From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris)
Newsgroups: misc.kids.health,sci.med,misc.health.alternative
Subject: Re: Medical Control, Medical Corruption
Date: 24 Jul 2000 02:16:08 GMT

In <397B86A7.79EBDC13@lumbercartel.com> "D. C. & M. V. Sessions"
<dcs@lumbercartel.com> writes:
>
>CBI wrote:
>>
>> "Patrick Riley" <p_riley@pipeline.com> wrote in message
>> news:gqmknsos583kr1g7q9fkj5kqjh2o9teu1h@4ax.com...
>>
>> > Since this stance is usually met with, and I'm sure you're gearing up
>> > for, "But someone might do themselves injury by taking the wrong
>> > medication.", the nanny approach, let's presume we move the
>> > prescription power to my imaginary "acne clinic". There we have some
>> > guy who has been trained in all the wonders of Accutane,
>> > tetracycline, etc. and all their risks and who knows better than to
>> > prescribe Accutane for a might-become-pregnant female or tetracycline
>> > for an already gravid one. What's wrong with that? Well, apart from
>> > reducing visits by your relatively healthy current acne sufferer for
>> > whom you just have to write a prescription <g>.



   This is not as funny as you think. I've seen a number of young women
over the years with pseudotumor cerebri from various combinations of
hormones, vitamin A, minocycline, and Acutane, who would all doubtless
have been caught much earlier if they had been treated for their acne
by your hypothetical clinic, which would have seen large number of such
cases, and be sensitized to them. One of the uses of specialization is
that a number of things that are rare for the generalist aren't rare at
all for the specialist.

   Again we come down the problem of information and who is going to
pay for it.  Most medical problems are better treated with a team
approach of specialist, generalist, and a number of other players. The
question is whether the gold-plated approach represented by this is
worth paying for. Most people say no-- until they've been sick for more
than a week or two.  Then they say: Do whatever you have to.  Alas,
they have often forgotten to keep their insurance updated, and even if
they have, their insurance companies are veritable Humean skeptics when
it comes to team-approach medical care.

 (This skepticism does not apply when the insurance execs' kids get
sick, you understand. Rather, it applies to "other people." Like the
Clintons and their private school for Hilary, what people want for
their own children and their own families must never be confused with
their public political views on what "people in general" need and
should want.)