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IT'S THE STUPID ECONOMY--U.S. HEALTH CARE

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THE SEMINAL PRINCIPAL OF THE UNITED STATES:

HEALTH CARE REFORM

There are two crucial facts our leaders must consider regarding the U.S. Health Care System.  First, major segments of this industry are controlled by corporate executives who are leading our country down a path of moral decay and financial mayhem of the worst kind.  These people of high privilege, some of the wealthiest individuals on the planet, demonstrate a pathetic lack of vision or compassion in dealing with our most needy citizens, including vast numbers of children.  Second, this paper outlines the reforms necessary to regain control of this single largest segment of our economy.  The process will not be quick or easy, but regain control we must.

For the past 15 years we have been told money is what matters most to U.S. voters.  The tired cliché, It's The Economy Stupid, is quoted constantly but it is ancient news.  Reverse two words and we have our brand new mantra--It's The Stupid Economy.  And we might as well get used to it, and what we will suffer because of it, unless we do something about it.  For 20 years our politicians have allowed our privatized, Corporate Health Care Industry to foster a state of mind so sinister it makes our gangsters look like amateurs.  The cruelty outlined in this paper defies human understanding; in their dealings with our most helpless, some of Corporate America's executives resort to a level of brutality beyond the understanding of a decent society.

The Connecticut Attorney General recently filed a lawsuit against Eli Lilly, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Reuters News reported his scathing statement:  "Through a complex series of illegal rackets and lies, Eli Lilly built a multibillion-dollar drug enterprise at the expense of taxpayers, consumers and patient lives."  He added that Lilly "adopted a sick marketing mindset: profits over patients, sales over safety. Driven by fierce greed, Eli Lilly corrupted doctors, pharmacies and public officials nationwide who easily abandoned integrity and decency for self-enrichment."       1,2

Connecticut's lawsuit refers to the fact that Eli Lilly and many other U.S. drug companies have worked for years toward the common goal of pushing unnecessary and harmful drugs upon millions of our children and many millions more throughout the world.  The leadership of these companies know full well that these harsh, toxic chemicals, never tested or approved for children, sometimes cause horrible side-effects even in adults.       8,18,19,50

At this moment the majority of our 50 states are suing, or considering suing, our pharmaceutical industry, known affectionately by Wall Street as "Big Pharma."  The corporate behavior that prompted such a volume of legal action goes back many years. An Alaskan court recently settled a trial against Eli Lilly and introduced evidence alleging that top executives concealed damning information about children worldwide who were harmed, or killed, by their drugs.  Prosecutors across the United States are considering criminal charges in addition to civil actions.  The arrogance exhibited by much of Big Pharma's leadership is stunning.  As you read what they have done to millions of children, and elderly, and battle-scarred veterans, and the rest of us for that matter, picture these giants of industry lounging in their multi-million dollar homes, surrounded by high walls and guarded gates.  Simply connect the dots of data below for an understanding of the horror and heartbreak these elite people dispense throughout the world. You will have no trouble arriving at accurate conclusions:       3,4,5,6,16

• Researchers from several states analyzed U.S. bipolar treatment information gleaned from The National Center for Health Statistics.  Their work, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, constitutes the most comprehensive study of U.S. children diagnosed with this problem.       5,6
• They found that in 1994, 20,000 U.S. children were diagnosed with bipolar disorder.  Even that relatively small number was of concern because bipolar disorder is considered one of the most serious mental illnesses to afflict mankind.  So serious, that some years back a number of "progressive practitioners" in the psychiatric field were allowed to perform ice-pick lobotomies through the eye-sockets of 40,000 Americans with problems of this type.      5,6,54
• So imagine the researcher's shock when they discovered that during the following ten years it seemed a strange plague of mental illness descended upon the U.S., infecting mostly children, especially poor or black or foster children.  Somehow, over 800,000 of our kids were diagnosed as bipolar, 40 times as many kids.  It looked like history's very first contagious mental illness had swept across our country, and then leapt across oceans into many other lands.        5,6,16
• The mystery deepened when it was discovered that when any 10 of these kids were sent to a doctor for treatment, 9 were prescribed new, toxic, anti-psychotic chemicals which had never been approved or tested for children.  By 2005 almost 100% of the kids so diagnosed were prescribed these drugs.       7
• To their further dismay, the researchers found that in addition to the kids being stigmatized for life as mentally ill, many of them suffered terrible side effects from the new drugs.  Little girls and even some boys as young as nine developed greatly enlarged, lactating breasts; some kids suffered severe facial tics and uncontrollable tongue movements; many of their little heads started twitching violently from side to side; many kids became suicidal; an inordinate number of them killed themselves.       8,18,19
• The researchers became very alarmed about the massive number of kids being given the new drugs.  Chemical compounds that had no proven results for kids were being prescribed in cocktails containing up to a dozen different pills per child.  Adding to the researcher's confusion was the fact that older drugs which had proven, excellent results for kids were being ignored in favor of the new, adult drugs.  These facts, brought to the public's attention by the Public Broadcasting System and The National Institute of Mental Health, are indisputable.       9,10
• But the data made no sense. If a class of drugs had demonstrated successful results with kids, why would any medical authority replace them with non-proven, non-tested, highly toxic chemicals, and shovel large quantities of the stuff down millions of little throats?  A million little throats in 2007 alone according to the Public Broadcasting System.  Something was very wrong.       11
• Then even more startling facts began to surface.  The researchers discovered that the patents on the proven, safer drugs had expired, which meant that generic versions could have been prescribed for as little as five cents per pill.  Conversely, the new drugs were protected by active patents, owned by, you guessed it, Big Pharma, and sold for as much as much as 12 dollars per pill.  This netted the drug companies 200 times as many dollars per kid diagnosed as bipolar.  And there were millions of children so diagnosed and therefore condemned to taking these toxic chemicals for years, if not the rest of their lives.  Why, heck, Big Pharma was looking at stratospheric sums, they were making billions of extra dollars per year.       6,13
• But wait, thought the researchers, this still makes no sense.  Who paid these billions to Big Pharma?  Such sums could not be squeezed out of the parents of poor or black or foster kids.  The demographics had the researchers stumped, until another pattern began to emerge.  Certain similarities in Big Pharma's dealings with a lot of people all over the world became quite apparent.  The most common denominator was always dollars, in massive quantities.       16,40
• Throughout the years in question, from sea to shining sea, a tidal wave of money flowed into the outstretched hands of politicians, doctors, hospitals, foster-child programs, certain college programs, foundations, clinics, state governments, even the highest reaches of the U.S. government.  Hundreds of millions of dollars were doled out to promote the use of anti-psychotic chemicals in kids.  Big Pharma found ways to produce skewed and falsified research that showed the drugs were just dandy.  That was all it took, off to the tracks went the whole crowd to create their dog and pony show, kids be damned.  They even injected or force-fed these chemicals into thousands of infants and babies.  Being nine months old and crying too much while under the influence of Big Pharma can have nasty consequences.       14,15
• Many of the people receiving Big Pharma's money, some of the elite of our Health Care Industry, were paid their share of the fantastic sums to publicly endorse the new drugs.  And endorse they did, with a highly-educated and dignified gusto.  Of course, their payoffs were not called bribes, not at all.  Official sounding titles were used, such as honorariums, research grants, humanitarian prizes, consulting fees, payments for speeches, political contributions.  They even created a number of institutions with names of such ilk as, "Screening Our Kids With Love" or, "The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health."  There was, and still is, no end in sight to the disgusting methods of cash dispersal promoting this drugging of our kids.       2,20
• Well, Big Pharma required two more steps to complete their child-drugging business plan.  First, somebody had to pay for funneling these chemicals into the young captives. That turned out to be the easiest part of the scam.  Just go after the most helpless and vulnerable kids in our society.  Those without the protection of a normal home life were easy prey; you know, dazed kids, scared kids, kids acting out--they were favorite targets.  Then, picture the gleam in the eyes of Big Pharma's executives as they made sure these kids were backed by Government, insurance or charitable money:  Kids on Medicare or Medicaid, or covered by state insurance plans, or group homes, black kids, juvenile prisoners, foster kids, even young, battered war veterans.  Why, by golly, any youngster in those categories can immediately be turned into a major cash cow--just arrange for them to be diagnosed bipolar.  The flow of money was so massive it must have been difficult for the executives to maintain their noble, distinguished demeanors as they met 80 stories up in their board rooms, congratulating each other as they stared wide-eyed at sky-rocketing profit charts.  We have to wonder, do these executives ever think about the mothers who now must gaze at the dangling tongues of their kids, thanks to the side-effects of these drugs?       12,52
• Finally, the last link of the whole racket was put in place.  A link that is, unfortunately, being diligently pursued across the U.S. to this very day.  Big Pharma had only to promote any number of campaigns which would be endorsed by their previously-greased medical buddies.  The favorite, and most productive, are numerous screening programs that purport to be looking for potential suicides.  These groups are actually allowed in schools to ask kids if they ever feel lonely, scared, upset or other such inanities.  When the kids answer yes, like most of us would, there is a fair chance they will be labeled bipolar based on slick criteria designed by the people who run the screening program.  Then the newly-minted batch of bipolars are marched off to a doctor and almost always treated with the adult, anti-psychotic chemicals. You have to give one thing to Big Pharma, they put a lot of hard work, planning and salesmanship into this business of drugging America. These people are not witless, they just worship money, and through their religion they became the prime architects of our new mantra, It's The Stupid Economy.       13,20,21

