventional doctor’s orders for prescription drugs and may bring into discussions with medical doctors of conventional medicine their ideas about health care plans they will follow, which include AHM. Health Care Reform must hold agency staff accountable for implementing legislative intent to serve the people. Corrupt activities around health care are well documented to include threatening and intimidating pressures to get competitors to submit and withdraw. ^{15 16 17}

Public documents reveal that pharmaceutical companies have banded together with an intent to block successful, cutting edge natural product competitors from gaining access to those in need. ^{18 19 20}

Washington health care must respond to its diverse population. Health care reform legislation will by necessity embrace AHM, conventional medical institutions and all types of health care professionals. New economies will unfold and ease the government’s current financial burden as alternative health care innovations are accepted and additional evidence-based ones are developed. New drug discoveries lay needed foundational stones to under guard health care for the people and the future. Legislation that supports AHM must stop current anti-competitive activities that block people’s access to health care. Unnecessary expenditures will be curbed.

Health care reform will shift current stakeholder perspectives and introduce new stakeholders to the health care process in the interest of improving Washingtonian’s access. This will happen over time and in bundles. Washington health care organizations will need to adapt to and redefine themselves in the coming reformed health care climate in order to meet the people’s needs. This is already occurring by a couple of highly respected health care providers who are valued as leaders of change. Prices of health care have to fall constantly for practicality sake and will be mandated by the government. This will stimulate health care groups, pharmas and AHM businesses to compete on a more level playing field.

The real gains for the State and its elected officials will be felt when the health care system is adapted to the people’s needs for diversity and choice. Making the health care system better, faster, cheaper is only part of what's needed. Health care must become an opportunity for self healing and hope, as well as, a place where integrity and truth can be spoken.

1. Fred Kiga, Washington Roundtable, Blue Ribbon Commission meeting Oct 27, 2006

2. Health care expenditures (HCE) exceed the gross national profit (GNP) by 18%

3. Null G, Dean C, Feldman M, Rasio D, Smith D Death by Medicine, Nutrition Institute of America, Nov 2003,

4. $35 Billion paid out of State budget for uninsured

5. WA ranks #14 in the country for health care

6. Washingtonians over 70 years old will more than double from 7% to 18% over the next 15 years based on the 2000 census

7. 650,000 people uninsured (10-12% of population) with over 25% underinsured, thus 37% of population ill prepared for illness

8. Barnes PM, Powell-Griner E, McFann K, Nahin RL Complementary and alternative medicine use among adults: United States, 2002 Adv Data. 2004 May 27;(343):1-19

9. Junod, Suzanne White An Alternative Perspective: Homeopathic Drugs, Royal Copeland, and Federal Drug Regulation, Food and Drug Law Journal 2000, 55 (1):161-183.

10. AARP and Natl Assoc for Health Policy, Washingtonpost.com discussion on Medicaid: America 's Endangered Healthcare Safety Net 2005

11. The White House Commission on Health Care 2000

12. Pagán A, Pauly DV Access To Conventional Medical Care And The Use Of Complementary And Alternative... Health Affairs.2005; 24: 255-262

13. http://www.whccamp.hhs.gov/fr1.html

14. Pilzer, PZ The Wellness Revolution : How to Make a Fortune in the Next Trillion Dollar Industry Wiley and Sons, NY 2002

15. Mathews AW, Martinez B. E-mails suggest Merck knew Vioxx’s dangers at early stage. Wall Street Journal. November 1, 2004 :A1.

16. Rennie D. Thyroid storm. JAMA. 1997;277:1238-1243 .

17. UCSF News Office. UCSF-Harvard team publishes major HIV therapy study over objections of sponsor: compound shows no effect on slowing disease progression. October 31, 2000. http://pub.ucsf.edu/newsservices/releases/2004010228.

18. Deborah Haas-Wilson, Increasing Consolidation In Health Care Markets: What Are The Antitrust Policy Implications? May 14, 1998

19. Bolen T. The Quackbuster's Newest Scam - "Operation Cure-All". Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen, July 7th, 2003