LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS

As a medical physician for over 50 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary that results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Let me know how we are doing. Your constructive comments are always appreciated. Click the RSS post button on the upper right hand corner if you would like to receive by email our future medical blogs.
Visit http://www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on healing.

LIVING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS

THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM: Over 45% of our nation's population had a chronic condition, and two thirds of people on Medicare have two or more conditions. The cost of these chronic diseases medically account for 75% of the $1 trillion spent on health care annually. Chronic diseases caused 7/10 premature deaths, most of which could be preventable. Why do some people succeed and why do others struggle to manage a long-term condition?

UNHEALTHY LIFESTYLES

Our unhealthy modern lifestyles local physical activity,stress, little rest, and eating habits that include high sugar, low fiber, fast foods, and processed foods all lead us to chronic illness.

THE COSTS

These are extraordinary times in healthcare. The costs of these chronic health conditions are enormous. These conditions include; diabetes, asthma, heart disease, depression, stroke, chronic colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, emphysema, arthritis, and of course obesity. Many of these chronic conditions have a group of symptoms that a patient may complain of.

SYMPTOMS

Symptoms have to have a cause, and-- if we're going to help the patient gets better, we must find these causes. Treating only symptoms are unsuccessful in the long run in restoring real health. Only by finding the real causes and correcting them can we stop the underlying diseases.

A PROGRESSIVE DISEASE

Chronic illnesses are progressive. More and more drugs are usually added to try to help the patient. Despite this, they get worse, and often the new medicines create new side effects and new diseases that they have to deal with.

TOXINS AND DEFICIENCIES ARE THE CAUSE

The body is deficient and needs something it doesn't have, as vitamin C and vitamin D. It also has toxins that can be low-grade, pesticides, chemicals in the body, a medical load, or a chronic infection. The body is reacting to something that it should not have.

You will never get better unless you correct the deficiency. Remove the toxic load, and handle the allergic reaction. Too many medications given for your symptom, often added to the toxic load.

OTHER DISEASES MASK THE PROBLEM

There is often some overlap in the underlying causes of these chronic conditions. Many diseases, as rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and Gulf War illnesses, all present with similar chronic signs and symptoms.

Systemic chronic infections of bacteria, viruses, fungi, all overwhelm the immune system. This suppressed immune system and endocrine dysfunction may be the link between chronic illnesses.

IT TAKES TIME AND MULTIPLE EXPOSURES

Chronic illnesses evolve over time they may require multiple toxic exposures of infections to cause their illnesses. Often the immune system can check chronic infections and hold them at bay. If these infections can avoid immune surveillance, and can penetrate and hide in tissues and organs of the body, they can cause many complex signs and symptoms, and result in widespread pain and immune dysfunction.

COFACTORS EXIST

Chronic infections occur as cofactors in illnesses as: HIV, AIDS, skin diseases and immune deficiency disorders, and autoimmune diseases. When Michael plasmas and other bacteria escaped from cellular compartments, they cause autoimmune symptoms.

Certain bacteria and viruses play an important role in diseases as AIDS and immune deficiency disorders. These bacteria and viruses may not be causing illness on their own, but serve as important factors in the disease process. They also increase the patient's morbidity, sickness and complications associated with the patient's disease.

Systemic chronic infections caused by bacteria (Myco plasma, chlamydia, borellia, brucellosis), and viruses Cytomegalic virus, ebola, epstein barr virus,) can virtually invade every human tissue and comprise your immune system. This gives an opportunity for infections by other bacteria viruses, and fungi and to multiply. They can then directly damage and destroy your nerve cells.

Over half of autoimmune diseases are associated with chlamydial and mycoplasmal infections. Treatment with antibiotics and anti-virals can suppress these chronic bacterial and viral infections. Chronic bacterial and viral infections are commonly associated with rheumatic disease, and many patients respond well with antibiotics. Recovery is slow often taking over a year. During that time there is no alternative or effective treatments other than alleviation of pain.

