Immediately implement National Improved Medicare for All as a precursor to establishing a UK-style National Healthcare Service which will replace private hospital, private medical practice, and private medical insurance with a publicly-owned, democratically controlled healthcare service that will guarantee healthcare as a human right to everyone in the United States
Cancel all medical debt
Advance reproductive rights and codify Roe v. Wade
Ensure the U.S. healthcare system operates with full protection, respect and inclusion of human rights for all, including women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, Black, Indigenous, and people of color
Restore public trust in the government’s medical agencies and institutions by enforcing audits, transparency and oversight in their internal processes
Restore confidence in the FDA, CDC and other regulatory boards by 1) closing the revolving door between corporations and regulatory boards and 2) getting corrupting big money out of politics by adopting public financing of elections.
Expand public funding - and phase out private/corporate funding - of medical and pharmaceutical research, conducted in public health agencies, public universities and medical schools
Ban patents where the research and development has been paid for by taxpayers via public colleges, the NIH, the CDC and other governmental entities
Restore funding to all medical governmental agencies including Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institute of Health (NIH), and the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
Take the pharmaceutical industry into public ownership and democratic control. Big pharma has failed to serve the public interest in an industry awash in private profit as it gouged consumers with monopolistic pricing in a business model centered on addictive opioids and patent-protected medicines. It’s time to ensure the production of life-saving medicines that millions rely on with their production as public goods.
Eliminate healthcare inequities and gaps in all disadvantaged communities by investing in local clinics and community hospitals
Establish a Federal Community Care Agency to provide community-based support, long-term in-home and in-community care, and visitation care to seniors and to people with disabilities
Ensure fair compensation for home caregivers
Guarantee long-term care for all patients in their home and community.
Prohibit the keeping of people’s possessions by assisted living facilities after death
Eliminate Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) and other burdensome and discriminatory compliance requirements and enact protections against healthcare surveillance
Offer responsible and transparent end-of-life care to those who want it
Respect bodily autonomy and personal freedom and choice in medical treatments, including the right to dignified assisted death
Fund and support research and development of treatment for rare diseases
Federal legalization and funding of cannabis medicinal research
Launch an urgent national program to rebuild the U.S. epidemic/pandemic response
Review and update the 2006 Pandemic Preparedness Act (last updated prior to COVID in 2019) to ensure U.S. pandemic preparedness is fully funded.
Ban private investment in CDC healthcare projects in order to restore public trust
Strengthen the infrastructure for accelerated emergency distribution of information, medications, vaccines, and treatments
Fund and provide high-quality personal protective equipment such as N-95 type masks and all diagnostic testing (including viral load testing) free at local pharmacies
Mandate and provide funding for high-quality air filtration code improvements for all public transportation, public buildings, schools and businesses
Restore OSHA-supported airborne protections for healthcare workers
Establish policies that will eliminate SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools, healthcare facilities, and on public transportation
Further study the Novavax protein-based COVID-19 vaccine to determine safety and efficacy for children under 12; remove restrictions if findings allow
Address Long COVID
COVID-19 likely increased the disabled population in the United States by over 1.2 million persons just from 2020 to 2021. As of August 2022, some 16 million Americans were affected by long Covid, with 2 to 4 million out of work due to the condition. Long Covid causes both cognitive and physical impairments and can develop after the initial illness, with each subsequent infection increasing the risk of developing it.
Ensure those affected by long Covid are protected in their workplace, and their needs for housing, healthcare, and economic security are met
Fully fund research into the causes, prevention and treatment of long COVID
I grew up under the NHS and the level of peace of mind and knowledge that you'll always be treated, is a most precious thing. I no longer live in the UK and when I try to explain to people that there's no such thing as health insurance in the UK, they find this hard to grasp. No-one is trying to get a certain job because it is tied to medical plans or working out which insurance they can afford.
User Klassik in some fairly lengthy posts above laid out the structure, but I will add that one of the main reasons the NHS is less expensive to implement overall, is that the government is only ever paying when someone is ill. This means they have a vested interest in public health initiatives, because they aren't profiting from anything.
Nevertheless the idiotic narrative of fiscal scarcity still reigns in the UK since Thatcher, and the fact of the matter is that this is pressuring the NHS and pushing further into privatisation territory. The remarks Klassik makes about people believing things are 'tax funded' rather than than issued spending by central government are key to understanding why a system of public provision in any capacity is not 'a financial burden'. Without understanding this the argument quickly fizzles.
Thanks for the good info! The problem we’ve always had is that campaign finance reform , to the super-wealthy, is like holding up a Cross to a vampire! The idea conjures up visions of a redistribution of wealth, which is anathema to them. The WEF ilk are consumed with maintaining control & exercising power over the rest of us! We need to get serious to counteract their agenda…and fast!
Robert, the election has passed, but I am really concerned about RFK, who was appointed by Trump, to head the powerful health agency ( controlling 3 powerful Federal health agencies), not getting confirmed, in the Senate, by treasonous(to Trump & the American populist sector) Republicans! If RFK can get confirmed, I hope he would reach out to Jill Stein, to help him reform the health care system. Of course, this requires the approval of President Donald Trump. This is a doubtful crapshoot, unfortunately. Keep our fingers crossed. Pray, even. Thank you, Ralph Nader, for your lifelong fight for our consumer rights & for your inviting important educational guests on your podcasts.
