This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
The Subtle Slavery of Obamacare
The Subtle Slavery of Obamacare: The Cattle Chute of Coerced Cooperation in the Collective Corruption
By
Cognitive Dissonance
You will always find original articles by Cognitive Dissonance and other authors first on www.TwoIceFloes.com before they are posted here on ZH.
To become a Premium or Basic member click here. If you wish to subscribe to ‘Dispatches’, a periodic newsletter from Cognitive Dissonance and TwoIceFloes Creations, please click here.
“The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens.”—Leo Tolstoy
Like millions of other individuals and families in the USA, Mrs. Cog and I have reached a point this year where we must make decisions regarding Health Sick Care Insurance for 2015. Before I begin I would like to point out we are attempting to take back control of our health by eating better, exercising more, mostly by way of regularly working on the homestead, while practicing preventative/proactive care using such things as natural herbs and supplements, organic teas and honey and so on.
Our point of view is simple: other than possibly needing emergency medical assistance for major accidents and injuries or catastrophic illness such as heart attack, stroke etc., we don’t use the health sick care industry nor do we wish too. Our preference would be to have access to a catastrophic emergency care insurance policy with a large deductible (say $15-25,000) to keep the insurance premium manageable. We will handle our day to day health issues as well as preventive care on our own.
We do understand, and generally agree with, the need for catastrophic health injury/illness insurance to meet our responsibility of limiting our, and society’s, liability and expenses. We do not wish to be a burden to others or to ourselves. We have in the past, and continue today, to express our willingness and desire to participate in a common insurance risk pool to mitigate that possibility. Mrs. Cog and I do not wish to receive a free ride, where others pay for our medical expenses, nor do we expect to just show up at the local emergency room and demand treatment without the ability to pay either out of pocket or via insurance for services rendered. That said, let me begin.
This is not the way to exit the sick care racket.
Dammed if we do, dammed if we don’t doesn’t even begin to describe the situation we find ourselves in this December of 2014. Aside from the ‘normal’ annual increases, our present health sick care insurance provider jacked up our premium rates in April and again in August of this year to (they claim) bring our present policy into compliance with the Obamacare ‘mandate’. The total increase over the last eight months was 65% with the majority coming in August. Worse, we just received notice of another 10% increase set for January 1, 2015. So much for the flat out fraudulent and horrifically misleading declared ‘inflation’ rate of 2%.
While I will not discuss specific details, our present coverage is far removed from what the medical system describes as a ‘Cadillac’ plan. The per-person deductible is several thousand dollars each and the total family deductible is well north of six thousand dollars, a figure which doesn’t include co-pays and out-of-network surcharges. The maximum out-of-pocket potential is more than ten thousand dollars a year.
Making matter worse, up here on the mountain there is no doctor network to speak of, further driving up first dollar costs for Mrs. Cog and me. While we take some responsibility for this because it was our decision to move to this rural mountain area in the first place, why all doctors cannot participate in several different national insurance networks is beyond me. It is so much more than just reimbursement rates that determine which doctors are in what network.
The latest correspondence from the health sick care insurance company helpfully informs us we may visit their website before Jan 1, 2015 and select from a variety of ‘affordable’ health sick plans, thus clearly admitting our present day policy is no longer affordable……though it never was for the services desired or received. It is almost as if the system is set up to bolster insurance company profits first, drug and medical services company profits second, doctor and clinic profits third and patient care last. Of course we are told otherwise by all of the above.
The letter ran several pages long and was laid out in a question and answer format obviously intended for those with a sixth grade education or below. Several questions followed along the lines of “Where’s my health care subsidy/premium tax credit” followed by a simple answer; ‘We the (little) People’ were out of luck unless we visited the official ‘Health Insurance Marketplace’. You mean the rabbit hole goes deeper?
What Rabbit Hole?
For nearly two decades I was a licensed life and health insurance agent and sold both individual and group health insurance policies during that time. In addition, from 2001 until 2008 I helped select and structure a midsized employer group health insurance program for my employer as well as the day to day administration of the plan. But even with that large experience base I am far from an expert on the ins and outs of the animal called Obamacare. And I seriously doubt there are more than a few in this entire country who are expert other than the insurance companies who actually wrote the law in the first place.
My blind spot is the nuanced intricacies of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Even after they passed it I was still not able to read and fully understand it. But mama didn’t raise no fool. Speaking as one of millions of semi(un)informed ‘consumers’ of health sick care insurance in America, when I say the game is rigged and ‘We the People’ are the bait, the prey and the patsy, it is more than just me smelling a skunk in the woodpile. The rabid skunk not only sprayed me, but bit me as well and for the life of me I can’t find medical care at a reasonable cost. Welcome to a brave new world.