By a fortuitous coincidence, a Congressional investigation came to a head about the time this paper was completed, in early June of this year.  The investigation produced startling information regarding the drugging of America's children through pediatric diagnosis of bipolar disease.  A group of world-renowned, Harvard, child psychiatrists hid "consulting fees" of millions of dollars given to them by Big Pharma over the past few years.  These men, considered to be among the world's leading authorities and promoters of bipolar diagnosis in children, took their secret millions from the very Drug companies that would go on to earn tens of billions of dollars from the use of their harsh, adult drugs in kids.  The three psychiatrists conducted and published very questionable research promoting the diagnosis of children's bipolar disease during the period of time they were paid their millions under the table.  This covert partnership between psychiatrists and Big Pharma is strictly forbidden by university conflict-of-interest and Federal research rules.  At this moment the National Institute of Mental Health is investigating this "completely unacceptable behavior" and promising appropriate sanctions against those responsible.  Further news regarding the ongoing Congressional investigation will be posted on this blog as it develops.       58         

Big Pharma's child-drugging business produces many, many billions of extra dollars each year, and leaves thousands of damaged and dead kids in its wake, a ghastly byproduct that doesn't seem to faze the executives involved.  As the kings of U.S. industry, they continue their efforts to this day, hiding behind their primary rational that a few rare kids actually need these harsh drugs.  Because of many years of fanatical machinations of this Industry, our government is actually considering allowing all 50 million U.S. kids, and the 6 million teachers working with them, to be screened.  It is not enough that in 2002 the 10 largest Big Pharma companies profited more than the other 490 companies in the Fortune 500 combined.  Nope, Big Pharma wants more, and they show little concern in how they get it.  Bloomberg News reports, "The expanded use of bipolar as a pediatric diagnosis has made children the fastest-growing part of the $11.5 billion dollar U.S. market for anti-psychotic drugs."        17,20,22,40

Folks, there is only one way we should go from here.  To think our economy will remain decent and strong, based on such horrors, will only take us to even dumber levels than our present status.  It matters not if we are labeled liberal, conservative, republican, democrat or anything else.  If anyone thinks we should carry on with this business as usual, with a bogus reform every few years, guaranteed to let the criminally-inclined corporations and executives continue scamming, that person needs to do some serious research or some down and dirty soul-searching.  Allowing Big Pharma to lead the nation down a path of stupid money and short-term success by manufacturing illness and drugging massive numbers of our population has the ring of insanity.  We must awaken our politicians from their slumber on this matter, which begs the questions, how do we wake them up, and what should they do when they finally get it?

By the way, speaking of getting it, in the event any of the Big Pharma executives or their medical buddies in question are reading this paper, let your minds wander back to your glory days as students at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT or the like.  It will be a stretch, but try to recall your ethics classes and the philosophy of principles which you were taught, but have forgotten.  Do the words, "let them eat cake" come to mind? Is there any hope for a tiny tinkle out of the morality bell now buried in the deepest recesses of your brains? --doubtful, so just google the phrase for a little refresher course.  You people better wake up, more and more research is exposing your actions every day. You are not untouchable, some of you are likely headed to jail.

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     Our next Job is to remind our leaders that Big Pharma is not the only out-of-control segment of our privatized Corporate Health Care Industry.  The whole system is broken and riddled with corruption, theft and waste.  Any effort at reform, while leaving private corporations in control, is doomed.   They had their chance at their "Privatized Health Care Free Market" concept for 20 years and they turned it into a long, grinding, horror show.  Enormously wealthy executives are allowing millions of children to sicken, die and in some cases live a life worse than death.

