MORE AUTOPSIES NEEDED

Autopsies verify the cause of death and determine what was wrong and what was missed.  Problematic cases must be investigated for training, education and research purposes. Autopsies must again monitor the effect of therapy, especially new drugs, and the reliability of new diagnostic procedures and will benefit patient’s families, hospital staffs, and the future of medicine.  Autopsies have all the answers.


As a medical physician for over 51 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects, and help your read betwwen the lines. You must 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. This results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Visit drneedles is blogging" at the end of each blog for a complete alphabetical list of all my blogs
Visit http://www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on mind, body, and spirit healing.

MORE AUTOPSIES NEEDED

When a plane crashes, everyone looks for the black box. The contents of this box explain all the details that happened prior to the crash. When your body crashes, no one looks for medical answers found in your body’s black  box organs.  Autopsies have all the answers.

 Historically, the cause of death is wrong 30% of the time for major diseases like heart attacks, cancers, strokes, and pneumonia.

THE DOCTOR’S DOCTOR

 Up until the 1960s, pathologists played the role of the Supreme Court of medicine, and were labeled the “doctor’s  doctor”.  After performing an autopsy, they correlated the medical history with their autopsy findings to confirm the cause of death within a reasonable degree.

 Residents and interns flocked to conferences, which acted like senatorial subcommittees, all discussing the various ramifications of the patient's illness.

          

The attending doctor, whose patient was being discussed, filled in details of his treatment. The house staff became aware of the various possibilities of treatment  after reviewing lab tests and symptoms.  Often the last 2 to 3 days of illness, resulted in many surprises for doctors.   These conference resulted in better training and provided better quality medicine.

 THE NEED FOR EXCELLENCE

 The quality of a hospital was gauged by the percentage of autopsies it had performed in a given year. The house staff, interns, and residents were well aware of the need to obtain an autopsy, as this affected their hospital ranking

 WHAT CAUSED THE DEMISE OF AUTOPSIES?

 Hospital rates were around 50% of all deaths in the 1950s, and a minimum of 25% autopsies were required. Today it’s about 5% in community hospitals, and fewer than 10% in University hospitals.  Lack of money, lack of standards, worry over legal liability, and even today, the lack of trained pathologists who can do autopsies,  are all reasons for the decline.

 It all started in 1971, with a decision by the Joint Accreditations for Hospitals to eliminate minimal autopsy requirements from hospital accreditation regulations

Health insurance companies had  weaved the cost of autopsies into hospital reimbursable expenses to  pay for the autopsies.  Cost-conscious HMOs refused to cover them, even in malpractice cases. They focused on financial healthcare, and only would reimburse the cost of getting someone well.

75% of deaths in this country are Medicare deaths. Medicare refuses to pay a professional service for these procedures to hospitals and physicians. Government funding of high-tech research has reduced the value of autopsies as a research tool for hospitals.

 Government insurance programs, Medicare, Medicaid, all disbanded their support for autopsies.  Our cost-conscious insurance companies see autopsies as money losers.  Medicare also pays a fixed amount to hospitals, bundling patient payments and do not earmark these funds specifically for autopsies. The pathologist no longer saw these funds.  Managed care also tell us that autopsies are built into the hospital contracts. They will not reimburse the patience family unless they are convinced it is of value. Well, administrators can’t get federal grant money for doing autopsies.

 Pathologists have  become businessmen, and govern huge laboratory screening centers, chemical biologic cancer markers, Pap smears, and their bread and butter biopsies.

Their autopsy rooms often have not been used for the past 50 years. They are located in the basement of hospitals, rarely opened and certainly not modernized.

 With the advent of imaging tests (as CAT scans, MRIs, pet scans), insurance companies no longer feel an obligation to pay for autopsies. Hospitals are coerced into thinking the information they get from all the testing and imaging are enough to reasonably presume the cause of death.

IS THERE REALLY A NEED FOR AUTOPSIES?

 With so many bypass surgeries performed, stent implantations, pacemakers, and ontological cancer treatments, we certainly lack many medical answers.

 Did the bypass surgery really open up coronaries?

Was the pacemaker functioning?

Did the stent fragment, breakup, and lodge in the lungs?