Nurse - "Doctor, the patient has died."
Doctor - "It's OK nurse, we extracted the wallet in time."
As many of you know Mrs. Cog and I moved to the mountain in June of 2013 and have followed a path of asset divestiture and debt pay down, done primarily to extinguish debt and to greatly simplify our lives. Anyone who has followed this path understands the way to play the financial ‘game’ is NOT to do as we are doing, but to hold on to the assets in order to keep leveraging up while avoiding the tax man’s ugly wrath.
The net effect of our financial insanity is that the Federal and State tax (wo)men have been richly rewarded for our self proclaimed liberation, though some would definitely call us foolish. We are deliberately working ourselves into the poor house, with gross and net incomes that now land us squarely among the lower middle of the middle class.
The good news is while our income has dropped dramatically, so has our outgo to an even greater extent. The net result is while others in our income class are really struggling to make ends meet, we are not in a dire situation because our housing and transportation costs, other than insurance, utilities, gasoline, upkeep and taxes, are nil compared to many others.
Still, considering our unsubsidized health sick care insurance premiums now represent almost 25% of our gross income, this is no laughing matter. In just four short years, beginning shortly after Obamacare (aka the Orwellian named Affordable Care Act or ACA) was passed under the cover of deliberate ignorance and confusion, health sick care insurance premiums have more than doubled in price and in some cases tripled, quadrupled or more.
Something has gone horribly wrong for the average Joe and Jane Doe and this was not an accident or a product of unintended consequences by any stretch of the imagination. How is it that among all first world countries the USA charges on average 50% more for health sick care services with results/outcomes no better than, and often much worse than, the rest of the first world nations and many second world nations?
While I have watched health sick care insurance premiums rise at triple or quadruple the officially declared inflation rate for more than two decades, what has transpired over the last four years is nothing short of criminal. Even though insurance companies claim the expanded ‘mandate’ of the ACA is directly responsible for the significant premium increases, two things stand out as glaringly obvious even to a blind man.
A modern day treatment plan in practice.
One, the first dollar deductibles and co-pays have risen even faster than the premiums, indicating to me that any greater risks absorbed by the insurance companies from the ACA has been at least partially offset by more money out of the public’s pocket even before the insurance company collects its first greatly increased premium or pays its first dime in benefits.
Two, one look at the huge increase in health insurance company profits since the ACA was ushered in, not to mention their stock price, is a sure sign these companies are not suffering, but rather profiting handsomely simply from the process of preparing for the full implementation of the ACA. They understood quite well a simple ‘bidness’ (a la Tony Soprano) concept. When change is imminent the key to making (more) money is to complain like hell about the threatened legislation while quietly lobbying behind closed doors for the ability to write said legislation. And that is precisely what they did, and continue to do, with the (re)writing of the fine print by the administering government agencies.
Insurance companies brought out the big gun lobby for the ACA
"Watch out for that kick (back)."
Similar to automobiles, housing and higher education, ultimately the price of any expensive product (in this case health sick care insurance) is based upon who is paying (in part or in full) and how easily it can be financed and/or subsidized. When expensive items are easily financed at favorable terms or subsidized/fully paid for by others, there is little incentive to hold prices down because ‘price’ is no longer a critical barrier to entry for the purchaser. As well, if you distort and distribute the price paid among several parties and no one feels responsible to hold the line, another incentive to keep prices manageable is lost or ignored.
The majority of medium/large employer group health sick care insurance premiums are paid by the employer, though as those costs continue to rise the burden is beginning to shift towards the employee through various cost sharing arrangements. While the ACA changed and accelerated that dynamic somewhat, with even more to come over the next few years, for the most part the employer sponsored and heavily subsidized group health sick care insurance policy remains alive and well for now.
What is important to remember here is the lack of a real and significant incentive by the employer, employee and the insurance company to restrain premium increases since no one party bears the brunt of the entire increase. The employer doesn’t wish to upset their employees with sudden and significant premium increases when real wages have been stagnant for years. And after several rounds of layoffs, or at the very least the ever present threat of downsizing/relocation/merger, many employers wish to keep their remaining productive and profitable employees working. It is usually cheaper to keep a (slightly) more expensive employee than to go through the significant expense of replacing him or her, then training a new one who at least initially is less productive.
The employee will likely complain, then grin and bear it because they are concerned about keeping a job in a world increasing populated by part time work with no ‘fringe’ benefits at all. And the insurance companies just want to make hay while the sun shines. As long as someone pays the increased premium, what incentive does the insurance company have to mitigate increases other than to increase company profits? Death by falling drops of water is slower than a rushing tsunami, but the end result is just the same.