All but limitless is the health care Stupid Economy we pay for:  1/3 of all treatment is considered unnecessary; the system's tragic disregard of defensive medicine or education concerning diet and exercise; vast amounts of unnecessary surgery; massive quantities of duplicative medical equipment; specialty drugs running as high as $350,000.00 per year per person; a drug industry so arrogant it invents disease with television advertising; huge amounts of treatment to protect against malpractice claims; staggering Social Security disability claims; enormous costs resultant from medical errors, omissions and over treatment; a frightening lack of coordination between care-givers; a nationwide emergency room crisis; an insurance industry that sells millions of policies to only healthy people who may not get paid at claim time; radiologists that will perform 100 million scans in 2010 that will cause much cancer; a comically inefficient administrative monstrosity; and never-ending invasive procedures on aged patients so brutal it is termed elder abuse.       23,51

In the end analysis, what we have is medical mayhem, and it's worsening every day.  This is a type of anarchy, not like "Mad Max," but financial anarchy, dealing out death and destruction all the same.  And the dealers get most of the money.  If you hear anyone say our Health Care System is OK, first check their pockets for a big bulge of greenbacks, and lacking that, ask why they only took 10 minutes to research this mess.

For 20 years our politicians have calmly watched millions of our citizens suffer because of our Health Care System.  Congressional democrats and republicans spend most of their time on this subject arguing over which of their useless reforms is best, and then they count some Health Care Lobby money.  This is worse than fiddling while Rome burns, at least the Romans could run from the flames.  Congress must somehow be convinced that comprehensive reform is of paramount importance to our nation.  We need to ask them why the U.S. Health Care Industry, although it provides the worst care of all industrialized nations, consumed a staggering 2.2 trillion dollars in 2007, 16% of our entire economy.  That figure will inflate to 4.1 trillion by 2016, even by conservative estimates.  We have the most expensive health care system in the world, based on per capita spending, more than twice any other nation.  In the most recently studied five years, while the total U.S. inflation rate was a mere 17%, and wage growth was a dismal 19%, health care spending spiked up 78%.  The gravity of those numbers cannot be overstated.  The chief of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Comptroller General of the U.S., David Walker, said in a CBS interview:  "I would argue that the most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan but our own fiscal irresponsibility."  He added that U.S. policy on health care and other major programs is on an "unsustainable” course..."we suffer from a fiscal cancer, it is growing within us.  And if we do not treat it, it could have catastrophic consequences for our country...it could bankrupt America."          26,27,30,31

The best part of the solutions about to be presented in this paper concern the finances involved.  The entire amount required to fix the mess each year is being diverted into private pockets.  We can recover this money, which is being stolen from those who need it the most, millions of our babies our children our mentally ill and our poor.  A sweeping and exhaustive study by Boston University's School of Public Health demonstrates that fully half of all U.S. health care expenditures are consumed by criminal fraud, waste or excess.  Harvard University and the New England Journal of Medicine put administrative costs alone at an astounding 31% of all U.S. Health Care costs.  The bottom line?--the corporate-managed U.S. Health Care Industry allows a Trillion Dollars, or, in other words, a Thousand, Thousand, Million Dollars A Year to be handed over to excess-profit-takers or thieves, while children suffer and die from lack of care.  These dollars, which we can recover each and every year, can solve our health care crisis, with no further cost to our nation, just some intelligent, long-term planning and hard work required--something our politicians can certainly aspire to, if they care to.  But if we hear them talking up the usual, trite quick-fixes, forget about it, they will lead us ever deeper into our Health Care disaster.          24,25,28,29

We must inform our leaders that the above facts were gleaned from impeccable sources considered to be the final authorities in their fields:  The Comptroller General of the United States, The Department of Defense, The American Medical Association, many of our most distinguished universities, the World Health Organization and dozens of others.  They have all tried to advise our leaders, without success so far, that we cannot continue to allow this Industry to brutalize us, we simply cannot afford the grim future Corporate Health Care America promises.

The data below presents a summation of the quagmire we are in.  This information is used by experts all over the world to evaluate national health care systems.  You, the reader, can let these facts be your guide.  Pretend you have the power to determine if we should continue to allow a trillion dollars a year to be stolen from us.  Then ask yourself why our leaders allow that to happen, year after year after year.       30,31,32,33  

• The U.S. is the only country in the developed world, except for South Africa, that does not provide health care for all its citizens.
• We rank 26th among all industrialized nations for infant mortality rates, worst of all OECD countries measured.
• Some 50 million of us have no health coverage and as many as 50 million more are frightfully under insured.
• Our black babies face an even more dangerous future as they die at twice the rate of whites.
• The U.S. ranks 24th on disability life expectancy among high-income OECD countries.
• The U.S. ranks lowest (55th place) of all OECD countries in Fairness of Financing.
• In the category of satisfaction with health care, only 40% of us are positive.
• In the Attainment and Performance categories, we ranked 15th and 37th.
• At this moment, one in three of our children are overweight or in danger of becoming overweight (Nemours foundation).       34
• A Harvard University study showed that our infants--one to six months old--had the greatest jump in overweight risk at 59% and the number of overweight infants increased by 74%.       35
• Our children’s overweight problem, as far back as 2002, was producing a major epidemic in juvenile onset diabetes (President, Diabetes Society).       36
• Another Harvard study showed that medical costs contributed to half of all U.S. bankruptcies.  75% of these people had health insurance, but apparently with lousy coverage.  This first large-scale study of medical-cost bankruptcies showed that over two million Americans are affected annually, including 700,000 children.  The majority of these kids subsequently went without needed medical care, while many lost their homes or were forced to live without running water or electricity.       37
• Our veterans, only 6 percent of our population, comprise almost one fourth of the American homeless.  Over 11% of these homeless are women stated the VA Director of Homeless Veterans Programs.  We have 50,000 homeless vets in California alone, and compared to what is about to happen, that is nothing.  We are about to face a "health care tsunami" because of what we have allowed to happen to our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.       38,39
• A recent report from the Pentagon's Mental Health Task Force estimated that 40% of all returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will suffer some form of mental illness.  The Department of Defense states that more than 1/3 of returning troops suffer from traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. The treatment of our veterans with such problems, already a national disgrace, is doomed to failure as huge percentages of our returning Iraq and Afghanistan troops are subject to more of the same lack of care.  Hundreds of thousands of these battle-scarred youths will be turned away as just so much human garbage.  They will wind up in jail or on the streets, which pretty much demonstrates how our Corporate Health Care Industry truly feels about our real heroes.       32,33,
• 25% of the entire U.S. prison population suffers from mental problems—so the majority of our mentally ill are jailed or our health care system ignores them altogether as they live out their lives in filth and dirt on the street.       44
• Of all American homeless, numbering up to 2 million people any given night (Report by the American Conference of Mayors), the majority suffer from some mental problem or are drug or alcohol dependant.  Each year, millions of homeless people in the United States need important health care, but finding it is extremely difficult.  Another terrible truth is that 36% of the homeless are families with children!  Another 12.6 million U.S. households are considered close to homelessness by the definition of being "food insecure," meaning the poverty in these homes is so great that kids are going hungry while going without health care.       42,43  

