The N Y Times: Many Health Plans, Many Hours Spent Haggling.

This article should be a "must read" for everyone. It compares the many health plans in the U.S. to the single payer Canadian health care system.
I practiced family medicine for almost fifty years and I can state that every word in this article is true. Our health care system is too expensive and wasteful. Too much health care money goes to the for-profit insurance industry. Too much time is wasted deciding whether or not a necessary test, procedure or treatment will be paid for. The doctor's office and treatment facilities drown in unnecessary paperwork, as are services such as laboratories and and other necessary providers.
The 18000+ Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) and a majority of nurses believe that the only answer
is a single payer system. But our federal legislatures will not let that happen. Money talks!
Melvin H Kirschner BA BS MPH MD
Dr. K's book "All Medicines Are Poison!" discusses many of the shortcomings of the U.S. health care system.
www.allmedicinesarepoison.com

Dr. Reynolds. More than a mentor...

I first met Dr. Reynolds when I was in medical school. He practiced general medicine and in the addition to honing our diagnostic skills, he made the patient/doctor relationship a very important part of our training. Our first two years of training was at the classrooms of the University of Southern California's campus. Our second two years were spent on the vast Los Angeles County Hospital wards.
Although we were exposed to many specialties and many specialists at the hospital, our "home room teacher" was Dr. Reynolds. It was he who molded everything that we learned into a pattern that represented the comprehensive medical care expected of the family doctor. After I completed training and went into practice, it was not unusual to see doctor Reynolds at continuing educational functions.
Years after I became a practicing family physician, one of my patients presented with mysterious symptoms. I hospitalized her and was unable to determine the cause of her illness. None of my consultants could offer a cause or recommend a treatment.
I called my old professor Dr. Reynolds. He remembered me and offered to come and see my patient. After examining my patient he was also complexed by the symptoms. He noted that the mysterious illness was being reported in the international literature. Shortly thereafter, the international medical literature reported the cause of the mysterious illness and proposed a treatment, but no cure.
After 50 years of family practice, I'm retired and writing essays and books about medicine. Dr. Reynolds is long gone but still remembered. I'm proud to say that he was my mentor.

Why do so many people in this Country have inadequate health coverage or none at all?

As health arena worker and a family physician for over 60 years, I was always concerned about the fact that so many people in this Country have inadequate health coverage or none at all.

It certainly influenced how I practiced medicine. I saw to it that everyone who enter my medical office door received the treatment that the needed or was sent to an appropriate facility where they could receive it. If necessary, I would take care of their immediate needs until they could get a to free clinic or a hospital. When they were unable to pay my fee, I cancelled it. Never-the-less, I always made a very comfortable living. I believe that many of my colleagues practiced the way I did.

As a doctor, i've always been treated with great respect. I realize that I was fortunate to receive an excellent education and degrees at the five highly regarded universities that I attended. It was hard work and dedication, but worth it. I'm proud of my Country that made it possible for a poor boy from a poor family to do this and I consider what I did as a medical doctor to be pay back. Now that I'm retired from active practice, I continue to be involved in the medical arena whenever I can be of value.

I sincerely believe that at least 95% of our society are good people who wish the best for our fellow humans. Unfortunately I'm convinced that greedy, self centered people own this Country. I'm now 85 years old. I won't be alive to see our people take our Country back, but I hope that it will happen soon.

Melvin H Kirschner, BA BS MPH MD
Author of: All Medicines Are Poison!

Over use of the Emergency rooms

There’s a simple truth here. People who get sick and show up at emergency rooms will get care whether they have insurance or not — and they should. Under a law signed by President Ronald Reagan — the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 — nearly every hospital is required to offer treatment to those in urgent need of help. The law stops private hospitals from “dumping” (the term of art in the medical profession) patients onto public hospitals.
Excerpt from June 1 2011 Washington Post

Melvin H Kirschner BA BS MPH MD
Dr. Kirschner's book "All Medicines Are Poison!" discusses the health care inequities in the U. S. and offers some solutions.

The death of Dr. Kevorkian

As a member of several end-of-life committees in California, I debated Dr. Kevorkian on national radio. My view is that a person has a right to die if they are suffering or are in an irreversible coma and being kept alive by artificial means. This decision and action must not be the doctor's choice. Several states now permit the doctor to provide the means but they must not perform the actual death.

Melvin H Kirschner BA BS MPH MD
Dr. Kirschner's book "All Medicines Are Poison!" discusses the health care inequities in the U. S. and offers some solutions.

