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May 7, 2002
Doreen
Miller
CIA
Breakdown
Tom Turnipseed
A Travesty of Justice
May 6, 2002
Fran Schor
Invasion
of Iraq:
Coming Soon
Dave Marsh
Love Hurts
John Chuckman
The
Paradoxes of Israel
Rep. Ron Paul
End Corporate Welfare, Pull
the Plug on the Ex-Im Bank
Hussein
Ibish
Devastation
Only Feeds Resistance to Israeli Rule
May 5, 2002
Jeffrey St. Clair
High and Dry in the Mojave
May 4, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Sharon
the Merciless
and Arafat the Corrupt
Sam Bahour
New United States of Israel
Alexander
Cockburn
Extreme
Solutions:
Priests and Palestinians
May 3, 2002
Arundhati Roy
Democracy and
Religious Fascism
Wayne
Madsen
Dispatch
from Paris:
Le Pen's Strange Coalition
Yigal Bronner
A Journey to Beit Jalla
CounterPunch
Wire
Otto
Reich Named to Board of School of the Americas
John Troyer
Hatemongers Try to Cleanse History:
Gays and 9/11
John Stauber
Big
Food/Tobacco/Booze
Attacks "Mad Cow" Authors
Kathleen Christison
Before There Was Terrorism
May 2, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
Rep.
Dick Armey Calls for Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians
Rami Kaplan
Israeli Soldiers Resisting
the Occupation:
Why We Refuse to Fight
Carol
Norris
Subterranean
Mini-Nuke Blues
Bernard Weiner
A Peek Inside Colin Powell's Personal
Diary
May 1, 2002
Badiou,
Michel, Lazarus
French
Elections:
What is to be Done?
Baruch Kimmerling
The Battle of Jenin as
an Inter-Ethnic War
Edward
Hammond
Hiding
History:
NAS Suppresses Chem/Bio War Documents
Kristen Schurr
Inside Gaza
Sam Bahour
Corporate
America and
the Israeli Occupation
Jacques Ranciere
Prisoners of the Infinite
April 30, 2002
Mike Leon
Chomsky,
Letters to the Writer and the Peace Movement
Dave Marsh
The FBI and the Music
Industry: Paying the Cost to Feed the Boss
Steen
Sohn
Something
Rotten in Denmark:
New Danish Government's Alliance with Far Right
Desmond Tutu
Apartheid in the Holy Land
Christopher
Reilly
Kissinger:
the Wanted Man
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
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by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
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May
7, 2002
The Muffler Shop of Medicine
by Philip Farruggio
The little 5-year old was sick with fever. From
his safe, warm bed he could see out the ice covered window overlooking
his backyard. The garage roof was smothered with yesterday's
snow. Drips of it hung frozen like slaughterhouse meat from the
drainpipe. It was bitter cold outside, and the little 5-year-old
boy shivered at these sights, with his fiery forehead and runny
nose.
The doorbell rang around 4 PM. Moments
later, a scarf still dangling from his neck, Dr. Alicandri brushed
into the bedroom. The once scared little boy now felt safe; secure
in the fact that his doctor (the man mommy said pulled him out
of her tummy) would defeat the sickness holding him prisoner.
The year of that incident was 1955. I
was the little feverish boy, and my hero, Dr. Alicandri, did
"housecall" our apartment and help make me better.
You see, in those days doctors all made housecalls, just like
the postman they went "through rain and snow...".
Things are significantly different in
this modern "hi tech age". Not better, just different.
Yes, I know there are many doctors nowadays
who do care. Sadly, methinks they are the minority. Today's MD
is usually a businessperson first, a caring practitioner second.
Why?
Let's look at things from the MD's perspective
first. Those who have no wealthy family usually are "loaned
up" to the tune of $100-$150 grand before they even get
to hang their shingle. They then are required to pay high malpractice
premiums. This is after having to work as an intern in some hospital
for "chump change".
So, the system is already predicated
on the MD needing intensive and quick "payback" after
the shingle gets nailed on the post.
And what a "monster" this economic
system has created. We have many doctors who are more concerned
about the bottom line than they are their patients.
Investments in "limited partnerships"
consume many of these practitioners, not the ills of the waiting
room. They regularly overbook appointments as a standard procedure,
and spend less and less time with each patient. A nurse or "physician's
assistant" does much of the doctoring, as the MD "pops
in" for a few minutes to wrap up an examination.
Playing the insurance game, many MD's
choose procedures that are neither relevant or necessary, due
to the lower and lower repayments the insurers pay on the necessary
ones. It becomes a game that we, the "yo-yo" are bounced
around in. Does this have to be the way it is?
Currently, I suffer from stress related
anxiety aka "panic attacks". Recently I was having
a treatment for stress by my Chinese acupuncturist. I told him
how the night before, at 1:30 am, I woke up with a terrible stomach
ache and anxiety attack. Without a thought he asked "why
didn't you call me?" I said that it was too late at night
to bother him. He quickly answered "you are my patient and
my friend- never too late for you to call".
Months ago, I visited my chiropractor.
I related how I had badly injured my groin muscle playing racquetball
two days earlier. I told him that I was in so much pain, and
had some internal bleeding causing skin discoloration down the
leg. He just sighed and said " you have my cell phone #.
Anytime you are in that much pain you call me, any hour of the
day or night. I mean it." Flashbacks of Dr. Alicandri.
In 1978, when medicine had already become
the business it now is, I severely injured my right shoulder
playing football. While in the emergency room, the orthopedist
came to see me. He looked at my X-rays and offered " I can
fit you in for the surgery on Friday morning." Like a haircutter,
or a manicurist, he could "fit me in" for major surgery!
The solution? Well, we cannot legislate
or teach people to be more caring when it comes to health. What
we as a society can do is simplify things a bit. We can have
"universal medicare" for all. Those that earn would
contribute as they do now to Social Security. We would pay the
doctors a fairer fee structure, with less paperwork. On the other
hand, the penalties for fraud would be very severe.
As far as the "$150k shingle",
the government would subsidize medical schooling costs, in return
for participation in the system. On top of that the government
could help with malpractice premiums, and continue to do so for
as long as the doctor was free of legal judgments. Adding the
"one insurance form fits all" into the mix would substantially
cut down on overhead costs as well.
Can we go back to the days of the housecalls,
the "call me anytime" and the time well spent with
each patient? Honestly, probably never. But. I say "but"
because perhaps if the MD starts out debt free, has less insurance
hassles, perhaps.....
The nap he took awoke the little boy
refreshed. Must've been the medicine the doctor had the drugstore
deliver. Really knocked him out. He felt his forehead. Not as
hot. He looked out the window. It was nighttime now. He could
barely see the snowy roof. He was hungry. He called out to his
mommy. Minutes later she came in carrying a bowl of his favorite
soup; chicken rice, with saltine crackers. As he slurped it up,
his mommy remarked about the time. It was 6:30. "Daddy should
be home any minute," she said. "I wonder when Dr. Alicandri
will get home tonight--said he had three more calls to make.
Hope he drives carefully. It's a mess out there".
It certainly is!
Philip Farruggio,
son of a longshoreman, is "Blue Collar Brooklyn" born,
raised and educated (Brooklyn College, Class of '74). A former
progressive talk show host, Philip runs a mfg. rep. business
and writes for many publications. He lives in Port Orange, FL.
You can contact Mr. Farruggio at e-mail: brooklynphilly@aol.com
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