The individual or family without access to a (subsidized) group policy, but still able to ‘afford’ to purchase health sick care insurance before the recent changes, will most likely continue to buy the insurance despite the premium increase. They might try to lower the financial impact by going with higher deductibles and co-pays rather than go without insurance so long as they are (self) employed and bringing in an income.
But with the implementation of the ACA and the accompanying penalties…..err……‘taxes’, one is limited in how high they can raise their deductibles in order to save money without triggering the penalty……tax. Meaning if they try to purchase a low cost high deductible catastrophic sick care insurance policy they will still be forced to pay the penalty tax in addition to the insurance premiums. Talk about a cattle chute.
What could possibly go wrong?
What was missing from the general insurance risk pool before the ACA (along with the higher insurance premiums) were the chronically uninsured aka the poor, the unemployed, chronically ill, injured, disabled and so on. Make no mistake about it; this wasn’t a case of the insurance companies not wanting those higher risk individuals and families in the risk pool. There just wasn’t anyone available who would, or could, pay the higher premiums associated with the risk. Essentially an entire class of people, a whole new line of (profitable) business if you will, was missing from the insurance company’s portfolio because no one was willing or able to pay. Until now that is.
With the passage, and now ongoing implementation of the ACA, this ‘oversight’ has been rectified. However, the high premiums charged are essentially meaningless or of little consequence to some of the people in this pool because many of the poorest will pay little or nothing after the government subsidy is applied in advance on a monthly basis. It just doesn’t get any better than this for the insurance company(s). The crony nanny state has now firmly inserted itself into another aspect of daily life in America, bringing an already vulnerable class of poorer Americans that much closer to the nourishing teat of total governmental dependency and control.
But it is not just the poor or lower middle class who were, and are, affected by the ACA. While I just said employer sponsored group policies are still going strong, it appears their time in the sun will be limited. Especially after employer ‘mandates’ kick in next year (2015), more and more employers will throw in the towel and cease to resist the impulse to let go and let government totally control the health sick care insurance arena.
If a study of world history (altered and propagandized as it may be) is any indicator, a despotic tyrannical governmental force will eventually be bound and determined to spread its corruption and control as far and wide as possible. It makes perfect sense for this to be promoted since the more citizen slaves nourished from the government teat, the more the newly corrupted converts will fight to remain at the fiat bloated breast.
Once firmly attached and dependent, the suckled will fight any ‘enemies’ the government claims will threaten their government milk supply. This is not to imply everyone, or even anyone, who takes a government subsidy in order to afford their grossly overpriced and underserved health sick care insurance, is a bloated freeloader who doesn’t wish to earn their keep. Far from it in fact. It is a tightly sprung trap not even Forrest Gump could outrun even with his damn box of chocolates.
Run Forrest Run!
The socioeconomic system in general, and the ACA in particular, was specifically designed to corral nearly everyone into the cattle chute of coerced cooperation in the collective corruption of the nanny police state. But for those who claim this frightening trend is new are in our opinion way off base. This is the direction this country has been moving for decades and it was only when the acceleration reached liftoff velocity on its exponential curve to outright oppressive slavery did people begin to notice they had fallen down and couldn’t get back up.
While I fully agree corruption starts at the top and filters down, in so many ways it has now permeated the general public by presenting nearly impossible situations which, while they may be wearing the façade of several ‘choices’, only one choice presents itself as practical, the one which was originally designed to be the ‘only’ choice from the beginning.
The secret to administering the modern day ‘democratic’ nanny police state is to subsidize the illusion of freedom which when you boil it all down is expressed as freedom of choice. The key is to manage those choices in such a way that no ‘good’ choices (defined as fair and beneficial to “We the People”) are presented and the worst best choice further ensnares the public in the corruption nets like an encircled school of sardines. To do this, the government and its joined-at-the-hip special interests most often employ the carrot and stick approach.
Let the games begin.
With Obamacare the process works like this. Currently mandatory health sick care insurance policies are so expensive even the reasonably well off income wise will swallow hard at the price tag. To mitigate the mandatory pain the public is informed they can always opt out if they don’t like the choices. But if they do so they must visit the penalty tax box each year to ‘pay’ for their freedom to choose none of the above. As planned we are given several bad choices to choose from.
Next we are introduced to the carrot after a firm shaking of the stick. Offer to subsidize all those bad choices on a sliding (and generous) scale so individuals whose income is well above ‘poverty’ level, itself a fictitious number pulled out of thin air which is supposed to represent abject suffering but in reality is so much worse, as bait to entice them into the spring loaded mouse peasant trap. Anyone with an adjusted gross income between 100% and 400% of the ‘poverty’ rate is eligible for a (government printed paid) subsidy on a sliding scale. See, that anal probe doesn’t hurt so bad now does it?