Im not a follower of RFK Jr or Trump re healthcare but when Trump in his first term wanted to frustrate a federal agency he appointed industry cretins with reputations for being hostile to regulation.
Has RFK ever talked about the UK National Healthcare Service?
I would love to talk to Dr. Makary in person and tell him the horrors of dealing with hospitals and doctors that run all the tests, say they found the problem, sends us home just to see the problems come back. This happened to the most important person in my life and after she was home and her situation started to get worse, I went on the internet to find out that she had Drug Induced Liver Injury, cause by an antibiotic.
Did the doctors ignored what was in her chart? Didn't they know that the antibiotic could cause liver injury? Why was the internet more helpful than seven specialists, plus the hospital doctors who saw her?
The system already sucks, now we also have to worry about medical incompetence.
On a brighter note, although still a sad example of how doctors these days seem to just want to prescribe pills, I was able to build bones without medication for osteoporosis. I refused to take those medications. I had osteoporosis in 4 out of the 5 markers observed in the scan. A year later, just by doing some research and finding out that silica, boron and vitamin K can help build bones, besides calcium and vitamin D. I still have osteoporosis, but in only 2 markers, and the numbers are improving. Not thanks to doctors though
Thanks for this information. Would you be willing to say what amounts of boron, vitamin K, calcium, vitamin D, and silica you are taking and how often? Are you also taking magnesium? I've been taking boron, Vitamin K, calcium, Vitamin D3, (no silica), and magnesium but have not yet had tests, and I've been wondering how well this works. I also did not take osteoporosis medications, since I read that they were causing bone disintegration. Yikes! I don't know about these markers you mention. I've never heard about this from my doctors, even though I've had bone density scans. Can you refer me to something that explains this? It is really unfortunate that we have the difficult responsibility to educate ourselves because doctors, who must learn a lot in medical school, do not always know much about nutrition and supplements. Congratulations on your dedication to your health and your improved bone density. That's great work!
I used the word "markers" because I don't know what to call them. Those are the numbers that the scan shows - spine, right and left hips, right and left femur necks. I was able to reverse two back to osteopenia, one I reduced from -3.5 to -2.9, so almost reaching osteopenia numbers again. The other one I am still high number osteoporosis but reduced by a lesser amount.
I do use magnesium. Calcium plus D3 - 600mg/800iu. Vitamin K - 100 mg. Boron complex - 3 mg. I use the recommended brands from USP, which is United States Pharmacopeia (they don't have a suggested brand for Boron though) Since the FDA does not regulate supplements, I go to them to make sure the calcium supplement for example has actual calcium in it, and the dose. advertised. I take those supplements daily plus I eat food that are rich on those vitamins because the dose I take is not exactly what the label suggests. I am trying to get more from food than from supplements. But prunes, raisins and green beans do have boron. For silica I use Fiji water, 500 ml every day. I wish there was a better brand that doesn't use plastic and doesn't exploit the Fiji Islands but so far I could not find an alternative. I do believe it made a difference on my increasing bone density, in one year. Will continue until next year and see if improvements continue.
I'm totally with you on the osteoporosis medications. On Worst Pills, Best Pills website - another one of Ralph's gems he shared with us - there are several articles about how risky those medications are.
Thanks so much for responding. Please watch eating those raisins. I've read that even organic raisins have had a high amount of pesticide content measured, and some of the pesticides now are extremely troubling, causing nerve damage. I grieve for the way our planet and our people are being harmed.
Reference Medicare Advantage segment: I know it may be hard to believe, but The Wall St Journal (!)
recently had this illuminating & scathing article:
"The One-Hour Nurse Visits That Let Insurers
Collect $15 Billion From Medicare:
Information gathered from Medicare Advantage patients in their homes triggered
extra payments
Also, you may want to reference from The Office of the Inspector General (Oct 2024)
"Medicare Advantage:
Questionable Use of Health Risk
Assessments Continues to Drive Up
Payments to Plans by Billions"
The tactic is rampant and very simple--- find/ invent/scam to create " a sicker patient" which result can then be billed to Medicare at a much higher rate. (And if/when we are sicker ignore addressing treatment!) And some of us might just think that our Medicare " entitlement" is just plum broke and must needs to privatize the whole shebang.... but what's busted is all this fraud, waste, and abuse of this growth assets class...I resided and worked for six years in Germany ("on the economy" as they say meaning not military) and had detailed interaction with socialized medicine firsthand (from my wife's troubling second pregnancy to child, adult and elder care) it was all just first rate. Granted Germany being the size of say, Texas and to offer that system to scale WILL BE OUR Challenge...anyway the above eye-opening article & report might clarify what secrets the disadvantaged cannot readily discern.
