What cost life? It could be less.

I am continually surprised to read the New York Times and see articles like this that cannot figure out how we should deal with people and the rising cost of Health Care. It is very clear that we are in the hands of the Pharmaceuticals and our doctors are co-opted by them. They rule our lives more and more and if they have their way we will be in their pockets from birth to death.

Systematically they fight all other methods of healing spending millions of dollars world wide to give all but their own a bad name.
The article below prompted me to remember that I am here to encourage people to look at Homeopathy and its ability to deal with chronic ailments. I spent less than $100 over a ten year period to keep my arthritis, that started in my left wrist and hand, under control. Even now I take one tiny globule every day or two at the cost of less than $100 per year and most of that is for the couple of visits to my Homeopathic doctor to make sure I do not need some other remedy. Cheap, cheap, cheap. And effective and now at 74 most people would never guess that I have arthritis all over my body from toes to shoulders. I do not have pain and I know when to take another globule by the rise of one or another symptom. Not only that the remedy works on my mental and emotional space as well and keeps me emotionally stable and energized to carry on my life in the best possible way.
I am a layman with no formal training in Homeopathy other than through experience on film sets. Film sets are very stressful places with dis-ease and diseases and injuries and the latest flu and colds finding easy targets as crews work long hours. Those long hours play havoc with the body and wears us down and soon we are vulnerable to catching whatever is going around. I use my remedies with crews very successfully for acute situations. I have everyday books to diagnose and those books are clear and simple to understand. And the action of the remedies is sometimes so fast that it is hard to believe.
I had a chap come to me with his mouth full of blisters and scratching like mad at his cheek. I opened
Homeopathic Self-Care
The Quick & Easy Guide for the Whole Family
Written by Robert Ullman, N.D. and Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman, N.D., M.S.W

I looked at the allergy page and went to the section called listen to. That took about one minute. I handed it to the suffering man and he quickly read the sentences and after each sentence was a suggested remedy. He found one with symptoms of blisters and terrible itching and asked for the remedy Rhus Tox. I got it from my bag for it is a common remedy and he took it. In less than 5 minutes he was totally clear of all the problem. The whole episode took about 10 minutes. We were both in awe of the effectiveness. The only other thing we could have done was rush to the hospital and hope they would have the expensive pharmaceuticals to deal with the attack. I actually pondered if I should just get in the car with him and rush to the hospital for I was afraid his wind pipe would soon be affected. I am glad I went to my books and remedies.

So read below where we are in our society. Completely at the mercy of the Pharmaceuticals who's medicines often have terrible side effects and begin us on the slippery slope of being in their hands. It is a shame articles like the one below are having to be written and ordinary people have to be held hostage with the idea of how much is life worth.

There is lots to read below and places to go to read a Times series on the subject of costs and efficacy.

New York Times Wednesday December 3, 2008

British Balance Gain Against the Cost of the Latest Drugs

By GARDINER HARRIS

Published: December 2, 2008

RUISLIP, England — When Bruce Hardy’s kidney cancer spread to his lung, his doctor recommended an expensive new pill from Pfizer. But Mr. Hardy is British, and the British health authorities refused to buy the medicine. His wife has been distraught.

Hazel Thompson for The New York Times

Bruce and Joy Hardy of Ruislip, England, are awaiting a British agency’s reconsideration of its rejection of a medicine sought by Mr. Hardy, a kidney cancer patient.

The Evidence Gap

Setting a Price on Life

Articles in this series will explore medical treatments used despite scant proof they work and will consider steps toward medicine based on evidence.

All Articles in the Series »

Graphic

Drug Spending on the Rise

Graphic

The Cost of Care

“Everybody should be allowed to have as much life as they can,” Joy Hardy said in the couple’s modest home outside London.

If the Hardys lived in the United States or just about any European country other than Britain, Mr. Hardy would most likely get the drug, although he might have to pay part of the cost. A clinical trial showed that the pill, called Sutent, delays cancer progression for six months at an estimated treatment cost of $54,000.

But at that price, Mr. Hardy’s life is not worth prolonging, according to a British government agency, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. The institute, known as NICE, has decided that Britain, except in rare cases, can afford only £15,000, or about $22,750, to save six months of a citizen’s life.

British authorities, after a storm of protest, are reconsidering their decision on the cancer drug and others.

For years, Britain was almost alone in using evidence of cost-effectiveness to decide what to pay for. But skyrocketing prices for drugs and medical devices have led a growing number of countries to ask the hardest of questions: How much is life worth? For many, NICE has the answer.

Top health officials in Austria, Brazil, Colombia and Thailand said in interviews that NICE now strongly influences their policies.

“All the middle-income countries — in Eastern Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East and all over Asia — are aware of NICE and are thinking about setting up something similar,” said Dr. Andreas Seiter, a senior health specialist at the World Bank.

So what is your health worth? Do you want a price tag on it? Get smart and look to other ways to heal yourself. Step out of the paradigm of the Pharmaceutical world. Homeopathy and the Bach Flower remedies for mental and emotional problems are two of the ways to do this with remedies that are effective and have no side effects.