You may ‘choose’ to purchase the exact same policy directly from the insurance company and receive no subsidy at all, either on a monthly basis or when tax preparation time rolls around. Or you can use a Federal or State government sponsored and created internet information gathering portal, spill your guts on line and expose all your financial and personal information to the government (and any competent hacker or NSA operative) to receive a subsidy for the exact same policy. Some ‘choice’, huh?
And all this is presented with the straightest of straight faces, as if not only is this perfectly normal but it has always been this way. Besides, it’s for your own good. While not exactly a Hobson’s choice, it’s too damn close to tell the difference.
Annual insurance company executive conference.
Essentially the insurance companies get to author the law and then raise premiums for four years in anticipation of the law’s enactment. Upon implementation (and after further premium increases) the insurance companies are paid some or all of the high risk ‘pool’ insurance premiums directly by the government on a monthly basis. Best of all, if the subsidy was incorrectly applied or calculated and the taxpayer insured received too much, the IRS is the bill collector, not the insurance company. It just doesn’t get any better than this.
The Affordable Care Act is a prime example of the ‘legal’ process by which an increasingly despotic and fascist government joins hands with other powerful and moneyed entities in opposition to the very people who supposedly ‘support’ the government in order to maintain power over a system that is rapidly collapsing primarily because of the corrupt influences of the government and its cronies. The crony nanny state isn’t here to protect you, but to protect itself and its cronies from you.
It takes very little imagination to recognize similar behavior in the higher education/student loan juggernaut, the military/industrial/political/false flag war machine, the banking/Wall Street/Federal Reserve/IRS parasitic fiat organism, the oil/petrodollar/puppet dictator/empire collective, the nanny state/militarized police/fake terrorism/freedom of speech area/bash and gas the protestors/left-right illusion of freedom game, the Hollywood/NFL/NCAA/MLB/NBA public financing of private assets/bread and circuses distraction, the 1984/FCC/MSM/ISP/DOD/ATT/NSA et al spying on citizens in the name of terrorism/blackmail of anyone useful dirty underwear program and the Corporate Welfare/State Tax Concession/phantom jobs added/Congressional donations, kickbacks and bribery crony capitalism scam to name just a few of the more obvious.
Wait......I think there's more blood left in this turnip.
The one party left out of this you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-fill-your-pocket game is the citizen in whose name all this is justified and done. As The Powers That Be (TPTB) leeches of the slave plantation system bleed ever more life sustaining financial fluids from the population, the natural tendency of said population is either to flee the system or to cutoff and burn the leeches. The leeches, being quite smart and enterprising sociopaths, understand their hosts might actually revolt if something isn’t done and have begun to turn the vise ever tighter to seriously clamp down on dissent and ‘disorder’.
The solution, at least for the leeches, is to dig their suckers in even deeper while injecting ever more anticoagulants and painkillers in the form of more bad choices, narrower cattle chutes and a lot more extra judicial killings by the elite status quo enforcers aka the militarized police. Whom, I might add, are increasingly protected by a corrupt and co-opted judicial system endorsed and enforced by executive order and new Congressional Critter ‘laws’ making it all nice and legal.
All it needs to make it complete is a pretty red bow on top and NSA/FBI operatives conducting sneak and peak investigations (also known as a ‘legal’ breaking and entering) to examine our person and papers while planting drugs, child porn and/or incriminating documents on our computers and in our paper files while harassing any remaining dissidents brave enough to stand up and just say no.
Plenty of room at the inn for dissidents.
The system itself is completely corrupt and thoroughly rigged folks. There is no way out and no possibility of making changes from within because, similar to the methods employed by organized crime, the system will protect itself from those it claims to be protecting while shielding those who most benefit from this arrangement in order to feed itself. What started as the totalitarian tiptoe has now turned into an extremely dangerous crony capitalist state. The nanny police state no longer needs to sneak about since its only remaining purpose from here to perpetuity is to grind our bones to make its bread.
Sadly the more average Jane and Joe becomes aware of the trap, the more dangerous the police state becomes as each citizen/slave is recognized less as a food source to the leaches and more like an enemy combatant come to destroy. Our ignorance is the police state’s bliss and the gearing up for battle by the police state is rapidly extinguishing the public’s ignorance in an all consuming positive feedback loop of shocked awareness. We ain’t in Kansas anymore Toto.
Those of us who now recognize we are sleeping with the enemy, and worse the enemy is rapidly becoming you and me as we are consumed by the engorged system, have some stark and disquieting choices to make, all of them bad with none of them leading to a satisfactory solution. As the nanny police state continues to destroy its host in order to feed itself those choices will not remain static, but instead will move hand in hand with the political wind and the continuing dollar debasement.