Timothy, interesting insights. It is interesting that you mention Germany because, while every western country has a better healthcare system for the majority of their citizens than the US has, the German system is relatively lacking compared to other non-US western countries. While Germany does have universal healthcare and public health insurance for some citizens, their system is very much a two-payer, private-public system and has inefficiencies and poor outcomes because of that. In fact, it was just in the Deutsche Welle this week that there is a proposal to significantly reshape German health policy, though it seems to be reforms rooted in neoliberalism: https://p.dw.com/p/4gVa4
The Canadian system lauded by Mr. Nader is also a public-private system which, like in Germany, struggles to properly provision health services for all citizens due to the privatized nature of part of the system. The provincial organization of the Canadian healthcare system also causes unnecessary problems which need not exist even with provincial operation of healthcare.
The British NHS system is by far better than the Canadian and German systems and is only hamstrung by the UK’s austerity governments (not that Canada and Germany are much better in this regard). Healthcare in the UK is truly a public service. There is no question about insurance for most things. Hospitals are publicly-owned and the doctors work for the public. We really should be pushing for an NHS-like single-provider structure, in my opinion.
Paying for any sort of reform is never an issue for the US federal government. That’s not the problem, the problems are purely political. Any sort of reasonable reform (meaning not Medicare Disadvantage For All) will face severe political backlash from the insurance industry, the AMA/physicians, and the large number of healthcare providers, many of which are religious and higher educational ‘non-profit’ industries which have immense popularity with the public. Any sort of healthcare reform will need just transitions for displaced workers for reform to even have a chance of being politically viable, but it is going to require a lot more political muscle than just that to overcome the protestations of those involved in the healthcare industry at the current time.
Let me also make this abundantly clear, providing single-payer/single-provider healthcare coverage only solves part, and maybe even a small part, of the problem. Even as things are in the US with a significant portion of the population not having access to healthcare, there are medical staff and facility shortages. Doctors and nurses are often overworked as it is. We need many more doctors, nurses, and other medical care providers if we are to hope to offer high-quality medical care, and not just ‘drug-and-pray’ healthcare, to all citizens. This is going to require public investment to help steer young people towards the healthcare professions as I would hope the goal is to develop our own healthcare workers rather than robbing the developing world of theirs as is often the case in countries where governments do not invest sufficiently in education and offering job opportunities to aspiring healthcare workers (the US, Germany, Canada, and the UK all fit this description to varying degrees).
Again, fully provisioning the public healthcare sector is completely feasible from an economic standpoint. The impact on taxes pertaining to healthcare reform would be dependent on an analysis of the inflationary/deflationary aspects of the reform. We won’t know that without a defined policy approach, but proper reform will likely not require much of a tax increase, or any increase at all. So, yes, the problems are not economic aside from the need for progressives to understand the economics of the situation and communicate that to the public. Aside from that, the problems are purely political in the areas I mentioned earlier regarding overcoming the privatized healthcare industry.
I have often heard that the problem with US health care is the health insurance companies which block regulatory reforms such as Medicare for all through lobbying and political donations which are not transparent. In addition as a voter I cant easily and readily discover what candidates for election have done and cant discover what they have done once in office. I have to rely on a canidates website claims which consist onlu of brief bullet points.
The lobbying from the health insurance industry is a major barrier towards healthcare reform (and it is a major cause of the privatization of Medicare), but it isn’t the only barrier towards healthcare reform. There are actually many barriers, but I believe they are all solvable with enough political will and if the public makes demands that several steps be taken in the reform process.
Like I mentioned in response to Timothy, there are several potential universal healthcare models which could be implemented and they all present varying levels of political barriers. The UK NHS type model (Beveridge model) will have the most barriers since health insurance will be done away with entirely along with the private health provider industry. Models like Germany (Bismarck model) will likely have the least barriers since private insurance is kept around and providers are mostly private. The Canadian model (National Insurance model) is a bit in between in terms of barriers. It is my opinion that the Beveridge model is by far the best model, but as mentioned earlier, it has the highest political barriers.
Not only will the insurance industry itself protest reform, but so will employees of the health insurance industry. Politicians will be sensitive to that so just-transitions must be offered to any displaced employees such that their employment and salaries are guaranteed without too many burdens from retraining and relocation. Doctors, clinics, hospitals, and the AMA have long been thorns in the side of healthcare reform. These entities fear becoming nationalized (in the case of the Beveridge model) or having to work under an insurance model where their compensation is tied to government policy rather than the free market. Doctors as a whole tend to be politically active and so for sure politicians will be sensitive to their concerns. Healthcare reform has to be structured such that doctors are assured that healthcare reform is a benefit to them, not a hinderance or threat.
Clinics and hospitals are often owned by religious/non-religious charities and university systems. These entities are generally viewed very positively by the public, but they will protest healthcare reform because the current system is quite profitable for them even if they are non-profit organizations. This is a big barrier as well as these organizations are also politically active.
Perhaps the biggest barrier is with the public in a broad sense. The public believes that healthcare reform will be a significant tax burden on the public. This is simply not true. Not only will it not be a tax burden, but it will significantly improve the financial situation for almost all citizens. The Beveridge model especially frees employers from having to provide health insurance and workers will be healthier and more productive with improved healthcare. Healthcare reform is a net positive for employers. There are many economic misunderstandings about healthcare reform and that is perhaps the biggest barrier of all since those fighting against reform, the entities I listed above, can use misinformation to make the public fearful of reform just like they famously did in the 1990s.