Did the patient truly have hardening of the arteries?

Did Grandpa have Alzheimer’s or did he get many mini strokes to the brain that were unrecognized?

Was there an ongoing unrecognized infection in the kidneys?

Did the liver quit functioning?

How well  did the anti-cholesterol drugs work?

What side effects occurred to many of these organs after taking multiple drugs?

 DOES IT REALLY MATTER?

 Certainly doctors do not care to have their medical treatments questioned.  If the facts came out, what percentage of doctors would be sued?

Without tort reform,is it better to bury one’s mistakes?

 Do drug companies want to know that their medications did not work?

  Do radiologists want to know that they missed some tumors in their imaging readings?

 Do medical device manufacturers want to know the malfunctions of their device?

 Does the hospital want to know truly where it stands in its medical ranking?

Do the trial lawyers want to lose their clients?

 THE OBAMA QUEST FOR QUALITY MEDICINE

 The White House, after running a series of retrospective studies, have questioned the value of certain surgical procedures, drug therapies, and imaging tests, as MRIs?

The administration feels they can remove 30% of the procedures being now done, limit patient hospitalizations and re-hospitalizations, endorse generic drugs over prescription drugs, and eliminate certain procedures as colonoscopies, laparoscopies, and cardiac catheterizations. All this is in the name of removing waste from Medicare.

 Retrospective studies, as poll taking, can always be twisted.  Their statistics is like garbage, easy to collect, and hard to get rid of.  Far better, and less costly, would be to put our pathologists back in the autopsy room to tell us what really happened, and what was really medically necessary to prevent the death of your loved one.

 To return autopsies again to their rightful place in medicine, insurance companies and government health insurances, must begin again to pay for these procedures.  The results obtained and the costs incurred, will be certainly much less than the many ambiguous retrospective studies now being done.

 Secondly, tort reform is essential to obtain the cooperation of the medical doctor and hospital staff.

And  in the end,” the truth will set you free!”.

 COMMENTARY

 Autopsies verify the cause of death and determine what was wrong and what was missed.  Problematic cases must be investigated for training, education and research purposes. Autopsies must again monitor the effect of therapy, especially new drugs, and the reliability of new diagnostic procedures and will benefit patient’s families, hospital staffs, and the future of medicine.

Unexpected findings can be uncovered, that will be of great benefit to the continuing education of doctors and nurses.  Mortality can be studied in more detail, and we can certainly learn more about living from the study of the dead.  It will make clinicians diagnose diseases more accurately, and improve their therapy.

 Autopsies tell us the true cause of death. Today doctors sign death certificates saying the immediate cause of death was heart failure, secondary to cerebral anoxia, and secondary to whatever the admitting hospital diagnosis was.

 Visit www.drneedles.com for more discussion of important  controversial medical topics.

SOURCES

Am J Med 1986; 80:665-67

J Clin Pathol 1987; 40:459-461AMA 1987; 258:364-369. 1

Scripps Howard News Service’s seven-month review of  4.9 million deaths in the United States in 2005 and 2006.

THE CHEMISTRY OF GOOD EATING

With the rise in obesity, heart disease, and cancers, it is important to zero in on our eating habit problems.  What is the chemistry of good eating?

As a medical physician for over 51 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects, and help your read betwwen the lines. You must 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. This results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Visit drneedles is blogging" at the end of each blog for a complete alphabetical list of all my blogs

Visit http://www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on mind, body, and spirit healing.

THE CHEMISTRY OF  GOOD  EATING

With the rise in obesity, heart disease, and cancers, it is important to zero in on our eating habit problems.  What is the chemistry of good eating?

BEFORE YOU EAT
When you are about to eat, shut the TV, avoid talking, and lock out distractions. When you sit down to eat, chew each mouthful thoroughly, and eat slowly.  Thank your inner spirit for every bite and allow your inner powers to enter your food. Give thanks for your food before and after eating.   Eat only when you are hungry, and don't over eat.

All the ingredients in food works in synergy, where one and one adds up to always more than two.  Certainly a vitamin supplement may be helpful, but certainly not as good as eating the right foods. 

