The Medical Profession - To The Right Of Capitalism

This little Peruvian girl's parents take her to the doctor only
when necessary.  They pay for the visit, and for whatever
procedure, they go home, and that's all there is to it.
It worked that way here in America pre 1975.  How
did things morph into the ridiculous as it is today?

There was a time when it was said, “Offer a good product or service, and charge a fair price”.  Well, if you are unfortunate enough to have learned this in previous generations, or ever, for that matter, you will be left smoldering in the ashes in the inferno of monopolism that has become the new American Way.  I don’t have answers for any of this, only observations.  My objective here is to put out this information in the simplest form possible, without all the pedantic bullshit, so that people can see what is going on, and so those with a platform may one day decide to step up and do something.

Today I’ll be using the medical profession as my display monkey.  I have no actual proof of this, all of what I say here is a result of my own experiences and observations.

Sometime over the past twenty years or so, the entire medical profession has adopted the same cheap sales tactics as all other businesses that involve sales – which of course, makes up over 98% of our lives.  Before the current state of the profession had morphed into what it is today, the better the doctor, the better he was at diagnosing and treating a patient – with good results, the better his reputation would be, and the result was the sky was the limit as far as income.  He could place himself in more upscale neighborhoods, and his fees could be significantly higher.  Folks who were financially better off than others didn’t mind paying for good, competent health care.  As used to be with capitalism, if a doctor (or any business person) tried to gouge patients (customers), he would gouge himself right out of the market – same goes for if he was less than competent at his trade – people would provide feedback to friends and family, and pretty soon, the dishonest, and the incompetent, would be out of business – as it should be.  Well, it does not work that way today.  When you go to a doctor, dentist, or even mental health care professional, they will partake in the huge scam that has become the business.  First, they have been trained to do a couple of things – other than how to “treat” illnesses and conditions – in fact, I would say that “treating” the patient has become secondary to the business or sales part.  The main objective of the health care professional is to get a lifetime membership from the patient – get him or her to visit the office as often as possible – hopefully for the rest of their life.  They will use technical mumbo jumbo, scare tactics, “policies”, “standards”, bullying, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.