We could go on, but enough should be enough.  How can anyone suggest that our Corporate Health Care System is in good shape and that privatizing this industry was a good idea?  Unless that person has failed to do any serious research on this issue, they have simply adopted the mindset of, well, I've got mine, I could care less about the children, the poor, the veterans and the rest of the needy in America.  We are all exposed daily to media horror stories regarding adults, children and babies who are dying because of lack of health care.  The System is broken beyond repair.  There is no way to stop the pervasive greed that infects Corporate Health Care America.  We must take control away from the very executives that have created the situation.  The World Health Organization (WHO) sums it all up in one sentence:  “It is becoming increasingly clear that these continuing dilemmas are unlikely to be solved without a thorough and creative overhaul of our present system...it is a mess."       30

We must help our leaders understand that another side-step on their part in finding solutions that actually solve this monstrous dilemma will be the single most costly mistake ever made by U.S. politicians--that is not an exaggeration.  If we fail to get it right this time, the financial consequences will be disastrous.  Further irresponsibility by our leaders would not be forgotten by history, nor would the resultant harm done to hundreds of millions of people be soon forgiven.  Unless we initiate universal, single-payer, long-term reforms, our economy promises suffering for much of our society on a scale that is unfathomable.  On the other hand, Corporate Health Care America has structured a future that will bankrupt the U.S. in fairly short order.  As evidenced by the undeniable facts outlined below, we must do the right thing, and soon:

• The single most expensive problem we face in the future is Medicare.  500% greater than the impending social security crisis, it will consume 25% of all our taxes by the year 2020, half by 2040.
• Add together the coming financial crises of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Social Security disability and that sum tallies up a situation where there may not be enough paper upon which to print cheapie dollars.       46
• 78 million boomers are enrolling in Medicare in the next few years--tripling the number of people under governmental care.  Of course, uncontrolled Corporate Health Care America will suck every dollar they can from this wonderful and massive new source of warm bodies, while completely ignoring millions of kids without any coverage.       27
• With one swipe of the pen we signed up for another 40% to be added to Medicare costs with the new drug program, and that is just for starters.  Big Pharma is already gouging the U.S. with this new horn of plenty to levels beyond belief and this is only the beginning of their cutting-edge, drug-dealing doctoring.  Corporate America intends to write a stratospheric amount on the blank check we have handed them for the near future.       27
• HMO premium rates are slated to rise approximately 14% in 2008, the highest rise in four years.  The annual compounding on that figure boggles the mind.       47
• Our children's diabetes epidemic is now considered the worst health crises in the U.S., with costs running over 100 billion a year.  Without a change in direction in what is being done to our children, this situation, already a nightmare, will become horrific.        36      
• Due to the shooting gallery type wars we have created, our troops are marched back and forth like so many sitting ducks, some of them through years of multiple deployments.  Nobody seems to give a damn about these kids, certainly Congress is doing nothing and it appears this situation will continue to churn out hundreds of thousands of mental problems for years to come.  Experts calculate costs running to 700 billion dollars for those that do receive mental and physical treatments.  The reality may be well over a trillion dollars.  Add up society's costs for those that wind up homeless or in jail and we may run out of zeros for that figure.       41
• Recent news regarding our wars is the admission by authorities that they are drugging huge numbers of our stressed-out combat troops with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIS).  Oh boy, it's those psychedelic, psychotropic chemicals again--Big Pharma never misses an opportunity.  Their latest drugging program will allow these youngsters to be kept in combat for years!  Of course, the toxic drugs mask mental symptoms and daze the troops while more and more of the most horrible, never-ending stress does its terrible work on their minds.  The end result is ever-worsening mental problems for hundreds of thousands of our young people.  Time magazine states "The number of soldiers requiring long-term mental health services soars with repeated deployments and lengthy combat tours."  So, our young vets may be drugged and groggy during their next firefight, and nobody has a clue about what these chemicals do to young people under combat stress, or what their state of mind will be when they return home.  But who cares, says Big Pharma and some of our leaders, we have plenty of filthy back alleys and dangerous prisons in America, let our sick veterans fight their way out of those situations as well.  And the rest of us will be left to deal with a half million more military homeless without health care.       55

It's The Stupid Economy, and it is now upon us.

We are at a crossroads and one fork leads to the opportunity of a lifetime.  It all depends on how much our Presidential candidates understand about this problem.  Unfortunately, both of their proposed Health Care Reform programs fall far short of the solution we need.  At best, their Reforms will only serve as short-term band-aids because Corporate Health Care America will be left in control once again--a guaranteed prescription for disaster.  It is possible that one or both of the candidates know that they cannot promote real Reform before the election and they are biding their time, waiting until Jan 20, 2009.  Let's hope so.  If not, then they need further education on the subject.  We can start by advising them that this situation will be the single greatest determiner of our nation's financial security during the next ten years and probably far into the future.       56,57

Our politicians are not totally at blame in failing to strive for real reform thus far.  They feel they have no choice but to pander to the controlling corporations.  So wealthy is our Corporate Health Care Industry, it employs the largest army of lobbyists in the history of the United States, over 7000 people, some 13 lobbyists for every member of Congress.  Each year these individuals march upon Washington D.C., armed with a war chest of hundreds of millions of dollars.  They weld so much power, any politician runs a serious risk in not playing ball with them, as they would be cut off from their share of the great gobs of money being dispensed.  In addition, they are told comprehensive reform is not "realistic."  Translated, that means the companies that make up the industry are so politically powerful, so ingrained in society, there is no way to wrest control from them.  As always, our leaders feel forced into promoting reforms that all contain the one single clause that guarantees failure, they leave the corporations in firm control of the cash.  Any politician that fails to grasp the truth and magnitude of this will stand convicted of gross negligence and a terrible lack of foresight, and in a fairly short period of time.       45

Because we so want Corporate America's usual, quick-fixes to work, we have swallowed their conceptual con jobs every single time.  Our leaders can recognize these same old ploys by the catch phrases that promote reforms that sound so easy and wonderful on the surface.  We are told, "just cover everybody" or "just lower premiums" or "trust Big Pharma and Insurance companies to do better"  or "design a better insurance policy" or "let the government pay for everything" or "let the free market privatized system work its wonderful magic," and so on.  But for 20, long, ugly years those answers have failed miserably because our Corporate Health Care Industry was always in control.  If we do not get this right, we know who will be left in charge, again.  Only this time the Industry has outdone itself, it would wind up with universal control of all 300 million of us.  We must not allow this to happen.  We have hard work in front of us and it will take years to phase out the entrenched corporate fat cats.  Because of the upcoming election, this is a most opportune time.  We may never get another chance like this and a President that clearly understands the situation can lead us to our desperately needed solutions.

