Stan Geiger

Health Care or No Health Care, Which is Better?

First, do no harm. Isn’t that phrase, or something similar to that phrase, part of the Hippocratic Oath?

Allow me to tell some stories.

A couple of years ago, my brother-in-law’s mother fell and broke her hip. She was past 80. A surgery was done to fix the damage. During her stay in the hospital, she got a MRSA infection. A few days later, our family attended her funeral.

A couple of weeks ago, I accompanied my mom on a visit to her primary care physician. In the examination room, we encountered a letter that had been drafted by the doctor to explain his long absence to his patients. He had a problem that appeared to be a cancer. He went in for a routine biopsy. That procedure infected him with E. coli. The bacterium acted like MRSA; it was resistant to antibiotics.

After some major misery, he managed to get past the bacterial infection given to him by his own profession. But the biopsy came back positive. He went to Houston for a robotic surgery. While he was there, one of his legs swelled up. He had a deep vein thrombosis.

In two instances where this man---a doctor---sought medical treatment, he encountered two things that could have killed him as a result.

Some months back, I watched a national news story about an old fellow that had a very bad heart. He was taking, as I recall, 15 different medications. Doctors gave him 6 months to live. So he blew it off. He quit taking his medications. He devoted what he figured would be the last remaining days of his life to making musical instruments that he gave to kids. That was 11 years ago. He’s still walking and talking and doing his thing.

A few years back, I caught a show on OETA, during one of its give-me-money marathons. I think it is called ‘Alone in the Wilderness.’ It is a great show.

A guy went to Alaska. He filmed his work as he built a cabin. He hunted and fished for his food. The guy wound up staying in that place for 30 years, with no doctors, no dentists, no lawyers, no taxes and no politicians doing for him. He left in the late ‘90s because he said he just couldn’t manage the subzero winters anymore.

A few days ago, I saw a snip on ‘Today.’ A fellow on that show was talking about a study done around the world. He said 80 percent of centenarians drink goat’s milk. Yeah, that’s right, goat’s milk. They don’t take a mass of medications produced by pharmaceutical companies. They don’t go to the doctor 8 times a year. They drink goat’s milk.

It’s all about health care these days. Everybody should have it, right? Well, maybe not. Maybe some folks would live longer---and better---without it.

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