I’m willing to write more about this subject if anyone has any questions about it. This is just a very brief overview of the hurdles which will need to be overcome and of different universal healthcare models. I certainly encourage the RNRH to discuss these topics at a much deeper level in future programs because these are conversations we need to have if we are to formulate good healthcare reform policies to present to politicians and demand that they implement the reforms. As things are, the healthcare reform narratives are dangerously raw.
If the US voters ever demanded reform of the corrupted parasitical medical insurance and professions, I think it would require someone like Jill Stein with her qualifications, knowledge and expertise to lead the charge. Jill Stein promises on her web site to:
"Immediately implement National Improved Medicare for All as a precursor to establishing a UK-style National Healthcare Service which will replace private hospital, private medical practice, and private medical insurance with a publicly-owned, democratically controlled healthcare service that will guarantee healthcare as a human right to everyone in the United States
Cancel all medical debt
Advance reproductive rights and codify Roe v. Wade
Ensure the U.S. healthcare system operates with full protection, respect and inclusion of human rights for all, including women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, Black, Indigenous, and people of color
Restore public trust in the government’s medical agencies and institutions by enforcing audits, transparency and oversight in their internal processes
Restore confidence in the FDA, CDC and other regulatory boards by 1) closing the revolving door between corporations and regulatory boards and 2) getting corrupting big money out of politics by adopting public financing of elections.
Expand public funding - and phase out private/corporate funding - of medical and pharmaceutical research, conducted in public health agencies, public universities and medical schools
Ban patents where the research and development has been paid for by taxpayers via public colleges, the NIH, the CDC and other governmental entities Restore funding to all medical governmental agencies including Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institute of Health (NIH), and the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
Take the pharmaceutical industry into public ownership and democratic control. Big pharma has failed to serve the public interest in an industry awash in private profit as it gouged consumers with monopolistic pricing in a business model centered on addictive opioids and patent-protected medicines. It’s time to ensure the production of life-saving medicines that millions rely on with their production as public goods. Eliminate healthcare inequities and gaps in all disadvantaged communities by investing in local clinics and community hospitals
Establish a Federal Community Care Agency to provide community-based support, long-term in-home and in-community care, and visitation care to seniors and to people with disabilities Ensure fair compensation for home caregivers
Guarantee long-term care for all patients in their home and community. Prohibit the keeping of people’s possessions by assisted living facilities after death
Eliminate Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) and other burdensome and discriminatory compliance requirements and enact protections against healthcare surveillance
Offer responsible and transparent end-of-life care to those who want it
Respect bodily autonomy and personal freedom and choice in medical treatments, including the right to dignified assisted death
Fund and support research and development of treatment for rare diseases Federal legalization and funding of cannabis medicinal research
Launch an urgent national program to rebuild the U.S. epidemic/pandemic response
Review and update the 2006 Pandemic Preparedness Act (last updated prior to COVID in 2019) to ensure U.S. pandemic preparedness is fully funded. Ban private investment in CDC healthcare projects in order to restore public trust Strengthen the infrastructure for accelerated emergency distribution of information, medications, vaccines, and treatments Fund and provide high-quality personal protective equipment such as N-95 type masks and all diagnostic testing (including viral load testing) free at local pharmacies Mandate and provide funding for high-quality air filtration code improvements for all public transportation, public buildings, schools and businesses
Restore OSHA-supported airborne protections for healthcare workers Establish policies that will eliminate SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools, healthcare facilities, and on public transportation
Further study the Novavax protein-based COVID-19 vaccine to determine safety and efficacy for children under 12; remove restrictions if findings allow
Address Long COVID COVID-19 likely increased the disabled population in the United States by over 1.2 million persons just from 2020 to 2021. As of August 2022, some 16 million Americans were affected by long Covid, with 2 to 4 million out of work due to the condition. Long Covid causes both cognitive and physical impairments and can develop after the initial illness, with each subsequent infection increasing the risk of developing it.
Ensure those affected by long Covid are protected in their workplace, and their needs for housing, healthcare, and economic security are met Fully fund research into the causes, prevention and treatment of long COVID
The Green Party’s healthcare proposal is miles ahead of anything from the major parties. I probably would not advocate for Medicare For All as an intermediary step before going to an NHS-like system, but I do agree that an NHS-like Beveridge system should be the goal and I'd probably try to get to it as soon as possible. Of course, this will require large investments in public health facilities and in the education system to try to produce more healthcare workers.
I’m not sure if you’re a member of the Green Party, but if so, the suggestion I would communicate with your fellow members/supporters is the importance of developing solid, empirically-based economic policy and then make that economic platform the center of their policy agenda. Whether it is healthcare, military industry policy, or environmental policy, everything must come from solid economic policy and the current GP economic policy falls flat, if I’m being charitable in describing it.
The Greens should never be advocating for things such as a balanced budget. We know from empirical macroeconomic theory that a balanced budget simply isn’t necessary for the US federal government and, really, it just shifts the deficit burden towards the public and their budgets and services. Full employment should always be the goal and policies should be implemented to ensure full employment. GP economic policy should be rooted in the factual basis that a currency-issuing government such as the US federal government can always fund their policy objectives with the limits being real resource limitations. With real resource limitations in mind, we understand one of the actual rôles of taxation.
