Why I Don’t Want Health Care Insurance 

Disclaimer:  The following information is comprised of the opinions and experiences of the author, who is not a medical professional.  Although conscience forbids advising medical treatment as decreed by such organizations as the FDA and the AMA, the powers that be forbid any advise against use of the so-called health care system in the United States of America. 

The Affordable Care Act, also know as Obamacare, is requiring everyone to have so-called healthcare insurance, or pay a fine.  Fortunatley I am old enough to be on Medicare, not that I have any intention of using it, but I am not forced to purchase insurance or pay a fine.  The law seems to think that what the AMA and the FDA approve of should be mandatory for everyone.  I disagree.  What they call health care insurance I call medical treatment payment coverage.  It doesn’t care for your health.  Instead it treats symptoms of health problems and runs tests to find numbers to justify so-called preventative drugs and surgical procedures.  I will pass on that system.     

I am 69 years old and I haven’t had this type of insurance for most of my life.  It has been a blessing because I have learned that I don’t need it.  In fact, the more I learn about our so-called health care system the less I want anything to do with it.  There are alternatives that are usually more natural, safer and much less expensive but are not FDA and AMA approved and are not covered by insurance. 

As with most political things the so-called health care industry has more to do with money than anything else.  One reason our so-called health care system is so expensive is that there are too many fingers in the pie.  If you go to see a doctor you have to pay for his time, his office expenses, his staff, his malpractice insurance, the operating expenses and profit for insurance companies, overhead for Medicare and Medicaid programs, the corruption involved in both private and government insurance, agencies to try to fight the corruption and who knows what other hidden factions are involved.  If you only had to pay for the doctor’s services it would probably cost about what you pay as the co-pay required by the insurance company involved, whether it is private or government.  Also, you pay the insurance premiums to private companies or taxes for government programs.  You may think that the insurance pays your medical expenses, but in the end you pay, and you pay a much higher price because you are paying for so much more than the doctor visit. 

A chiropractor once told me of his experience when insurance companies first started accepting chiropractic care.  At the time he was charging $3 for a typical visit.  The insurance company said he would have to charge $5 in order to accept insurance patients.  That is an increase of two thirds, or 66.7%.  He said the insurance companies make their money as a percentage of the charge.  The incentive for the insurance company is not to reduce the cost of health care, but to make it higher.  This was at a time when malpractice wasn’t nearly what it is today, and neither was insurance and Medicare fraud.  Estimates today are that 20 billion dollars a year are lost in Medicare fraud alone.  We are paying for that fraud in higher taxes.  If it weren’t for the involvement of insurance companies, government bureaucracies and lawyers a visit to the doctor would cost a fraction of what it costs today. 

When I was a child I recall that we had Hospitalization insurance to help with large hospital expenses. Back then doctors made house calls, and if we called a doctor or went to his office, we paid him a reasonable fee.  We didn’t run to the doctor every time someone cut a finger or had the sniffles like people do today.  Hospitalization insurance was closer to the ideal of the whole concept of insurance, which is to spread the risk of large hospital bills over large groups of people.  Not everyone was going to be hospitalized all the time, but if everyone paid a little all the time, when someone did go to the hospital the pool of insurance money would help pay the bill.  Now, a visit to the doctor’s office (they don’t make house calls anymore) is like being hospitalized was when I was a child. 

Aside from the outrageous costs of our so-called health care system there is the question of safety and effectiveness.  Is it safe to go to the doctor or to the hospital?  Is it safe to take the drugs prescribed, or the over the counter drugs associated with medical treatment?  Does putting our trust in doctors, hospitals and drugs really cure our diseases and keep us healthy?  It may for some people, but as for me, no thank you.  I do not trust the system.  Doctors and hospitals have their place.  If I were injured in an accident I would hesitantly trust a doctor to set my bones and sew me back together.  I might even allow some painkiller or other emergency drug.  However, if I succumbed to some major illness (which, for reasons that will be explained, is not very likely) I would look elsewhere.  I do not trust that most FDA/AMA approved treatments for illness are either safe or effective. 

