The Future of Medicine..Is There Any Hope?
So what is the future of medicine in the United States? Having worked in the field for the past 40 years I have earned the right to opine on the current dilemma that confronts our healthcare system today. No one can deny that the current healthcare system is broken. Today it was announced that premiums for policies of Anthem subscribers in California would face a rise in premiums of up to 39%. This is but a continuation of the steady increase in premiums over the past 10 years or so. Moreover we are all held hostage to the steady rise in healthcare costs that have ballooned to such a level that we are all forced to pay the exorbitant prices for health insurance or face the possibility of financial ruin for even a mild illness.
So who is to fault for this ever increasing cost of healthcare? The components are relatively few in numbers and include hospital corporations, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and of course consumers.
Each of these components certainly bears some of the responsibility however I believe the chief culprits are the large hospital corporations and insurance companies.
Large hospital corporations have proliferated over the past 10 years. With the large failure of the early attempts at managed care, the initial foray into the monopolization of healthcare was largely thwarted by a shift in public opinion that felt they exerted too much control in the decision of the private physician. This resulted in a shift in the approach from trying to control the decision of patient and physician by dictum to one of influence by coercion. The large corporations began to buy up medical practices from across the country in an attempt to control what and how physicians practice. In this way their hand and influence is largely masked and patients are unaware of the relationship between their private physician and large corporate medicine. Today the private physician with only the patient interest at heart has been largely replaced by the corporate employed physician with the corporate bottom line as their primary concern. While I will concede many physicians continue to place patient care at the forefront there can be no doubt that many if not most have had their decisions making corrupted and influenced by their corporate employers.
This unholy alliance between the large healthcare corporations, large insurance companies, and now with the co-opting of the one and primary voice in patient rights, the private physician I can only think the outlook for the future of healthcare in the United States is indeed dim.
So any hope in this situation? I think we must isolate and separate these disparate forces in healthcare. Bright and clear lines must be drawn between hospital corporations, insurance companies and physicians. In this way each can work to act as a buffer against the abuses of the others.
These are but a few of the measures that should be included in healthcare reform. Of course we need reform in the insurance industry with nationwide purchase, banning pre-existing conditions, and some limits on the increases in costs. I hope for the best but frankly will be surprised if we can get this corrected until we have a full meltdown in the healthcare system which I fear is imminent.
Here’s to hoping I am wrong on this but prepare for anything
Stem Cells: The Future Of Medicine
One day in the not too distant future, modern medicine will change completely, and stem cells will be used to treat and cure serious conditions that as of right now are still considered untreatable and irreversible. We will not even need doctors anymore. Every time something goes wrong, you will just pop offer to your local gene therapy clinic to get a tune-up with some freshly grown injectable stem cells engineered to cure your latest malady.
Stem cells are undifferentiated, non-specific human cells with a full complement of DNA that have not yet transformed into anything specific, such as the cells in your hand, or the cells in your hair follicles. These cells are capable of being a mechanic for your body; they can repair you by undergoing cell division to manufacture whatever cells are needed in order to replace old, damaged, or diseased cells that are no longer viable and need to be replenished.
Stem cell lines, once isolated, are very easy for scientists to work with because they can continue to make these cells for testing from the original line, due to the fact that those original lines are basically immortal, providing scientists with an unlimited supply that they can use for experimentation.
Currently, stem cell treatments are not available for most conditions and are usually only utilized in bone marrow transplants and not much else. The primary challenge that researchers face, as they attempt to perfect the usage of these treatments, is to prevent the immune system of the patient from rejecting the injected cells. A similar dilemma occurs with organ transplants, as the immune system of the recipient can reject the donation.
There have been a few successful, high risk experiments that utilized stem cells to reverse a debilitating condition. One of the most noteworthy examples occurred within the past 2 years, as scientists injected cells into the area where a test patient had been suffering from acute arthritis, and the results were astonishing. The cells divided into healthy joint cells that integrated themselves into the inflamed area and reversed the arthritic condition.
Stem cells will ultimately be the final frontier of medicine, providing cures for diseases that scientists have struggled with for years, such as Alzheimers, heart disease, and organic brain disease. However, there is much opposition to the research. Prominent religious leaders and idealogues are opposed to the research.
The religious right feels that creating an embryo to do research is tantamount to abortion. However, if the research is to reach its full potential, the creation of further embryos will be a necessity in order to support adequate research.
In the end, science will likely win, as some states have already funded the research that uses both existing cell lines and embryos. It may take some time, but the cures that will result from the usage of these treatments are far too important too dismiss simply because of religious beliefs.
About the Author
Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form
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I don’t have a problem with exposing corruption within the U.S. government and state/local governments. If U.S. government diplomatic correspondence is exposed I would likewise expect to see EU, Indian,Russian, Chinese, Brazilian, German, French, UK, etc., governmental and diplomatic correspondence leaked and exposed. There are obviously MANY non-U.S. do-gooders and one world citizen of the world type. I encourage each and ever one to do what they can to get their hands on and leak their respective government(s) confidential governmental and diplomatic correspondence. I for one would LOVE to know what’s going on behind the scenes at the EU in Brussels, Russia, China and so-on. A brave AMERICAN stood up to the plate and leaked U.S. ‘secrets’…where are the brave Brits, Euros, Russians, Chinese? I want to see something on the same scale as the U.S. leaks.