Here’s my own personal experience with two dentists I had the misfortune of visiting.  A year ago, I was eating a burrito, at which time I bit into a piece of metal that somehow made it into the thing, and cracked one of my back teeth right down the middle.  So, I make an appointment to see a dentist.  On my first and second visits, I didn’t even get to see an actual dentist, I see only the assistants, they ask me why I’m there, I tell them about the cracked tooth, they tell me I must make another appointment.  So, my third visit, I finally see a dentist, he takes X rays, tells me what I already know, but he tries to sell me on every dental procedure known to the human race, and a few others; he then, like a tornado, gets his prescription pad out and asks me what kind of pain killer I prefer.  I told him I don’t use drugs of any kind, so no thanks, I tell him to just yank the tooth that is broken.  He says, “Well, I can’t do it today, so make an appointment for the extraction”.  So, two months later is the soonest, I get in to the office, he takes a quick look in my mouth, says, “I don’t have time to do it today, make an appointment for the extraction”.  Ok, so two more months (approximately SIX months with the broken tooth) go by, it’s back to the dentist’s office.  His assistant puts the blood pressure contraption on my arm, takes the reading and says, “Oh, your blood pressure is high, I don’t think the doctor will be able to do the extraction today, you’ll need to make another appointment”.  He comes into the office and gives me the whole spiel about how I could “stroke out” in the chair because my blood pressure is eight points higher than his supposed limit.  Funny, the readings at my previous visits, when he had other excuses, were comfortably under his limit, only when “I don’t have time to do it today” was used twice did he come up with these bogus blood pressure readings.  I try to convince him to yank the damn tooth anyway, but he insists he’s not going to do it, implying that there is some law that doesn’t allow him to perform the extraction, he tells me I must make still another appointment.  Two MORE months, back once again, the assistant comes in, puts the blood pressure device on me, and this time, the reading is outrageous – something like 190/150.  I figure he has control over that device (being able to tell it what reading to show) – and being that he expected me to maybe have gotten some kind of bp medication, he set it to make up for my blood pressure being normal – to that ridiculously high reading.  I tell him there is no way in HELL my blood pressure is that high, he ignores me, and insists he’s not going to perform the extraction.  So, two things here, first, my blood pressure has always been what is considered borderline - around 130 – 140/95 – 105 – been that way since I was about 20 years old (that I know about), it hasn’t gotten any worse, so it appears that’s just the way it is with me – similar to persons whose blood pressure is low – not because of any condition, but because that’s just what their body does.  I’ve never had any symptoms of high blood pressure – again, being borderline generally does not cause problems, especially since that’s just the way my body is.  The other thing is, after my fourth visit to the dentist – after he claimed my pressure was high, I went straight to Safeway – to stick my arm into their blood pressure machine – which I’d been doing for the past ten years or so.  My bp was 135/97 – this was less than an hour after leaving the dentist’s office with that ridiculous reading.  Funny thing, in a previous time needing an extraction (before I learned about flossing), I had a tooth pulled in one visit – no rigamarole, no excuses, I was in and out in about a half an hour.  So, after going back for the SIXTH time, and him sending his assistant in to tell me my bp was still too high, that I needed to make STILL another appointment, I told the assistant that I had had enough of the runaround, and that I wasn’t coming back.  So, I make an appointment with a different dentist, which I went to today.  He’s this little mousy guy, but he has basically the same line of B.S. – tells me I need every procedure in the universe.  Let me say here that I take immaculate care of my teeth, and while I’m not a dentist, I know that other than the broken tooth, my teeth are just fine.  He wanted to yank perfectly good teeth, and put me in dentures.  I of course told him that was crap and that there was no way in hell I was going to allow that.  As I did with the previous dentist, I tried to get him to pull the tooth, but same, this mousy guy wouldn’t do it, saying I need to make another appointment.  I managed to ask him if there was some law that dictated he could not pull teeth if the patient’s bp was above a certain number, he said, “No, it’s a standard” – meaning he could do it if he wanted to.  After telling him what bullshit I thought this whole thing was, and how sick and goddam tired I was after a YEAR of this runaround, he finally said he could send me to some kind of oral surgeon to do the extraction, because “Should anything happen on the table, they’re equipped to deal with it”.  Before that, though, he prescribed some kind of antibiotic, claiming that I have some kind of infection, I would need to go to my regular physician to get a “Medical Release”, then go to the surgeon.  I know damn well I don’t have any goddam infection, there is no redness, no swelling, no pain, and before that last ditch effort, there was no mention of any infection – even when he was looking at my X rays – the infection was an afterthought – another cheap bunch of bullshit to convince me that he couldn’t do the extraction right then.

Here’s the math:  I happen to know that a dental office visit normally costs between $120 and $200, add to that whatever procedure is done.  X rays are in the hundreds, which I had once from the first dentist and two sets from the second one.  So, let’s say my office visits were $120 each – multiply that by seven total visits (six to the first dentist, one, so far, to the second), I believe that’s $840 just for the office visits.  Add three sets of X rays, today’s prescription, and whatever kickbacks he gets from the surgeon he referred me to, my guess is just from one patient (me), my insurance company has paid out around $2000, and I’m not even close to being done with it.  Think about the fact that the first dentist brought me into his office six times, charged $720, plus his cut for the X rays (which a separate person did) and did absolutely NOTHING.