To the L A Times Health Section:

The May 9 Health Section article "Doctor takes risk with drug trial tampering" discusses the most vital aspect of medical science research. That aspect is absolute honesty. The most important element of medical research is the "double blind" study. Double blind requires that neither the doctors or the patients are aware of who is getting a placebo or who is getting the actual medicine. A breach of that procedure invalidates the study.
I'm certain that there are medicines on the market today where faulted or inaccurate studies have qualified them as a useful medicine, Indeed, many medicines, previously approved by the Food and Drug Administration, have been removed from the marketplace because they are less effective or more dangerous than the studies demonstrated.
Conclusion: the studies were inaccurate or inadequate. But I suspect that some of them have been tampered with.

Melvin H Kirschner BA BS MPH MD
Dr. Kirschner's book "All Medicines Are Poison!" discusses the health care inequities in the U. S. and offers some solutions

'Dr. Death' was just a sideshow.

In this Times article, Bette Rollin, a board member of the Death With Dignity Nation Center, states that the recently deceased Dr. Kevorkian failed to understand what the death with dignity movement is all about.
I debated Dr. Kevorkian shortly before he was sent to prison because he killed a paralyzed patient by administering a legal dose of medicine. At that time Oregon and Washington had already passed laws permitting a doctor to prescribe a lethal medicine dose, but they were not permitted to administer it. California was passing laws that permitted physicians to withhold or withdraw life supporting measures for patients who were comatose because of irreversible brain damage.
California never past a law that permitted physician assisted suicide, but no matter how carefully the doctor prescribes, there is always a risk of overdose. All medicines are poison! If the patient takes too much medicine, there may be serious side effects and even death.
I recall two severely depressed patients who killed themselves by ingesting a huge over dose of reactively safe medicines that I had prescribed. Obviously these two patients had saved medicines for this purpose. The police found several, long expired, empty prescription bottles adjacent to the deceased patients. But it doesn't require pills to committee suicide. One of my patients jumped out of a third story window to his death, after a heated argument with his wife.
A doctor cannot always prevent a patient's death, but we are not Kevorkians.

Melvin H Kirschner BA BS MPH MD
Dr. Kirschner's book "All Medicines Are Poison!" discusses the health care inequities in the U. S. and offers some solutions.

N Y Times Business Section: Can Johnson & Johnson Get Its Act Together?

As a young doctor 50 years ago, I was convinced that brand name medicines were significantly more reliable and safer than their generic equivalents. As the years went by, I realized that generic drugs provided the same medical benefits at a significantly lower price. However, I still believed that brand name drugs assured higher production standards and quality. The N Y Times article clearly indicated that is not always true. Prescribing "off brand" medicines certainly saves the patient money. But a better solution is suggesting no medicine when none are necessary. All medicines have side effects.

All medicines ARE poison!

From the time we were small children, my sisters and I knew that medicines were poison. My mother would not let us open the medicine chest in the bathroom. If we scratched our skin she would immediately apply iodine or Mercurochrome to the wound to prevent us from getting "lock jaw", the layperson's name for tetanus. Iodine was so poisonous that it even had skull and crossbones embossed on the front of its square bottle. And it burned ferociously when applied to the wound. We preferred Mercurochrome. It didn't burn when applied and it had a pretty red color. We weren't aware that it was just as poisonous as Iodine. My mother put the Iodine bottle on top of the refrigerator to insure that we couldn't reach it.
Years later, when I became a medical doctor, I prescribed medicines even though I knew that all medicines are poison. But I only prescribed medicine when I believed that the risks of the illness were worse than the potential side-effects and risks of the medication.
I supported this principle during many of my lectures, letters to the editors, radio and TV appearances and articles. This eventually lead to the publication of my book "All Medicines Are Poison!" which actually is a discussion of the sorry state of the health care arena in the U. S.

Why prescription drugs should not be advertised to the public.

Soon after I became a physician it became obvious that the pharmaceutical industry clearly reported the benefit of their medicines, but had a tendency to downplay or forget their risks and side effects. There was no advertising to the public permitted in those days. The drug representatives tended to minimize any known side effects or hazards. Adverse information regarding the product was buried in tiny print somewhere in the product brochure or not mentioned altogether. Advertising only appeared in the medical journals.
In recent years, advertisements in the public media became common. Patients who are completely uneducated regarding the risks and hazards of taking medicines often demand a medicine when none is needed and may be inappropriate.

Healthcare coverage in the U.S. Why do so many people in this Country have inadequate health coverage or none at all?