FRESH FOODS ESSENTIAL 
 
Be sure your vegetables are not wilted, are grown locally, and are organic.
Prepare your vegetables just before eating them. When cooking your vegetables, use steel, glass, or ceramic pots for cooking and   avoid the microwave.   Cook your vegetables very slowly in their own juices without adding  water. Once sliced, the vitamins and enzymes begin to degenerate. Prepare just what you need, and discard the left overs , since they are of very little value tomorrow.
 
FRUITS

 Ten percent  of your diet should be fruit. To stay healthy, it is important to keep your body pH in an alkaline state. Acidity is toxic to your organs and alkalinity supports your organ system.

Citrus fruits put your body in an acid state.  And acid fruits like strawberries, pineapples, and all citrus should be avoided if you are battling cancer. Since cancer loves sugar, sweet fruits as bananas, dates, prunes, and raisins, and sweet apples should also be avoided.

 Fruits should never be eaten after a meal.  It should be eaten at least one half hour before a meal and  always eaten alone.    The fruit should preferably be in season, raw or rehydrated.  Fruit does not stay in your stomach long, and hence can be eaten at bedtime without causing excess acid and heart burn.

MIXING OF FOODS AT MEALS

 Meat and potatoes don't go well together. Vegetables go well with carbohydrates or proteins, but never with both.  Carbohydrates as bread, corn, dried beans and peas, cereals, pasta, potatoes, pumpkin, squash, and yams,  all go well together with vegetables, but not with meats.

VEGETABLES

Eat half  of your vegetables raw, and the other 50% likely cooked.  Raw vegetables have tough walls that must be broken down to get the nutrition. A food processor can do the job. Remember that the enzymes in raw vegetables are processed quickly and degenerate fast. The best vegetable juice is carrot,  and is 10 times more powerful then the beta-carotene it contains.

Your body organs, especially the liver and pancreas, needs enzymes.  Every vegetable contains the right enzyme for its own digestion and supplies you with additional digestive enzymes. Because our foods are overcooked, our diet completely lacks certain enzymes.   

Cruciferous vegetables, as asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli,  brussels sprouts, cabbage, and kale all containindole-3-carbinol. This carbinol  stimulates your liver enzymes, lowering  hormone levels and aiding your immune system.

Watercress, spinach, dark green vegetables and eggs all contain lutein a cancer battler. Besides lutein, spinach and collard greens contain zeasanthin, a powerful antioxidants that can't be bought in a health food store.   Asparagus because of his high histone levels is a perfect anti-oxidant, anti aging, and anti-cancerogenic vegetable.

Yellow vegetables (pumpkins and carrots) contain a powerful antioxidant, beta carotene.   Tomatoes contain lycopene, an antioxidant of the carotneoid family.  It is very stable and Is present in cooked tomatoes and canned tomatoes as well.

WATER

Water should be avoided 15 minutes before a meal at up to three hours after the meal.   Since the temperature of digestion is 100°F, water and beverages should all be consumed at room temperature, without ice cubes.  It is essential to drink 8 to 10 glasses of water a day to prevent dehydration.   If you are drinking a caffeinated soft drink, realize that dehydrates you, and you will need to add another cup of water to your diet.

Remember that artificial drinks and caffeinated drinks all contain fluoridated chlorinated water. Fruit juices are processed and have extra sugar added. Your best bet is carrots and vegetable juices.  Whole fruit juices are good if added to filtered water.  Herbal teas are just fine.  Tap water contains bacteria, algae, chloroform, heavy metals, and nitrates. Filtered or bottled water are better.

FOODS TO ELIMINATE
 
Sugar substitutes and even sugar place a  heavy strain on your liver.  Avoid milk, white flour and rice, sugar, coffee, and caffeinated tea, processed foods, foods with additives, fried foods, and animal meat.  Avoid  all  oils other than olive oil.
 
CANCER  LOVING  FOODS
Cancer is a notorious lover of sugar.  If you have a cancer, oranges and other citrus fruit should be avoided. All sugar substitutes  should be avoided along with fried foods, foods with chemical additives, and any food cooked in a microwave oven.  All partially hydrogenated oils should be avoided. This means no frozen foods, creamy soups, cocoas, cheese products, etc.
Avoid all pickles and smoked foods, processed foods, salt cured foods, and foods with trans fatty oils.
 