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HOW DO WE FIX THIS--WHAT IS OUR OBJECTIVE?

The World Health Organization (WHO) tells us our health system should deliver three basics: 1) Good Health—are we making the health status of the entire population as good as possible over the whole life cycle?   2) Responsiveness—does our system respond to all people’s expectations of respectful treatment and client orientation by health care providers?  3) Fairness in financing—does our system insure financial protection for everyone, with costs distributed with one’s ability to pay?       30

In addition to WHO's goals, there is practically universal consensus among imminent sociologists that the best way to evaluate a society is to observe its treatment of its most needy, weak, and downtrodden. To forecast our future we must but gauge how we care for all our children, our mentally ill, our veterans, our minorities and so forth.

ACCOMPLISHING THESE OBJECTIVES

OUR SEMINAL PRINCIPAL

Health Care Reform can be greatly facilitated by considering it the Seminal Principle of the United States.  Found in larger dictionaries, the definition of this phrase practically cries out to be applied to this problem.  The concept is to focus on thorough solutions to our most pressing problems.  We then find guidance, direction and inspiration leading to solutions for the plethora of other major dilemmas in the U.S.  We learn, grow and prosper by discovering new methods of operations to replace old, faulty ones.  In truth, we have no choice, no matter if it takes 10 years to accomplish Health Care Reform while we phase out Corporate America's control.  Privatizing this industry was a grave mistake.

If anyone doubts the U.S. Health Care quagmire is our most serious problem, please recall the previously quoted words of the Comptroller General of the U.S.  He warned we are facing bankruptcy if we fail to grasp the seriousness of this situation.  We have no choice here, if we fail in the endeavor to reform this Industry there will be no money to fix the environment or our bridges or the economy or, well, you get the point.  We need to begin somewhere, why not with the honorable idea that we want all our kids to have the equal opportunity of being well and healthy.  We are going to need these kids in the future and we must not allow Big Pharma to label 20 or 30 percent of them as mental cases for the next 70 years.

No more than third grade math is required to sum up the projected costs of our Corporate Health Care Industry for the near future.  Those figures are so frightening we can immediately stop questioning either the need for Health Care Reform or how much reform we need.  That allows us to ignore the proponents of The Stupid Economy who tell us all is well with this Industry.  Then we can ask the correct questions--what kind of reform do we need and when do we start?  The short answers are, as soon as possible, and be sure we do it "creatively and thoroughly," no matter how long it takes.  The U.S. can no longer afford criminally inclined executives growing our economy by brutalizing babies.        27

During the extensive research required to write this paper, very positive information surfaced regarding the structure of Health Care Reform that would accomplish the major overhaul we seek for our system.  Some of our finest medical and business minds have put in years of work on this theme.  For the most part these people have been ignored, thanks to massive campaigns mounted against them by Corporate Health Care America--remember their army of lobbyists.  Well, Corporate America destroyed all previous reform efforts, but they could not destroy the ideas contained in them.  Those thoughts are still out there and our leaders can implement them.  The seven point program that follows below is comprised of those profound ideas, along with one or two new thoughts.

IMPLEMENTATION

1. The secretary of Health and Human Services should form a blue ribbon commission to address this problem.  The vast majority of the millions of people who work within our health care system are dedicated to the highest ideals in helping their fellow man.  From that enormous supply of talent, we must gather together our best medical, business, and organizational geniuses to design and implement our new Health Care System.  This has been accomplished quite successfully in many other countries.  What might we accomplish with good old American know-how, our can-do spirit and trillions of recovered dollars?  This could be a wonderfully exciting project.  It should be a top priority of our national agenda and the commission selection process should be accomplished with studied deliberation.  If we pick our commission on the basis of Liberal, Conservative, Democrat or Republican criteria, we are lost.  Once chosen, we charge our new team with basing their designs on rigid science and best results.  And they should be directed specifically to phase out The Stupid Economy practice of allowing Corporate Health Care America to create and then diagnose and then treat our medical needs.  We must finally recognize that free-wheeling, greedy Market Capitalism does not work with Health Care.  We must reverse the privatization of this industry and exert the controls of a single payer system.  This could take 10 years, so the sooner we start the better.

2. Next, we start construction of a nation-wide computer program that will track and record all medical treatments and communicate with all care-givers, on a patient by patient basis.  All treatments would be recorded and stored on a nation-wide data bank.  No need to list names nationally but we do want to know everything that is happening.  Every care-giver who treats a patient will have all past treatment information available at all times, and will immediately record all treatments rendered.  This is a large order, but we do it now on a partial basis with Medicare very successfully.  There are pilot projects with several hospitals now underway that are achieving outstanding results.  This must be accomplished because there is no other way to evaluate what is working and expand on that, as well as monitor over-treatment, under-treatment and the stupid treatment we presently endure.  We have the best computer people in the world and be assured, they will relish the opportunity to create this solution, in style.  Enormous savings will result from this effort alone.  We have only to make the initial investment and put forth the effort.  This program would also track costs of all health care, as well as all cash flow from our Health Care Industry and all monies donated to anybody by Corporate Health Care America.

3. We must do something about the advertising of all drugs.  This concept will infuriate the advertising and health care industries but there is no better example of The Stupid Economy than allowing people to diagnose themselves with a TV or magazine and then rush to a doctor and demand chemicals they know little to nothing about.  It has been proven many times that the pharmaceutical industry is only too willing to put out false information and hide negative research results about drugs from our doctors.  Drugs that kill and maim are foisted on a trusting public and even doctors have no way of confirming information they are given by the Industry.  At a minimum, diligent and nationally controlled testing should be completed before any drug is advertised anywhere.  If this takes years then so be it.  The present advertising methods should be phased out as soon as possible, giving enough time to the people involved to adjust their businesses.  Some of them can secure positions in the computer sector of our Reformed Health Care Industry--a number of these souls will benefit from honest work.

4. We must create a Health Care police force to seek out and punish lawbreakers in our new System.  We jail children for stealing $17.00 from a convenience store and do nothing when highly educated, wealthy individuals rob us of billions while harming millions of kids.  A Wild West mentality has existed for so long in this Industry it might upset our national balance to go after all the thieves and criminally inclined for their past crimes.  A date could be established in the near future, beyond which, any Health Care criminal is fair game, no matter how high they are in the ranks of Corporate America.  This single feature of our new reform program will instantly create savings of many billions of dollars.  The vast majority of bullies turn tail and scamper away like little bunnies when confronted with retribution.  The minute criminally inclined executives understand they will be dealt with by our Health Care Police Force is the very minute a lot of children will be saved from cruel and abusive practices.