Mrs. Cog and I do not have answers to all of our own questions regarding how to protect ourselves, along with those we love and care for, from the encroaching, and suffocating crony nanny state. What we do know is profound in its overwhelming simplicity. When you find yourself in a deep hole with a shovel, the first course of action is to stop digging and begin the process of climbing out.
Or in this case when you find yourself face to face with the crony nanny state, the first course of action is to withdraw to the best of your ability, take stock of the situation and your resources, then begin to forge a path towards more sustainable living and less dependency upon the nanny state. Since everyone’s situation is different, there is no ironclad advice to give you other than just to begin the process. Essentially do everything you can to buffer yourself from the state while bolstering your own position.
Now get to work.
12-23-2014
Cognitive Dissonance
Hard at work calculating next year's premium increase.
- advertisements -
wow. all those pretty pictures were so inspiring. "suble slavery!"
there is nothing suble about it. supreme court justice roberts committed treason and re-wrote the law! this was a treasonous act against the american public. when the traitor roberts stepped out on to the stage to deliver his treasonous ruling he looked like a deer caught in the headlights. you could see it in his eyes that he knew he had committed treason and thrown the american public under the bus.
then we have barak HUSSEIN obama's treasonous acts of changing the law by dictate over 40 times.
and remember all the political "kickbacks!" ............ government racketeering at its best.
and stretch nancy pelosi "we need to pass the law to see whats in it!" dereliction of duty ! malfeasance !
and then just recently we have boehner and the traitorous republicans who needed what, 57 democrat votes to fund obamacare !
.gov has become a tyrannical criminal extortion racket.
"water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants"
obama actively worked with the irs to swing votes during the last presidential election.
i have a friend who works for the irs and he says he is "scared" to talk or become a whistleblower because the corruption is so rampant at the irs.
the u.s govt has weaponized itself against the american people and is turning law abiding citizens into criminals by their own corrupt definitions and laws.
Here's our direct experience. Got the FO letter from Aetna in late 2013 (as they bailed on providing coverage in California to self employed, me and my wife). So much for "If you like your insurance program you can keep it" as we got bent over the rail in 2013. So at that time, I was insuring a family of five and got thrown out on the street.
We rolled the dice in 2014. Got my youngest on a simple state plan in Colorado as he attends college. My daughter got a job out of college in San Francisco and got a great plan with a large company. My oldest son is only 25 and soon to be on a employer sponsered plan. So my kids are covered.
As for my wife and me (early 50's), we loaded up on every health procedure we could at the end of 2013 while covered by Aetna and cleaned house. Nothing like getting up close and personal with my proctologist but man the drug they provided was quite powerful. Won't have to see him again for ten years which is good news.
Like Cog., we actively exercise, don't smoke, keep our weight well within limits, eat a healthy diet, and maintain a proactive preventitive health strategy with active visits to doctors as needed. What we've found by paying at the point of service is rates of 50 to 75% less than the rates passed through the healthcare insurance food chain.
We're rolling the dice for the short-term as the choices available with the ACA where sickening and insulting. Further, I refuse to purchase a policy being mandated by a bunch of crooks looking to ensure their voting base (i.e., the entitlement crowd) remains intact. Nothing worse than having to pay for an overweight, unhealthy, bad habit, fast food eating, non-exercising, freeloading, group of people that abuse the system.
As for any potential penalty I might have to incur on my taxes for not providing coverage, I will actively defend my right of freedom and beliefs that the ACA is life threatening and a violation of our basic rights.
Finally I will pass along this comment from my sister that works extensively in the healthcare industry. I asked her about the impact of the ACA. She was a strong defender a couple of years ago but is now changing her mind. The reason is based in the deductible element of the ACA and the policies. Basically, she said that the real impact is that yes, people have secured coverage but with the lowest premium plans and highest deductibles. All this is doing is forcing people to defer and delay medical procedures as they can't afford the deductibles (no surprise here as what SFB in Washington ever though the poor could cover $5 to $7k of deductibles). So this deferral strategy will pad the insurance companies earnings for a while as nobody shows up to use the coverage but eventually the bill for deferrals will come due and the resulting impact on insurance company earnings and future premium increases are going to go ballistic.
The key to properly structured health plans is "preventative features". What the ACA is doing is creating a reactive plan which will take treatable health issues today and turn them into real health problems tomorrow. I have no doubt that the real horror of the ACA will begin to rear it's ughly head in about 2 to 4 years when a wave of health problems from the entitlement crowd overwhelm the system.
anybody, healthy that signs up for ANY AHC policy is just plain a fucking idiot. what more can be said.
ask only one question: how much do i have to spend per year before the first dime of coverage kicks in? do u have that amount? even high deductable has become non-logical vs no insurance. look out 5 years of non-compliance and hopefully no health issue and the amount of cash savings is astounding.
