Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

Here's an excerpt from our soon-to-be published book Medical Industrial Complex: The $ickness Industry, Big Pharma and Suppressed Cures:

Allow us to introduce you to the sickness industry

“Big Pharma needs sick people to prosper. Patients, not healthy people, are their customers. If everybody was cured of a particular illness or disease, pharmaceutical companies would lose 100% of their profits on the products they sell for that ailment. What all this means is because modern medicine is so heavily intertwined with the financial profits culture, it’s a sickness industry more than it is a health industry.” –The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy

By now it should be abundantly clear that we are critical of the Medical Industrial Complex. We are not alone in this of course. The media (mainstream media and online news and social media sites) constantly inundate us with reports and allegations – some well-founded, some not – regarding the alarming state of the public healthcare system worldwide.

Transparency International, the Berlin-based global coalition against corruption, brought out the highly publicized Global Corruption Barometer 2013 – to that point the biggest-ever survey tracking worldwide public opinion on corruption. Healthcare sector corruption figures prominently in that survey.

One of the best summaries of the Global Corruption Barometer is to be found on the popular blog site Health Care Renewal, which observes in an article dated July 10, 2013, that “the results (of the survey) are not pretty for health care and related sectors world wide and in the US. As expected, these results appear to be causing few echoes”.

In the same article, Health Care Renewal states that healthcare corruption and its presence in developed countries like the US, is a taboo subject.
The article continues, “Globally, respondents perceived it (healthcare corruption) was a major problem. On average, 17% said they or their family members had to pay bribes in connection with medical and healthcare.

“While the US did not have the worst results, our numbers were not very good…More than one-third (43%) of respondents thought that US health care is corrupt…For comparison, the proportions of people who thought the health care sector is corrupt were 24% in Canada, 28% in France, 48% in Germany, 47% in Japan, and 19% in the United Kingdom…Thus, this survey confirmed that health care corruption is a global problem, and that a large proportion of people in the US believe it is a major problem here”.

UK peer-reviewed journal BMC International Health and Human Rights, which estimates healthcare expenditures globally total 3 trillion US dollars, indicates it’s little wonder this sector is vulnerable to corruption. In an article dated May 3, 2012 and published on its respected biomedcentral.com website, BMC highlights the huge expense associated with the procurement of the many services the sector offers, and points out that the nature of healthcare is such that the demand is not fully predictable and often exceeds supply.

“Health care systems also tend to have weak or non-existent rules and regulations, lack of accountability, information imbalances between providers and patients and suppliers and providers, and low salaries for health care professionals and public officials. These characteristics of the health sector make it susceptible to corruption.”

BMC also claims that theft, diversion and resale of drugs are other sources of corruption that occur at the distribution point of pharmaceutical supply chain. Examples listed include theft without falsification of inventory records, dispensing of drugs to patients who did not actually attend the pharmacy or clinic, recording of drugs as dispensed to legitimate patients but the patients do not receive them, and dispensing of drugs to patients who pay for them but the health care provider keeps the funds.

The article also gives examples of “illegal kickbacks” to surgeons and false claims allegations, stating that, in one case, “Physicians were allegedly awarded vacations, gifts and annual ‘consulting fees’ as high as $200,000 in return for physician endorsements of their implants or use of them in operations”.

BMC states that the medical device industry, especially in orthopaedics, is an area where there are relatively large sums of money involved and thus a susceptibility to corruption.

Clearly, healthcare corruption is a global problem – and a major one at that. Certainly, that’s the perception of the majority of independent analysts. Most alarming, or at least as alarming, is the reluctance – or downright unwillingness – of those involved to discuss the problem.

Now why is this? Is it because guilty parties are afraid that discussion could lead to investigation of corrupt practices? And are those same parties afraid of what an investigation will uncover?

America’s public health is in the spotlight big-time following the January 2015 release of Steven Brill’s bestselling book, America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Back-Room Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System.

Billed as a “fly-on-the-wall account of the fight, amid an onslaught of lobbying, to pass a 961-page law aimed at fixing America’s largest, most dysfunctional industry—an industry larger than the entire economy of France,” America’s Bitter Pill is described as “a sweeping narrative of how the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was written, how it is being implemented, and, most important, how it is changing—and failing to change—the rampant abuses in the healthcare industry.”