When mycoplasmals to leave their cells in synovial cells or nerve cells, they stimulate an autoimmune response. As they leave the invaded cells, they carry some of your whole cell membrane on their surface. This can trigger the immune system to respond to your antigen present on the foreign microorganism. Some of the microorganisms display surface antigens that attach to your whole cell surface antigens and stimulate an autoimmune response.

LONG-TERM ILLNESSES CAUSE CHRONIC PAIN

No one wants to have a chronic illness, but most of us will develop one or more during our lives. Ongoing conditions, injuries, and long-term illnesses are the most common causes for chronic pain. Other causes that result in severe chronic pain include: damage to the nervous and vascular systems: cancer, degenerative diseases, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis.

Chronic pain is experienced by cancer patients because of tumor that infiltrates and compresses organs or bones, and by radiation and chemotherapy treatments that cause tissue swelling.

Chronic pain can also be caused by ongoing conditions as ear infections, carpal tunnel syndrome, migraine headaches, and peripheral neuropathy.

Initial acute injuries as sprains and muscle strains and overused injuries result in: backaches, Achilles tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and heel pain and can become chronic.

Neurogenic pain can be caused by damage to the central nervous system or spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system. Damage to the central nervous system can cause “central pain syndrome”. Patients who have had spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, or strokes, or multiple sclerosis patients have steady, burning, aching, or cutting pain with brief bursts of sharp pain. This may be seen years after damage to the central nervous system has occurred..

Chronic pain can also be psychogenic. Emotional and mental disorders can increase or prolonged pain. Headaches muscle pain, stomach and back pain, are typical examples.

COMMENTARY

A healthy life exists when you have soundness of body and mind. To live with a chronic illness, you must work to overcome the physical and emotional problems caused by the disease. Your goal must be to achieve the greatest possible physical capabilities and the greatest pleasure from your life.

When you have an acute problem, it is easily diagnosed, lasts a short time, and responds to the doctor's specific treatment. You can expect a cure and a return to be coming healthy with a great degree of certainty.

Chronic illnesses are different. They began slowly and proceed slowly. They have multiple causes that vary over time including: heredity, lifestyle factors, exposure to environmental factors, and physiological factors. It may be difficult to predict the long-term effects.

Chronic illnesses lead to a loss of physical strength. Fatigue is often the culprit, preventing normal activities. This speeds the physical deconditioning, and often creates a sense of helplessness and anxiety.

If you believe nothing can be done, you guarantee that nothing will be done. This perpetuates and reinforces your helplessness. While our medical system can certainly handle acute conditions like the flu or earaches, they find managing chronic disease is more of a challenge. You must take control of your illness, rather than let the illness take control of you. I n short, self-management is your most effective tool.

You must decide what you want to do, and how you are going to do it. Learn new sets of skills, and practice them until they have been mastered. You must have confidence in successfully doing something you want to do. It's not just learning the skills, but incorporating them into your daily life. At first, things will be clumsy and slow, and you will return to your old ways. You must continue to try to master new and often sometimes difficult tasks. This takes practice and you must constantly evaluate the results you get.

THOUGHTS WILL BOUNCE THROUGH YOUR HEAD

Many questions will float in your head. How can I face a life of pain? Can I make the changes my doctor wants? Will I be a burden and dependent on my family? Will I be incapacitated? How is this going to impact my family? Will I ever do the things that I enjoy? Will I have enough money to handle all this? Will I be left alone and isolated? How could this happen to me? Is this my entire fault? Where is my God? Can I live through this?

What you think determines what happens to you and how you will handle your health conditions. Think of your illness as a path that goes up and down, like the stock market. You must incorporate many strategies, and negotiate the obstacles you confront. Your goal is to deal with the illness, continue your normal life, and obtain skills to deal with your emotions.

You must learn to manage your limitations and find meaning in them. You'll find a new sense of self that's acceptable to you in spite of your illness, and you must develop a philosophy of life. See the illness as only one aspect of your life. Unify this illness with your healthy identity. Rely on people and things that have always been your source of strength to help you make constructive changes. Your goal must be to achieve the highest level of wellness that's possible, while you're living this life threatening illness.

