[Re]Framing The Mind

1 Timothy 4: 4

I had a recent conversation with some friends at a local watering hole I frequent (coffee shop).

It is a homogenous demographic for the most part (retired, male, north and western European ancestry, from pensioners to millionaires).

Weaving in and out of political topics and local musings, as we usually do, the topic of healthcare and health insurance came up.

Much of the same arguments and talking points heard from the news media were mentioned.

It isn't easy to pull oneself away from the rhetoric, whether hearing it first-hand from the media, or second-hand through another person.

I am not immune to such programming, although I think I try my best to look past this programming to find a semblance of objectivity.

I recall the message of a linguist who teaches about how propaganda frames the debate.

Once the goal posts of debate are mentioned (the left vs right paradigm continually repeated, for example), the passive listening audience rarely thinks beyond this frame of mind, but stay safely speaking only what they've heard from the 'experts'.

At the 'round' table of discussion with my friends, I tell a short story of a friend of mine who owns his own business.

This friend began to experience pressure in his chest and called an ambulance (he was at home).

He doesn't have insurance, but simply pays out of pocket if / when something demands he visits a hospital / doctor.

Nothing serious came about from the chest pressure, perhaps it was anxiety, stress or what he ate that morning.

But what did almost cause my friend to have a heart attack was the bill he received from the short ambulance ride to the hospital.

The itemized bill had charges for turning on the flashing lights, the screaming sirens, each paramedics hourly (or part thereof) rate, the use of the ambulance and many other specific things.

One cost of service that stuck out in my mind.

The cost of the bandaid that held the intravenous needly in his arm to feed him that clear juice from an elevated bag.

Would you like to guess how much that single bandaid was charged to my friend?

$100.00.

One hundred dollars!

That must have been the strongest, longest lasting, most resilient bandaid ever made in the history of the world!!

It must be able to withstand a nuclear strike and then a warm ten minute bath.

Seriously, a $100.00 for something that really costs pennies to make?

I understand about turning a profit for those in a position to do so.

But where is the consideration of ethics?

There is a legal phrase that adequately speaks to this: Unjust Enrichment.

THIS is the reason health insurance is so expensive.

THIS is the reason that the entire medical field, built upon loose monopolies, is so expensive.

One of the gentleman at the 'round' table asked if I didn't want doctors to earn a living.

There is big difference between a wage that compensates the demands of someone's talents and skills.

There isn't a limit to such value.

But, considering the business of human health, being monetized as has every other single thing on this planet, a hundred dollar bandaid is cause for concern.

The windfall of profit to whomever charges $100.00 for a $0.10 bandaid is the fraud and greed in taking advantage of people.

And it is THIS issue that is RARELY brought up in the propaganda news media.

Instead, fear is marketed in those disgusting drug commercials... so you can run to your doctor and get a prescription.

People place their hope and faith in the hands of men who are looking to get paid instead of looking to actually cure people.

One can't actually blame a doctor who is subject to the greater mechanism of the business of human healthcare.

Treatments are administered, and cures are ignored... for there is no profit in curing people, but much profit when simply 'treating' people and keeping them coming back.

The natural world already provides many of the cures for the human body, since they are symbiotic in their very nature in how they were created... but do not expect cures when applying synthetic machinations made from man's hands.

Do not expect an industry that enriches the wealthy according to business models (the thought of human health as a business is disgusting) and not according to healing solutions to forgo their interest.

Peruse the long list of developing [re]discoveries of what has already been provided for mankind at this arguably legitimate source.

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