Currently viewing the category: "health care crisis"

I Have High Cholesterol

By On · Add Comment · In blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, health care crisis, LDL, medical paradigm, statins

I want to share with you a personal story about my health, which I think will be a great illustration of the conundrum facing the modern medical paradigm.

I just got my annual physical results from my doctor. He told me that my numbers all came back perfect. All except one: You have high cholesterol. Yawn. OK, how high. 270. This is high despite your HDL being pretty high also. And your LDLs, which are your bad cholesterol are 181. In the absence of other factors–like you are not 40 lbs overweight, and your blood pressure is good, and you don’t smoke–it probably won’t go down with diet and exercise alone, so…you’ll probably want to get that treated.

And my HDLs are at what number? 89.

And my total/HDL ratio? Oh…hmmm….well, that’s actually pretty good. It’s 3.1.

For those who don’t know, HDLs are “good” cholesterol; they remove the so-called “bad” cholesterol (don’t know how a substance produced by the body, and needed to break down and digest fats can be considered bad, but, whatever). HDLs in the 40 range are considered “normal”. 89, might I say, is outstanding…thank you very much.

The total cholesterol to HDL ratio is a good determinant of the risk for cardiovascular disease. Just for a little perspective, 5.0 is “average” risk. Anything under 3.4 is “very low” risk. I’m 3.1.

Here’s the problem: My caring doctor–bless his heart–knows damn well that I’m at a low risk for cardiovascular disease. I’m 41-years-old and in the best shape of my life. I’m 155 lbs, have stellar blood pressure (120/70), don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t do drugs; I’m on no medications; I do not partake in risky behavior. Why the bleep is he recommending treatment* (which is prophylactic statin medication, if you didn’t know)?

I’ll tell you why–for liabilities sake. He knows that if he doesn’t tell me that I have high cholesterol, and he doesn’t recommend “treatment” (frickin’ treatment, lol), and I drop dead of a heart attack, even if it’s because I snort a gram and a half of cocaine! he’s liable. That’s right–tort litigation! Just ask Billy Mays’ doctor. Coroners found cocaine in his system; but nooo, his family insists it was high blood pressure that killed him. Not saying that they are seeking damages; but it’s the potential I’m talking about. Every doctor is afraid of being sued. Medical malpractice insurance is one of the highest costs facing doctors today. So what do they do to keep their premiums down? Order every frickin’ test humanly possible. Cha-ching.

And they “treat” 41-year-old males in great health with statins, otherwise known as, “the best selling drugs of all time.“

It’s not doctor greed, I tell you–it’s attorney greed. And public ignorance. There I’ve said it. Nobody is talking about that part of the health care crisis.

*Just so you know: I’m not taking them.

The American Way

By On · Add Comment · In health care crisis, health insurance, health paradigm, illnesses, immigrants

I hate to say I told you so, but well…I did. Here’s the latest on American health insurance habits: Americans spend more on medical care than their foreign counterparts. But not their own money…oh no, uh uh…Americans spend more insurance dollars, because the perception is that their health is somebody else’s responsibility.

According to new research conducted at George Washington University, insured immigrants spend less on medical expenses than U.S.-born citizens, even after accounting for lower levels of insurance coverage. Well, no kidding; you don’t say. In fact, overall health care spending was 20% less for American immigrants, even when controlling for factors like health status and age.

No surprise to me–I’ve been reporting on the convoluted American health paradigm for quite some time. Americans, in general, think that health care is an entitlement–which might not be a problem if the average citizen did all they could to take care of themselves. But when a large number of all illnesses are lifestyle related, it really skews the stats, doesn’t it?

The authors of the study point out that these results “contradict the popular belief that immigrants are a drain on the U.S. health system.” I agree. But even more telling in my opinion is that Americans overuse the medical system for one simple reason: They aren’t footing the entire bill. Truth is that all insured people foot the bill for those using health care the most–the obese, drug addicts (both recreational and pharmaceutical), and the neglectful. And our current government wants to now give us more to pay for with universal health care. You really think this is the answer to “fixing” the health care crisis? Wake up call: not only is there not a crisis, but universal health care is going to cost way more than ever imagined. You’ll see.

