More Health Care Reform!

Well, I found out today that the FDA knows more about my health than the family doctor I've been seeing for 20 years.

I've had RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome) for quite a while. I took an OTC quinine tablet for it, called Legatrin. But in 1997 the FDA banned OTC sales of quinine. For a while I drank some tonic water when the RLS kept me awake, but that made me make an extra trip or two to the bathroom.

So my doctor prescribed some generic quinine sulfate for me. The first filling of the prescription, for 90 tablets of 260 mg. each, lasted me for 3 years. I just take 1/4 of a tablet at the occasional times when the RLS wakes me up.

Now the FDA has banned the manufacture and sale of quinine sulfate by anyone but one drug compay. That one reportedly costs $4 per tablet, compared to 35 cents for the generic. I have no health insurance coverage and live on a fixed income. Of course, that makes no difference to them either.

The quinine can cause side effects, I'm sure. But I've been taking it for years with no problems, and so have about 3 million other people.

Apparently the FDA doesn't trust licensed MD's to only prescribe things that are safe. Or else the pharmaceutical industry has more pull with the FDA than individual consumers do.

Fortunately for me, there are many other sources where I can get my generic quinine and sleep at night.

Take a look at "FDA bans Quinine for Leg Cramps" at www.peoplespharmacy.com. I'd put in a link to the actual article but I can't paste text into the blog entries.

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On another health care reform topic, I have another suggestion or recommendation to reduce health care costs. My doctor was just telling me about the costs run up by patients demanding the latest, high-cost drugs, MRI's in 20 minutes instead of in 2 days, and a few other things. Well, I say that if the law would allow insurance companies to deny paying for prescription drugs that are advertised on television, then their costs would drop substantially. And the drug prices should drop too, from the savings of millions of dollars spent on T"V advertising.

Television - Cable vs. Over-the-Air

A very limited income has made Over-the-Air TV mandatory for me for a long time. It's gotten more difficult to deal with since the change to Digital TV over the air, though. The pictures are nice and clear and sharp, but only when I can get them. I can still get PBS, NBC and ABC. But CBS and Fox, the networks that have most of the shows I watch, are frequently useless since the changeover. The CBS channel did upgrade their transmitter about a month after the change, doubling its power, but it's still usually missing or garbled.

So I finally started checking on other sources like cable, which would also be nice for faster internet (much better than my dialup account!). Which has taught me how wonderful it is to have companies so large that they don't have to talk to you. I've been trying to find out how much it would cost for service. I can get prices, but they seem to be 'qualified' by references to introductory offers, special promotions, etc. And in fine print, if you click on the right fine-print links, the disclaimers say there will be additional fees, taxes and charges. So far, I've been looking over what I could get from AT&T. Most of their deals seem to involve DirecTV, and the rates they advertise, $30-$40 a month, soon change to at least $60 a month! That's for the cheaper packages, with NO HD, NO DVR, and the most limited channel lists. Internet and phone bring the total up to at least $100 a month, PLUS all the equipment rents, fees, taxes, video surcharges, and whatever else I wouldn't know about until I started getting bills. And of course there's setup and delivery charges. There may also be installation fees, but I couldn't tell.

It's getting close to retirement time for me, and I plan to spend a few months a year in Florida. Do you think I can get cable TV for less than a year? With AT&T, it's a minimum of 18 months! Unless I have the package with HD reception - then it's only 24 months.


Man, I wish I had a company large enough to buy a government!

Comcast's triple-bundle HD Starter lowest-rate package is $115 a month for 12 months.
Their web site has a spot offering to check on special deals available in my area. Just fill in my address and click. So I did. And got an error. The page says 'New Customers' (re-)enter address, and I do. The next page says there's no record of my address in their system! Surprise! I'm not already a customer - that's why I'm at that page in the first place.

So I wnet back to the Bundles page and tried the 'Continue Shopping' button at the bottom of the description of HD Starter. So I guess I can't even order a 'Triple Play' bundle at any price.
This all seems rather odd because on that same page there's a box that asks 'Are you a current comcast customer? Call us at 1-877-xxx to see which HD Triple Play is right for you.'
So existing customers have to phone, and new customers can't order from the web page. Even there are link buttons on that page that say 'Start Shopping'.