Strike a balance of responsibility, and make your doctor a partner in your care. You must see the choices you’re your care, and look to your doctor for information and advice on which treatments would work best for you.

Life is tough, but you must be tougher!

Your thoughts and comments are always appreciated.

Visit www.drneedles.com for more discussion on other controversial medical issues.

WHO SPEAKS FOR YOUR DOCTOR

As a medical physician for over 50 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary that results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Let me know how we are doing. Your constructive comments are always appreciated. Click the RSS post button on the upper right hand corner if you would like to receive by email our future medical blogs.
Visit http://www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on healing.

WHO SPEAKS FOR YOUR DOCTOR

We hear a lot from the media about the proposed great health care reform. Yet, who speaks for your doctor? Despite playing a critical role in this health reform, his thoughts are not considered.

Why are not the doctors at the negotiation table? They can offer practical constructive solutions for the health care reform and certainly have insight into why our health care system is so non-functioning.

Certainly, doctors are as concerned with increased government intervention as you are. They also are aware of what a greater expanded role of the federal government will mean for our healthcare: they certainly know firsthand how broken our medical system is.

DOES THE AMA SPEAKS FOR YOUR DOCTOR?

Certainly not! The American Medical Association has only 15 % of all doctors as members. Most of the membership consists of hospital-based doctors from large medical centers. They join so they can dictate policy for their hospitals.

The AMA has pledged to work with the white house committees and leadership to build support for the white house health plan. They seek funding the new coverage for the uninsured by cutting payments to doctors and hospitals in Medicare and Medicaid. All of this is certainly not the view of your doctor.

Over 17 state medical associations and three specialty organizations recently broke away from the AMA. Many state hospital associations balk at the $155 billion across-the-board Medicare cuts planned. None of this will change the delivery of healthcare services. Over half of the American hospitals will be operating at a deficit or close to it when these cuts are implemented.

Mayo Clinic, upheld by Pres. Obama as a model for reform, also had unkind words to say about the House bill. “It misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact the opposite will be true, since the proposals are not patient focused or results orientated. The losers will be the citizens of the United States”.

SGR

Doctors seek repeal of the sustainable growth rate, or SGR, (a formula that Congress created mandating automatic cuts in physician payments if entitlement spending rises to steeply.) Because of this, next year the cuts to doctor payments will increase 22%.

Doctors despise the SGR, since Medicare prices are already 30% lower than those of private insurers. Congress threatens to pay even less for the medical goods and services it wants to buy.

The SGR is a political attempt to control health spending. Certainly is a. preview of expansion under Ocala’s care package.

WHAT BIG MEDICARE CUTS MEAN TO YOU

As deeper cuts in Medicare occur, many doctors may stop treating Medicare patients. Some doctors will compensate by shifting their costs onto their other private patients or they must make up in volume what they lose on margin and Medicare.

CUTS ELIMINATE SPECIALISTS

Congress must wring out new savings by underpaying doctors and hospitals, and it will be easy because Congress controls the bulk of US health dollars.

Especially hard hit will be the specialists who provide expensive treatment that the White House decided is wasteful and not necessary. Gradually our specialists will be converted into civil servants, as they are in Britain and Canada. All of medicine will function like Medicare does today, but far worse.

HEALTHCARE DEFICITS

The Medicare and Social Security trustees reported recently that healthcare costs are driving out long-term entitlements. With many families taking less pay these days, household budgets are being strained, and health insurance is not affordable.

State and local governments are also feeling the pinch. Money that was earmarked for investment in areas as education and overall economic growth now must go for health care.

Healthcare costs can be reduced over time without impairing the quality of care or outcome. In some areas the volume of healthcare services are skyrocketing.

This higher spending does not appear to have better health outcomes then in areas with less spending. More intensive tests and procedures and additional days in the hospital, and procedures do not promote health.

Some academic medical centers are receiving twice as much Medicare money in the last six months of patients’ lives, with no better medical outcomes.

SAVE 30% WITH NO COMPROMISE IN QUALITY

Pres. Obama feels that health care costs could be reduced 30% or about $700 billion a year without compromising the quality of care. Certainly major efficiency improvements in healthcare are possible, but they don’t add up to one-third of all money spent.