Whenever progressive policies are proposed, the question of ‘how do we fund it?’ will certainly come up. I think once the GP has an empirically-based answer to that and makes it central to their platform, they’ll have a much better chance of succeeding in promoting, and hopefully implementing, progressive policies.
Yes Ralph, The System preys upon the unfortunate and ill. Then it feeds intense Red and Blue Propaganda to the unwitting during the "Selection" cycle. National brainwash is a very hard thing to overcome and we get, yet another cycle of corruption, exploitation, and perpetual War for $profit$. The only choice allowed for The People is whether it is named Trump or Harris, and most of this sick society is fine with that and will vote for more it on the next cycle.
A consistent criticism I have of your otherwise excellent show is that you treat our current government as though it is a functional or semi-functional democracy. This perspective fatally ignores the oligarchic power of the wealthy. Their influence is clearly shown in the increasing shrinkage of actual influence that the People and their needs have on Congress and the President. People are left with the social issues, which corporations and banks regard as inconsequential. Meanwhile the economy, wars, tax policies, the environment, including the Climate Crisis, regulatory and immigration policies, judicial picks incl the SCOTUS, and of course our horrendous Foreign Policy, is all under the control of the oligarchs and their minions. Yet if you interview a Democrat they will downplay their role and emphasize the evil of the Republicans. When in truth these “opponents” have already negotiated the corporate friendly outcome, while pretending to be adversarial. That pretense will be enthusiastically supported by an utterly corrupt corporate media. This process, repeated endlessly, represents an extremely effective propaganda apparatus that is risking the ruination of our country; keeping the general population stupid and distracted while reinforcing the extreme sociopathy of the wealthy parasites.
Dr. Makary is spot-on about peanut allergy. About antibiotics: estimates of antibiotics prescribed unnecessarily are more like 28% or 15% or 20% in adults, 19% in children, with the highest estimate I’ve found was 37.8%. Even at the height of the pandemic, when lots of covid cases were getting treated inappropriately with antibiotics, the rate was calculated at 27.1%. And the antibiotics in meat is overwhelmingly an American phenomenon; they’ve been banned in Europe since 2006, though the ban (like all bans) hasn’t been 100% effective. I can provide references. About saturated fats and heart disease: Observational studies do in fact have mixed results, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2824152/ but the authoritative Cochrane Database, based on randomized clinical trials, is very convincing https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32428300/. And the data showing the contrary are often (usually) adjusted for serum cholesterol levels https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(23)01920-2/fulltext, which is ridiculous since the way saturated fats increase heart disease and stroke risk is precisely by raising serum cholesterol levels.
Ralph advises us to vote our conscience in this election, and that is great advice that I would also give to others, except that my conscience is split and in anguish at this nearly eleventh hour. I don't want to be in this position.
When I voted for Ralph, I believed that he was the very best person for the job and would certainly win, if only everyone had the opportunity to hear what he had to say, but as you know, everyone did not, since my candidate could not even get in to witness the debates, much less participate in them.
I believed at that time that, as a candidate, Ralph would be participating in the debates, so I suppose I did not understand how this worked. I was so very disappointed and disillusioned! My candidate was not allowed to speak! And this was considered a free and democratic election??? In my opinion, that was not right. Of course, I know Ralph was not running because he expected to win, but because he wanted to preserve our freedom of choice and our right to discuss and dissent and to support third parties that open the discussion of ideas, but why shouldn't a third party candidate be able to have a platform and speak to We the People? I don't know the details, and if Ralph cares to share them, I'd like to know, but the rumor I heard was that the Democratic party made the rules that governed how the debates were conducted, and the rules were skewed not to include other parties or candidates.
I cannot vote for Kamala Harris when she does not say clearly that we cannot support Israel's genocide in Palestine, and that we must totally and immediately cease sending further money and weapons and bombs, and endorse a cease fire, and open the borders to humanitarian aid immediately, and as far as I have learned, she does not protest the invasion of Lebanon. Also, I know her to be two-faced because of her backtracking about Medicare for All earlier.
At the same time, I cannot abide Donald Trump. He is a con man with no morals or ethics who delights in setting people against each other with biggoted and inflamatory language. I was a nervous wreck while hearing his negativity all the time. He wants power and is pleased to associate with right-wing autocrats, like Netanyahu. The situation in Palestine will not get better if he wins. He is also pleased to enrich the already wealthy, which leads to austerity for our people, to which I object, and he would not protect my Social Security. I have no confidence that he will leave office next time, if he gets his foot in the door again. I fear that we could become a dictatorship overnight in that case, especially after the Supreme Court ruling that held a President to be above the law. Trump once claimed that he could do anything he wanted and get away with it, as President, even kill someone on the street in public, (what kind of a human being says such a thing as President???) and I'm afraid he would do so (like Caligula, who was later assassinated by members of the Roman Senate).
I could vote for a third party candidate as a protest against the capitalist machine that is destroying our earth and food supply, impoverishing our people, and profiting on our weapons that kill others, since the capitalist corporate state and the violence around the world are a function of both parties, and that would be more along the lines I believe in.