Brill, a graduate of Yale Law School, pulls no punches in his dissection of the industry.

The book’s splurge reads:
“It’s a penetrating chronicle of how the profiteering that Brill first identified in his Time cover story continues, despite Obamacare. And it is the first complete, inside account of how President Obama persevered to push through the law, but then failed to deal with the staff incompetence and turf wars that crippled its implementation.

“Brill questions all the participants in the drama, including the president, to find out what happened and why.

“He asks the head of the agency in charge of the Obamacare website how and why it crashed. And he tells the cliffhanger story of the tech wizards who swooped in to rebuild it.

“Brill gets drug lobbyists to open up on the deals they struck to protect their profits in return for supporting the law… Brill is there with patients when they are denied cancer care at a hospital, or charged $77 for a box of gauze pads. Then he asks the multimillion-dollar executives who run the hospitals to explain why.

“He even confronts the chief executive of America’s largest health insurance company and asks him to explain an incomprehensible Explanation of Benefits his company sent to Brill. And he’s there as a group of young entrepreneurs gamble millions to use Obamacare to start a hip insurance company in New York’s Silicon Alley”.

These excerpts from the promotional material for America’s Bitter Pill cover some of the major culprits in the ongoing corruption of the healthcare industry. Namely, these are – Big Pharma, hospital management executives, politicians and insurance companies.

“Our primary health care should begin on the farm and in our hearts, and not in some laboratory of the biotech and pharmaceutical companies.” –Gary Hopkins, US health professional and author.

Chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, oncologist Dr. Otis Brawley, who has publicly labeled US healthcare “a subtle form of corruption,” has long been a frontline critic of unnecessary medical procedures and tests in the medical sector – in particular routine prostate cancer screening of men.

Dr. Brawley’s thoughts on US healthcare are well aired in an article dated April 24, 2012, written by columnist Susan Perry and published on the Minneapolis community news site MinnPost.com. In it, she advises subscribers that, on the subject of prostate cancer screening, Dr. Brawley has pointed out repeatedly that the scientific evidence doesn’t support it — and stating that anybody who says otherwise is “not telling the truth.”

The article reports on an address Dr. Brawley gave to a group of medical reporters at the annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists in Atlanta. An excerpt from the article follows:

“Brawley also talked in his speech about how ‘the whole discussion about health care and health-care reform seemed to lack the fact that there were people out there who were suffering. There were people out there dying.’ He quoted a saying used by the Marines: ‘We are Americans. We leave no one behind.’

“It’s a message, Brawley said, that appears to have eluded many of the politicians and others who are developing our health-care policies. ‘We are Americans, and we leave a lot of people behind in our health-care system,’ he said.

“He also mentioned how pharmaceutical companies are able to make a minor change in a drug that is about to go off patent and then market it as a new – and, of course, much more expensive – drug, even though it’s essentially the same medication. His example was AstraZeneca’s transformation of the heartburn drug Prilosec into Nexium.

“Brawley also criticized the medical community for adopting medical treatments long before their benefits – or safety – have been proven.”

The MinnPost.com article mentioned that Brawley also cited autologous bone marrow transplantation for breast cancer (widely used in the late 1980s and 1990s), despite the fact that nobody had done any studies to prove that it actually worked.

“Who’s at fault for this corruption?” the same article asks. “All of us. ‘Quite honestly, it’s the doctors, it’s the hospitals, it’s the hospital system, it’s the insurers, it’s the drug companies, it’s the lawyers,’ he said.

“What we desperately need to do is not reform health care,” said Brawley. “We need to transform how we view health care. We need to become more appreciative of health-care prevention efforts.”

We have already established that corruption in the healthcare sector is not limited to the West. It’s a worldwide scourge.

If reports coming out of the Indian subcontinent are accurate, corruption there is especially rife. A front-page article headed ‘Bribe for every service,’ dated January 16, 2015, in Bangladesh’s Daily Star newspaper is a case in point. The article claims that corruption and irregularity rule the country's drug administration “where money can buy licences and registrations for low-quality, counterfeit medicines”.

The reporter says the Directorate General of Drug Administration's regulatory mechanism is weak, and he refers to a Transparency International Bangladesh study he says reveals “many of its officials and employees join hands with unscrupulous officials of medicine companies to indulge in corruption”. He accuses DGDA officials of taking bribes from medicine companies for various services, and says, according to the study, major corruption takes place in issuance and renewal of drug licences as well as handover and change of ownerships.