The government wants to obtain more health information technology and measure effects. They push for more research on what works and what doesn't work, eliminating recommended treatments that don't improve health.

Lets provide people with prevention and wellness information so they can stay healthy. Change the financial incentives for doctors so that they are not penalized for delivering high quality care at lower costs. Steps have been taken to provide resources for electronic medical records, patient centered health research, and some prevention and wellness interventions.

Medicare changes are paying hospitals less when they don't get patient treatment right the first time. This can reduce the number of patients who need to endure readmission to hospitals.

RATIONING MEDICAL SERVICES

We all talk about how rationing of medical services will be alarming, but rationing of services already exists today. The insurance industry has contributed to this health care crisis by cherry picking only healthy people to insure.

A single-payer program will ultimately lead to health care rationing of services, especially for the elderly, who are the sickest and most vulnerable. Rationing for patients, will result in fewer treatment options for them, and increased difficulty for them to see a doctor.

HEALTH CARE INSURANCE COMPANIES

Today there are only a couple of healthcare insurance providers. Insurance, by having multiple insurance providers, results in free enterprise and maximum efficiency.

Insurance companies are responsible for the high cost of healthcare. They set the premiums, they do the reimbursements, and they squeeze everyone by their schemes. All of this is the name of profit, not health care.

When you have a different premium price for people with pre-existing illnesses you deny insurance to those who need it the most. Instead of making people wait, elective procedures would just be denied altogether to people who don't have insurance. That's the American way of rationing.

GOVERNMENT AND INSURERS BOTH WIN

Make the insurance companies accountable to insure all patients who have a pre-existing illness. Have one premium level for all insurance participants. Cover the cost of insurance for those who can't afford it through a fund. (It could be funded by taxing activities that increase the risk of illnesses as tobacco and alcohol.)

Many doctors today already are not accepting Medicaid because of dwindling payments, tremendous paperwork, and delays in payment, long waits, and impersonal attention. It will be nice for everyone to have insurance; the problem will be that many will not have doctors.

Medicare already out sources to private health insurers, and this will be a big boon for them. Volume will go up, profit margins will rise, as government-sponsored cost-effectiveness research demonstrates that expensive medical treatments are not proven effective.

This will be another win-win game for the government and health insurers. It's all about numbers. Shipped to preventive health care, and a healthy will be happy and is sick will be shoved aside.

A PUBLIC ONE PAYER SYSTEM

The proposal by Congress that participation in a public plan be mandatory has caused a revolt among all physicians who accept Medicare. Insurance options must coexist with any reform agenda, offering a range of proposals on how to make the health care system efficient and more equitable.

As many options as possible should keep open. Primary care societies and large hospital centers favor a one-payer system. They say if a person wants CONCIERGE care he should buy it.

What really is wrong with a two-tiered system? Provide a basic coverage for those who can't contribute, and get a premium plan for those who can pay. We can all get Water, but if you want bottled water, you have to pay out of your own pocket. Or better yet, give us the Premier health coverage Senators Kennedy and Byrd and the rest of congress are getting. (They certainly are not visited by end of life panels.)

Cover treatments for everything clinically significant, and if you want anything else, feel free to buy it.

PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE

Give patients incentives to seek preventative medicine especially in the management of their health lifestyles such as diabetes and hypertension. Initiate a torrid campaign to prevent fitness nutrition and disease prevention

Stop the massive legal defense testing and redundant tests. Eliminate the need for malpractice insurance that causes massive defensive medical testing.

Have a national licensure for nurses and doctors to decrease the cost of multi-state practices. Eliminate the variations in insurance laws that occur state-by-state and unify the method of determining eligibility for health care insurance.

COMMENTARY

If doctors are not included in the discussion of health care, you will find great resistance. Our bright innovative students will no longer want to spend 14 years for medical education after college-- if they are to be treated as civil servants, told what to prescribe, how long they can talk with a patient, and be forced to use cookbook medicine.