Ok, here’s the rest of the story.  Pre HMO, pre “Medical Coverage/Insurance” days, doctors would charge what they charged – it was usually reasonable and affordable.  For the poor folks, there were county hospitals and free clinics – that did not charge people who made less than a specified income.  So, when these insurance companies and HMOs came along and took charge of the whole medical profession, that put a very low ceiling on their (the doctors’) income.  There are claims adjusters, who do the billing, there are certain prices set for whatever office visits and procedures.  If a doctor or dentist charges more than what is stated, or they attempt to call for certain tests (X-rays, MRI, etc.) that are beyond stated limits, the insurance company can refuse payment, and, if a particular doctor or dentist does this on a regular basis, they (the insurance company) can launch an investigation.  I happen to know all of this because someone close to me paid medical claims for twenty two years.  Let’s not forget the possibility and likelihood of kickbacks in all directions – as opposed to before, when it was the doctor and the patient.  The result of all this is that not only do the doctors and dentists have a ceiling on their income, but the insurance companies get their cut, which, you guessed it, all comes out of the customers’ payments – in the form of the ever rising costs of health care.  So, now all doctors make basically the same income – whether they are better than another doctor, and not mattering what neighborhood their office is in.  To be fair, doctors and dentists in more affluent neighborhoods usually accept the higher tier insurance policies, which may have slightly higher ceilings for office visits and procedures, but still a ceiling, still it is dictated what they can and cannot charge, and what tests and procedures they can and cannot administer.  So, we have the medical professionals who are angry at the insurance carriers, so they must now find other ways to make up their income.  One of those ways is to gouge the insurance companies the best they know how.  They know how far they can push, and it seems the easiest one is to keep the patient coming in for endless office visits.  Another moneymaker is to be peddlers for Big Pharma.  We’ve all seen how fast any medical professional whips out the old prescription pad, and we’ve all been on the receiving side of endless office visits.  Compare this to thirty years ago on back, where a doctor could almost always offer diagnosis and treatment in one visit, prescribed meds only if he thought they were necessary, and would only recommend a certain test also only if he thought it was necessary.  Occasionally one follow up visit would be recommended.  So you see, the medical profession is quite different today than it was pre mid 70s.  On top of that, today, everybody is sick, on meds, and pretty much has a lifetime membership for weekly or monthly visits to the doctor’s office.  Today there are huge medical centers that take up one, two, and three city blocks – three, four, and five stories high – sometimes even bigger than  that, and you know where the money to build and maintain them came from, right – yes, from US.  This is opposed to the little neighborhood doctors’ office in the days of old – in the days where most business people prided themselves on being fair and honest.

So, Big Insurance has taken over the Health Care system, doctors are angry, are finding other ways to make up their income, including gouging as much as possible, and are peddling drugs for Big Pharma (huge kickbacks for that).  Health care costs, already ridiculous, are constantly rising, most people are in the doctor’s office once a week or so, and are taking handfuls of pills two, three, four times a day and more.  Everybody is fat, sick, and stressed, oh yeah, and gouged to death by these parasites disguised as HMOs and insurance companies.

The Epidemic Of Depression

I've seen with my own eyes, people in third world countries

who live in these conditions.  The ones I met seemed to be

fine with their lives, likely because they do constructive things,

they have much less societal influences such as peer

indoctrination, hero worship, history books, TV, or video games.

Yes mental depression is in epidemic proportions, and is not getting any better.  Besides the usual causes, we now have the “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy” crowd making it all the worse.

Some of the causes are:  Brainwashing by Hollywood’s hero movies (I list this one first, because it is so damaging in so many ways), being bullied as  a child (more often by parents than by peers), working one’s ass off for X amount of years to no avail.  There may or may not be a genetic component that might cause a certain amount of susceptibility to depression, but if there is, it’s minimal, and can easily be overcome.

