Health Care Reform Part IV

Last week I began sharing a long article on health care reform published by the Health Ranger, Mike Adams. The next section below gets into some real solutions for the problems that exist. Understand that if we continue with the status quo in the industry, we will bankrupt this country. This article was published on July 3, 2008 titled "The Politics of National Health Care Reform: Why no Popular Presidential Candidate Can Solve Our Health Care Crisis".

Mike's website is www.HealthRanger.org.

End all patents on medicine

What are the solutions? Number one is ending all patents on medicine. That is right. Take away the intellectual property from medicines. Why should medicines that are supposedly created for the benefit of humankind be made to benefit just one investor or one corporation?

In fact, I am for ending intellectual property laws on medicines, genes, and seeds. I think it is wrong. I think it is evil for corporations to claim patent ownership over the human genome. Did you know that 20% of the genes in your cells right now are "owned by corporations?" That is true. The U.S. Patent Office has granted patents on your genes, which means technically if you have a child and reproduce those genes you are in violation of U.S. patent law and some day they could potentially start charging you a royalty if you happen to replicate the genes that they have patented. They could send you a bill. That sounds crazy. I know it sounds completely insane but so does the idea of patenting genes in the first place. Why were they given those patents?

This is a real issue. We have to end the patents and that way we take the financial incentive out of the pharmaceutical industry to just keep creating fictitious diseases. Now I hear what you are saying. Skeptics listening to this are saying, "Well, what is going to be the incentive for them to create new medicines that we really need?" Well, first, 80% of the medicines that are created today are just drugs that are no better than the older drugs that went off patent. No better at all.

In fact, many of them are more dangerous. But the drug companies cannot make money off the old drugs that went off patent so they try to discredit the old drugs and they hype up the new drugs. They hire their drug reps to go into doctors' offices and convince them to prescribe the "new" drug.

It may be the same antihistamine, it may be the same blood thinner, it may be the same statin drug just with a slightly different molecule, a slightly different health claim, a slightly different package and a new fancy sounding name and a big television advertising campaign. The truth is folks, 80% of the drugs that Big Pharma releases and promotes each year and that doctors prescribe, offer zero benefits over the older drugs that went off patent.

Most of the pharmaceutical promotion is just nonsense. Secondly, when people ask me, "well, if drugs could not be patented who would have the incentive to come up with drugs?" That is the assumption that there is no other organization that would have any interest in keeping people healthy with certain drugs that might be necessary. For example, universities could come up with drugs or governments could come up with certain drugs that might be needed like certain targeted antibiotics and so on.

You do not have to have a profit incentive to create things. For example, the U.S. government put a man on the moon in 1969. They did not make any money doing it. They did it because it was important for them. Of course, it was important because of military technology. I think a government with the right leaders could have the foresight to invest some R&D in medical technology and not have to have corporations making billions of dollars off it. The problem is when you put the corporations in charge then they have incentives to make people sick.

They have incentives to invent fictitious diseases like ADHD, which is a completely bogus, fictitious condition. It does not exist. There is no test whatsoever. You cannot see it under a microscope. You cannot see it on the MRI. There is no blood test. It is a completely fictitious condition but it sells a lot of drugs. You take away that profit incentive and then you can get back to a more common sense healthcare system that is focused on keeping people healthy rather than running TV ads that convince everyone they are diseased.

Stay tuned for more solutions from Mike's article this week.

"Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, 'This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.' But they will reply, 'It's no use. We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.' " Jeremiah 18:11-12 (NIV)

If you have comments or questions, please feel free to contact me at the address below.
Email: DeltaInspire@panama-vo.com