Our medical care will greatly suffer with this 1100 page health plan. Ask your doctor what he thinks, and he will give you an earful. A bad plan can’t be packaged beautifully and sold as a great plan.

Lets go back to the drawing board, reset our thinking, take some time and come up with a plan that makes sense and we can all agree on.

And lets hear from our doctors on what they think is needed. Do you want your health plan run as our postal service is run? They are 10 billion in the red and lost over 2.5 billion this quarter. Let people who know health care give us the answers, not our congressional lawyers.

What do you think? Visit www.drneedles.com for more commentary on controversial medical issues.

CANCER CHARACTERISTICS

As a medical physician for over 50 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary that results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Let me know how we are doing. Your constructive comments are always appreciated. Click the RSS post button on the upper right hand corner if you would like to receive by email our future medical blogs.
Visit http://www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on healing.

THE BEHAVIOR OF CANCER

We all have cancer cells in our bodies. They are like snowflakes, and only cause a problem when they become snowballs. You have cancer cells occur between 6 to 10 times in your lifetime. When a doctor tells you there are no more cancer cells in your body after his treatment, it just means that tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached a detectable size of a snowball. If you have a strong immune system, your cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming snowballs.

NUTRITION AND DIET IN CANCER

Everyone with cancer has multiple nutritional deficiencies often caused by lifestyle, genetics, food, and the environment. To overcome this, change your diet and add supplements to spark up your immune system. A good way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding them foods that cancer needs to multiply.

Cancer cells are tumor-genic and independent of their local environment because they acquire genetic and epigenetic changes. Local normal cells may permit and even nourish the growth of transformed cells. These tumor-genic cancer cells secrete signals that change the surrounding tissues. (Source: Cell 135, 437,2008)

Raw vegetables and beans sprouts, provide live enzymes and reach your cells within 15 minutes. They nourish and enhance the growth of healthy cells. All enzymes are destroyed at temperatures over 104°. Supplements of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and omega-3, help your body's killer cells to destroy cancer cells.

Cancer cells can only live in an acid environment. A meat diet is very acidic, and contains antibiotics, growth hormones, and parasites---which are all harmful especially if you have cancer. Meat protein is difficult to digest, and needs a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat in your bowel becomes putrefied and produces more toxins. If you don’t eat meat, more enzymes can be freed to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allow the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer.

A better choice is a diet of fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds and nuts, along with a small amount of fruit to help your body become alkaline.

Avoid caffeine products like coffee tea and chocolate. Green tea is a better choice since it has cancer fighting properties.

Drink filtered or purified water to avoid heavy metals and toxins present in tap water. Do not drink distilled water since it is acidic.

Cancer cells can't live in an oxygenated environment. Exercise, deep breathing, and oxygen therapy are means to destroy cancer cells.

ENVIRONMENT AND CANCER

What are the environmental toxins causing cancer in your family? Check your surroundings. If cancer has hit a number of your family members, don't assume its genetics. It could still be environmental toxins that cause cancer. If everyone grew up in the same house, ate the same foods, were exposed to similar things, use the same products, and breath the same air, it may well be genetic.

You can help your body remove an overload of toxins ingested through diet or the environment by natural body cleansing.

Dry cleaners use perchlorethylene, also called perc. This highly hazardous air pollutant has been linked to cancer and neurological damage. It is used in tens of thousands cleaning operations nationwide. The EPA has given the dry cleaning industry 15 years to replace their old machines that cause this problem.

Cell phones, cell towers, high-energy electrical wires, have all been implicated in cancer risks. WHO has recently placed tanning booths on the high-risk cancer list.

CHEMOTHERAPY AND RADIATION

The aim of chemotherapy is to poison the rapidly growing cancer cells. Unfortunately they also destroy rapidly growing healthy cells found in your bone marrow, bowel, liver, kidney, heart and lungs.

Radiation destroys cancer cells, by burning and scarring them. They also, however, damage healthy cells tissues and organs.

Both chemotherapy and radiation will shrink the cancer size. When the body builds up too many toxins from the treatment, the immune system is compromised. Both treatments can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery often causes cancer cells to spread to other sites.

