The Way of Chiropractic

Framework for Reforming A Sick U.S. Health Care System

During the COVID era, health care was commandeered by government bureaucrats, elected government politicians, NGO's, big Pharma, big tech and the media. The individuals in these groups acted cooperatively, although that does not mean that they were "all in it together". Some, such as David Martin, believe that their actions are consistent with racketeering. This simply means that they cooperated for nefarious purposes, some of which were criminal, although some may have constituted a legalized form of crime, such as those actions covered by the PREP Act. Numerous lawsuits that have been filed already. Some have been successful, such as the one preventing mandating COVID vaccines under OSHA, and the one preventing mandatory masking on plane flights. Some have been unsuccessful, such as Brooke Jackson's lawsuit against Pfizer, and some are still pending, such as Missouri vs. Biden and the numerous other first amendment violations. We saw during the COVID era that health care was turned upside down. Doctors were no longer permitted to practice as they saw fit, but were fired, delicensed and publicly attacked for acting in the best interests of their patients, at least as they saw it from their prior training and clinical experience. 

The entire COVID debacle has called into question for many the entire health care system that permitted medical neglect to happen, tolerated it, and perhaps even encouraged it, and mandated that citizens get what we thought the Nuremberg Codes had outlawed once and for all — experimental treatments without informed consent (It has been stated that people were given informed consent for the COVID-19 vaccines, but what is referred to in these statements is a sham and mockery of informed consent, not real informed consent.). 

Health care is in theory designed to get people healthy, not to enrich or empower certain parties, whether they be corrupt government bureaucrats, medical corporations, pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies, medical doctors or other health care practitioners. Yet, this is not at all what has been going on lately, and it has been going on well before COVID-19 came to town. We've had this problem for decades now, and no one has been talking about it.  The Affordable Care Act notwithstanding, health care has become like a parasite, sucking the sick of their money and with some exceptions giving them "disease management," drug addiction, numerous iatrogenic disease coming from the treatments themselves, and rarely, a restoration of health to what it was prior to people's falling ill. With some glorious exceptions, health care is failing to fulfill the brave vision that emerged in the 1950's and 1960's. During this time, new medicines and new technology led many to believe that cancer would soon be cured, and few diseases would be left that doctors needed to treat. The human genome project carried similar unfulfilled hopes.

How do we fix this broken system? Can it be fixed? Perhaps it would be best to start with improvement, and leave the idea of fixing as an aspirational goal only, beyond what we obviously very flawed and compromised humans are likely capable of. I have a few ideas I'd like to run by you. Please give me your feedback, as I don't propose they are without flaws.  

Samuel Hahnemann, founder of Homeopathy described in his masterpiece, The Organon of the Medical Art, first published in 1810, what he saw as the main components of healthcare. In the First two aphorisms from this volume, he stated: 

• The physician's high and only mission is to restore the sick to health — to cure, as it is called. (Aphorism 1) (Hahnemann, Samuel, The Organon of the Medical Art, O'Reilly Wenda Brewster, 1996).

• The highest ideal of cure is the rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of the health, or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable and least disadvantageous way, on easily comprehensible principles (Aphorism 2).

This model of healthcare, while serving as an introduction to the practice of homeopathy, might well be applied by the modern health care reformer as a starting point to the answers to the current problems that need addressing. The Hahnemannian model points towards meaningful goals for health care, which, though never completely attainable, would serve health care reformers well in outlining an aspirational picture of what health care might look like in its ideal form. This would include emphasizing cure, and done so as quickly and painlessly as possible, in ways that could readily be understood and taught to others. 

Here are some of the problems we face. These are fundamental to the health care system, and do not even begin to address the criminal influences that have stolen autonomy from doctors and made them pawns of the State. Some of them you might have noticed while reading through Hahnemann's aphorisms :