Alcohol must be avoided to keep the liver in top shape to metabolize vitamin A.   Avoid all salad dressings that only have vinegar. Best to choose apple cider vinegar, since it contains in addition to acetic acid,  malic  acid which aids digestion. 

Avoid red meats and processed meats, and lunch meats. Red meat is high in iron which reacts with oxygen, creating free radicals. Meat takes longer to pass through the GI system, and this causes gas, increases fermentation time, and other bowel problems.
 
FOODS TO ADD TO YOUR DIET
Raw vegetables fresh and dried fruits, whole grains, lightly cooked vegetables, sweet potatoes,
white potatoes, beans, yogurt, kefir, nuts, herbal teas, vegetable soup, cruciferous vegetables all are great.

WHOLE GRAINS
Whole grains should comprise 20% of your diet. All refined polished grains and flour products should be avoided.  Brown rice, barley, oats, corn on the cob are fine.

SEEDS AND NUTS
 Seeds and nuts should compromise 5% of your diet.  Eat them raw or crushed and sprinkle them over your soups and salads.  Almonds and hazelnuts are the best.  Avoid peanuts, since they contain carcinogens from mold.   Once nut containers are open keep them in the refrigerator or the freezer, since they contain volatile oils that can go bad quickly.

LEGUMES
Make 10% of your  diet consist of well cooked legumes.   Black beans, kidney beans, peas, lentils, and Miso, are great. Bean s are very anti-carcinogenic, filled with fiber, and are clear of fats.

FATS AND OILS
A diet low in fat can kill a cancer patient.   Olive oil is essential as well as flax oil. Omega oils and flax oils are very protective against breast cancer  and has reversed cancers.  Omega -3 fatty acids slows the aging process and heart disease by preventing shortening of telomers  (JAMA, Jan. 18,2009)

However, fats and oils,  margerine, and mayonnaise should be avoided.   And remember, over processed foods, trans fatty oils, and partially hydrogenated oils, are all deadly.

SALT
 Table salt should be avoided. Naturally processed sea salt, tamari, and seaweeds are ok. Since cancer causes an imbalance of acid/alkaline , and sodium/potassium imbalance, and a lack of iodine,  sea salt and sea vegetables are beneficial.

GARLIC
Fresh Garlic is a must, (5-7 cloves per day)  The phyto-chemicals in garlic and onions increase T cell activity and contain a form of germanium, which helps tissues hold more oxygen.)  Remember, cancer hates oxygen).  Allium, found in onions and garlic, inhibits stomach cancers.

MUSHROOMS
Mushrooms function as medicines. Their polysaccharides raise immunity , activate macrophages and T. lymphocytes, stimulate interferon, and raise immunity.  Reishi and Shitake mushrooms both increase T-cell production.

GREEN TEA
Green tea lowers your blood pressure and your cholesterol, stabilize your blood sugar, kills bacteria, and blocks carcinogens. It has an anti-cancerous effect on your stomach,
liver, skin, lung, and esophagus.   Green tea has four times as many active compounds as black tea.

YOGURT
If you have bowel problems, lactobacillus acidophilus might fine-tune your digestive system.  Live culture yogurt daily increases the production of interferon, lymphocytes
cultured milk products.   Kefir, has been shown to have antitumor activity. Since the Lactobacillus is alive you must keep it refrigerated and use it  as soon as possible.

COMMENTARY
 
Combining certain foods cause complete digestion to take longer, tires you out, and allows the food to ferment longer, allowing toxins to enter your blood.  Fresh organic foods are a must.  Pesticides lock onto receptors in the body and stimulate cell division. As your body makes digestive enzymes, it also makes other powerful enzymes that support your immune system.  You must strive to keep your body in an alkaline state to prevent overload to your kidneys and liver.
After all: “You are what you eat!”

Related Posts
Cancer Causing agents
Asparagus, Perfect Cancer Fighting Vegetable
Restaurants cause Gerd
Is bottled water better?



Visit www.drneedles.com for more discussion of controversial medical subjects.
 