“Pharmaceutical companies always put profit before humans.” –Dr. Shaikh Tanveer Ahmed

Excerpt from Medical Industrial Complex cont'd:

Despite the gloom and doom surrounding the Medical Industrial Complex, all is not lost in our opinion. Many good people within the healthcare system are doing many good things. Of that there is no doubt.

Possibly a good analogy is corrupt government administrations. If only 1% of politicians are destructive or deceptive in any government, then that can undo the good work of an entire administration. Same sometimes applies with the medical system where a few bad eggs at the very top of the medical establishment can undermine an entire industry of otherwise honest and patient-serving professionals.

Possibly modern technology will eventually empower the public and provide a path to a fairer healthcare.

One subscriber to the technology-as-a-medical-solution theory is Eric Topol, MD, a professor of translational genomics and the director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, California. Topal, who is described as a pioneer of the medicine of the future, and who is also author of the bestselling book, The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine is in Your Hands.

The book’s splurge reads as follows:

“In this new era, patients will control their data and be emancipated from a paternalistic medical regime in which ‘the doctor knows best.’ Mobile phones, apps, and attachments will literally put the lab and the ICU in our pockets. Computers will replace physicians for many diagnostic tasks, and enormous data sets will give us new means to attack conditions that have long been incurable. In spite of these benefits, the path forward will be complicated: some in the medical establishment will resist these changes, and digitized medicine will raise serious issues surrounding privacy. Nevertheless, the result—better, cheaper, and more humane health care for all—will be worth it. The Patient Will See You Now is essential reading for anyone who thinks they deserve better health care”.

It seems readers are resonating with Topal’s book if reviewers’ comments are anything to go by.

However, perhaps Topal himself should have the final say to round off this chapter. Here’s a quote (from his book) that caught our eye: “Increasing frustration and vexing aspects of health care today may influence a bottoms up movement, propelled by smartphones and social networks for improving the future of medicine”.

I think what sums it up for me is that there is a health "industry" at all. Introducing the concept of profit to the mix, basically unfettered, will naturally lead to a system that helps us get just well enough to keep faith in the product/system, but not so well that we don't need it anymore.

Combine this with a food "industry" that is also all about profit and not our health, and it's a saddening combination.

For example, can anyone deny the rise in obesity and diabetes in America as we've been inundated with more processed convenience food over the past decades?

While I haven't made up my mind on monetary profit/capitalism in all aspects, when it comes to the basic dignities of man—including food and health care—it should not be an area dominated by for-profit corporations.

If all we are concerned with is getting and spending, that is all we will ever have.

Robert wrote: "While I haven't made up my mind on monetary profit/capitalism in all aspects, when it comes to the basic dignities of man—including food and health care—it should not be an area dominated by for-profit corporations.
..."

I think capitalism, if managed properly, can work. Profit incentives can spark imaginations in scientists and inventors and doctors as there's the reward aspect in capitalism which motivates people. Otherwise, as we've seen in places like Eastern Europe, when there's too much government interference it can be just as crippling and corrupting to necessities like healthcare. So somehow there needs to be a balance between governments and non-profit review committees ensuring a social conscience whilst also still letting the free market work its magic.

In saying that, I think basic healthcare should be free for everyone and the US health system in particular is too extreme (cruel) in this regard. At least that's my sense of it.
This quote by American author and social commentator Thomas Sowell is possibly relevant in this regard: “It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.”

James, I fear that this summation of the industry is sadly oh so true. In the US, it is a terrible situation as the "richest" country on earth has such a poor record of providing for it's citizens but so many pharmaceutical, insurance and medical companies are making obscene profits.

David wrote: "James, I fear that this summation of the industry is sadly oh so true. In the US, it is a terrible situation as the "richest" country on earth has such a poor record of providing for it's citizens ..."

Thanks for the feedback, mate.