Hollywood’s Hero Movies.  Every American boy has been told by daddy, by uncle, by peers, by so called “History books”, and by Hollywood that he must handle every situation the way Chuck Norris, Clint Eastwood, and Superman would.  Little American boys watch this stuff, and it sinks into their subconscious that this is reality.  Daddy, uncle, and the other little boys have all been brainwashed by the same source – the almighty television.  History books have been written in much the same way – where hero worship is part and parcel of just about every passage.  I must emphasize the TV, because that is what we see more often than any other source.  We humans, as well as all living creatures, have a built in mechanism, often known as the “Self preservation mechanism”.  This system is designed to preserve its own life, its own safety.  Most males in western society think that a person who acts on that mechanism is some kind of scaredy cat, a coward.  If you have ever observed an animal, it will live its life, it will hunt food, and some will have a home turf.  At some point in an animal’s life, some other animal, or in many cases, humans, will threaten its life.  The animal will always retreat when it knows it cannot defend itself against the threat.  I’m pretty sure most of us don’t see this animal as a coward.  Same goes for humans.  If we are threatened by a gun pointed at our face, most of us are not going to challenge the person holding the gun.  The difference here is, we see Chuck, Clint, and Sup, using supersonic speed (well scripted, choreographed, and directed) to disarm the badguy and come out the winner – showing the audience that showing “guts” is what life is all about (I'll discuss intestinal fortitude at a later date).  We see this nonsense almost from the day we are born, so by the time we’re two years old, we want to mimic what we’ve seen hundreds of times by then.  Couple things here.  First, I’d be willing to be that neither Clint, nor any of the actors who played Superman, have ever been in a real fight in their life – to their credit, not their detriment.  Chuck Norris took part in carefully controlled Karate matches when he was a youngster.  So, let’s say Chuck is in a restaurant, and some loudmouth calls him a sissy, and Chuck then stands up and decks the guy.  First off, if the guy doesn’t stay down, there’s a chance he could pull a gun out and start shooting – and much as we would like to think otherwise, Chuck cannot dodge bullets without the script, the director, the rehearsal, or the gun prop gun that if it’s shooting anything at all, it’s shooting blanks.  There"s also the likely possibility that Chuck ciuld find himself in prison - for up to five years.  Im pretty sure no dimwit out in public is worth any of this.  I would bet that when Chuck, Clint, or any other TV or big screen badass has run into a similar situation, they, like any other intelligent person, would remove himself from the situation – as he should.  I say again, this does not make a person a coward.  A coward is a person who will find a weapon to hide behind, and use that to cause grief and loss for another person – you must learn this, because the false notion that walking away from a threatening situation (otherwise known as “fear”)  makes us cowards is probably the biggest contributor to depression that there is.  There will always be bullies, cowards, who suffer from some form of self loathing, and live to try to make others feel as bad about themselves as they do, you see them more often than you would care to think about.  You don’t need to concern yourself with what the bully thinks, because if you can remember this, he is already beyond miserable with his own horrible self image.  So, if walking away from a threat is good enough for a mighty lion in the jungle, and good enough for any onscreen badass who encounters such a situation in real life, then it’s damn sure good enough for me – and for you.

In today’s world, there are those way up at the top of the food chain who have carefully orchestrated and manipulated the world so that they can have and maintain total and absolute control and material profit.  They are clever and ruthless, and they are gaining more and more control over every man, woman, and child on the planet.  That being the case, it becomes more and more difficult to make a decent living, to start and maintain a true small business, to feed our families, and to even live a decent life.  Yes, there are those who deny and defend against this fact, but well, we won’t concern ourselves with the perpetrators and their defenders at this point.  Most people enjoy working – providing it means working at something that brings them some form of satisfaction.  In one’s early adult years, we can work doing whatever job presents itself, whatever is available – being that at that early age, very few of us have any kind of training.  If it’s possible to save, and maybe at some point find a product or service to offer.  This, as we all know, is much more difficult in today’s world than it was a couple of decades ago.  Doing such a thing in a city is probably out of the question, unless you’re fortunate enough to have a few million dollars at your disposal – needless to say, very few of us have that luxury.  I don’t have any advice on what products or services will have a future, because once again, the Powers That Be have made it next to impossible to attempt such a thing, and, as some slip through the cracks, they patch up the crack.  I guess what I’m saying is that our American environment is not set up to benefit us, the little people – as it was back when our country was at its greatest – 40, 50, and 60 years ago.  So, no business advice here, just ways to cope with these glaring facts.  You can refer to the post titled, “First You Must Clear Your Mind” (you can find it here:  http://meahunahealth.blogspot.com/2015/01/theres-more-than-one-way-to-skin-lesson.html).  If I do have any advice on this, it’s to do lots of research, make sure you know your trade and who your customers will be, even better if you spend some time working in that field before you invest in your own.  Also, maybe outside the city would give you a better chance.  Working one’s ass off for decades, only to find himself destitute, is a major contributor to depression, and the sad part is, it’s not an uncommon scenario.  Another thing I’ve learned is that nobody is going to help you, and in general, if you cross paths with a person who is offering, that person is doing so in order to get something from you.  Sad as that is, I learned it the hard way – and I’ve yet to see an exception to that rule.  And please, this is not “negative”, this is being realistic, and the more obstacles you are prepared for, the better of you’ll be.  I think that’s a big one – there will always be obstacles, you’ll have to prepare the best you can, and understand that many more will present themselves.  I’ve not seen many truly “successful” people.  A few have achieved financial riches, but of the many I’ve met, they are miserable – and the more they try to convince me, as well as themselves otherwise, the more obvious it becomes.  The folks who spend their whole lives struggling and not finding what they set out to, will often end up depressed at some point in their life.  What seems to keep me out of deep depression is always having something on the horizon – always working towards something.  This, along with what can be found at “First You Must Clear Your Mind” will be of some help. 