SOURCES
JAMA 1.18.2009
JOURNAL OF CIRCULATION, JUNE,2004
Greenpeace Everyone’s Guide to Toxics in the Home.
Clark, Cure for All Cancers
 David G Williams SECRETS OF LIFE EXTENSION
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1984;
Frähm, A Cancer Battle Plan.
Howell: Prescriptions for Nutritional Healing,
Rendleman A Man With an Urgent Message,"

NO MEDICAL CARE IN SMALL TOWNS

if patients can’t get access to their doctor. there is no way  health care reform  can work in small rural towns in America With the new pressures on solo practice and push for large medical groups, seniors will continue to be deprived of local medical health care in small towns and rural areas.

As a medical physician for over 51 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects, and help your read betwwen the lines. You must 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. This results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Visit drneedles is blogging" at the end of each blog for a complete alphabetical list of all my blogs

Visit http://www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on mind, body, and spirit healing.

MEDICAL   CARE  IN  RURAL  TOWNS

if patients can’t get access to their doctor. there is no way  health care reform  can work in small rural towns in America With the new pressures on solo practice and push for large medical groups, seniors will continue to be deprived of local medical health care in small towns and rural areas.

With the new economics of medical practice, the age of a sole practitioner is gone.  Census data shows the country's most rapidly aging places are not places that people flock to in retirement. They are really the remote places many people flee from. Young people leave those areas for education and jobs and most never returned.

The old remain, are isolated and stranded, have no public transportation, cell phones are unreliable, and medical care is rarely accessible. They wait in hopes of a new doctor to replace the one retired several years ago.

 Being churchgoers, the older people find their churches closed, and they become separated from their children, grandchildren, and friends. With age comes expiring driver's licenses that are difficult to renew with age. Socialize becomes difficult in town.  Many areas of the country need medical care that's not available to them.

REGIONAL DISCREPANCIES

Regional discrepancies are creating a nation of areas that have great health care and those that have none. This is likely to grow because doctors gravitate to affluent localities in the United States that have more than the medical help they need.

For every doctor who lives and practices in a poor area, four other doctors settle in an over served area. This poor distribution of our valuable and expensive healthcare resources has put great strain on areas that need doctors.

MONEY NOT THE ANSWER

We certainly must invest in more doctors and additional costs to cover the 46 million added to the insured patient payroll.  Students and doctors have great financial pressures, the smaller the town the larger percentage the economy that is involved in rural health care.

Provision to encourage more cooperation among doctors would not apply to areas needed like chronic diseases and diabetes and congestive heart failure. The Senate has great ideas but their execution is problematic.

Primary care doctors are offered great  loan incentives and loan  payments to locate in rural areas.  For the doctor who is truly interested in rural practice, the cost of living is not an issue.

MEDICAL SCHOOLS KEEP CONTROL 

Medical schools must do a better job with the right admission policies, the right students. Small colleges that prepare pre-professionals can help them stay connected with rural areas. Medical schools don't want to give up the control they have and don't want to change existing studies.
 Many doctors who would choose to serve in rural areas. Medical education does not select and train doctors who can locate in rural areas.  Medical education programs that choose the right students are able to meet underserved inner-city and rural needs. Here there is limited or no access to physician services.

Choosing students who demonstrate emphasis on service in their education, volunteer work, admission essays and so forth, might be provided incentives for students who have the right attitude and characteristics. They need the right mindset.

There still are physicians who are hungry to serve in communities who want the best care. but increasing the supply of general practitioners to those areas will not happen without the right  incentives given to students who show the right attitude and characteristics

NEW HEALTH REFORM INCREASES SMALL TOWN SHORTAGES

Unlike the past, the doctors are likely to take salary jobs in group practices, clinics and help networks. The age of a sole practitioner is gone. Shortages now occur in some specialties as general practice, internal medicine, and OB/GYN

How can the new ObamaCare health system strengthen the provider workforce and make available  high-quality hospital services so that people in rural areas have access to the best of medical care?  With the new pressures on solo practice and push for large medical groups, seniors will be deprived of local medical health care.

Medical leaders have received government assistance to increase the size of their classes saying this would trickle down more students into the underserved areas. This was not successful, and the funding for these efforts have dried out.