5. Boston University's School of Public Health has done outstanding work for years on this entire matter.  They have created a model that is now waiting for us that will put our doctors back in control of our health care and can be the basis for the design of protocols for all local physicians and hospitals.  There are so many problems in this area, such as the crisis we face in the shortage of primary care physicians, that the subject cannot be covered in this paper.  Suffice to say, we need to direct hundreds of billions of dollars away from Corporate Health Care America, and their stockholders, and apply that money to helping our citizens stay healthy. The programs and concepts that Boston University has developed will take those savings and put it into the hands of our care givers, provide care for all U.S. citizens, and vastly improve care across the United States.  This can be accomplished from our Health Care Reform savings of a trillion dollars per year. Yes, once again, that is one thousand, thousand million dollars of savings.  The U.S. will have a lot of money to spend correctly, and the results will be both exciting and amazing. And every mother will know she has proper, timely, medical help available if her baby gets sick.

Boston University's method of creating our local strategies for health care is called a bottom-up approach.  Historically, we have attempted top down designs and they don't work.  The corporate executives we place at the top cannot be trusted in far too many instances.  The bottom-up method will take some work but will allow all areas of the Country to structure their own basic styles of treatment.  At the same time, these individually structured areas will be connected to the national network and will receive guidance and information from all people being treated in the country.  This portion of our reform will be easier than it sounds.  We presently have pockets of health care success throughout the U.S. that have shown excellent results with any number of medical protocols using this group structure.  Many years of group effort put forth toward conquering children's cancer has shown spectacular results.  We have groups of psychiatrists who are advancing the science of their specialty with fine results.  The Veterans Administration, using group treatment and new co-ordination techniques, has done good work in many areas with limited funds.  The trick to applying these techniques on a national scale is nothing other than getting rid of the corporate charlatans and allowing some of our finest medical and business experts to design, implement and govern the program.  The bottoms up approach must be implemented because there is no other way to put control of our Health Care back into the hands of local medical authorities, and pay them properly.

6. We must either dissolve, or totally overhaul, the Food and Drug administration.  The FDA is so dysfunctional it has become the official U.S. clearing house for our medical industry's lies and deceptions, resulting in many drug and medical device approvals that should never have happened.  The transition to a viable entity that is operated by independent, medical researchers will take some time but must be accomplished.  The alternative is to continue watching Big Pharma and others lie their way through the FDA's approval process and then kill millions of people across the globe with horribly dangerous drugs, equipment and treatments.  Our Nation's reputation is at stake, to say nothing of the health of our population.

7. The U.S. Corporate Health Care System has a real problem with the words "preventative medicine and healthy lifestyles."  Those concepts are counter-productive to their profit structure.  Possibly the most important feature of our Reform is the need for the citizens of the U.S. to be taught healthy lifestyles, especially in the way we eat and exercise.  We need to expose our kids to these concepts.  Our New Health Care System must design and initiate educational programs to be put forth in whatever forum will work.  Schools are our only hope right now but doctors will have more time to further this cause because of their new treatment protocols, more accurate information, more time, and better paychecks.  Television exposure might have a positive effect.  Our schools may not like the added responsibility but we have no choice other than to let many kids eat themselves into terrible health.  We will have to pay the schools to do this for a time and then we will have parents that will be able to do their own training.  Our teachers need a nice raise anyway, but that's a subject for another paper.  Once again, we can pay for this effort from Reform savings, and the financial returns to the U.S. will be astounding.  Also, won't it be nice to do something wonderfully progressive for all our children.

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America can no longer afford business as usual.  Our society has strayed so far afield in so many areas we are running out of good guys to handle the bad guys.  We are at a crossroads, if our leaders cannot stand up now and take meaningful action against the terrible behavior we witness in our Corporate Health Care Industry, it is doubtful we will ever again enjoy the powerful economy that once was ours.  Think about it, if we allow the single largest sector of our economy to brutalize children for dollars, we will tolerate anything.  We must face, and take action against the results of The Stupid Economy, which is symbolized by quick, dumb, easy operations that result in short term gain and long term sorrow.

We hold certain segments of our society to a much stricter accounting.  We watch our military very closely.  Our educational systems are monitored with keen eye.  Our police departments are made to adhere to rigid rules of behavior.  Somehow, however, our Corporate Health Care Industry has escaped anything even approximating proper scrutiny.  To our shame, and the great sorrow and deteriorating health of millions of our people, we have allowed this Industry to run rampant.  Considering our Health Care Industry is charged with preserving and improving the very health and lives of all our people, it should be the most closely controlled segment of our society, along with our defense industry.

That is why nationalizing our Health Care Industry is our absolute necessity, and it can easily be argued, our number one priority.  We are one of only two industrialized nations in the world (South Africa is the other) without national health insurance.  Our Health Care Reform is doomed to failure unless we adopt national, universal Health Care.  Because of the very nature and definition of insurance, which is the spreading of risk, the needed efficiencies will only be attained if all our citizens are pooled together to accomplish coverage for each and every individual.  Furthermore, as outlined in this paper's seven point plan, we must have nation-wide administration, strategy, policing and design.  There is no other way to solve this problem.

The concept of 50 different, state-mandated, universal plans is naive.  If all 50 states embark upon their own course, we are lost.  Besides, we tried versions of this for the past 20 years and what a three-ring circus we have created.  Ask Massachusetts how they are doing with their state-wide plan.  Consider Texas and its disastrous experiment in treating their kids under a group concept with Big Pharma calling the shots.  One hand in Florida is thinking of suing Big Pharma right now, while the other hand wants to copy Texas with their state-wide universal plan.  None of this can work.  It is a prescription to bankruptcy, and worse, a continuation of the terrible treatment of a hundred million of our citizens and a free pass for Corporate Health Care America to do what they do so well, steal from us.

Because of the magnitude and urgency of what is happening, we must act promptly and decisively.  That is our first problem, because in recent years we have been overwhelmed with volumes of false information regarding the quality and cost of our health care.  But now that some of the truth of the problem has finally been bought into public view, the very entities that have created this situation are doing their best to add to the confusion.  They are desperately scrambling to propose solutions that look good on the surface, with wonderful titles that make us all feel good.  If we fall for this Industry's subterfuge again, we will live to deeply regret it.  One good thing about our situation is that we are in a very bad storm.  Things have deteriorated so much in this Industry we may finally be able to prod our politicians into comprehensive reform.  100 million of our citizens are presently being mistreated by our Health Care Industry.  Let us hope we can do the right thing here, for if we fail to confront, and correct this situation, it indicates we are either beyond the point of no return, or we simply do not care.