VISIT www.drneedles.com for more discussion of controversial medical subject. Your comments are always appreciated.

HEALTH PLAN SOLUTIONS

As a medical physician for over 50 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary that results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Let me know how we are doing. Your constructive comments are always appreciated. Click the RSS post button on the upper right hand corner if you would like to receive by email our future medical blogs.
Visit http://www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on healing.

HEALTH PLAN SOLUTIONS

We all need access to healthcare, and cherish our doctor-patient relationship, but we also want minimal interference of the federal government and want the users of healthcare to keep costs down.

The government could make contributions to a health saving account set up on behalf of unemployed and low income Americans. Your fund would be used to buy high deductible health insurance and to pay for medical expenses (up to the insurance plans deductible).

TRANSPARENT PRICING

It's hard today to price shop for your services when you get on the phone. Asking a doctor's staff about fees result in annoyances and failure to obtain cost information. Most of us would like hospitals to have one price for every procedure and an hourly rate for every service they give. Then you, your employer, and insurance company, can make cost-effective decisions. The services of doctors should also become more transparent in their pricing. The market will decide.

NO THIRD PARTY PAYMENTS

Dentists, veterinarians, lawyers, all insist on direct payment and avoid the distortions created by a third party client.

If doctors refuse to accept direct third-party payments for their services and resume what was once a standard practice of setting their own fees and requiring payment from you at time of services, it would result in lower costs, improve quality of care, and return to true confidentiality.

It seems the public debate is setting Americans against each other. The White House insists it is in possession of all the answers to the inequalities and ills that have long affected us Americans, whether you know it or not. If you are opposed to these answers you are a cynic or operative, or represent a powerful interest group, or bent on destroying the present administration.

GOVERNMENT POSITION

The reiterating government message is that the health-care proposals as submitted are good for everybody. Healthcare is a human right, and the only honest player is the government. For any healthcare plan to work, it must be universal and guaranteed by the government. All this is fine but we want more than generalities before we are prepared to buy.

Healthcare must be more market friendly and cover the working poor. What it will cost and how we pay for it, are questions unanswered. Everyone agrees there is a need for to lower costs, have more choices, and provide more coverage for everyone. The unanswered question is: Will a government plan achieve these goals? Such a plan must be made more clear and pragmatic.

The government wants a health overhaul public option, in which the federal government offered its own health insurance plan to compete with private insurers. This public option is essential, they say, to keep private insurers honest. (This public option was never even mentioned in the platform on healthcare during the elections.)

WHY ARE WE TROUBLED?

The government quickly took a series of unprecedented actions to stabilize our economy-financial sector, the housing industry, and finally the auto industry.

This resulted in the government owning controlling interest in an insurance company (American International Group), a car company, Chrysler, and 60% of another car company (General Motors), and the largest U.S bank (Citigroup).

The White House immediately moved into debating an overhaul of the nation's healthcare system. Jumping from our troubled economy to a debate on healthcare is difficult for Americans to accept at this time. It’s hard to buy the idea that a solution to our recession hinges on an immediate need for big changes in our healthcare.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

Deep down, we are all concerned about the role of government in America's economy. We don't want to be bullied, moralize, or given speeches in generalities. Despite President Obama's eloquence and capacity to connect, he must reach those of us who have been sitting quietly in their homes listening to him.

Everyone is wondering what the shape and size of our government's role in the economy should be, after months of exceptional government intervention to solve our deep recession. The initial government goal in health reform was for universal coverage for all Americans, not a government insurance program.

The prescription drug benefit plan for Medicare included a public option for the federal government to organize drug plans for seniors if the insurers didn’t offer enough choices. This option was never used, but it's in the law itself.

Perhaps such a public insurance plan option might be acceptable in the same way as used in the prescription plan. If private insurers aren't offering enough options in all markets, a federal health plan could go into effect. Or better yet, the public option might be replaced with a nonprofit insurance cooperative as an alternative. This would not require the government to be directly involved in the health business, and might be acceptable for those that wish the government's role in the health industry be reduced.

What do you think? Visit www.drneedles.com for more discussions of controversial medical subjects.