A major issue for serving these underserved communities, is the economics of medical practice. Training in world areas that would deliver economic benefit to them has not been supported. There are no training programs for doctors in rural areas. There is no support for better paid for general practitioners in rural areas. Doctors considering practice in underserved area asked themselves whether it is economically feasible to do so.

QUALITY OF LIFE SEEMS INFERIOR TO DOCTORS
 
Most rural people work hard to support the quality of life they have and do not see it as inferior. They do not understand why people put up with urban culture. Inner-city as many obstacles about personal safety, dealing with intractable social problems, and working in poorer surroundings.  The Midwest has fewer divisions where children of all economic levels get a decent chance at college or medical school. Yet most of them leave and serve the coastal areas.

Are we willing to take funds away from high-cost cities like Los Angeles and New York and give underserved cities more money?  If Obama is right, and the US healthcare system wastes over $500 billion where will this waste be cut from?

THE ISOLATED RURAL DOCTOR

In rural areas, the doctor is isolated, there is a lack of employment opportunities for his spouse, limited educational options for his kids, and lack of satisfying cultural and civic output.  All of these negative factors affect  the young doctor's  practice options. Rural life is a different culture, not a lack of culture. We need to deemphasize the necessity for doctors to permanently settle in areas unattractive to them. 
 
Doctors  don't go to rural areas because of less control over work hours, isolation from other medical doctors, and social reasons.  Doctors, who are self-employed, must provide their own health insurance retirement insurance and malpractice insurance

SMALL TOWNS NEED THE BEST DOCTORS 
 
The suggestion has been made to expand the national health service and have new doctors spend two or three years in public service, perhaps in return for substantial education loan forgiveness. The rural patients will refuse to go to any new and inexperienced or bad doctors in contrast two urban patients who don't know about these areas. Medical schools may be forced to match extra dollars for their funding.

 This problem can't  be solved  by supplying general practitioners to the area.  Some suggest placing doctors in underserved areas for substantial periods of time.  Rural communities do not  want temporary doctors or doctor rejects.   Areas lacking in physicians are forced to offer visa assistance for foreign doctors and medical school repayments to entice doctors to practice in those areas.

The small town needs the best and not the worst doctors. The general practitioner would not be able in a pinch to call a specialist, an expert, nor a nurse. His own skill, knowledge and resourcefulness are needed by the patient.

SMALL TOWNS DON’T NEED TEMPORARY DOCTORS
 
By pushing the most inexperienced doctors and to rural areas, we are ensuring net rural people bypass those held services in favor of those in larger towns. People leave rural communities for health reasons and this causes problems for the rural economy in many ways.
Many people want to have a lifelong relationship with a single doctor. Having two or three-year relationships with fully trained doctors is better than nothing. 

We can't rely on temporary doctors, and must develop training and distribute doctors were needed. We need to graduate more role doctors.  Doctors and patients must guess to know each other, the environment, and populations they serve. Rural practices, like marriages, are found through courtship, and become effective after three or more years of experience.  Doctors are not trained to work in rural setups nor are they given proper facilities and service structure to work there. Doctors  should be given financial and professional incentives and given a conducive environment to keep them there.
.
SMALL TOWNS MUST CHANGE THEIR THINKING

Doctors in rural areas must receive the backing of the community to avoid and control frequent transfers and postings of doctors. Duty time should be fixed for the doctor so that he could take rest and perform his other responsibilities, otherwise payment for overtime should be made.

COMMENTARY

There is no way health care reform can work in rural America if patients can’t get access to their doctor.  These are tough economic times for rural America and great budget woes exist. Young people may leave and Main Street may close, but Seniors will stay in their rural homes no matter what, because they are rooted and anchored to the land.

They may have one foot in the grave but the other foot keeps fighting. They had one plan, but our government has another.  They played their cards the best way they could . They look around familiar surroundings that they've known since they were young, and they see memories everywhere.

Hardship has become the norm in their lives. Friends tell them they might besoon in an assisted living community somewhere. But this goes in one ear and out the other ear. Seniors want to stay where they are.

