How the Government Killed the Medical Profession

Government interventions over the past four decades have yielded a cascade of perverse incentives, bureaucratic diktats, and economic pressures that together are forcing doctors to sacrifice their independent professional medical judgment, and their integrity. The consequence is clear: Many doctors from my generation are exiting the field. Others are seeing their private practices threatened with bankruptcy, or are giving up their autonomy for the life of a shift-working hospital employee. Governments and hospital administrators hold all the power, while doctors—and worse still, patients—hold none.

-- An excerpt from "How the Government Killed the Medical Profession" by Jeffrey A. Singer, an article Dr. Terrell would have liked.

Read the rest of the article here.

The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease

Here's another current article that Dr. Terrell would have loved:

The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease


"Saturated fat does not cause heart disease"—or so concluded a big study published in March in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. How could this be? The very cornerstone of dietary advice for generations has been that the saturated fats in butter, cheese and red meat should be avoided because they clog our arteries. For many diet-conscious Americans, it is simply second nature to opt for chicken over sirloin, canola oil over butter."

Read the rest of the Wall Street Journal article here.

No Need for Mammograms?

As noted earlier, Dr. Terrell was not a fan of mammograms. More evidence is coming out that he was right. See this article from today's Wall Street Journal.

"A large study published Tuesday adds to the growing body of research concluding that screening mammograms save relatively few lives from breast cancer while discovering many cancers that wouldn’t have caused problems if left alone." Read more...

Unecessary Mammograms?

Dr. Terrell was not a fan of mammograms, and it seems that a larger medical community may now agree with him. Recently, The American Conservative posted an article stating,

"In a randomized controlled study (the gold standard of medical research), women who received regular mammograms were no less likely to die of breast cancer than those who went without. Although they received no additional protection, women who were screened paid an additional price. One in five of the cancers or abnormalities identified by mammography were ultimately harmless, but the women went through biopsies in order to be sure. Even worse, one out of every 424 women who were screened received treatment for a nonexistent cancer, enduring needless and debilitating radiation, chemotherapy, or surgery."

Read the rest of The American Conservative article here.

Unknown Risks

Dr. Terrell used to say that the danger in medicine was not always what we know, but what we don't know. What we don't know can get us. For a current example, read the recent news regarding Europe's Pandemrix swine flu shot.

Wait Till It's Free Trailer

Wait Till It's Free (Teaser Trailer) from Wait Till It's Free on Vimeo.

Exclusive: Dr Mike Vasovski Discusses Reasons For Going Off The “Insurance Grid”

Vasovski also said that the off grid system improves the doctor patient relationship.  “You do spend a little more time – not less time – you spend more time with them, and by design, you’re going to be a little bit more interested in satisfying them than if it’s just a checkmark on a sheet with the bill going to the insurance company.”

Read more: http://benswann.com/exclusive-dr-mike-vasovski-discusses-reasons-for-going-off-the-insurance-grid/#ixzz2iNwlw5K7

Almost All Americans Lack Health Insurance

How many Americans have proper health insurance?

Most estimates in the news are that 50 million individuals -- 15 percent of Americans -- are without health insurance. But in fact, very few Americans have health insurance... because what people call health insurance really isn't insurance at all.

Read the rest of this Huffington Post article here.

And read Dr. Terrell's thoughts on medical insurance here.

Economics and Preventive Health

Preventive health is a big factor in the health care discussion. President Barack Obama claims that preventive care saves money, and provision for preventive care is included in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The data, however, does not support the money-saving claim, as the New England Journal of Medicine discussed. The data didn't support it when Dr. Terrell wrote about it earlier in his career, and it still doesn't support it. Furthermore, as Dr. Terrell wrote, preventive care ought not to be justified merely on an economic basis.

A U.S. Senator from Florida wrote one of his constituents to state that if “seniors” would allow themselves to be diagnosed earlier, then “the chance of successful treatment” would be greater and the treatment would be less costly. Even if that were so, which it by and large is not for those near the end of life, it would not save money. What would happen is that the elderly person would live to require other services of dependency and to acquire yet another chronic disease which is likely to be more costly to treat, simply because he will be older and more frail.

In crass economic terms, it is cheaper to die young and expensive to die old. Preventive medical care for the elderly should be defended on the grounds of compassion and what is best for God's kingdom, not societal economics. Socialist arguments grounded in “what the country can afford” are hollow and will echo back awful things in the near future. Pro-life people should avoid them! Economics must be taken into account but by the proper authorities (individual, family and church). We do not hold our bodies in stewardship before the state. The state will not consider the Bible as authoritative in making decisions about health expenditures. Having sold us the economic argument for health maintenance, the state will turn around to plead the same argument when it first permits, then mandates euthanasia.

Excerpt from "How Would God Have Us Practice Preventive Medicine?"