ppp 01-07-08

Quote of the day: Justice is the constant and perpetual will to allot to every man his due.

Domitus Ulpian (100 AD - 228 AD)

You have heard the timeless mantra of children, “No fair!” I’m sure that it is spoken in Spanish, Greek, French (a sure bet) and probably even in Latin (back in the day). We all seem to have some sense of what is fair and what is not. Is it fair for restaurants to charge some people more, or other less? How about kids meals where smaller portions are provided? Senior discount? It might be fair to charge less for a smaller portion of food but why should seniors be charged less for identical goods or services in other areas of our economy? The argument is always that seniors are on fixed incomes. How about those people who have no incomes or living below the poverty level… shouldn’t they get a break? If those in need get the same break then who funds the difference?

Insurance is a vehicle to spread risk over a large group. The principle is that many people each pay a small amount so that the few who need aid will receive it. The insurance company makes money if claims are less than the premiums paid. If claims exceed premiums then they lose money. In the auto insurance industry we see those with poor driving records charged more for their coverage than those with good records. Age appears to play a role in the number of accidents and is used as a surrogate marker for risk. Do we complain about fairness?

Health insurance is no different. Seniors consume more healthcare than other age groups but AARP complains that premiums are “too high” while never stating what they think may be “fair”. The truth is that “somebody” has to pay the difference between premiums and claims and if seniors are charged too little or continue to have unanticipated claim volume then the whole system collapses. If “universal health coverage” is instituted from whence do the funds come? Will physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and hospitals take less for their services? If employers are already tapped out by subsidizing health insurance premiums for their employees and their families, who is to provide the necessary funds? The answer always seems to revert to “the government” without the realization that the government receives all of its funds from us.

Assuming that your personal healthcare outlay will not personally change, are you willing to have your taxes increased to fund healthcare for everyone else? It will be on the backs of those who are employed that “Universal Health Care” will be balanced. The two questions are: Will those backs be strong enough and is that really fair? Those calling for Universal Heathcare should have the intestinal fortitude to tell American workers how much it will cost each one of them. Once we know, then we can decide if we are willing to include that charity on our list or not and vote accordingly. It's only fair.

ps. Best answer this week to the question "How are you?" was "Glad that 2007 is over. I can start 2008 without any mistakes in it."

pps. Occasionally, some of the links require FREE registration.... I'm sure you can handle THAT slight inconvenience.

Half of physicians polled have prescribed a placebo during their career and nearly all report positive therapeutic effects. Reasons for prescribing these “drugs” include getting “the patient to stop complaining”. No wonder some of our lesser “wonder drugs” remain on the market.

In a January 3^rd release, the FDA provides a step by step analysis of studies that showed decreased survival in some cancer patients taking EPO or related blood forming stimulants. They will be holding a public advisory meeting in several months seeking comments. You don’t think that the manufacturers will want to have a say do you?

Lack of sleep associated with an increase in diabetes? It sounds like there is more to it than insomniacs having more time to eat and becoming obese with resultant Type II diabetes. Researchers disturbed the slow wave sleep of volunteers without waking them fully and caused a 25% decrease in the ability of subjects to regulate blood sugars. This was after only 3 days. Imagine what years of sleep dyspnea could do.

More and more young girls are having vaso-vagal events (fainting spells) when they receive the Gardisil vaccination for cervical HPV prevention. Appears that the pain of this injection is the trigger. In spite of the pain, it is a literal shot in the arm that is a figurative shot in the arm in the prevention of cervical cancer.

The aggressive use of haloperidol (Haldol) or respiradone (Risperdil) to curb aggression in patients with low IQs does not produce the desired results: fairing more poorly than placebo. Needless to say, this does not please the great people at J&J who make the drugs. Before you get too worked up… remember that the original work was published in a very aggressive journal call Lancet. I would like to see more data than opinion. (but that’s just my opinion).

Is this an indication of racism? Would have been interested in seeing the pattern of prescribing for black physicians, Hispanic physicians, asian physicians and compare to their white counterparts.

If you want to understand anything… just follow the money. Why would AARP endorse and promote United Health Care’s insurance? I can think of about 350 million reasons… per year. Yet AARP officially rails against profits made by the insurance industry. (AARP say "I’ll take TWO cakes to go").

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