Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Department of Health and Human Services will part ways with 20K workers, end ‘sprawling bureaucracy'

Good news! Bravo President Trump to have the guts to even  reform/restructure the HHS Department.

A Petition To The White House Regarding Cures For The Mentally Ill

Published: 10/4/2015

As of today, I intend to use the White House website every day to post following petition to President Barack Obama for the remainder of his 2nd term in office:

“Dear Mr. President Barack Obama,

You know yourself that you are an ideological moron who has not much to show for 7 years in office but for increasing the divisiveness in the nation, for expanding big federal government, for unnecessarily prolonging the Great Recession, for a disastrous deal with our enemy and fanatic dictatorship in Iran and much more ...

Here is your chance to build a true and lasting legacy for yourself in the remaining time of your 2nd term:

Remember when JFK announced sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade!

Why are you not the president to announce finding a cure for mental disorders within 10-20 years and to finally lift the stigma and ostracisation of mentally ill Americans in our society!

This would be another instance of American Exceptionalism at its best! A new beacon of hope to the rest of the world! Mental disorders are a major last frontier in human medical progress!

You will remain a fool if you continue to insist on more gun control or background checks!

Lighting the White House in the rainbow colors of the LGBT movement was cheap and inappropriate for a president of all Americans! Perhaps, you have what it takes to be a great president. I doubt it, but please prove the American people wrong! :-)

Cordially,

Thomas Bingel”

Why Is There No Mental Disorder Awareness Month In the U.S.?

Posted: 10/3/2015 Updated: 10/4/2015

There are awareness months for almost any cause in the United States, but not for mental disorders. Breast cancer has it, but cancer kills only the patient in the worst case, a person with an untreated, serious mental disorder may kill others. A significant number of shooters have clearly been identified as having mental disorders.

Given the recurrent mass shootings of innocent victims in the U.S. much more time, effort, and money should be spend to prevent, diagnose or treat mental disorders. Calls for more gun control are a terrible red herring. The inability of the U.S. not to be able to deal with mental illness is a serious stain!

The current U.S. President is exemplary for his incompetence or unwillingness in this area!

God unbless America for not having an adequate system of health care (preferably private, non government run) for the mentally ill and their families.

The Umpqua Mass Shooter

Posted: 10/3/2015

Introduction

I do not follow this tragic shooting very closely, because I do not have the time. However, I am generally interested to learn why a human being in peacetime would commit such horrible atrocities against innocent humans. And I am even more interested in why we humans still have no better ways to diagnose or treat humans who would one day commit such crimes.

I have previously blogged here about other mass shooting similar to the most recent one in at the Umpqua. This one also appears to be a Copycat Effect shooting, which I blogged here as well. Please find more, related blog posts here, here, here

Labels: mass shootings, Adam Lanza, Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, Jared Loughner

What (Little) We Know So Far About The Shooter

1. It appears he was a so called loser (this is not meant in a derogatory way)
2. The shooter apparently took time to shoot each individual. According to one account the shooting took at least 15 minutes long. Unfortunately, I have not yet searched nor have I seen a detailed timeline of the event. What this suggests however is that had their been an armed person in the classroom or next door or down the hallway, the shooter would have been apprehended or killed much sooner. I also suspect this Oregon community college was a so called gun free zone and this was enforced. Or even better some ‘aspiring’ mass shooters would be deterred when they knew they faced immediate deadly force to stop him or her.
3. He was described as a weirdo by different people who had contact at different times with the shooter. Did these witnesses just make this up after the fact or were their observations largely correct?
4. “He was listed as a 2009 graduate of the Switzer Learning Center in Torrance, a private school for students with learning disabilities, emotional issues and other special-education needs.” The mother, a licensed nurse, is reported to have identified his son as having “Asperger”
5. The divorced mother appears to have been mentally ill herself and she was extremely protective of her son. Thus, the son appears to be a second generation mentally ill person.
6. The shooter was according to reports fascinated by other mass shootings. Thus, this could be a copycat event
7. Like the Sandy Hook shooter, his mother was also into shooting and going to shooting ranges
8. Why would a 26 year old man live permanently with her mother in a one bedroom apartment?
9. The shooter served only one month in the U.S. Army in 2008 (see e.g. here)
10. The shooter was turned down by the owner and chief instructor of a “private self-defense and law enforcement training academy” (see e.g. here)
11. It was reported that he was born in the U.K., he had a step-sister and he described himself as “mixed-race”. Until we know more about his family background it could indicate perhaps a difficult family situation.
12. I believe, we have not yet learnt much about what the family of the shooter knew about his personality or what they tried to help him. It is kind of obvious to me that most mass shooters grew up in the presence of adults or siblings etc.. I am also pretty sure that someone in the family or teacher etc. noticed that their son or student was ‘going down the wrong path’ or had a mental disorder. This brings up that the otherwise excellent U.S. health care system (although largely government run and therefore by far not as good as it could be) his awfully lacking mental or psychological diagnosis and treatment capabilities! There are is no mental illness awareness month in the U.S.! Why? If there were better medical offerings for people like the mass shooter, we would hope perhaps some of them would voluntarily seek help before it is too late.
13. What is remarkable and probably a step in the right direction is that the sheriff’s department in Oregon would not name the perpetrator’s name to avoid the shooter’s crave for fame. We hope this example