Going on 25 years of self insured/high deductable or no insurance and the best plan has been no plan with money set aside in my own personel health account protected/ insured by glock cross...
I'm in my early 60's and like CD, I focus on taking care of myself with exercise and herbsand eating properly. I've already made the decision that if some catastrophic illness like cancer invades me, I will simply make peace with the maker and move along. I don't get much satisfaction in the direction this place is headed anyways. No way will I let them suck away all my accumulated wealth. I will pass it along to my loved ones and my only request is that they bury with my middle finger proudly erect and pointed directly towards the banksters and the pols. Oh and Fuck You Bernanke
Berspankme, The erect middle finger on a corpse was, I believe, what the deceased father 'did' in the Ken Kesey novel "Sometimes a Great Notion".
As far as natural medicine goes ... 35 yeara ago I had Stage IV melanoma. The growth, a chunk of my leg and the lymph nodes in my groin were all surgically removed.
Five years ago, a suspiciously familiar growth appeared near my cheekbone. I did a whole lot of nothin' bout it for a few years. Growth started to enlarge in area and thickness a year and a half ago. Checking out alternative routes, an Italian doctor has for a decade had success with, surprisingly, baking soda.
Anecdotal stories from country medicine seem to indicate success dealing with the big C using baking soda and syrup/molasses.
Long story short, I tried it and after several months of incosistent ingestion, growth is completely gone (as per 5 months ago).Cog, great article once again.
Best wishes for all.
Gerard
@phaedrus1952 - Baking soda, aka Trona is pretty amazing stuff. From what I read it helps our bodies to become more alkalized. Dis-ease requires an acidic state to thrive. There is plenty of documentation that shows this is so, but I don't think many people believe it or are listening. It's wonderful to hear your story. It warms my heart when I hear people taking responsibility for their own health.
Tnx. You all stay warm up there atop the mountain.
I truly believe Dr. Royal Raymond Rife developed a method of devitalizing cancer in the 1930's. Studying his work was hands down the most fasinating thing I've come across in my entire life. He wanted to do this without being motivated by money profit, so you can guess what happened to him. Warning about Dr. Rife...if you start reading about him and his work it's very hard to stop.
Max Gerson had some interesting ideas as well (and got kicked out of the AMA for them)
also check out The China Study (which supports much of Gerson's thoughts) (and is the largest human nutrition study to date)
The very fact that nutrition is the foundation of health and that doctors are both little trained and say little about it says a lot about modern medicine
Merry CHristmas Mr. and Ms. C
Ps. Loved the Exorcist Picture (both of them)
I just looked to see what wiki had to say about Gerson. He gets ripped pretty good...just like Rife. I was an advocate for someone dear to me with Lyme and I remember talking to her LLMD about Rife. He knew all about it too, but the only thing he dared say was "it's not scientifically supported". That's fine because years of heavy duty ABX didn't help...but my home made device based on Rife's theory of Coordinative Resonance did. We're glad about that.
There is a wonderful story of Gerson's elderly mother self-healing this past year. It's amazing to learn how much we don't know.
A very happy holidays to you and yours Davey. :-)
It is almost as if there is a concerted effort to hide simple and effective treatments from "We the People" in favor of the medical industry.
Nah......'they' wouldn't do that......would they?
Cog, I have close relatives here in Silicon Valley, working for a biotech developing cancer fighting drugs. She is familiar with my entire story.
I offered to talk with her outfit's researchers at any time to share the tale I just posted.
No interest expressed whatsoevah.
Oh, well ...
I suspect most of 'it' is blind devotion to what scientists are trained to do. And that sure isn't exploring the virtues of baking soda when you are a biotech 'engineer'.
But over the years I have come across so much information showing how some stuff just gets deliberately buried or remains buried. And not just medical. If we do not know where we have been, we most certainly have no idea where we are going. Which makes us much more dependent upon 'others'.
Information is the most valuable commodity out there.
You'd better make sure that nobody but nobody ever calls 911 for an ambulance ride for you because they can't stand to see you in pain or because they throw up their hands at nursing care. At that point you're fed into the system and you will come out asset stripped if you come out at all.
My two kids get this, unfortunately they don't live as close as some other relatives that don't.
That big old ambulance is definitely the Venus Flytrap you describe. Once that back door is closed you are in for a very expensive ride of your life.
expensive ride of your life.
Don't ever faint, slip and fall, or get a bleeding hang
nail in public. A "good samaritan" will call the
vultres and you'll be kidnapped.
