A Medical Fable

Last Updated on Saturday, October 10 2009 06:35

A Medical Fable

 By Rick Taylor

Once upon a time there was a very prosperous country. Although there were still some problems in this country and every single person in the country was not what you would call rich, this country had still provided the best opportunities for a prosperous, free humanity that the world had ever seen. Things were so good in this country that people from all over the world wanted to move to it just so their children could have the opportunity to be free, prosperous, and happy. It should also be noted that this country was also very mountainous. After a hundred years of existence many of the people of this country began getting dizzy which led to many of them falling over the steep cliffs that were present in the country. They’d fall to the bottom and be injured. Sometimes their injuries were quite serious and many of them even died.

The nation’s medical establishment responded to the situation immediately. They began by putting, at the bottom of the cliffs, a very large fleet of ambulances. This fleet would immediately rush those who had fallen to modern hospitals. Many hospitals were built in response to this obvious epidemic of injured people. These hospitals were equipped with the latest in modern medical equipment. The medical experts told the people that when it comes to their health “no expense was too great”.

After some time it occurred to certain group of people that there was another possibility to this grave situation. “We could erect a fence at the top of the cliff” they said. When they voiced their idea certain individuals stepped forward and objected. The ambulance drivers were not particularly keen on the idea. Neither were the corporations who built the ambulances. Nor were those who made their living and enjoyed the prestige of working in the hospitals. Nor were the corporations who owned the hospitals. Nor were the corporations who manufactured the drugs that the doctors prescribed to those who had fallen off the cliff.

It seemed that people of the country would be receptive to this new idea, if the idea were to be properly explained. However, the different medical authorities rushed in with their lawyers and began to explain the situation. They said that the problem was far more complex than the people realized. That while building a fence might seem like an interesting idea it was actually far from practical. They concluded by saying that health was far too important to be left in the hands of people who were not experts. The authorities said “hey, people of our great country, we’re the medical experts, leave it up to us, we will get to the bottom of this situation and make it work for the betterment of all the people of our country”. They also said, “Look, if you can get the government to give us more money we believe we will soon be able to genetically engineer people who do not bruise or become injured from such falls.”

So no fences were built, and as time passed this nation found it spending an ever-increasing amount of its financial resources on hospitals and high-tech medical equipment. In fact, it came to spend far more money on medical services than any other nation had ever done in the history of the world. Soon many of the people were unable to pay for these services, especially the elderly. So the medical experts and their lawyers went to the government and said you need to cover those expenses for all of those good elderly citizens that seem to keep falling over the cliffs.

By the way, all of those medical experts and their lawyers knew that the medicine that was prescribed by the doctors to supposedly heal the injuries were causing the people, once they got out of the hospital, to later walk off the cliffs again. They would get well for a while and then get dizzy from the medicine they were taking and over the cliff they'd go.

Over this period of time these medical authorities were beginning to be replaced by medical corporations and their experts and their lawyers. While there are good people dedicated to healing on the front lines of the medical establishment, the officials in the board rooms, who dictate policy, not only to their respective corporation but also to the government, were enjoying the status quo. And what was the status quo? Most of the people of the country were repeatedly falling over the cliffs. In other words “business was great.” Since the number one priority of a corporation to improve its stockholders shares, the stockholders were very happy.

These corporations had also invested heavily in the medical schools and other organizations. This kept the frontline medical workers focused on treating the citizens that were injured from their fall with the treatment that most maximized the corporation’s profits. Among the directors in the various medical corporation boardrooms, there was a secret saying. “There is no profit in the cure, only the treatment.”

Over time things kept getting worse and worse. Even the kids were walking over the cliffs. This created more tension and a sense of urgency so more of the country’s money was poured into a heroic search for a drug that could be given to those had fallen to cure their injuries. This money not only came from the government but mostly from the people. More and more of the people’s money had to go to pay for the ever increasing but more modern treatments and drugs. Also at this time, it seemed that everything in this society was costing more. It took both parents working just to keep the average families head above water.

When someone pointed out how fruitless the search had been thus far and questioned whether a permanent cure for the fallen would ever be found, the medical research and drug industry answered, “Don’t quit on us now, we’re almost there!” They held massive public relation campaigns and flooded the television with ads showing the broken bodies of children who had fallen off the cliff. “Please, with your help and support, we will find a cure.”

At this time, more and more enlightened physicians and healthcare professionals had found out why people were falling off of the cliff and began to warn them. They found many reasons why but basically it was what the people were putting into their bodies that were making them fall off of the cliff. Not everyone, but the majority. What they were eating and drinking was making them dizzy. And it was also the lack of nutrition in their foods that was making them dizzy. The chemicals that were in their homes were also hurting them. Their lack of exercise was hurting them, especially the children.

These individuals and groups began to publicly warn the people by erecting warning signs at the edge of the cliffs. The corporations and their lawyers came in and said “you can’t say that and you can’t do that!” Many were sued and even arrested. This was done to intimidate those who wanted to continue to warn the people. The medical establishment did not want to appear callous to the plight of the people so after discussions with their corporate lawyers they decided that they should issue some kind of warning. They spent millions of dollars on television ads saying, “Anyone who has already broken both arms and both legs in previous falls should exercise utmost caution when falling”.

Of course, this is just a fable.

Authors note: I want to thank health author John Robbins for the basic story line behind this fable. I know he wouldn’t mind if I rewrote it a little and embellished it a lot