But then I would not be voting against Trump, which I want to do to keep him from destroying our country, since the only effective way to vote against Trump, in my opinion, is to Vote for Harris, which I don't want to do because of the horrors going on in Palestine that make me ache and shudder for the people experiencing such unbelievable atrocities and suffering and death. Aaugh!
We are powerless in our own nation to help people our country is destroying. Can this be better than Trump, as bad as it is? Unfortunately, I think it can be better than Trump, as bad as it is, because I think Trump will try to take our democracy out permanently., and I'm afraid he will succeed. Once we lose our democracy, which has already been ebbing away, imagine the atocities that could be committed with impunity. Apparently, we have long been secretly surveiling our own people and are assassinating innocent people in other countries with targeted drone attacks, so it does not need to get much worse to be extremely bad.
I've read that this is what happened in Germany in the Weimar Republic. The people were enlightened and open to dissent, but Hitler asked for more power, and these enlightned pepole did not expect that their government could be subverted, and they gave him more power, which destroyed their republic.
Trump should never have been allowed to run for public office again.
Tonight I saw a video by Bernie Sanders. Here is a link to what he says about all this:
I enjoyed the conversation with Dr. Makary, but was taken aback by his recommendation to consume eggs. There is ample evidence that egg consumption is to be limited or avoided. One must be careful in reviewing the literature, as the food industry has done a great job of muddying the waters with fake science. It is easy to let cultural values or personal observations cloud judgement.
On the subject of nutrition, I would recommend Dr. Michael Greger, who follows a strictly evidence based approach. You will find numerous vetted references in all of Dr. Greger's publications and videos.
I beg to differ. You offer "anectodal evidence," as did Dr. Makary who offered the story of his elderly relative. Anectodal evidence is the lowest form of evidence. Not science. My uncle smoked three packs a day and lived to 96. Does that mean I should start smoking?
Look to multiple, peer-reviewed, randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trials.
It's complicated, so a source like Dr. Greger at nutritionfacts.org is a great asset.
I said it is an individual thing. I mentioned myself but I could give you a list of people I know that do the same. Every individual story is an anecdote. Anything related to food is individual. I was diagnosed with Barrett's Esophagus in 2020. Changed my diet - basically stopped all dairy - and three years later, no Barrett's. Same with IBS, never followed the diet suggested, just saw what worked for me. I am skeptical of any doctor that dictates what food all people need to eat. I listen, then see what works for me. I haven't checked your link but I will. In any case, saying that science says eggs are bad for everyone is ignoring real stories. A lot of science is based on a few studies.
Some people live long while smoking. My uncle did live to 85, smoking a lot. My aunt, his wife, got lung cancer even though she never smoked. My guess is, second hand smoking. Go figure.
My point is that Dr. Makary is a medical professional who has written a book which offers advice based on science and knowledge. He was not simply relating family stories for entertainment purposes. He should at least acknowledge that the best available scientific evidence is that eggs are not really a "superfood."
They are one of the only foods that give a complete essential amino acid profile. Avoiding eggs is just quackery. Moderation of consumption is good for most things. The question of cholesterol in eggs is a widely misunderstood thing. Most people don't even know what cholesterol is for.
Finally you're permitting the voice of a doctor who's skeptical over the covid vaccines, mentioning Vinay Prasad. In the past you've been quite chauvinistic defending them while attacking those raising these questions. I don't know whether permitting his voice is an anomaly. Why not permit more tough professionals questioning the medical system as this man did? I remember how revolutionary Dr. Mendelsohn was with his "Confessions of a Medical Heretic" was a generation ago.
I would like to hear more about Covid from "tough" medical and scientific professionals to discuss the reports that people were injured by the vaccine and that they could not get any treatment for serious medical problems. Is this true? Is it false? Why can't we talk about it?
The adverse impact database is full of reports of these problems, which does not prove what caused them, but it does suggest that we need more information. When our people tell us they have been harmed, I believe we need to take the issue seriously and be sure they get the help they need to recover.
I heard that the developers of the Covid vaccine came out against something about the Covid vaccine, but I don't know what they were concerned about. Maybe they would come on the show and discuss the vaccine and their concerns.
There is a person, John Campell, who had a youtube program about Covid for some years and may still have it. I believe he earned his Ph. D. in nursing and has also written textbooks about physiology and anatomy. He had several people on his program who had become very ill after having the vaccine and who were continuing to struggle with their health. He let them speak. I know that testimonials cannot be construed as evidence, but they cause concern. Perhaps John Campbell would come on the show, or maybe someone who was injured by the Covid vaccine would come on the show to tell us about it.
I once saw a video by a woman who had a calm manner and a convincing presentation. She was a white professional woman with money. She said that she had been severely injured by taking the vaccine. She said that she could not get any help with this. She said she had to pay for everything herself to consult medical professionals and get treatment. I may be wrong now, but I am remembering a figure of about $350,000 in expenses. Her illness was severe and long-lasting with disoriention so severe that she was bedridden for, I believe, months. She said that she had improved but not yet recovered and wanted people who had suffered such difficulties to know that they were not alone. There might have been contact info, but I do not recall that. Most people could not afford to pay for medical care themselves, and I believe no one should be faced with illness and the inability to get care.