Cool Wellness

By On · Add Comment · In Health and Human Services Department, health care crisis, prevention, Tom Daschle, wellness
“Cool” wellness and “hot” prevention is it. So says incoming Health and Human Services Department Secretary, Tom Daschle. President-elect Obama’s new health secretary says that the real answer to the current health care crisis is, well…wellness.

That’s right. About time somebody in government gets it. Duh! What’s costing the country big bucks right now is the high price of “sick care.” And what do illness and disease come from, primarily? C’mon, what do you think? Random chance? Roll of the dice? Tough luck? George W. Bush? C’mon, what?

That’s right, the most common cause of illness and disease is not taking care of one’s health. Very good. Give yourself a gold star.

And give a gold star to Daschle, too. According to the former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, getting people to focus on wellness will be all about marketing. “Wellness has to be cool,” he said, “And prevention has to be a hot thing. And we’ve got to make prevention hot and wellness cool.”

Yup, T.D., that’s what I’ve been saying for a long time–hot wellness and cool prevention. Or was that cool wellness and hot prevention? Either way, here’s what I propose:

  • Jennifer Aniston, nude yoga, televised
  • Nationwide Guitar Hero geek battles in gym class every week
  • Barack Obama 3 on 3 White House Basketball Tourney every summer
  • Jonas Brothers aerobics (oh sorry; we were talking about cool, weren’t we?–my bad)
  • Matthew McConaughey swingin’ sac boot camp (instructional video not to be missed–definitely not for the squeamish)

We’ve Still Got A Long Way to Go

By On · Add Comment · In co-payment, health, health care, health care crisis, health paradigm, mammograms, medical bill, medical costs, medical coverage, medical industry, Medicare, system
 They say we’re in a health care crisis. Everywhere we turn we hear that our system is failing. I would disagree. In fact, I would say that based on the current health paradigm in which we now live, our system works beautifully, and there is nothing to fix.

Huh?!?! Has Campos finally lost his mind?

Hardly. Let me say this loud and clear: WE ARE NOT IN A HEALTH CARE CRISIS. We are in a conceptual crisis–a crisis of paradigms, if you will. Our current approach to health is to take it for granted until something goes wrong, then to run to the doctor or hospital to get cured.

Please tell me what’s wrong with our current system in context of this conceptualization of health care. It’s too expensive? Hey, it costs money to save lives. You think drug research, organ removal training, or high-resolution imaging diagnostics come cheap. Why should the medical industry spend years and years studying, researching and developing, and billions of dollars in funding just to give it away free? Think about that real hard.

Let me add even more perspective–why would you spend years studying in college, and many more years learning a business or craft, no matter what the discipline, to not earn a reasonable and proper paycheck today? Dry cleaning is too expensive! Restaurants are too expensive? Hair stylists are too expensive? Fix these industries! They’re too damn expensive! (Where’s Michael Moore when you really need him?)

Case in point: A new study shows that when women have to pay a portion of a medical bill in the form of a co-payment (sometimes as low as $10), the number who go in for regular mammograms decreases substantially. What the…? This is mind-blowing to me. Women who’d rather not get screened for a life-threatening and essentially preventative (if caught early enough) cancer (breast) to save ten bucks is just incomprehensible. But I think it’s more prevalent a practice than we know right now–among all genders, races, ages, and socioeconomic classes. I see it in my own practice all the time. Does this mean the system needs to be fixed? Well the Federal government seems to be buckling to the pressure–Medicare is now considering waving co-payments for routine mammograms. Hmmm.

The reality is that if we want something more out of health care, we need to put more into our own health. Period. It’s the concept of taking responsibility for our own health; not relying on the government or our employer to foot the bill for our neglect. This is a new way, and one which I heavily believe in and promote. Take better care of yourself and your health care costs will go down. I’ve had one major medical and one major dental situation in the last two years. I paid a pretty penny for sure (about $5,000 total) to get them taken care of. And guess what? It was worth it. You think I just had the money lying around begging for a place to spend it?–oh, wouldn’t that be nice. Sorry, no fat chance–it hurt coming up with the dough. But it was still worth it.

My point is this: Take care of yourself. It will minimize your need for medical care. When something does come up–and it will–your catastrophic medical coverage will come in handy, but it won’t cost you an arm and a leg during more healthy times. Not doing the things necessary to maintain good health in the meantime is just dollar dumb. You might save a penny today, but you’ll be a big contributor to the false notion that our current non-health system needs fixing.

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