Sadly I have concluded they already have all of my accumilated wealth, given they dominate the economy, the value of my wealth, my ability to protect it or even spend it in ways contrary to their wishes.
"No way will I let them suck away all my accumulated wealth."
I appreciate all you are doing to prepare for the coming insanity. Mrs. Cog and I are walking a similar path.
But as the powers-that-be become more and more desperate to continue the can kicking, there is nothing they won't do to acquire your 'wealth'. And rest assured any means they use will most certainly be 'legal' in the eyes of the desperate dependents who will do their bidding.
This end game is not particularly new, just more sophisticated. History throughout the ages is littered with similar stories of empire crumble.
We're pretty much surfin' the same wave.
All the best.
I want a waiver, too.
You left out the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills.
The USA has far more obligations than it can ever repay. It is not just the debt but all the promises made in terms of entitlements. How they will avoid fulfilling these promises is the question....just remember it is not even remotely possible for them to keep a fraction of what they owe.
So does it really surprise anyone that they have chosen to cut the biggest promise (healthcare for all) first? Soon we will have to see cuts to Social Security and welfare. They could of course hyperinflate the currency but they seem savy to that and are saving it for last.
ZH readers all profess to know how bad things are and how indebted the US government really is. Yet we constantly hear surprised voices when they start to show weakness in their ability to perform. We know this will end in disaster but we don't really know how it will unfold. I expected hyperinflationary printing but even though there is enough paper out there to cause it we have not seen it happen. I'm certain we are headed for disaster. I don't know how we will get there. I refuse to be surprised that we are headed in that direction.
I'm doing what I think will be right for that eventual destination. I'm just looking out the window at the passing scenery...mostly train wrecks and small fire for now.
Hey CD:
I hope you and the Family are well. Good article. Hang in there. As discussed over the years, this ALL will get worse, before it ever gets better. I truly "feel" for our kids and grand children.
I can never remember when the word "hope" was not in my vocabulary, heart or mind. They have levered three generations. And yet, very few still are aware of it - unfortunately.
Once again, I hope you and your Family are healthy, simplifying life (as you say) and are happy. Have a great Holiday with the Grandkids.
Be well, AR
Thank you for the shout out AR and happy holidays to you and your family.
As we have discussed before AR there is a world of difference between 'hope' and 'false hope'. I know you and I practice the first hope while so many people are desperate to practice the second in order to remain in denial about 1) where this is all going real fast and 2) that 'they' will be able to ride out the worst of it, whatever 'it' is, in relative peace and comfort. So many people expect revolution to come to America and save us all from ourselves. It takes real courage in engage in a true revolt, something I find sadly lacking in average Jane and Joe.
Something I hear no one talking about anywhere is what I firmly expect will be implemented when we least expect it. True debt slavery will finally and fully arrive when your debt is passed on to your immediate family....and maybe even beyond. It is not inconceivable in the least for this to happen via legislation if it enables the can to be kicked a few more years down the road.
The one supreme advantage held by the sociopaths is nothing is considered impossible to them whereas many things are still considered so by "We the People". It is only when all false hope dies will change finally arrive.
CD - An old saying by the Dutch when oppressed by the British Empire:
"Hope is not necessary to persevere."
Thank you for a good article and your time educating. Remember, such is to save a small remnant, those with an ear. Evolution is what it is.
Merry Christmas good sir.
Merry Christmas to you as well.
"CD - An old saying by the Dutch when oppressed by the British Empire: "Hope is not necessary to persevere." "
Alas I hope to do more than just persevere. :-)
spot on, false fucking hope, ha - i am just opting out and not worried in the least bit. ask me if i care about some irs letter saying i owe approx. 400 dollars(or less) for non-compliance. now that is a hope i can embrace, non compliance...
paying this fine is about as chicken shit as it gets...
just sayin, cause i know many blow hards here at zh will pay to avoid an irs hassle. news for you; they came for your neighbor and you are next...
Personally I have thought from the beginning of this ACA monster, that non-compliance fine was going to inch us closer to CWII. People in rural areas that work hard but don't make alot of money like to pay for their own shit. Now the cost is so high for any medical thing there are a lot of them that get completely wiped out. It's impossible to pay. The care they get is crappy and often leads to their death. My better half is in the med field and tells me stories about this all the time.
There are a lot of people who have no idea about the details of ACA or what the price of HUM stock is. After say, losing a spouse due to illness, then being decimated financially even though you've had insurance all your life, is going to make people very angry. The darkness leaking out of CD's words will be felt by those people when they realize they have been reduced to nothing more than commodities.
Then the IRS sends them a fine because their insurance isn't good enough? That really backs people into a corner.
"People in rural areas that work hard but don't make alot of money like to pay for their own shit."
