January 16, 2006 - If you have cable television you have seen the quack touting his book.  His pitch is that he promised his sainted mother that he would discover the cause and cure of the disease that was killing her – diabetes.  It is of course worthless.  Neither he nor anybody else has discovered the cause – much less the cause of the condition that is wasting the lives of more and more Americans.  We are that much closer today because a link between a genetic mutation and the condition has been identified.  At long last medical science is able to quantitatively study the genetic component of the disease and to develop a simple test to identify those of our population whose genes destine them to develop Type II Diabetes.  If he were peddling a concoction that he falsely claimed would cure diabetes he could be prosecuted for his medical fraud.  But he is not peddling a medicine, at least not directly.  He is peddling a book – his compilation of ideas and claims that are not subject to regulation.  He is free to publish his ideas and claims and that is as it should be.  There may be a nugget of truth buried in the gravel of his false claims.

One thing that he claims has the appearance of that nugget of truth.  As part of his pitch he claims that medicine is not organized to cure disease; that its interest lies in treating disease, not curing it.  According to the good doctor if the drug companies and medical establishment were to actually cure disease it would dry up a lucrative market for their products and services.  His thesis is that establishment medicine makes its money treating symptoms not curing disease.  He promised his dying mother that he would find a cure; he has; and it is in the book! 

I am a Type II diabetic.  In the past year I have been treated for cancer and a serious heart problem.  The medical establishment cured the cancer with a knife and the heart condition by implanting an IED. Those episodes are done, over and paid for.  My diabetes is a different story.  Controlling that disease and delaying the day when it will kill me requires extensive testing every three months.  Visits to my doctor to assess the results and adjust my medication come at an equal interval.  The six medications that I take each day are directly related to controlling my diabetes and its accompanying consequents.  The cost for treatment – medicine and services – is about $1,000.00 a month – each month until I die.  Cure my diabetes and the cost drops to an aspirin a day.

Let me say now that I don’t believe that the medical establishment is ignoring cures in a cynical effort to maximize its financial return.  It is just that they focus on the problems of individual patients as they are presented.  Nor do I believe that the Bush administration is intentionally skewing its health policies in favor of the affluent to the detriment of the working stiff.    It is simply that the men and women of the Bush administration aren’t able to identify with the ordinary American and his problems with the health care system.  In their world no one decides against a treatment because they can’t afford it.  In their world nobody is without health insurance because coverage is beyond their financial reach.   In their world all of the population is either affluent or lazy and they each get what they deserve.  Evolution may be the tool of the devil but that doesn’t prevent their embrace of social Darwinism.  It boils down to the only thing standing between you and a cure is money.