Along with depression usually comes some amount of anxiety, and one or more phobias.  Anxiety simply means that you are worried about what is to come.  As with most fears, the worrying is almost always worse than the actual outcome.  As has been said ad nauseam, worrying will not change a thing, and often it will stifle any ability to find ways to arrive at a better result.  So, if you can use any of my suggested methods to think instead of worry, it’s likely you’ll find yourself in a better situation than if you wasted all that energy worrying.  Here’s something I’ve learned fairly recently – I am not arrogant enough to think that I have much, if any, control over my life – my environment is much bigger than I am, all I can do is navigate through all the chaos.  Some are better at that than others, but if you are aware of this, it will be still another obstacle that may just be a little easier to deal with.

As for phobias, the best you can do is try to learn the difference between your Self Preservation Mechanism and a phobia.  For me, I had a pretty nasty case of “agoraphobia”, the fear of being outside and/or public places.  The base of it was that I was constantly feeling hostility from people.  But, once I started to grasp that others’ aggression was a statement of their own lack of self worth, their own self inflicted misery, I began to feel more at ease.  For years, I thought I was supposed to do what the TV said – “Don’t let anybody give you crap, you do whatever it takes, never back down”, and other such macho horseshit.  When I was ok with who I was, and I mean really ok, the feeling of being offended by such people seemed to dissipate.  Again, see “First You Must Clear Your Mind” for suggestions on how to arrive at that.

So, depression is rampant in today’s world.  Steer clear of “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy”, no matter how much you may be manipulated or bullied into it, because it will cause you nothing but more grief.  And oh yeah, they make it sound pretty at first, but take my word for it, it is destructive and toxic.  Try to be prepared for the fact that there will always be obstacles, and, the bigger the goal, the bigger the obstacle.  You don’t need to abandon your earthly desires, just make sure you don’t allow yourself to morph into greed mode, because that is every bit as harmful, if not worse, as not achieving a goal.  Try to be aware that the environment is not set up for your benefit, so keep your eyes open, be as prepared and quick on your feet as you can possibly be, and then some.

The more you learn, the better chance you’ll have of living other than destitute, that’s probably the best thing you can keep in your mind.  Please don’t hesitate to refer back here as often as you need to.  Other than that, go out there, observe, learn, and be kind.

First You Must Clear Your Mind

A clear mind will be open to new thoughts.

People learn things in different ways.  Some can hear something once, and it will stick with them for the rest of their life.  Others need repetition.  I’ve also seen people learn through chanting, yoga, meditation, third eye, and other rituals.  The objective is to move the idea or belief to the permanent memory part of the brain.  If you are of the ones who can learn something by hearing or reading it once, great, use that to your advantage.  If you need repetition, you might want to cut and paste the parts of this source that you want to apply in your life.  If you are already chanting, doing yoga, meditating, and it is working for you, also great, take that and run with it.  There are the occasional instances when a person learns because a situation presents itself,and the person learns from that, so yes, it is possible to learn a lesson from one instance. For those who are new to this, and need some kind of guidance, I can offer what has worked for me.