Should anyone think this paper may have dealt too harshly with Corporate Health Care America, Big Pharma in particular, simply consider the recent increase of autism cases in U.S. children.  As usual, Big Pharma is denying they are doing anything wrong.  But they have lied through their teeth in thousands of cases involving the terrible side effects of their drugs, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths. The following facts are reported by AHRP:  "In 1982, one in 10,000 children were diagnosed with autism.  Today. one child in 150 develops autism--a 6,500 % increase.  One out of six American children is learning disabled.  One in nine has asthma and one in 450 is diabetic."  We must question a connection between those facts and the current recommendation that our kids be given "69 doses of 16 vaccines by age 18."       59 

Do you suppose there is a chance the executives of these companies know something about this new and mysterious plague of autism affecting our kids?  Is there any chance they would tell us the truth if they do?  Big Pharma answers that question by its own behavior; they have adopted The Stupid Economy mind-set so deeply that they are fighting tooth and nail in legal arenas everywhere necessary to insure that they can keep drugging our kids in any manner they wish.  The real question is, can we afford to take a chance on their veracity?  The following news headline recently appeared, "The Next Big Autism Bomb: Are 1 in 50 Kids Potentially At Risk?"  The article referred to information recently uncovered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that there is a chance that one million of our kids could become autistic if we continue our school inoculation programs as presently structured.       48

But an even more dangerous legal gambit by Big Pharma should be mentioned, one with the most destructive potential of all their maneuvers in the past 20 years.  In the fall of this year, 2008, The U.S. Supreme Court will listen to Big Pharma argue that they can never again again be held accountable for any damage their drugs do to anybody in the world, just so long as the FDA has approved the drug.  Ladies and Gentlemen, if Big Pharma wins that court case, we will witness the beginning of the most profitable and harmful corporate scam in the history of the United States.  Current estimates show 10% of our school-age children are now being prescribed mind-altering drugs, between 8 and 10 million kids.  Does anyone in their right mind think this is a good way to run an economy for the long-term, even if it does increase our Gross Domestic Product?  Does anyone really think that needlessly cramming cocktails of toxic chemicals into the brains of ten million kids will lead us into the brave new future we desperately need as a nation?  Does anyone doubt the damage Big Pharma will do if they win their Supreme Court Case?       49

As this paper was being completed, a New York Times article of April 16, 2008 reported the fact that the drug company, Merck, had written dozens of research studies on a best-selling drug, and then recruited prominent doctors to put their names on the reports for publication.  This report appeared in JAMA, The Journal of The American Medical Association.  JAMA's editor said, "I consider that as being scammed."  And the lead author of the report, from the Mount Sinai School Of Medicine stated, "It almost calls into question all legitimate research that's been conducted by the pharmaceutical industry with the academic physician."  As previously mentioned, the New York Times recently reported that a Congressional investigation uncovered the fact that several world-renowned, Harvard, child psychiatrists were found to have failed in reporting millions of dollars in "consulting" fees paid to them by Big Pharma.  These men promoted the explosive use of Big Pharma's antipsychotic drugs in millions of children, infants and babies all over the world.       50,58   

Good grief, folks, do we need more than 20 years of brutal behavior by this Industry to convince us we must immediately start to wrest control of U.S. Health Care from Corporate America?  Massive sections of this Industry now operate under the assumption that they are above the rule of law.  We cannot trust them any longer.  It seems a good idea that as many of us as possible contact our national and state level politicians and respectfully request that the leadership of the companies in question be immediately subpoenaed to deposition, be put under oath, and instructed that even though they are sitting at the inquest in $3000.00 suits, they too are subject to perjury laws.  That might scare the truth even out of some of these people.  Then ask these pillars of society what secret information they have concerning their drugs and any side-effects connected to the massive increase of the terrible disease of autism.

On our telephone call, if we can't arrange the depositions, we can tell our leaders that we know our Corporate Health Care Industry is leading the United States ever downward into The Stupid Economy, at an exponential pace.  We should ask our politicians if they want to be responsible for the horrors that will befall our nation because of their continuing lack of correct action.  Ask if they want to look into the frightened, downcast eyes of a million new autistic kids; or the weary, heartbroken eyes of their parents; or the shocked eyes of hundreds of thousands of jailed or homeless veterans; or the vacant stares of our mentally ill; or the questioning eyes of a hundred million U.S. citizens living without proper health care?...for all that is what we will face if we fail to act decisively against Corporate Health Care America's tragic, 20-year mess.  

The general situation in the United States cries out for a Seminal Principal:  A cause that our society as a whole can embrace;  a cause that will do the most good for the most people;  a cause that will awaken and strengthen the qualities that made us great; a cause that will finally bring our leadership together for the good of the people, instead of their parties;  a cause that will create our path for the future and help us attain the state of mind we so desperately need to get back to being the strong and decent Nation we are capable of being.

It is not a recession, or a depression, that should concern us--what we should be worried about is becoming a nation in decline, for that is our future if we fail to care for 100 million of our most needy.  The United States faces no other problem that begs for our unified attention as does Health Care Reform, and no other solution that will serve so well as our Seminal Principal.

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I wish to recognize and offer thanks to the following sources for their invaluable research and the extensive efforts they put forth.  Without those efforts this paper could not have been written.

The State of Connecticut, Reuters, The New York Times, Bloomburg, WebMD, MEDCO, USA Today, The Public Broadcasting System, Frontline, The Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, The Rutherford Institute, The University of South Florida, The Alliance for Human Research Protection, The Boston Globe, Rethink, The Teenscreen Truth Blog, Harvard University, The Harvard Medical School, The Harvard Crimson, The Book "Overtreated," Boston University, The Boston University School of Health Care, SFGATE and The San Francisco Chronicle, The Kaiser Family Foundation, CBS News, The New England Journal of Medicine, The World Health Organization, The University of Main, The Denver Post, Nemours Foundation, The American Diabetes Society, The Huffington Post, Accuracy in Media, The City Mayor's Society, SODEXHO-The United States Conference of Mayors, The U.S. Department of Justice, Managed Care Magazine, TIME Magazine The Government Accountability Office and The Comptroller General of The United States, The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, The Journal of American Medicine, The International Herald Tribune, Hewitt and Associates, The Department of Defense, The Pentagon Mental Health Task Force, The VA Homeless Veterans Program.           