Was this woman a real person who was being honest, or was she an advertisement for some political entity? I don't know, and that bothers me. I would like to hear a discussion between people with a medical or scientific background about these things from a point of view that does not try to keep people quiet about it.
I had a friend who was a nurse during covid. My friend told me that the Covid vaccine was emergency authorized. and approved by the FDA. She would never have told me that unless she believed it. I was shocked when I found out that the Covid vaccine was neither emergency authorized nor approved by the FDA at that time (which the FDA itself made clear on its web site). That signals to me that there has been blindness even among professionals in this area.
Unfortunately there are many, many stories of vaccine injuries, well into the thousands. The weird thing about internet culture is that cultural fragmentation means that people take sides, assign labels and litmus tests to particular people and groups and reject them based on those labels, such as "The Great Barrington Declaration". There are top minds who've looked at the evidence and see whopping problems with the mRNA vaccines.
I picked up a book by Peter Navarro recently who got of of jail earlier in the year where he talks about muscular access by the Trump people of Remdesivir which is one of the most expensive and dangerous drugs out there. It killed many, many people together with the Neanderthal protocols they were using. VIPs got steroids, monoclonal antibodies and repurposed anti-viral drugs that actually work, though the Feds. tried to suppress many of them, as "unproven", "anecdotal", etc..
I'm looking forward to more and more lawsuits against the negligent during the pandemic of which Trump was a sterling example then the Biden people continued many of the very expensive and ineffective treatments.
I have an older sister who fell out of a wheelchair a few days ago that it is very hard to fall out of; many family members would do nothing and be apathetic or dismissive of remedies on this as the nursing home said they can't do an investigation or tell me how this happened and the health care workers cover for one another. I know how to contact the state oversight and will be doing that today.
I'm so sorry about your older sister. I'm glad she has you to intervene on her behalf. Nursing facilities can be frightening places. Some may have high incidents of abuse, even sexual abuse. In California there is an advocacy group called California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR). They give statistics on incidents of violations in facilities in the state, and expose the violence inflicted on ill seniors, and do other work to improve conditions. This can be helpful in the selection process for a facility, since one can chose a place with less of this problem, but our health care system needs to eradicate this awful situation. There may be something like this in your state that can help you. One essential help for seniors in a nursing facility is to get all family together and design a plan so the senion has frequent, even daily, visits from family members who drop in unexpectedly, so no one knows when they may show up, people who care, observe conditions, and intervene immediately, if a problem arises. Private funds can be quickly exhausted by long-term care costs. However, there are some ways to protect some of the assets with legal assistance. For instance, if one wants to protect their home in California, they must say they intend to return home, and I believe that then the home can be spared in their lifetime but not after that. I think MediCal pays for nursing care at home now, if that choice is made, but I am not positive. Your state's Medicaid may cover this in-home cost as an alternative to a nursing home. I would not want to go into a nursing home, period. I'll bet you feel the same. Still, it can be extremely difficult and costly to work out in-home care for someone we love. Good luck in finding a positive resolution.
There was a question of negligence and a friend who had a mother and a friend in Florida nursing homes successfully sued, but they cap claims at $200K where the lawyer gets around a third. He saw my sister's situation as similar but it appears to have been an accident and the nursing home is not one of those corporate for profit chains owned by "private equity" but a private place. She is getting better care but since she is a dialysis patient the pain issues are serious when you have a fractured arm, etc..
Also I wanted to mention that here in CT the ombudsman has oversight and does some inspections of the nursing homes. I've spoken to them on the more flagrant issues. Very few people get better enough to leave the nursing homes because they don't rehabilitate as they could because the type of hands-on physical treatment, hydrotherapy, better nutrition, massage therapy, cutting out drugs and pain killers seldom happens. Some day there will be a book and a film about patients at nursing homes getting better and being able to surmount the hideous conditions of the sick care nursing homes to the great consternation of the strangleholds the pharma driven system has over them.
In 1922 Flemming gave the drug corporations the opportunity to make big bucks ,,, I had a friend who was a drug salesman so one day he bought a pill making machines from India ,,, and decided to make the penasilian pills iand other legal drugs in his garage ,, 30 years later he sold out a billionaire..
Sure medicare should cover the gaps ,, but it doesn't so ,, what's the plan to change it ? The drug and insurance corporations own and control the government and industry,,and we all pay more ,,
as far as advising the Democrats,, what happened ? Sleepy Joe, the one term Joe ,,, like trump's control of the Republicans told the Democrats what he wanted (Harris )and he got what he wanted . And now the Democrat leadership is boo hoo ,, tears in their eyes they may lose the biggest election in my life time ( I like IKE )
I had to wait for the excellent Tort Law webinar to end. Your email notice of The Radio Hour and "Supreme Court Stench" elicited a good laugh. now I will listen.
I listened, and disagree with Dr. Makary. The tRump-19 Virus killed more than a million people in the US (no accurate figures for worldwide deaths for those without the vaccine). The mRNA vaccine was an immediate and successful vaccine that saved countless lives. It had to be rushed into production. The boosters continue to prevent infection from the variants. The government paid for the research and could easily claim the patents for the vaccine, if there was a government and not corporate lackeys.