The main objective is to clear your mind of distractions – especially those pesky thoughts that seem to find their way in without your permission.  For me, it’s the thoughts of all the people who have done crappy things to me.  Other times it’s my short term plans for life – what am I going to do and how am I going to do it – they fly through my brain at lightening speed.  Whatever those thoughts are, clearing your mind of them is the first step towards learning.  Like anything else, it takes practice, take as long as you need to arrive at a clear mind – a week, a month, two months, or whatever it takes for you as an individual.  I’ll make it a goal to take two sittings per day.  This will not always be possible, but, keep in mind, some of the things you’re doing now, may not be as important as your health.  If you’re watching TV three hours a day, well, simple answer, same goes for video games, partying, things that may seem important right now, that may not be once you give it some thought.  Don’t stress if you miss a session, but, also remember that when you’re starting something new, it will take on average two weeks to six weeks to get yourself to the point where it’s part of your day, and even where you start to enjoy it.  At first it may be drudgery, but I promise, keep at it for two to six weeks (depending on the person), and the drudgery will disappear.

Ok, first, I try to find the time of day where there are the least distractions – for me, it’s before I get out of bed, and before I go to bed, and I like to spend anywhere from ten to thirty minutes each session.  I like to do a ritual (I use that term lightly), twice a day, that goes something like this:  I lay in my bed, on my back, smooth out the creases, and try to have my weight distributed evenly – so that no part of my body has any strain or distracting positioning.  Eyes closed, I concentrate on a spot behind my forehead – figuratively where the front of my brain would be.  I believe that not far behind that point, there is the part of the brain where the live part meets the dormant part – the part we haven’t opened up yet at this point in our evolution (not monkey to human evolution, but the evolution of life).  My conscious thought is to wake up the part of the brain where the healing is, and where the blueprint is – the part that knows the balance of the body, and where the immune system is.  These parts of our brains have been stifled – again, because of all the bad information.  We need to put the immune system into operational mode – at the point of evolution that it should be.  Once I’m relaxed and mostly clear of distracting thoughts, I speak to the dormant part, telling it to wake up and do what it’s designed to do – which is to rid my body of anything that doesn’t belong in it, and to repair imbalances and disorders.  With my eyes closed, I see dark gray (doesn’t mean that’s what needs to happen for you – you’ll see what you see – and you’ll know when you’re in that state).  My own preference doesn’t demand dark or light, I’m fine either way, in fact, maybe I do prefer light – light from the sun, not so much from artificial sources.  I’ll kinda take a little stroll through the rest of my body, because there are cells in the blood that are part of the immune system, when the master cylinder in the brain starts to become active, it will communicate with the cells in the blood – those cells need to be woken up too.  These cells, along with the master cylinder in the brain, are designed to do one thing and one thing only – to rid the body of anything that doesn’t belong in it.  All of this and then some is stored in the sub atomic area – it’ll all there.  I don’t know the mechanics, I just know that it’s the only thing that makes sense – I don’t know the source, I’m pretty sure we’ll never know the source, so I don’t waste time thinking about that, I only think about what can help me here and now.

So, main objective – clear your mind – whether it be through conventional ways mentioned, or through my ritual, or something you come up with yourself.  During the time when your mind is mostly clear, that’s when you can allow the new thoughts to enter – to lessen the anger or resentment, to “do your own thing” as opposed to concerning yourself with what others are doing”, to no be concerned with what others think of you, and whatever other ways you can think of to better your life.  I discuss and suggest some of those things here, you’ll discover other sources – friends, acquaintances, printed media, etc.  Also understand that you can learn from anything and anyone.  Some of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned have been from some of the most unlikely people and sources.  Best to keep your mind open, not necessarily to “Think outside the box”, but to think in terms of “There is no box”.  Society has put us in a box – you can trash that – free your thinking if you can – that also takes practice.  Keep this in mind, you did not arrive at these crappy thoughts and habits in a month or two, it took you all of your life to arrive at where you are – so take it easy on yourself, understand that it’s like the proverbial mountain climb – the first step might seem so small and insignificant, but it is definitely not.  Think about the time when you were trying to walk as a baby – your first step was huge, and while it may not appear so, every step you’ve taken since has also been huge – AND, any step you take now will be huge.  The difference is, you’ve been misled by bad information, fed to you by less than scrupulous people – leading you to take steps in bad directions – directions that have not been good for you.  In this journey, some will try desperately and maliciously to discourage you.  This should tell you that you’re doing something right.

That’s about it.  Get past the initial change of direction, and you’ll start to enjoy your time working on yourself.