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How to Really Reduce Greenhouse Gases: Stay Healthy
By Stephen Simac
This series guarantees that Americans can Really Reduce Greenhouse Gases, Lose Weight and Save Money. Slashing military spending was the first directive, since the "Defense" Dept. is the single largest energy user in the US. Breaking the chains of our slavery to the military cult will free up enormous resources to renew America.
Our country emits 25% of the planet's human generated Greenhouse Gases (GG), mostly from burning coal, oil and gas, 2/3rds as wasted heat. The dire warnings about impending climate change due to human generated GG should have made curtailing our carbon footprint an emergency, but like frogs in heating water we aren't alarmed yet.
Directions for Systemic Shifts in Transportation, Construction, Electricity Generation, Wealth Inequality, and Agriculture followed. To achieve massive cuts in GG and help Americans Lose Weight and Save Money. Systemic approaches solve multiple environmental and social problems. Band-aids like changing out light bulbs and alternative fuels won't reduce enough GG to make a difference and cause unintended environmental problems.
Put the Lime in the Coconut
The Health Care system, as it's euphemistically called, may generate more GG's than even the military. The US funds "Defense" at around $1 Trillion a year, (with hidden costs), more than all other nations combined. Americans spend more than double that on medical treatment. While flow of cash isn't an exact correlation with GG production, they closely parallel in our fossil fueled economy.
Americans aren't getting much value for two and a third trillion $, since every other industrial nations spends far less while their citizens enjoy better health by every measure. Almost as disappointing as the results from Pax Americana.
Most progressives believe that Single Payer Health Care will fix a broken system, as if funding the mess would solve the myriad health problems plaguing our citizens. It's hard to fathom this confidence, when the Institute of Medicine's own figures blame medical treatment for causing more deaths in the US than anything except heart disease and cancer. An unknown number of those are caused by medical treatment.
To be sure, significant costs could be saved by reducing 30% administrative overhead of private insurance to the 3% of Medicare/Medicaid. If we could just find enough MDs willing to take M&M it would still cost a fortune, with out making Americans much healthier.
Freedom's Just Another Word
Conventional medicine enjoys a lucrative near monopoly on "health" care without producing proportionate results. Americans suffer from epidemics of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, asthma, respiratory and autoimmune diseases, depression, motor vehicle and gun trauma, alcoholism, substance abuse, chronic pain, autism, neurological malfunctions and bacterial infections along with a host of other health problems. Not really the fault of modern medicine, but it persists in only treating the symptoms of a sick and toxic society.
Lifestyle and environmental illnesses can be prevented for a dime on the dollar instead of relying on conventional medical treatment to pick up the disastrous results. It's time to expand the definition of health care to promoting social and individual practices known to create real health. Systemic changes that enable and encourage Americans to walk regularly, eat more organic vegetables, strengthen social ties and reduce financial stressors will do more to improve our health than vaccines and genome therapy. Reducing our exposure to toxic, poisonous, hazardous substances and cultural practices, likewise.
There are politically powerful and vastly wealthy interests that are solidly opposed to any changes to a system they profit from, Building coalitions that undermine their influence and sap their entrenched positions is necessary.
Currently patients who choose most Complementary and Alternative Medical (CAM) treatments pay out of their own pocket, since medical insurance doesn't cover it. The American Medical Association doesn't like any competition, calls `em all quacks. Yet Americans are willing to spend more out of pocket for CAM, than for Real Medicine, including deductibles.
Universal Health Care (UHC) that provided Freedom of Choice by paying for treatment by licensed practitioners of Acupuncture, Chiropractic, Dentistry, Exercise Trainers. Health Education, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Massage Therapy, Nutrition, basically any licensed therapist providing Physical, Psychological, Social and/or Spiritual help would build coalitions of support for health care reform, The AMA is already solidly against any changes, so this won't create new enemies.
Paying for more varieties of cheaper treatment will actually cost less than funding only conventional care, with at least equivalent results for many American maladies. A fortune nevertheless, but way cheaper than saving billionaire financier's sorry assesses.
Killing the Golden Goose
UHC could realize huge savings for the 20% of the population whom 80% of medical costs are spent on. These patients are mostly those with chronic illness or near death, although these people may be the least likely to switch. MD's would still keep a huge chunk of the patient pie, enjoying prescription privileges for massively advertised pharmaceuticals.
Introducing UHC as a reward to Americans who emit fewer GG would encourage more of us to shift from our wasteful, obesity inducing, consumptive lifestyles. Free Health Care would be far more effective than guilt tripping environmental blandishments. Offering UHC to Americans who don't own motor vehicles, become vegetarians, farm organically, work in renewable energy, live in small homes, earn and spend less money, don't practice war no more, etc... might just save the planet.
Implementing mitigation fees on known or suspected causes of illness and injury that directly pay for their medical costs is more politically feasible than simply raising taxes on businesses for Single Payer options. Split business opposition to higher taxes on employment, by instead charging fees for specific products and practices based on their known medical costs. Polluting, Hazardous Industries will be isolated from the growing Green Business, Natural Capitalism models.
It's usually futile to try to ban toxic substances, look at Alcohol, Tobacco., Diesel Exhaust, Radiation or Aspartame. It took a decade to ban DDT after Rachel Carson wrote the bestseller, Silent Spring, and even then manufacturers just shipped it off to the third world. It's still in American mothers' milk. There's 80,000 synthetic chemicals already in play, and 2, 000 new ones added each year, with only a few dozen having been banned or even regulated. Most safety tests are done by the manufacturer.
There's little economic incentive for government to try to ban health hazards, but charging fees to pay for their costs will reduce their use. Government loves to discover new ways to raise money and there's no shortage of products and practices with this approach. Especially if fees are levied on the Precautionary Principle, when enough evidence indicates a likelihood of harm, rather than waiting until overwhelming scientific proof emerges that they're killing people or our environment.
Mitigation fees will keep Medicare/Medicaid solvent even through the approaching silver tsunami that will swamp it otherwise. Charging for exposing Americans to Radioactive Emissions, Heavy Metals, Persistent Chemicals, Transfats, Excessive Speed, Hydrocarbons, Refined Grains, Sweeteners, Salt, Inflammatory Agents, Free Radicals and products and practices causing Mortality, Injury and Disease could eventually lower medical costs enough so we could afford to pay for UHC for all Americans, unless we've loaned it all out to Wall Street.
It will also allow Americans to Really Reduce Greenhouse Gases, Lose Weight, and Save Money.