1. http://www.ct.gov/ag/lib/ag/health/elililly-zyprexa.pdf  ---Connecticut Court Filing, Eli Lilly case.
2. http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssHealthcareNews/idUSN1160916520080311  ---Reuter's 3-11-08 Report on Connecticut Lawsuit.
3. Google the phrase "states suing Big Pharma" for 400,000 hits
4. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/business/06drug.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=alaska+trial+drug&st=nyt&oref=slogin&oref=slogin  ---New York Times 3-06-08 article on Alaska trial    
5. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/health/04psych.html?_r=1&oref=slogin  ---New York Times 9-04-07 article on 4000% increase in childhood bipolar
6. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=av991HgHrJVs&refer=home  ---Bloomberg 9-04-07 article on 4000% increase in childhood bipolar
7. http://www.webmd.com/news/20060503/more-kids-antipsychotic-drugs  ---WebMD & Vanderbilt Medical Center, 5-03-06, childhood use of antipsychotics
8. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-05-01-atypical-drugs_x.htm --USA Today, 5-02-06 article, Duke University, interview  
9. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/medicatedchild/interviews/insel.html#5 --Public Broadcasting System and National Institute of Mental Health 
10. http://www.jonmd.com/pt/re/jnmd/abstract.00005053-200705000-00007.htm;jsessionid=LSJFhQZ9JMZRMyQyK5ByGq3pw8gcjyczy1NXnFQG19jZVyxWMpH9!-779771550!181195628!8091!-1] --Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease
11. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/medicatedchild/etc/synopsis.html --Frontline show (4-08-08 updates) about children, bipolar diagnosis and drugs
12. Google the phrase, "states sue for children on antipsychotics for 81,000 hits
13. http://www.rutherford.org/Oldspeak/Articles/Interviews/oldspeak-jones.htm --Rutherford Institute interview of Allen Jones (PA investigator) on scam of kids suicide screen
14. http://www.psychsearch.net/antipsychotic_adhd.pdf  ---University of South Florida study, 10-07, on Antipsychotic drug use in children and babies
15. http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/05/11/02a.php  ---AHRP, Alliance for Human Research Protection on  60% foster kids on drugs
16. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/08/09/prevalence_of_drugs_for_dss_wards_questioned/  ---Boston Globe (Boston.com), 2/3 of kids in state care on psychotropic drugs
17. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=av991HgHrJVs&refer=home  ---Bloomberg 9-04-2007, Kids bipolar jumps 4000%
18. http://www.rethink.org/living_with_mental_illness/treatment_and_therapy/medication/antipsychotics/side_effects_of.html ---Rethink article, side effects of antipsychotics
19. http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2007/06/17/backlash_on_bipolar_diagnoses_in_children/?page=1  ---Boston Globe, side-effects of antipsychotics
20. http://www.teenscreentruth.com/New_Freedom_Commission.html  ---Teenscreen Truth Blog site, Current & comprehensive information on Teenscreen
21. http://www.teenscreentruth.com/teenscreen_facts.html  ---Teenscreen Truth, 95% false positives on suicide tests.
22. http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/171/12/1451 ---Canadian Medical Association, and CMAJ, Boston.com, 10 largest Big Pharma companies profits > rest of 490 Fortune 500 combined in 2002
23. "Overtreated," The book, regarding forms of over, under, excess treatment
24. http://www.hms.harvard.edu/news/releases/0820woolhimmel.html  ---New England Journal of Medicine & Harvard Medical School, 31% administrative costs.
25. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/09/BUG7RB7VEM1.DTL  ---San Francisco Chronicle, Boston University School of Medicine, 50% of costs are waste.
26. http://www.kff.org/insurance/upload/7692.pdf  ---Kaiser Family Foundation, 78% increase in Health Care costs
27. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/01/60minutes/main2528226.shtml  ---CBS Interview, 7-08-2007, David Walker, U.S. Comptroller General, US bankruptcy danger
28. http://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/hs/Health%20Costs%20Absorb%20One-Quarter%20of%20Economic%20Growth%20%202000-05%20%20Sager-Socolar%207%20February%202005.pdf  ---Boston University School of Public Health,  Report on Health Care
29. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/349/8/768  ---New England Journal of Medicine, Health Care Costs
30. http://www.who.int/whr/en/]  ---The World Health Organization (WHO), official site with links to reports
31. http://dll.umaine.edu/ble/U.S.%20HCweb.pdf  ---University of Maine, Paper on World Health Organization report
32. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-03-3925413338_x.htm  ---USA Today report on Defense Department Task Force on Mental Health
33. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6503315  ---Denver Post report on GAO study of treatment of veterans by Department of Defense 
34. http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/general/body/overweight_obesity.html  ---Nemours Foundation report on overweight children
35. http://web.med.harvard.edu/sites/RELEASES/HTML/8_09gILLMAN.HTML  ---Harvard University study on childhood obesity
36. http://clinical.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/20/4/217  ---President of Diabetes Society, on child diabetes epidemic
37. http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2005/02/10_warren.php  ---Harvard University report on medical costs bankruptcies
38. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20071107/homeless-veterans/  ---Huffington Post, on Peter Daugherty, director of homeless veterans affairs
39. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/09/BALQTQEO0.DTL  ---San Francisco Chronicle (SFGATE) a health care tsunami with returning veterans
40. http://www.aim.org/briefing/drugging-our-poor/  ---Accuracy in Media, child mental health screening problems
41. http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516572  ---The Harvard Crimson, report on veteran's health care
42. http://www.citymayors.com/features/uscity_poverty.html  ---City Mayor's Society, report on hunger and homelessness
43. http://usmayors.org/uscm/hungersurvey/2005/HH2005FINAL.pdf  ---Sodexho, United State Conference of Mayors, report on hunger and homelessness in US
44. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/mhppji.htm  ---U.S. Department of Justice, report on Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates
45. http://www.managedcaremag.com/archives/0208/0208.lobbying.html  ---Managed Care Magazine, report on health care lobby
46. http://www.centrists.org/pages/2005/01/social_security_event/dave_walker_presentation.pdf  ---David Walker, Comptroller General of The United States, health care, SS future costs
47. http://www.hewittassociates.com/Intl/NA/en-US/AboutHewitt/Newsroom/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?cid=4159  ---Hewett Associates, HMO rate increase numbers
48. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/the-next-big-autism-bomb_b_93627.html  ---Huffington Post, childhood autism
49. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/washington/06patch.html?_r=1&oref=slogin  ---New York Times on Big Pharma Supreme Court Case
50. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/business/15cnd-vioxx.html?em&ex=1208404800&en=e63ce27a659ea15c&ei=5087%0A  ---New York Times on ghostwritten drug studies
51. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/20/business/19specialty.php  ---International Herald Tribune, Specialty drug costs $389,000 per year per person
52. http://www.healthyplace.com/news_2008/antipsychotics_02.asp  ---Healthyplace.com, Jan., 10, 2008 article concerning The State of Florida lawsuit against the U.S. pharmaceutical industry
53. The movie "Sicko" offers an understanding of the U.S. health care situation that no other medium can match
54. Emedicine (from Webmd) article on Ice-Pick Lobotomy and bipolar disease
55. TIME Magazine, April 16, 2008
56. http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/19ba2f1c-c03f-4ac2-8cd5-5cf2edb527cf.htm  McCain Health Care Reform
57. http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/  Obama Health Care Reform program
58. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/us/08conflict.html?hp  NY TIMES, Congress
59. http://ahrp.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html  AHRP on child autism increase