Here are some of the key discussion threads in this section:

The political impatience that kills patients https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Do drug companies make drugs or money? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Dangerous drugs Big Pharma doesn’t want you to know about https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Vaccinating children -- Is it the smart thing for parents to do? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Overprescribing blood pressure pills & antidepressants https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Kickbacks for doctors https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Conspiring to quash alternative medicines https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Suppressed cures https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Finding (hiding) a cure for cancer https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Medical tests you may not need and procedures that may kill you https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Insurance – the devil's in the detail https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

When did your doctor last talk to you about your diet? https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The alternative health sector – warts and all https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Human guinea pigs https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Yes well, cure cancer and you're out of a job - keep it going on false hope and you've got a job for life, like with all addictions (unsatisfactory response - the cure satisfies).

Oh and of course insurance, just in case. Just in case of what? Just in case

Tony wrote: "Yes well, cure cancer and you're out of a job - keep it going on false hope and you've got a job for life, like with all addictions (unsatisfactory response - the cure satisfies).

Oh and of course..."

You're onto it. It would be almost funny if lives weren't at stake.

It would and America's turning of healing into a business rather than a service for its working population, is totally insane

Big Pharma Identified 7,000 Govt Officials They Need to Control to Run Their Price Gouging Operation -- http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-poli...

U.S. Attorney General Lynch Announces Biggest Medical Fraud Bust In DOJ History - 243 Arrested -- https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/0...

The list of frausters include doctors, nurses, drug companies, etc.

You the medicine that cost 6000$ there can barely cost 600$ in India. However, the patent game is bitch. Patents law are very different in India, that's why generic medicines are easily available and at very affordable rates.

I am sure you would be shocked to read this article, but that's true - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ho...

But I have heard that we would compel to change our patent laws and the medicines which are now saving millions of lives in our country will not be affordable... and you all know what's gonna happen.

Saving Normal: An Insider's Revolt Against Out-Of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life



Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare



Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda

Rising demand of traditional medicines in modern world http://www.biospectrumindia.com/featu...

Medicine's Elephant in the Garden

https://www.thenewoldthing.com/single...

Karen wrote: "Medicine's Elephant in the Garden

https://www.thenewoldthing.com/single..."

Hey guys! I have really enjoyed recently reading a book about breast cancer prevention and how a virus could be a potential cause of breast cancer. If scientists can determine the viral cause and create a preventive vaccine, a whole lot of lives could be saved. The book is called "The End of Breast Cancer: A Virus and the Hope for a Vaccine" written by Dr. Kathleen Ruddy.

You can check out a blog about the book here: http://www.breasthealthandhealing.org...

Vera wrote: "Karen wrote: "Medicine's Elephant in the Garden

https://www.thenewoldthing.com/single..."

Hey guys! I have really enjoyed recently reading a..."

I’m reading this book that goes into the Epstein Barre virus and its link to cancer (including breast), thyroid disorders, etc. It talks about treatment and prevention using diet/supplement therapy instead of pharmaceuticals, though. Considering that the adjuvants used in vaccines-including heavy metal aluminum- feed the virus, I’d prefer we not add yet another “recommended vaccine” and seek better solutions instead. Here’s the book if you’re interested:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

What is one of the most frustrating facts about the topic is that a found cure for a precious sickness would never be made public.
On the contrary, it would be kept a secret to continue to make money from the diseases. Unless it could be earned more money with the vaccine or a single cure than with a longer-term therapy. But that is too rarely the case.

Mario wrote: "What is one of the most frustrating facts about the topic is that a found cure for a precious sickness would never be made public.
On the contrary, it would be kept a secret to continue to make mon..."

Agreed Mario. In a truly moral society that would be a criminal offence and people would be made to pay with jail time.

I guess the same pattern could be conveyed on many other industries. Healthcare, certain special foods, hospital system, the doctors...None of them wants healthy happy people. Those would ruin them.
And how many people die because of products which are built just under the aspect of planned obsolescence. Like cars, all kind of electronics, infrastructure,...

Another aspect of suppression are the 1962 Amendments to the Food & Drug Act, which I wrote about in my upcoming book, "Death by Regulation: How We Were Robbed of a Golden Age of Health and How We Can Reclaim It." These regulations have resulted in suppression of life-saving information about nutrients, have thwarted innovative drugs that would actually saved lives, and enabled the greedy to gain monopolies over older generic drugs and send prices skyrocketing. For the most part, you need to be an insider to see how this happens. That's why I've spent years putting the book together; without this information, most people who want to fix Big Pharma propose additional regulations that will only make the problems worse. The book will be out on April 10, but you get $60 worth of free gifts if you pre-order at www.deathbyregulaton.us. It's worth checking out, as I estimate we've each lost 5-10 years of our lives to these regulations.