Other sources used: here, here

A Few Lessons Learnt

The current U.S. President is a moron on the subject of mass shootings with innocent people as victims. President Obama has no vision and no clue! Like a perfect, unteachable ideologue he keeps demanding for more gun control.

If this president had any clue and intelligence, he would sign an executive order to fully, comprehensively investigate the background etc. of all recent mass shooters alive or dead. He would try to appropriate as much money as possible into research for better diagnosis and treatments. He would support measures to find better ways for parents to help their children or for potential mass shooters to voluntarily seek help before it is too late.

If I were the president I would immediately announce a mental disorder awareness month and I would probably choose it to overlap with breast cancer awareness month. Cancer, in the worst case, usually kills only the patient, but an untreated serious mental disorder can kill others as well.

Urgent Reform Of Medical Licensure

Posted: 1/6/2015

Prologue

This is a thesis or still a work in progress! I try to keep it simple and to the point.

Rationale

One size fits all mandated government solutions are usually terrible and their outcomes are bad.

All these government (directly/indirectly) mandated licensures create a false sense of safety and quality of service. More importantly, these mandates stymie progress and considerably inflate costs for health care.

It is plain paternalism. It is socialism! It severely infringes on the rights of consumers to choose!

What is urgently needed is more competition and human ingenuity without government shackles!

Reform Proposal

1. Whether to acquire a license as a person working in the  medical professions (doctors, nurses, lab technicians etc.) should be voluntary, no government mandate. Employers may freely choose, which employees they employ
2. Governments on any level may establish and run their own licensing procedures or quality assurance procedures, but participation by medical professionals should be voluntary
3. Government may choose to report on the quality of medical services to ensure more transparency etc.
4. Private organisations or entities may establish and run their own licensing procedures or quality assurance procedures/reporting, but participation by medical professions should be voluntary
5. Transgressions or criminal acts by medical professionals should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and severely punished. With freedom comes responsibility!
6. No privileges or preferences for labor unions or professional organisations

Impact

Yes, quacks may come back! However, a significant number of the currently licensed medical professionals are quacks too. Let the consumer decide! Let medical service suppliers do their best to distinguish themselves!

I would bet with anyone that the costs by this reform and other necessary reforms in the healthcare sector (e.g. private, individual, and voluntary health insurance for everyone; prescription medication etc.) would considerably drive down the costs of health care.

Right To Try For Everyone

Right To Try Is Overdue

It is certainly a welcome development that more and more states are intending to pass right to try laws like Colorado.

The Goldwater Institute in Arizona is to be congratulated for promoting this issue. See e.g. here.

Only For Terminally Ill?

However, the initiative is to narrowly defined, because the right to try is limited to terminally ill patients only.

I would argue that every adult should have the right to try non-approved medications, domestic or foreign.

The Relevance Of The Tragic And Untimely Death Of Niels-Henrik Abel

A One Million US Dollar Prize

The Abel Prize was just awarded to a Belgian mathematician, i.e. Pierre Deligne, working at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, NJ (Albert Einstein was there).

The Abel Prize is an international prize presented by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematicians. Named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829), the award was established in 2001 by the Government of Norway. The Abel Prize has often been described as the Nobel prize of mathematics.