• Health care causes too few remissions or cures. Too often we settle for disease management instead of disease removal, or as Hahnemann called it, the restoration of health. Many treatments do little or nothing to promote health. Many mitigate symptoms at the expense of the individual's overall health. 
• Health care causes too many iatrogenic problems (aka adverse reactions). We need safer medicines and treatments.
• Health care is too expensive. 95% or more of people can hardly afford it, without health insurance covering the bulk of the charges.
• Too much money gets skimmed off from health care charges for administrative and indirect health care charges that provide no direct benefit to people's health. The system is inefficient. 
• Too much of health care is corrupted by the influences of the pharmaceutical companies. As both physicians and patients, we are trained and encouraged to look for a "pill for every ill."
• Health care rarely addresses the causes of illnesses and does little to prevent disease from occurring in the first place.
• Health care has been co-opted by the marketing industry, which itself is largely funded by the pharmaceutical industry, so the consumer and even the physician is being misled by advertising, bad research studies, and biased reports. Patients know there are problems with the treatments offered, but have inadequate access to knowledge about alternatives. Doctors certainly aren't trained to be familiar with these alternatives. 
• The medical education system primes physicians to become mindless cogs in a money-making wheel, mechanically following algorithms or standards of care instead of exhibiting Sherlock Holmesian curiosity and ingenuity in solving complex health puzzles. Those who exhibit creativity, take time with their patients, look up from their computers, research health questions they are struggling to answer, and fail to check all the requisite boxes in the review of systems and physical section of their EHR's are punished by the system.
• Primary care is underpaid. PCP's are overworked, the work is too stressful, and not valued monetarily by the system, which tends to enrich high paid specialists who know less about prevention and healing than primary care physicians. PCP's can not afford to take the time with their patients to do proper preventive medicine, even if they understood how to do it.
• Medical professionals have no incentive to make their patients healthier. Taking more time hurts them in the pocketbook, as they are not going to be reimbursed for the extra time spent. Having too many well patients means fewer billable hours. Empty wards means hospitals will shut down. The fee for service model financially rewards poor treatment and sub-optimal outcomes. 
• Medical schools teach students little or nothing about health. Hours and hours are spent learning pathology, pathophysiology, and pharmacology, but most doctors have no idea how to promote health or prevent illness. It is unfortunately not much of an exaggeration to say that most doctors understanding of health prevention and health creation goes little beyond "get exercise and eat a good diet". What that means exactly is likely to vary from one doctor to the next. Exceedingly few, with the exception of those who specialize in Lifestyle Medicine have any idea how to guide people specifically on these topics, which by no means are all inclusive. There are also the areas of emotional health, spiritual health, and cognitive health that health care practitioners ought to be trained in minimally so that they can be at least conversant with them.  

Here are some of the questions that cry out for answers:

How can we make medicine more effective and safe?

How can we make the health care system more efficient?

How can it be made more patient centered and less oriented towards enriching third parties?

How can we make it incentivize healing instead of just maintaining people in a state of chronic illness?

How can we make it less expensive?

How can we further the cause of prevention?

How can we make PCP's more effective at promoting good health, instead of being primarily triage points for specialized care?

How can we improve morale and the quality of work in primary care, so people will get sick less, remain healthier longer, and make trips to their PCP can more productive for patients and more rewarding for doctors?

The disastrous state of affairs that our health care system is in has been nakedly exposed over the past four years and not acting to fix it is not a defensible option. Probably mostly because of all these problems, the U.S. ranks poorly in its overall healthcare performance compared to other developed countries such as the U.K., France, Germany, Taiwan, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Canada and the Netherlands It also ranks poorly in cost per capita of health care, behind most European and other developed countries. Indeed, the U.S spends over $12,500 annually per capita, as of 2022. The nearest competitor is Switzerland with just over $8,000 annually, and most developed countries are in the $6,000-$8,000/year range. We pay more and get less than other countries with similar standards of living. 

