Health Apathy 2003-12-09

So, a few days ago, it was World AIDS day. And this weekend, HBO showed part one of "Angels in America", a movie adapted from a stage play about AIDS. So I thought about AIDS for awhile.
One of my coworker's brothers died of AIDS. That's about as close to it as I've ever gotten. But I've done a lot of reading on it.

Everyone knows that HIV causes AIDS. But does it really? I don't want to sound conspiracy theorist or anything, but this guy says differently. And he's got the credentials to make me listen to him. And yet, who's heard of Peter Duesberg? Why has he been virtually blacklisted by the scientific community for daring to suggest that perhaps HIV doesn't cause AIDS, because it seems highly unlikely that HIV could ever cause AIDS?

But this entry isn't about AIDS. I wrote one awhile ago about it. And Duesberg explains everything much clearer than I can. No, this entry is about the health industry.

One of the reasons Duesberg can't get funding to research the possibility that HIV doesn't cause AIDS is because most of the funding for scientific research comes from pharmaceutical companies. And wouldn't you know it? Pharmaceutical companies are making hundreds of millions of dollars on HIV test kits, on drugs to help fight (not cure) the onset of AIDS.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that doctors don't care about saving lives. But I am saying that about the health industry in general.

Here's a question: Why is an insurance company in charge of my health and well-being? Why do insurance companies control our nations health care? Do they care about our health? No, they care about our money. They don't want us to get sick, they just want us to continue paying our monthly premiums.
A few years ago, I read John Grisham's "The Rainmaker." Pretty good book, sort of dealt with this whole issue. One of the things that we find out in this book (note: spoiler), is that the insurance company on trial has an official policy to initially deny all claims made. So someone gets sick, goes to his insurance company and wants them to pay for the treatment that they cover, and they refuse. Most people, when turned down like that, give up. Only a very small percentage actually keep fighting, and this is what the insurance company was banking (literally) on.
Now, I know the book was a work of fiction, but this doesn't really sound to far out of the realm of possibility. How often have we heard about insurance fraud on the news?

Okay, back to pharmaceutical companies. Do you know how many drugs are out on the market that don't have FDA approval? Thousands. You got a problem? Take a pill. There's a pill for everything. It's not anything but cold truth that we have the nickname "The Prozac Generation".

Getting an MRI done costs three grand per picture. A buddy of mine worked with some friends and came up with some hardware that not only can take the MRI, but can project the MRI onto a computer screen in three dimensions. His machine was a literal lifesaver for the cojoined twins down in Guatemala who were safely seperated. His machine was able to detect a blood vessel that the standard MRI didn't see. So we have this much much better technology available to us... and did I mention that it costs less than two hundred per scan?

He hasn't been able to get a single hospital to take a look at it.