JUST WALK AWAY...
I woke up this morning with our KKKollapsing KKKonventional medical system on my mind.
As a physician, I am well aware of the strengths and the weaknesses in the conventional medical model. It has become quite clear that most AmerKKKans are expected to be living with chronic illness by the time we hit age 50 here in the USA. By 50, most of us are expected to be taking an average of two drugs for a chronic medical condition of some kind.
At 66 years old, I take no conventional drugs for chronic illness; I take vitamins and herbal supplements to PREVENT disease.
The federal medicare system not only expects me to be more ill than I am; it penalizes me if I am not as ill as it was expecting (translate if I am not taking conventional pharmaceutical drugs). AND IT WILL NOT COVER ANY OF MY PREVENTATIVE CARE EXPENSES. Happily, my Brave Little State of Vermont offers better. Through my housing authority, I may be able to negotiate a lower rent if my primary care provider will sign a letter in support of the supplements that I take.
But back at the federal level, I got slapped with a financial penalty for not carrying a monthly drug payment insurance program (Medicare part D), through my first year on Medicare. I WAS SUPPOSED TO PAY FOR THAT PROGRAM WHETHER OR NOT I TOOK ANY CONVENTIONAL MEDICAL DRUGS.
Who knew?
Why is it set up that way and allowed to continue? Shouldn't I be getting some kind of a discount for being healthy? Like for being a good driver?
I am definitely done with America's Managed Care Model of Medical Malfeasance. At the end of my first year of federal Medicare coverage, I am heartbroken to share my belief that my chosen profession—conventional medicine— is now officially beyond hope.
The bureaucracy of University of Vermont's Medicare Advantage plan is intended to slow me down, confuse me and deny me benefits. The lack of coverage for vision, dental, hearing and normal orthopedic changes associated with aging leads to iatrogenic (doctor induced) illness.
And I believe that is the intention and the design of the system.
I have officially declined further interventions offered me within the University of Vermont's managed medical care system. UVM's Medicare Advantage Plus (and Dartmouth Hitchcock's Vermont Blue Advantage in the lower part of our state) have metastasized to essentially take over management of federal funds designated to Vermont for health and wellness. This is not a good thing as both behemoths of corporate medicine are for profit institutions. They adhere to software coding guidelines created intentionally to over-diagnose as much as possible (to receive the maximum money from the Feds). They intend to funnel those federal dollars into the pockets of their own executives and administrators. They oversee/OVER RIDE doctors' and nurse practitioners' treatment plans and protocols, transforming the patient from a client into a commodity. A commodity from which profit can be maximized.
I strategized retiring here in Vermont, knowing that Vermont's Universal Health Care initiative represented as the best that U.S. healthcare is offering. I now believe that single-payer health care in the U.S. will not happen in my lifetime.
Back to food as medicine!
Here's a resource tried and true that I have been recommending to others for over 15 years:
I deserve better. We all do.