About Niels-Henrik Abel

There is little doubt that he was a very gifted and brilliant mathematician who died way too early at age 26 of tuberculosis. He died in poverty. He was unable to secure an appointment as a professor (source).

His work was perhaps so advanced that traditional, academic journals would not publish it. A substantial part of his works were instead published by the then new, rather unconventional journal, i.e. the Crelle’Journal (a.k.a. Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik or in English Journal for Pure and Applied Mathematics).

“In 1824 he proved the impossibility of solving algebraically the general equation of the fifth degree and published it at his own expense hoping to obtain recognition for his work” (source).

Abel said famously of Carl Friedrich Gauss's writing style, “He is like the fox, who effaces his tracks in the sand with his tail.” C. F. Gauss is said to have received a copy of one of Abel’s critical papers directly from Abel but was not impressed so Abel decided not to visit him in Göttingen.

The Moral Of Abel’s Life

1.       Progress of medicine cannot be fast enough!

1.1.    If a genius like Abel dies at a young age of a treatable disease, then the loss to humanity is tremendous.

1.2.    Therefore, it is an utmost imperative to keep big government out of and prevent the nationalization of health care like it has been happening in the USA and, e.g., in Germany. Big government is literally a killer as it stymies medical progress.

1.3.    Therefore, it is an important imperative to subject the medical profession, medical schools and health care providers to more and more intense competition. Today, the medical profession is a government sanctioned monopoly akin to medieval guilds.

2.       To nurture and support talent wherever you find it is of paramount importance

2.1.    It appears that this unknown genius from a very modest background from Norway was not recognized appropriately

2.2.    Some geniuses do not give credit to other geniuses when credit is due

3.       Today, the Internet allows anyone to publish anything at little cost

3.1.    A genius like Abel would have probably loved this opportunity

COBRA Health Insurance - A Big Government Joke

A Bit Of Background

COBRA stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. As far as its health insurance portion is concerned it is a prime example of lousy big government legislation coming out of Washington, DC.

Essentially it allows an employee to keep his/her employer-sponsored health insurance if a “qualifying event” like lay off occurs as if the qualifying event did not occur. This coverage is available for a maximum of up to 18 months. Great idea, but big government is what it is incapable: monstrosities instead of designing practical, cheap, and free market solutions.

This law is also a fine example of what ails the US health care system, where big government has essentially taken over health care to an extent that it resembles national health care services like in the UK or Germany.

COBRA Health Insurance Is Very Expensive!

Having been recently laid off myself, I received the usual notice letter from my former employer about my “right to continue health care coverage” under COBRA.

The catch: It would cost me $386 for single and $829 for employee & spouse coverage per month. These premiums include the employer share as well. While I was employed, I used to pay $208 per month.

On the market of individual health insurance, I would be able to obtain health insurance with a similar coverage for significantly less than $386. My unemployment benefits here in Arizona are $240 per week (the maximum benefit). What were the legislators in Washington, DC thinking or smoking to come up with such a lousy law?

Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Is Too Expensive

Given my example above, it is clear that at $386 the employer-sponsored coverage was way too expensive compared with what is available to the individual on the market of individual health insurance. The company, I worked for was small.

I venture to guess that my example is typical across the country irrespective of the size of the employer. Thus, I would presume that health insurance for most employees in the US is significantly overpriced thanks to this prevalent employer-sponsored group health insurance system.

Better Solutions

Apart from a fundamental, free market reform of health care insurance, which I would prefer, federal legislators have had at least two choices for a more sensible reform:

1.       Abolish the tax deductibility of health insurance for companies or

2.       Allow individuals to enjoy the same kind of tax deductibility as companies

Repeal And Replace ObamaCare With What?

To Demand Repeal And Replace Is Not Enough

With today’s decision the rallying cry becomes louder. The Statue of Liberty is inconsolably weeping.

Now, the Republicans and moderate/conservative Democrats have to come together to develop an alternative proposal promoting freedom of choice and free markets.

The presumed Republican Presidential Candidate now has to work much harder to present an alternative to the American people.

Some Guiding Principles For Health Care Reform

• Get rid of employer-sponsored health care!
• Introduce individual health care insurance purchased voluntarily from free enterprises in free markets!
• Increase price transparency in the health care market!
• If not avoidable make health care expenses tax deductible for everyone, not only for companies!
• Phase out Medicare!
• Get government out of the way!