As a health arena worker and a family physician for over 60 years, I was always concerned about the fact that so many people in this Country have inadequate health care coverage or none at all. It certainly influenced how I practiced medicine. I saw to it that everyone who enter my medical office door received the treatment that they needed or was sent to an appropriate facility where they could receive it. If necessary, I would take care of their immediate needs until they could get a to free clinic or a hospital. When they were unable to pay my fee, I reduced it or canceled it. Never-the-less, I always made a very comfortable living. I believe that many of my colleagues practiced the way I did.
As a doctor, I've always been treated with great respect. I realize that I was fortunate to receive an excellent education and degrees at the five highly regarded universities that I attended. It was hard work and dedication, but worth it. I'm proud of my Country that made it possible for a poor boy from a poor family to do this and I consider what I did as a medical doctor to be pay back. Now that I'm retired from active practice, I continue to be involved in the medical arena whenever I can be of value.
I sincerely believe that at least 95% of our society are good people who wish the best for our fellow humans. Unfortunately I'm also convinced that greedy, self centered people own this Country. I'm now 85 years old. I won't be alive to see our people take our Country back, but I hope that it will happen soon.

Opinion response in the New York Times

Gail Collins has written several articles about women's health in the New York Times. I commented in response to her article "The Women’s Health Initiative and the Body Politic" explaining that as a practicing Physician, I saw many drugs, previously regarded as useful, removed from the marketplace. Read my response in full here: Women's Health, Who to Believe?

Does Darvon spell Death?

I've used Darvon as a pain relief medication for my patients ever since it first came out. It has been reported in various news media Darvon and Darvocet have just been removed from the market in November 2010. Little did I expect that a product in use since 1957 would be pulled from the market at such a late date. It has come to light that it has serious side effects including: heart attack, irregular heart rate, & interruption of heart's electrical impulses. I wonder how many of my own patients have been negatively effected by this drug based on the limited information I have had about it until now. As it turns out, it is frighteningly easy to overdose yourself on this medicine

All medicines are Poison, including Darvon. I have always considered that the benefit of its use outweighed its risks and this was backed up by the FDA's own findings. Now we find that the reverse is true and the inherent dangers have caused it to be removed from the market at the FDA's own behest. I will now have to use other drugs that are not reported to have similar consequences, yet relive the discomfort my patients suffer from. Please consult your medical professional about the continued use of this or any medicine before changing dosage on your own.

Melvin H Kirschner, MPH, MD, Family Practice.
Dr. Kirschner recently published a book entitled “All Medicines Are Poison!” It discusses the sorry state of this Country’s health system and suggests how it could be repaired. Buy it here.

Promoting Single Payer health care in California

In California,  single payer health care to cover all Californians is being promoted.   The bill was known as SB 840 (Kuehl). It was passed twice by the legislature and vetoed both times by the Governor with the help of the for-profit health insurance industry.
     Ninety-five percent of California nurses want single payer to pass. As a 50 year member of the CMA and a member of Physicians for a National Health Program, I have promoted “single payer” since it was first discussed, as do most of my colleagues.
     When I was a young physician, most medical insurance was “not-for-profit” and the patient and I were rarely questioned about the necessity or value of my services. Now, I often have my fees reduced or totally denied. Each insurance company has a different set of rules and they keep changing. A single payer will have one set of rules and one payment schedule.
     More than half of my colleagues and I would prefer a single payer system. There will be one set of rules, one insurer to bill and every patient will be covered.
 
Melvin H Kirschner, MPH, MD, Family Practice.
Dr. Kirschner recently published a book entitled “All Medicines Are Poison!” It discusses the sorry state of this Country’s health system and suggests how it could be repaired. Buy it here.

Single Payer health care for all of WHO?