Depending on whose data you look at, doctors, hospitals and prescription drugs kill from 250,000 to 1,000,000 people in the United States every year.  They even have a term for it - iatrogenic causes.  Some are accidental, but many are because the approved drugs and treatments are just not safe for all people.  Recently (2013) a retired nurse told me that about 85% of their hospital admissions were iatrogens. There is a book that goes into greater detail titled  "Death by Medicine" By Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD.  

The general perspective of our system, to me, is inside out, upside down and backwards.  For example, if someone has a cancer growth somewhere in the body one of the main treatments is chemotherapy, or chemical therapy.  They give the patient an extremely toxic chemical to kill the unnatural growth.  By the way, it also attacks the rest of the body.  The patient becomes weak and frail, and their hair falls out.  This reminds me of how the medical system at the birth of our country killed our first president, George Washington. 

When George Washington was ill they put leaches on him to supposedly draw out the cause of his illness.  Unfortunately they drew out so much blood that it killed him.  Today we give chemotherapy and/or radiation to cancer patients to kill the cancer and often wind up killing the rest of the body as well.  Oh, what progress we have made in 200 plus years.  We have some wonderful technology to help us understand how the body works, but we still resort to foolish treatments like chemo. 

Philosophically there are two ways to look at how to treat an illness.  To understand this let’s pretend to draw a line in the sand.  On one side of the line is good health; on the other side is disease.  At any given time the bodies health condition is on one side of that line, or the other.  When it drifts down to the disease side of the line and succumbs to cancer, diabetes or some other major illness there are two options.  One is to beat up on the illness and the other is to work towards getting back to the other side of that line in the sand.  Chemotherapy and radiation beat up on the illness, but also beat up on the rest of the body.  Some of the ways to get back on the good health side of the line include nutrition, homeopathic treatments, energy treatments, attitude adjustments and even prayer.  Unfortunately the FDA has declared that only drugs can cure disease so these methods are not approved.  I am so glad I don’t have health care insurance. 

Ben Franklin said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and how true that is when it comes to good health.  If I were a doctor I would give patients a roll of litmus paper and tell them to check their pH level regularly.  Why?  Because you are much less likely to succumb to major illnesses like cancer and diabetes when your pH is alkaline.  I would tell patients that if their pH dropped below 6.0 to start pigging out on foods that make the body more alkaline, like tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables.  The best way to treat major illness is to not get it in the first place.  It seems to me that if the AMA and the FDA really cared about people’s health they would make litmus paper mandatory, not so-called health care insurance. 

 If you watch the evening news on just about any channel of your TV you are likely to see several commercials for prescription drugs.  Most of them also include a disclaimer about the possible side effects of the drugs, and some of the side effects are as bad or worse than the condition they want you to take the drug to alleviate.  If you look up just about any drug in the Physicians Desk Reference you will find a list of possible negative side effects.  Yet doctors prescribe these drugs, often without telling patients about these dangers. I just don’t want to play in that game. 

One recent push on these commercials is aimed at women, claiming they are at risk for heart attack and should see their doctor.  By the way, these commercials also suggest that women might take an aspirin every day.  I wonder if any aspirin manufacturer had anything to do with this promotion. 

I recently heard from a scientist who has isolated part of a natural product that causes the bone marrow to release about 30% more adult stem cells into the blood stream and helps direct them to where the body needs them most.  He told the group that he was offered the opportunity for his product to be put into the media as news in a similar way that the aspirin a day “news” piece is being promoted.  Of course there is a price for this service of about 3 million dollars. 

Our FDA / AMA approved health care system is so corrupt, so expensive and so dangerous that I don’t want anything to do with it.  I will stick with alternatives like prayer, diet, exercise and rest along with more natural alternative health care and maintenance systems that are not approved by the powers that be.  I don’t have health care insurance, I don’t want it, and if I had it I probably wouldn’t use it.

 Joe Furcinite