Mary wrote: "Another aspect of suppression are the 1962 Amendments to the Food & Drug Act, which I wrote about in my upcoming book, "Death by Regulation: How We Were Robbed of a Golden Age of Health and How We ..." STOPPNow: (Stop the Organized Pill Pushers) Now Mary, Are you talking about all of the additives the FDA has approved? For instance hormones, antibiotics etc? I believe the increased cancer suffered by so many in our country are a direct result of this FDA approved stance. In my book I do go after all the corruption and greed instituted by Big PHrMA which has resulted in the worst epidemic our country has ever experienced that of the opiate epidemic. James Morcan conducted a great interview regarding the opiate epidemic: https://youtu.be/oXnzYUEpJSw You might want to view.

Janet wrote: "Mary wrote: "Another aspect of suppression are the 1962 Amendments to the Food & Drug Act, which I wrote about in my upcoming book, "Death by Regulation: How We Were Robbed of a Golden Age of Healt..."

No, Janet, I'm talking about the suppression of life-saving information about nutritional and food products, such as the 12 year censorship of how folic acid, a B vitamin, could prevent birth defects if the mother was taking it at the time she became pregnant. The 1962 Amendments were instrumental in creating a environment that pushed ethical pharma managers to the sidelines while empowering the greedy. I haven't read your book yet, but I suspect that many of things you are concerned about result from the changes that the Amendments wrought. The impact of the Amendments is pretty much invisible to the American public. You wouldn't know about it unless you were an insider, as I was. The Amendments are "living law" that keep metastasizing to reshape the drug industry, limit prevention, and put a chilling effect on the practice of break-through medicine. I just did a FB discussion last night about the book in case you are interested: https://www.facebook.com/maryjruwart/....

Mary wrote: "Janet wrote: "Mary wrote: "Another aspect of suppression are the 1962 Amendments to the Food & Drug Act, which I wrote about in my upcoming book, "Death by Regulation: How We Were Robbed of a Golde..." Mary, My background is that of a neonatal intensive care nurse caring for drug addicted babies. I know adequate folic acid intake prevents neural tube defect (spinal bifida) a terrible birth anomaly causing the infant to be paralyzed for life. It seems pretty widely known so I'm not sure what you are addressing. And what I have seen is that Big PHrMA is corrupt and caused the opiate epidemic.

STOPPNow: (Stop the Organized Pill Pushers) NowVera wrote: "Karen wrote: "Medicine's Elephant in the Garden

https://www.thenewoldthing.com/single..." Vera thank you I have copied the link and will check it out

Hey guys! I have really enjoyed recently reading a..."

Charity wrote: "The alarming thing about our century is the devilish consumerism eating into the system clothed as Capitalism.

As much as we may want to instill a sense of humanity in our selves, we must understa..." I think Capitalism has worked and will work however, our forefathers did not envision the greed we see today. Companies paying for legislators votes, FDA approval of products. We need to drain the swamp.

Janet wrote: "Mary wrote: "Janet wrote: "Mary wrote: "Another aspect of suppression are the 1962 Amendments to the Food & Drug Act, which I wro..."

Janet, we knew about folic acid in the early 1980s, but, using the Amendments, the FDA threatened folic acid manufacturers with sanctions if they advertised this benefit. In the early 1990s, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) started telling women who could have children to take folic acid, as it is needed in the first couple months of pregnancy when a woman might not know she was pregnant. In the mid-1990s, the FDA started requiring that certain foods be supplemented with folic acid, but it hasn't worked as well as taking a defined daily dose. In other words, for about 12 years, this important information about folic acid was suppressed, resulting in 10,000-15,000 babies needlessly born with horrific birth defects. Many more were aborted, because you can test for these defects before birth. These Amendments work behind the scenes to censor life-saving information, slash pharmaceutical innovation, and reshaping medical practice---as well as marginalizing ethical drug manufacturers and supporting the unethical ones.

If you trust FDA you trust the government. If you don't trust it you shouldn't trust the government either.

The gov runs it but uses the seal for business. If your really rich you can buy the seal even though your product is not organic