The town’s Main Street and cafés are empty. They sit and look out their picture windows and the landscape is drenched with memories. Sitting and watching TV becomes today's activity.  Health care seems everything to them.  They wait for the next election to right things again.

Visit  www.drneedles.com for more commentaries on contemporary controversial medical subjects.

RELATED POSTS 
DOCTOR SHORTAGE 
DOCTOR REDISTRIBUTION ESSENTIAL
THE BUSINESS OF MEDICINE
 Source: American Medical Association, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the US, 2007.

MEDICAID STRAPS STATE SPENDING

With most states adding an extra million Medicaid recipients to their rolls, how will the financially strapped states that have no money pay for future Medicaid heath care costs? 

As a medical physician for over 51 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects, and help your read betwwen the lines. You must 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. This results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Visit drneedles is blogging" at the end of each blog for a complete alphabetical list of all my blogs

Visit http://www.americanacupuncture.com/ for more detailed information on mind, body, and spirit healing.

       
    MEDICAID STRAPS STATE SPENDING   

    With most states adding an extra million Medicaid recipients to their rolls, how will the financially strapped states that have no money pay for future Medicaid heath care cost?
   After Congress gave $200 billion to states to prevent them from a fiscal calamity, the States find they are in a bigger financial hole than they had in the past.  They should be short  $260 billion for the next 2 years. Will they get more free money?   California, nearly bankrupt, is in a $6 billion hole, despite raising their income and sales tax.  Big New York is down to its last dollar, and revenues are going down, worsened by their stimulus gift.  Perhaps billionaire third term mayor Blumberg can lend them some money.

WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?
 
Many states used the money to offer benefits and childcare programs. The government gave $80 billion to cover Medicare health care costs for unemployed workers.  That extra free money will vanish by 2011.  The states will have an extra one million people on the Medicaid rolls and no money to pay for it.  

Perhaps the health reform bill will kick in, as it has for the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Nebraska, and many others after Senators sold their votes for Medicaid money. Once these states increase their Medicaid recipients, they will have to match federal money with state money, no easy task will decreasing state revenues.

Only 2 states, Texas and Indiana, had the smarts to turn down their share of the $7 billion unemployment insurance, knowing once federal funds dried up, their states could not pay the benefits.    

STRINGS ATTACHED TO FREE MONEY  
 As with the stimulus money to banks, GM, and Chrysler, there were many strings attached to these financial gifts.
Environmental grants given needed matching requirements.  To get the dollars the cities facing huge deficits will need to spend matching dollars.
Construction projects now underway require that they will have to raise the costs to pay inflated union salaries.
States taking even a dollar of stimulus cash for 15 programs from road building to welfare can’t cut their spending, despite being broke. Sure makes the states  slaves to the federal government.

Medicaid benefits can’t be cut below the level on July 1, 2008.  That was by coincidence the peak of the last economic cycle, when states had lots of money.

The state of Washington, since accepting education stimulus money along with other states to the tune of $820 million, can only cut their $6.8 billion dollar budget by 9%.  85% of its budget is exempt from cuts and nearly 75% of college funding is also off the table   Most states are finding revenues down by more than 10%, many lower than 4 years ago.

COMMENTARY
 
Congress can’t balance its own federal budget, but is also dragging states that can’t balance their own budgets in the hole with them.     
The federal stimulus suckered them into having little choice but to raise taxes to meet their constitutional balanced budget requirements thanks to Nancy Pelosi.    Congress claimed the stimulus funds would prevent economically harmful state tax increases. Last year 10 states had to raise their income or sales taxes and another 15% have put taxes on everything from beer to cell phones tohunting and fishing. The states accepting free federal money had to  raise taxes anyway.   
 
Well here it is an election year!   Congress wants to pass another hundred billion dollars aid for this failing states to keep the mess of the first stimulus growing. Governors might tell Congress to shove the money and the rules and let the states adjust their taxes according to their lower revenues.  


RELATED POSTS
THE BUSINESS OF MEDICINE
LESS MONEY HURTS HEALTH CARE (1)
HEALTH BILL WINNERS AND LOSER
SENATE BILL PACKED WITH PAYOFFS


Visit www.drneedles.com for more discussion of controversial medical subjects.  Your comments are always appreciated.



