Politics, Voter Suppression, and Modern Killing Fields

This article is about the many forms of VOTER SUPPRESSION, starting with the most cruel and disgusting. I cover this topic because to fix U.S. healthcare, we must fix our politics, and I begin with this widely shared Facebook post by Dr. Wallach, who calls out unscrupulous doctors. I then follow with my own perspective of public policy as a cause of that, along with a list of other forms of voter suppression.

THE KILLING FIELDS…. Dr. Joel Wallach

“The United States had lost 56,000 military personnel in Vietnam over a ten-year period, for an average of 5,600 per year. Millions of people poured out into the streets to protest these lost lives. We had political anarchy for the last three years of the Vietnam war because of these deaths. And because of these deaths, God forgive us, we shot and killed American students at Kent State in Ohio, who were just exercising their First Amendment rights to free assembly and free speech. YET NO GROUP WAS OUT MARCHING IN THE STREETS WITH PLACARDS PROTESTING THE KILLINGS BY THE MEDICAL PROFESSION [OR POLITICIANS].

In July, 1994, another Ralph Nader survey pointed out that 70 percent of doctors who treat Medicare patients flunked the exam on how to treat seniors safely and effectively. What would happen to American Airlines if 70 percent of their pilots flunked the exam on how to fly. What would happen to American Airlines if they killed 150,000 to 300,000 passengers per year? Everyone [even Congress] would ‘go Greyhound!’

Medical doctors reacted violently to the Ralph Nader statistics that I routinely quoted in my “Dead Doctors Don’t Lie” tape. They wrote articles in their own defense and went on talk radio to try to reduce the amount of damage to their image as all-knowing saviors of the American public.

Doctors [finally] admitted killing 80,000 Americans each year, but it was too late. The genie was out of the bottle and the spin-doctors couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty, M.D. back together again!”

BreakPoint: Now They’re Euthanizing Asperger’s Patients The Deadly Threat of Assisted Suicide

BreakPoint: Now They’re Euthanizing Asperger’s Patients

The Deadly Threat of Assisted Suicide

Another week… another example of how physician-assisted suicide targets the vulnerable. This time: Asperger’s patients.

In 2010, 38-year-old Tine Nys was one of approximately 1,000 people euthanized in Belgium. Nys was not suffering from a terminal illness. In fact, she wasn’t sick at all.

Hospital, lab collaborate on sepsis-detection AI

EARLY WARNING:A system introduced last year can predict sepsis about four hours before its onset, but with AI, the hospital hopes to automatically detect it earlier

Representatives Matsui and Guthrie Take Aim at Sepsis, Which Kills Almost 270,000 Americans Annually

House Resolution 1175 Seeks to Increase Sepsis Awareness and Speed Diagnosis and Treatment

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Stop Sepsis, Save Lives Coalition applauds Representatives Doris Matsui(D-CA) and Brett Guthrie (R-TN) for introducing House Resolution 1175 to support increased awareness of sepsis and highlight the importance of early diagnosis and appropriate intervention. 

"By introducing this bipartisan resolution, Representatives Matsui and Guthrie have taken a critical first step to drive broader sepsis awareness and emphasize the urgent need to seek treatment when there are signs and symptoms of sepsis," said Thomas Heymann, President and Executive Director of Sepsis Alliance. 

'Who decides whether you're dead?': Ontario court case could prove precedent-setting

Taquisha McKitty's heart still beats and her arms and legs move, bishop says

The family of Taquisha McKitty will argue in the Ontario Court of Appeal Wednesday that she's still breathing and alive, even though a lower court has declared her dead.

"We're not convinced that she's dead," said Bishop Wendell Brereton from his church, the Breakthrough Temple in Brampton.

Adverse Events in Long-Term-Care Hospitals: National Incidence Among Medicare Beneficiaries

WHAT WE FOUND

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that 21 percent of Medicare patients in LTCHs experienced adverse events, which are particularly serious instances of patient harm resulting from medical care. The four categories of adverse events include outcomes such as prolonging a patient's LTCH stay or necessitating transfer to another facility; requiring life saving intervention; resulting in permanent harm; and contributing to death. (Five percent of Medicare patients in LTCHs experienced adverse events that contributed to or resulted in their deaths.) An additional 25 percent of patients experienced temporary harm events, which are patient harm that required medical intervention but did not cause lasting harm.

Ex-physician assistant who got nearly $50K for prescribing fentanyl spray on trial for fraud in NH

CONCORD -- Greed was the motive for the kickbacks, according to both a prosecutor and defense lawyer who addressed the jury during the opening of the trial of Christopher Clough, one of the top prescribers in the country of a fentanyl spray.

To federal prosecutor Seth Aframe, it was the greed of Clough, a one-time Somersworth physician assistant who received nearly $50,000 in kickbacks for writing more than 700 prescriptions of the Subsys fentanyl spray.