• Clearly we need to make health care less costly
• Less money must be siphoned off to components of the health care system that don't directly enhance the health of the population
• Primary care must become the lynchpin of health care, as the chief producer of preventive medicine and good health. It must be rendered more lucrative and less stressful. PCP's must be empowered and trained in healing illnesses, not just treating them. 
• Primacy care physicians and other practitioners must be better trained in preventive medicine.
• The use of alternative treatments to pharmaceuticals must become part of the curriculum for conventionally trained health care practitioners. They are frequently safer and less expensive options for patients with chronic illness. Health practitioners must have at least a fundamental understanding of certain basic alternative treatment methodology, and how to implement in lieu of pharmaceutical or surgical treatment.
• Health care practitioners must be trained in what health is, how to maintain it, how to enhance it, and how to restore it.
• Market systems must be implemented to control costs and improve quality, replacing the top down tyrannical system of health care which is controlled by pharmaceutical companies and their investors, acting through medical "thought leaders". Non-punitive. incentives must be introduced that would make health care practitioners strive to provide better health care, and healthier patients, and would make the population more motivated to improve their own health. 
• HHS must be made, preferably by an act of Congress, to lose its regulatory authority over health care. It has parasitized healthcare and proven to be better at protecting the interests of big Pharma that those of the people. HealthCare needs to have standards of care codified by independent experts in medical care from a multidisciplinary team. Healthcare needs to be self-regulated, with input from the consumer, and a multitude health care disciplines, not just big Pharma or the Medical profession.

There may be other changes you can think of that will be important in improving the health care system. Putting aside these specific reforms and others, for the moment, there are two systemic changes which I believe can be transformative to health care.  They cut through the Gordian knot of the multiple problems with health care with two simple solutions, which, though they may be simple in concept, will surely prove to be far more complicated in the implementation. While I am labeling these suggestions "solutions", I recognize that they are just starting points. I am sure they will need considerable improvement before being "shovel-ready". Nevertheless, I think you will find some merit in the ideas. I will cover these in part two of this article on Health Care Reform. 

In part 1 of this 2 part series, I addressed the structural problems with the health care system in this country as it relates to financing. I asserted that the system is designed to benefit corporate stakeholders at the expense of the health of the general population — exactly the opposite of what a functional health care system should do. From my own personal experience as a physician, both inside and outside the insurance system, I have observed that people who pay more out of their own pocket tend to be more invested in their treatment than people who are fully “covered”. This is not a political argument: it is an empirical argument. It is simply human nature to take better care of what you paid a lot for than what you didn’t pay much or anything for.

Nonetheless, the financing system should be affordable to all, regardless of income. This is why the money should come from already available funds provided by the employer or the state. Even though money allotted to a health savings account is “free” it is not unlimited, so people would be motivated to spend their health savings account dollars carefully. and wisely (certainly no easy task, with the barraging of advertising we are all exposed to)

Part 2 addresses the need to create a health care system that promotes health (a health care system), not manages disease (an illness care system). As one who has straddled the path of allopathic and alternative medicine, I believe that the alternative medical range of therapeutic options has been vastly underutilized, as you will see from what follows, and needs to be routinized into health care as a regular and indeed primary form of treatment. It is on the whole safer, less expensive, more conducive to healing, and more effective than conventional medication in the treatment of chronic illnesses of nearly all types. The one area where conventional and pharmaceutical treatment is probably superior to all or nearly all alternative treatments is in emergency life-threatening acute illnesses. If people are healthier, these kinds of emergencies are likely to occur less often.

                                                                     Components of Health Care Reform

Main Arguments:

1. The health care system should work for the people to make them healthier, rather than for the medical industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the health insurance industry, to make them wealthier.
2. We need to create an army of healers — health care practitioners who know how to improve people's health and keep people healthy.
3. We especially need to focus on the prevention and more effective treatment of chronic illness, which has exploded in prevalence over the past half century, and which modern medicine does a poor job of treating.
4. There needs to be a shift in focus away from disease management to cure, based on an understanding of the antecedents of and perpetuating factors behind chronic illness.
5. We need to reduce the number of pharmaceuticals people take by shifting the focus of practitioners from prescribing drugs to prescribing healing interventions.
6. We need to reduce the number of specialists, by improving the overall health of the community.
7. We need to reduce the number of hospitalizations, and shrink down hospital expenditures by making their services less necessary.
8. If people were in better health in general, there would be fewer hospitalizations.
9. We need to change the health insurance system so it is affordable to all, yet everyone has to pay (part 1). People don't value and use efficiently what they don't have to pay for. They tend to take it for granted and become less invested. Yet lack of money should not be a barrier to obtaining health care.
10. Health practitioners who are not specialists and in the past have treated a wide variety of chronic illnesses, should have certain basic competencies, which are taught to them in their training. Some of these are listed below:



• Knowledge of nutrition, including the causes and remedies for weight problems, and how to properly counsel people about diet. Rationale: poor diet are is one of the largest contributors to ill health in our country today.
• Included in nutrition should be an understanding of vitamins, minerals, and key supplements that can be deficient or may aid in healing. Rationale: Nutrient deficiency is an increasingly common cause of or contributor to chronic illness.
• Knowledge of motivation and how to talk to people to get them invested in making behavioral changes that will improve their health. Rationale: Unless practitioners understand motivational interviewing, much or all their knowledge will not be effectively applied, as their patients simply won’t listen to them.
• Knowledge of environmental medicine and how to advise people about avoiding poisoning themselves with the abundance of toxic products and poisonous foods that exist in today's toxic world. Rationale: Toxic exposure is one of the biggest contributors to disease in today's world.
• Knowledge of how to assess toxicity and do detoxification. Rationale: Knowing how to detoxify people is an essential component of the treatment of many diseases and also of disease prevention.
• Knowledge of the microbiome, including how to diagnose microbiome disturbances, and how to treat them. Rationale: microbiome disorders are becoming extremely common.
• Thorough understanding of vaccine science among those offering vaccination, as it relates to safety and efficacy. As many of us have learned in the past three years, those administering vaccines have little or no understanding of the science behind vaccination. Such knowledge is essential to giving proper informed consent, for reasons we now are familiar with. Knowledge of how to treat vaccine injury is also a sine qua non. Vaccinators rarely have any knowledge of how to diagnose or treat vaccine injuries. 
• Competence in how to prevent chronic illness, including a thorough understanding of lifestyle factors in the genesis of chronic illness. Rationale: most diseases are now understood to be epigenetic, or highly modifiable by behavioral and environmental interventions that change the expression of certain genetic potentialities.
• Competence in how to treat infectious diseases without antibiotics. There is an extensive literature on this subject, largely ignored by practitioners, who continue to prescribe antibiotics, causing the development of resistant strains of bacteria and the proliferation of microbiome disturbances (dysbiosis). 
• Knowledge, although not necessarily expertise in how to treat diabetes non-pharmacologically with diet, supplements and other non-pharmaceutical treatments. Rationale: diabetes is one of the most common and destructive chronic illnesses in today's world, which takes a heavy toll in death and disability on society. Modern medicine has improved its management, but not been able to cure it. It is in many cases, particularly in Type 2 diabetes, partly or completely reversible
• Knowledge, although not necessarily expertise in how to treat cardiovascular disease non-pharmacologically, with diet, supplements and other non-pharmaceutical treatments. Rationale: cardiovascular disease is extremely prevalent and one of the most common causes of death in this country. Modern medicine has failed to reverse this trend, yet many effective cardioprotective and antihypertensive treatments exist which specialists almost are completely unaware of. 
• Knowledge, although not necessarily expertise in how to treat cancer non-pharmacologically with diet, supplements and other non-pharmaceutical treatments. Rationale: cancer treatment, while it has had some successes, often is brutally painful and frequently unsuccessful. Many alternative cancer treatments have been well established and may be useful to address side effects to chemotherapy and radiation, and in some cases may offer cures where conventional treatment has failed or proved to be intolerable. 
• Knowledge, although not necessarily expertise in how to treat neuropsychiatric problems non-pharmacologically with diet, supplements and other non-pharmaceutical treatments. Rationale: Modern medicine lacks effective curative or even safe and effective long term palliative treatments for most neurologic and neuropsychiatric conditions: many of these can be effectively treated safely and effectively with alternative treatments.
• Basic familiarity with major alternative medical disciplines, including botanical medicine, functional medicine, homeopathy, oriental medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, mind-body medicine, bodywork, and possibly other alternative healing modalities. Rationale: practitioners need to understand when alternative treatments are appropriate and likely to be beneficial to the process of recovery from chronic illness, especially when safe and effective alternatives exist which they might otherwise have been unaware of. They should be able to make appropriate referrals to such practitioners when their own skills are lacking. 

Disease management must give way to healing. Pharmaceutical and hospitalizations must be reduced. Root causes of illness must be addressed. Financial rewards must give way to therapeutics. The bounty of natural healing approaches must be brought to bear to work with the body, not against it. Prevention must be elevated in importance so treatment is needed less often. Let me know your thoughts.