The recent passage of the Federal health care bill is not the wonderful improvement of the country’s health care system that it’s portrayed to be. It’s a tiny concession by the healthcare insurance and pharmaceutical industries. The legislation that was just passed by a thin margin may yet be overturned. Many Senate and Congress members have received “reelection funds” from these industries. Even if recession fails, these small gains will take years to implement.
In contrast to the just passed federal health care bill, the California legislators have passed a single-payer bill three times in recent years. Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill twice. Californians are waiting for the next governor, Mr. Brown, to finally be sign it. California has term limits. That is likely why the industries affected, were unable to prevent its passage. (Thank goodness for term limits.)
The reason California was able to pass the bill three times is the large, very vocal, population in favor of single payer health care. Every major population center in California is represented by chapters of “Health Care for All” (HCA). This organization is the voice of Californians, many of who have been in favor of single payer for years.
The California Physicians Alliance for single payer health care (CaPA) is the voice of more than half of the physicians practicing in California. It’s now a chapter of Physicians for a Nation Health Program (PNHP).
Ninety-five percent of California’s registered nurses are in favor of single-payer health care. Many other health care professionals have added their voices to the drum beat.
People without health care insurance are inundating California’s emergency rooms. Many of these people cannot afford to go to a doctor. Statistics have shown that emergency rooms are the most expensive way to obtain routine medical care. Early, routine medical care minimizes the possibility of an illness progressing to a more serious stage that may require complex treatment or hospitalization.
In our country, many thousands of deaths occur year because of lack of access to medical care. The best and least expensive solution to this dilemma is a single payer health care system.

Probems with medicines and other treatments

May 8 2010

The number of articles in the news media that report problems and withdrawal of medicines has become so frequent that I can hardly keep up. When I wrote my book "All Medicines Are Poison!" there was only an occasional discussion of these issues by the news media. Much of the medical and health care problems were conclusions drawn from my own and my colleagues' experiences. The book was developed from my own experiences and observations. I not only care for my patients, I cared about them. It became obvious to me that some of the treatments and prescriptions I recommended, caused no benefit at all or created more harm than good. My letters to the editor, interviews and lectures pointed that out.
MHK

Last hours of 2009

47 million still without health care coverage.
Still at war!
Country still torn by discontent.
Happy New Year for all.

AllMedicinesArePoison, the press is noticing.

I've already given several lectures regarding the book.So far, I've been interviewed on 7 radio stations in the US and Canada.I may be on the Rachel Raye show early next year. Dr. Harriet Hill has published a detailed review and critic of the book.
I wrote this book because of the sad state of the health care industry in this Country. I believe that my 60 years serving our health care system has provided me with the knowledge of what's broken and how it can be fixed. The alternative medicine advocates are right when they state that all medicines are poison, but those poisons have life-saving usefulness when prescribed by doctors. Doctors are trained to weigh the risks versus the values.
But Medicines are only one part of the health care system. The book discusses many other elements of our health care system. These elements include hospitals, drug research, manufacturing and advertising, insurance coverage, government oversight, the under-insured or uninsured population and why medical care in the U. S. is twice as expensive here, than it is in the rest of the industrialized world.
You don't have to agree, but you should be aware of the issues.

MHK, MPH, MD

The Website for my new book is now available.

My book "All Medicines Are Poison!" is now available on my website, www.allmedicinesarepoison.com.

Please visit and click on the "order" button to get it in your choice of paperback or hardbound.

To N.Y. Times: The death of Michael Jackson.

I'm certain that everyone who reads my letter to the N. Y. Times already knows about Michael Jackson's death. I don't mention it in the letter to the Times, but I believe I know why he died. I've written a book, soon to be available, entitled "All Medicines Are Poison." Although the book discusses many aspects of the American health care system, the main theme is that doctors must proceed with every prescription they write after evaluating the risks. Benefits must outweigh risks.
I knew some members of the Jackson family and share their grief. A 50 year old man is a little more than middle aged. He should experience a full life. Michael had much to offer--it will never be seen.

The death of Michael Jackson had special meaning to me, not only because the world prematurely lost a great talent, but also because I knew members of his family. As a physician, I attended his grandmother until she expired. I also took care of several members of the family including his mother. She is a lovely woman and I sense her grief because of Michael’s death. I never attended Michael, but I met him once when I had hospitalized his grandmother. We had him wear a scrub suit, mask and surgical hat so that he could visit his grandmother without being recognized by his many admirers.
At this point the doctors at UCLA are unsure of what caused Michael’s death; apparently the autopsy was unrevealing. Perhaps the toxicology studies will give us an answer; he had been taking medicines and all medicines are poison. A doctor must weigh the benefits to be achieved, versus the potential risks before prescribing anything. I was fortunate to watch a TV interview of Dr. Deepak Chopra, who knew Michael well. He and I disagree on some aspects of practicing medicine, but I respect his viewpoints and I believe that he and I would agree on the cause of Michael’s death. I’m sure that he would also agree that a doctor should not only take care of patients, but also care about them.

Dr. Kirschner is a retired family physician. He continues to volunteer in community-based health related programs and is active on several biomedical ethics committees.

Melvin H Kirschner, MPH, MD