Sources:  Center on Budget and Policy Priorities/   WSJ 1.2.10

OUR LEFT BRAIN POLITICIANS

OUR LEFT BRAIN GOVERNMENT
        Our county is becoming more left-brain each year..  Our government is run by left brain individuals who are narrow focused and blind to things conveyed indirectly. The right brain is no longer a factor in our thinking.

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OUR LEFT BRAIN POLITICIANS

        Our county is becoming more left-brain each year..  Our government is run by left brain individuals who are narrow focused and blind to things conveyed indirectly. The right brain is no longer a factor in our thinking.

By simplifying and making rigid rules, we have become disconnected with each other.  Business vs. labor, unemployed vs. employed, rich vs. poor, uninsured vs. insured, immigrant vs. natives, conservative vs. liberal, white vs. black, seniors vs. young, republicans vs. democrats, abortion advocates vs. pro-life, gay marriages vs. church marriages, singles vs. married, family vs. singles, educated vs. uneducated, on and on.        

To stay in power, left brain politicians simplify and disconnect us from each other by establishing many rigid mechanical rules.  This is a way for them to stay in control.  Despite their increased wealth and prosperity, this apparently has not made politicians happier.  To achieve their goals, politicians  can’t see what is obvious, but deal only with the predictable.  Without ever considering all the aspects of our lives, they have made our society full of rules   
    Left-brain politicians see us as intrinsically meaningless fragments that must be replaced with paper rigid rules. There is no room for ambiguity, imagination, or the idea that opposite things are compatible.  (YIN--YANG)
   
    They deal within a closed system, and strip away the complexity of our health system and, through the media, systematize our way of thinking.   This allows them to manipulate us, pursue their own agendas, and prevent us from being aware that we are all part of the whole, called America.   
       
     HEALTH CARE REFORM  EXAMPLE
      Assume a left brained politician has a stroke, paralyzing his right arm.  After the stroke, his left-brain is completely in control. Even though half of his body is useless, he now denies that anything is wrong.   He may even say that the dead parts of his body belong to someone else, in the next bed. Always optimistic, singing a happy tune with other left brained politicians, he walks towards total destruction.
 
   RIGHT BRAIN  
 
    Right  brain orientated people pays attention to the whole world and see  things in context as inseparably interconnected.  They recognize  everything that’s nonverbal, metaphorical,  ironic, and humorous.   The problem is we must see the entire country as it is, before we can simplify and disconnect it.  Both right and left-brains must work in harmony, not independently.    By seeing the relationship between the parts and the whole, we can see the problems caused by rigid, fixed and simplified left brain thinking.     Today, ambiguity is seen as a sign of obscurity and there is no room for imagination and metaphors.

The left-brain is concerned with manipulation and left-brain politicians see mechanical models as the only framework for understanding the world and us.  The left-brain gets locked into its own point of view, and does the same things in the same way it has always been done, and never does more.  
 
 NEED FOR HARMONY
 To return to harmony and balance, we need some right brain thinking that allows some negative feedback.   We need more empathy and inter-connectedness between our government and us.   The left-brain pushes to maintain symmetry and stasis.   Right brain thinking influences attitudes that the left brain might know and can act on. 
   
COMMENTARY  
   
All of our functions (language, imagery, reason, emotion),  now seem to be controlled by both hemispheres,   The two hemispheres are significantly different in how they work. Normally they work together without us being aware of what the other  is doing. One hemisphere dominates in each  individual , and in politicians it seems to be dominated by the left hemisphere.  
We need both versions of the world.  

By not using their right brain, politicians become socially and emotionally insensitive and have a poor understanding of beauty art and religion.  Effectively, they become autistic, with no sense of the broader context of experience.      If politicians didn’t use their  left brains ,they would struggle to focus on details and resolve them.  

Certainly, there is no lack of confusing details in our legislative bills.    Its time for our politicians to stimulate their right brain thinking ,and see that our happiness depend on being connected to each other.  As a country, we need the empathy and inter connectedness that only right brain thinking can provide. 
 
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Source: Book, “The Master and His emissary, the Divided brain and the Making of the Western World” McGilchrist