Monday, August 10, 2009

Minimum Services

Section 122 of the bill defines minimum services offered by the bill. The bill demands coverage of Mental Health Services and Prescription Drugs.

Personally, I don't like taking drugs. Every time I've visited a doctor in the last few decades, the doctor has given me prescriptions. I challenged the doctor, and in most cases the doctor agreed that I did not really need to take the drugs; So, I did not take the drugs.

Personally, I believe a large number of drugs are overprescribed ... notably antibiotics and painkillers.

I find myself balking at the idea that I will be forced to subsidize a practice that I personally condemn.

I am by no means opposed to all drugs. The question is if the drug is core to the treatment.

Conversely, I happen to be a big believer in supplements and often cures in supplements or even dietary changes.

On the subject of mental health care, I know several people who use see priests for primary mental health and others who seek out a psychiatrist for spiritual fulfillment.

People have strong opinions about these aspects of their health. The bureaucracy that defines benefits will force people who lean toward natural care to subsidize those seeking industrial care.

The free market gives us some ability to seek out policies that help match our lifestyles.

2 comments:

Scott Hinrichs said...

A physician friend of mine told me a couple of years ago that except in the case of first aid, the system that has evolved for the primary care physician is to either:

a) Prescribe a drug (or multiple drugs).

b) Refer the patient to a specialist (that will either prescribe drugs, advise surgery, or both).

c) Both a and b.

We already have a massive self-funded holistic and dietary supplemental industry in the U.S. These people are already subsidizing the medical consumers.

I note that the government's official health arms continually work to discredit the holistic approaches. The NIH has released a number of studies claiming to show that these approaches produce little salutary effects. They always release these reports with much hoopla.

I'm still waiting for similar displays of passion when they release reports showing that the vast majority of back surgeries result in no measurable improvement for the patient and that many actually produce a worse result.

The fact is that the government is already deeply invested in the medical industry and already treats it as a de facto arm of government. It has a full propaganda arm at work to get the public to think the way it wants. Fortunately, the public doesn't fully buy it. Hence, the proliferation of holistic approaches.

y-intercept said...

I was given a prescription during a checkup. Doctors rarely give me input on my diet.

I don't like the system that defined the benefits this way. The health care deform bill cements in this bad structure.