Mrs Cog and I moved to one of the poorest counties in Virginia. Everything up here is cheaper simply because everyone up here makes less income compared to 'city people'.
Everything, that is, except medical care. If you think it is expensive for city people, it is out of reach for many up here.....and they know it or will very soon.
Since it isn't possible to "opt out", health is the very last prey for the Wall Street machine. The only thing I can see us doing in the near future is setting up a living will type thing so our kids don't get wiped out when we get old and sick. (If there is such a thing as a living will that does that) Also when we get super old we've decided to dispose of our own bodies by flinging ourselves down the ditch at Coker Creek. We'd rather get eaten by bears than the death industry.
In the meantime...I'm going to learn to play this today if I have to drink every beer in the fridge. Lovey keeps telling me I've almost got it but she's full of shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xghPB05YSNk
Good to see a neighbor reading zh. Lemme know if you want to grab a bite at the tellicafe sometime
Merry Christmas neighbor! We're on the Cumberland Plateau...we love Tellico Plains.
(I've never met another ZH'er in person and I wear my filthy ZH cap all the time)
Are you trying to play it on a geetar?
<Working on my Blue Ridge Mountain Hillbilly.>
Yes sir, I relly like that song but I can't find anything to help me. It's bluesy and Christmasey...Willie's guitars seem to have really loose strings. Figuring it out by ear is pretty fun but my dogs are gouging out their ears lol. I'll get it, Not to be flippant about the sick care debacle. Unless one has a ton of money we're pretty much all fucked about that.
New Deal vs Obamacare: one reality and one desperate try
That's just Keynsian Kool-Aid ... think for yourself ...
Keynsianism is far better right now than the neoliberal rigged circus we currently live in.
Keynsianism and cronyism are highly compatible - both require big government.
I assume that like most using your phrasing, you say neoliberalism, but you mean cronyism, while you think you mean libertarianism.
All systems in human history have declined dramatically from their theoretical frame. From Communism to Neoliberalism, etc. The theoretical frame of neoliberalism is based on the minimum or total absence of state intervention. However, all you have to do is to look back in 2007-2008 and see who saved the "free market" propagandists = banksters + economic elites: The state. On the other hand: Poverty+Inequality+Unemployment+Debt for the majority.
That you claim we had free market in 2008 says it all.
What I wrote is the exact opposite. That's why I put the phrase "free market" in quotation marks.
It sounds like you are saying that the state saved the free market, which is what G W and every other Keynsian said, so what are you saying then.
I'm saying that the state saved the banksters and speculators and that in reality there was never such thing as "free market".
A good old fashioned pre Christmas rant by Cognitive Dissonance. I feel better already. :-)
<I always knew self medicating was the only way to go.>
Another good source for an article would be the disadvantage Healthcare professionals have in coming to grips with the new reality. They have been coddled for so long that they have difficulty even recognising that they have to respond to market forces and the way they have worked have not been good for the patient or their profession.
I work in the field and have heard DRs say: "These hands save lives, they don't enter status".
The pain they will have to encounter is going to be real, but needed to bring them into the 21 century.
And those hands will..pass on the pain. Are you stupid? Why don´t you just resettle into the U.K and go to the NHS and experience the pain that is meted out to the patients by socialized health care. You will soon meet a steep increase in Dr José straigth just stratight across from the border. Nothing wrong with them on a personal basis but the have an ingrained attitude thanks to different brands of socialistic health care providers and will give you exactly just that treatment. If you think the very good U.S. physicians of old still will be in the E.R. and O.R. - humbled down by the political reality and doing the same excellent job on a 4-figure salary - you ar in for a rude shock. They will retire to Puerto Rico or something like that collecting 5%.
Well - doesn´t seem to be any idea trying to tell you what are going to encounter very soon since your perception of things is stuck in the 70ies. Good luck to you on your next trip to the hospital in a couple of years. Just remember that you may have heard it from me but I wasn´t the one who made this your reality - it was you and that secret socialistic streak inside you that made you embrace Obama and ACA. You voted for it and boy did you get it.
I harbor no love for ACA but I do harbor hatred for moron DRs that have built an unsustainable Healthcare model for the US.....
Concierge medical will still exist; research will still exist; just the mid to lower level DRs like yourself that will have to change. Those who don't have the research skills or the customer skills to find place in the marketplace will have to change...
Docs didn't create "this mess", the government did. Only simpletons think doctors make a shit load of money and consequently are insanely jealous and have hatred for them.
Excellent article, CD. I find it reassuring to read a well-written summary of the situation: the ruling classes are engaged in general war against the consciousness of those they rule over. From an objective point of view, the Profit From Disease System is torturing to death at least an order of magnitude more people than the Military Industrial Complex!