The Catskill Chronicle

By Mort Malkin

In Britain, the home of socialized medicine, officially the National Health Service, the doctors make house calls. The Tea Party in the US is asking why, and then answering its own question: they have to make house calls because of the long waiting time to see doctors in the clinics or hospitals.

Satire aside, the British doctors seem happy with the National Health Service, and the people are proud of it. Not even Maggie Thatcher was able to privatize health care. When rich Brits wish to have an elective procedure, they sometimes see a private practitioner, but serious surgery generally brings them home to the NHS.

The US, known for the best health system in the world, according to the richest 1%, also has a touch of socialized medicine. No, it isn’t Medicare, which provides private medical care but is paid for by the government. True socialized medicine is offered by the Veterans Administration hospitals and clinics. Even the Tea Party hasn’t suggested privatizing the V.A. There, veterans and the doctors who treat them seem satisfied. The only time there’s a complaint, it’s a building that has fallen into disrepair or red tape & politics, not the first care medical care.

Others of us who are neither veterans or seniors have to rely the same doctors who provide services through Medicare. But, for the not-yet-seniors the doctors are paid for their work by insurance companies. Ah, there’s the rub. All doctors, when they graduate medical school, swear an oath to Hippocrates that they will do no harm. All CEOs of insurance companies swear an oath to Mammon, the god of filthy lucre. One of the members of the Gadfly Research & Revelry gang who was born in Britain is acutely aware of the revered National Health Service across the pond. He is especially impressed by the cost comparisons — the Brits operate at less than half the cost per capita that we in the colonies do. And that’s figuring in the highly efficient US Medicare system that keeps its administrative expenses to 3%.

Our Gadfly R & R gang member was complaining about the premiums, deductibles, and co-pays he is burdened with here in the US … and the 17% profit the insurance company makes on his money. The rest of the Gadfly gang asked him what did he expect? After all, the CEO has to make a self respecting salary of a few million, the stock holders are insisting on a profit, and the company has to cover its marketing costs. They also reminded him that the Gadfly plan would solve the runaway premium problem by reducing total medical expenditures by up to 60% (70% of 85% for the mathematically inclined) in both the US and UK.

Gadfly, known far & wide for its aversion to controversy, came up with an official system of primary preventive medicine and published the basics in “Health Care Vs Sick Care Parts 1 & 2 in The Catskill Chronicle. Problem solved, but would it survive divisive American politics?

Republicans responded happily. They liked the idea that the public would take a significant amount of personal responsibility, by following a healthy lifestyle. The savings could be so great — up to 70% of the 85% of present medical costs that are attributable to chronic disease — that Paul Ryan would not have to upset seniors and almost seniors by substituting coupon vouchers to replace Medicare. He might even get reelected to Congress when Romney loses the presidential election.

The Democrats, too, are well disposed to primary preventive medicine. They see that the government will have to provide educational programs (without standardized testing) to inform the public how to follow a healthy lifestyle. They will have to dispel all the myths that swirl in the worlds of diet and exercise, and advise on a simple lifestyle of a) a widely varied diet, b) a true aerobic exercise of aerobic walking, and c) a simplified type of meditation. Informing the public will require a short instructional course, but that is the purpose of government, on a par with maintaining public libraries and a National Guard.

The Green Party, made up of environmentalists, pacifists, civil libertarians, and ordinary workers, will take primary preventive medicine to heart. The healthy diet includes more vegetables, fruit, and grain and less meat, thus benefitting the environment. The aerobic walking will make people less dependent on cars for relatively short distances. They will have less chronic disease such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, and chronic back pain, and so, need less medication. There also would be fewer hospitalizations, and hospitals might no longer have the dubious distinction of being the largest generator of waste in the community. The wellness lifestyle will also create a strong sense of community as people form aerobic walking groups, encourage each other, and generally get to know each other better.

Imagine a new health care system based on a wellness lifestyle — health care instead of sick care. Call it GadflyCare. All the political parties would endorse it, and even the Supreme Court would unanimously vote for it. We’ll show those Brits a thing or two.