As Jakov Smirnov says, "What a country!"

Now checking Charter cable, their lowest offer is up to 70 channels for $44.99 per month. Clicking on its 'Learn More' button takes me to a page that says "Plan Price: $51.99 per month". Wow, just clicking on a link raises the price by $7 a month. Such a deal! I wonder how many clicks it takes to actually order the service. Hmmm, maybe I just don't want to know.

One of Charter's bundle offers says 'Cable TV + Internet' for $69.98 per month. But clicking the 'Learn More' button shows a page that says 'Plan Price: $104.99/mo.' They just raised the price by 50%!!!! Holy mackerel! Do I want to do business with this company?

I wondered which channels I could get with the basic 70+ channel package. I clicked on their 'channels' list link and it lists all 200 or so. They're marked as Basic, Basic +, Basic (digital only), and others. But no way to tell which marking category is for my plan. How comforting.

I give up. Goodbye for now.

Nuclear Proliferation

It occurs to me that in order to deter nations like Iran and North Korea from making nuclear weapons, it should be maee in their best interest. If NATO or some other group or consortium of contries promised that the capitals of Iran and North Korea would be obliterated by nuclear explosions if ANYONE used nuclear weapons then the leaders of those countries might be convinced to help prevent proliferation. Including use by non-governmental groups or individuals.

Michigan's Economy - Hope for the Future

It's no secret that Michigan's economy needs a lot of help. Recently I've heard a commercial from the MEA (Michigan Education Association) that says: "The MEA - Preparing our students for the jobs that Michigan needs."
Well, I can only hope the MEA means they're teaching the kids to speak Spanish or Chinese. That's what they'll need to get Michigan's jobs.
They really should be teaching a mandatory new course about "Real Home Economics." All students expecting to eventually get a job should learn how to balance a checkbook, understand the value and benefits of compound interest, and the costs of using a credit card and making only the minimum monthly payment.
Sorry for the digression - back to the economy. To get the state's budget back into the black we need to add sources of revenue. The legislators will never be able to make really meaningful cuts in expenditures.
We should take Nevada's plan one step further. Not only should we open state-run houses of pleasure, but the state should add to its sales of alcohol by selling other recreational drugs. Not only would the state government gain a huge amount of income, but by selling only to qualified, approved customers they could GREATLY reduce police and prison costs.
Potential customers could be required to get a license or permit, like the driver's license, with their picture on it. And they could charge a substantial fee for the license, too!
These new state drug stores could be located in the new, state-owned and run casinos they should build, too.

Campaign Finance Reform!

Why should non-voters control our government and its lawmaking?

It should be illegal for any candidate to receive a contribution from anyone other than a lawfully registered voter. Corporations not only cannot vote, they cannot have a conscience. By intentional design they are only interested in profit and self-perpetuation. Those are their purposes, and the public good is not included. Get corporations and any other 'legal entities' out of our lawmaking process!

The public owns the airwaves. Broadcast stations license the use of the airwaves from the public's representative, our government. Campaign air-time should be limited and provided cost-free to candidates. That would reduce campaign finance requirements considerably. They'd still have to raise money for chartering airplanes, limos, and paying office rent.

Health Care Reform?

Real health care reform, meant for its users rather than its creators, would be very different than the current proposals.

In my opinion, what we need is a completely separate, parallel system.

The first requirement is to firmly define what 'basic health care' really means, and exactly what medical care and services should be provided to everyone.

Once that is done, then establish publicly-owned clinics to provide only those basic services. Any elective surgery or other optional procedures would still be done by the existing commercial system.

The clinics would be staffed by people on a straight salary system, with no pay-per-procedure as in the current commercial system. In addition, I say that all the medical staff should be educated in dedicated, publicly-owned schools with specialized courses for this specific field. This is to avoid competition with existing medical schools. The medical practitioners in my proposed system would be something like the current Physician's Assistant, but with a different title.

Any educational institution could be allowed to teach the courses and grant the degrees but the course outlines, plans and curriculum would be nationally standardized and all graduates would be required to pass the same tests.

I visualize the new public system providing basic care such as vaccinations, pre-natal examinations, patching up cuts and setting broken bones after accidents, and so on. No fancy diagnostic technology beyond basic X-rays - no MRI's or CAT scans. Those are for the commercial system.