I almost died from the flu, which became pneumonia, in the 1960s. I have had a flu vaccine every year since, and have not had the flu again!
Now to tRump---many people say he had Jeffery Epstein killed to avoid incriminating details of tRump's pedophilia.
Sorry, Ralph Tuscher! The flu vaccine is a harmful, deadly fraud! I reference PhD Dr. Gary Null & engineer co-author Richard Gale articles disputing your assertions. I also reference Dr. Ninah Silver’s 2009 book ( the 9th edition), The Rife Handbook of Frequency Therapy with a Holistic Health Primer, pg. 19, which cites a study by a world-renowned immunologist, Dr. H. Hugh Fudenberg, that concluded that adults who receive the annual flu vaccine five years in a row “are a 1000% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.”Also, read pages 13-19, providing referenced info on the harmful ingredients, lies, & fallacious testing that characterize the govt. sponsored vaccine industry vaccines! Ralph, stop spreading harm, by your false information!
Wish I'd found this a few years ago but better late than never...
And please Steve, Ralph, Hannah, David: If you can find any reason why this site shouldn't be recommended, speak before posting-- or just don't post & let me know.
Steve; thanks sooo much for this response; being quasi-Luddites ourselves, i really appreciate this;
BUT....you've got to keep trying: he's obviously on the phone: sometimes i just can't take it and stop listening: i've also noticed that the level of distortion tends to vary from session to session...he has a loud voice and is talking right into the receiver...so it varies...
maybe if you told Ralph he was losing listeners because of it, he might relent?
(find him "used" equipment...that sounds like a good compromise - no?
my humble vote is for Jill Stein who promises to:
Immediately implement National Improved Medicare for All as a precursor to establishing a UK-style National Healthcare Service which will replace private hospital, private medical practice, and private medical insurance with a publicly-owned, democratically controlled healthcare service that will guarantee healthcare as a human right to everyone in the United States
Cancel all medical debt
Advance reproductive rights and codify Roe v. Wade
Ensure the U.S. healthcare system operates with full protection, respect and inclusion of human rights for all, including women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, Black, Indigenous, and people of color
Restore public trust in the government’s medical agencies and institutions by enforcing audits, transparency and oversight in their internal processes
Restore confidence in the FDA, CDC and other regulatory boards by 1) closing the revolving door between corporations and regulatory boards and 2) getting corrupting big money out of politics by adopting public financing of elections.
Expand public funding - and phase out private/corporate funding - of medical and pharmaceutical research, conducted in public health agencies, public universities and medical schools
Ban patents where the research and development has been paid for by taxpayers via public colleges, the NIH, the CDC and other governmental entities
Restore funding to all medical governmental agencies including Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institute of Health (NIH), and the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
Take the pharmaceutical industry into public ownership and democratic control. Big pharma has failed to serve the public interest in an industry awash in private profit as it gouged consumers with monopolistic pricing in a business model centered on addictive opioids and patent-protected medicines. It’s time to ensure the production of life-saving medicines that millions rely on with their production as public goods.
Eliminate healthcare inequities and gaps in all disadvantaged communities by investing in local clinics and community hospitals
Establish a Federal Community Care Agency to provide community-based support, long-term in-home and in-community care, and visitation care to seniors and to people with disabilities
Ensure fair compensation for home caregivers
Guarantee long-term care for all patients in their home and community.
Prohibit the keeping of people’s possessions by assisted living facilities after death
Eliminate Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) and other burdensome and discriminatory compliance requirements and enact protections against healthcare surveillance
Offer responsible and transparent end-of-life care to those who want it
Respect bodily autonomy and personal freedom and choice in medical treatments, including the right to dignified assisted death
Fund and support research and development of treatment for rare diseases
Federal legalization and funding of cannabis medicinal research
Launch an urgent national program to rebuild the U.S. epidemic/pandemic response
Review and update the 2006 Pandemic Preparedness Act (last updated prior to COVID in 2019) to ensure U.S. pandemic preparedness is fully funded.
Ban private investment in CDC healthcare projects in order to restore public trust
Strengthen the infrastructure for accelerated emergency distribution of information, medications, vaccines, and treatments
Fund and provide high-quality personal protective equipment such as N-95 type masks and all diagnostic testing (including viral load testing) free at local pharmacies
Mandate and provide funding for high-quality air filtration code improvements for all public transportation, public buildings, schools and businesses
Restore OSHA-supported airborne protections for healthcare workers
Establish policies that will eliminate SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools, healthcare facilities, and on public transportation
Further study the Novavax protein-based COVID-19 vaccine to determine safety and efficacy for children under 12; remove restrictions if findings allow
Address Long COVID
COVID-19 likely increased the disabled population in the United States by over 1.2 million persons just from 2020 to 2021. As of August 2022, some 16 million Americans were affected by long Covid, with 2 to 4 million out of work due to the condition. Long Covid causes both cognitive and physical impairments and can develop after the initial illness, with each subsequent infection increasing the risk of developing it.
Ensure those affected by long Covid are protected in their workplace, and their needs for housing, healthcare, and economic security are met
Fully fund research into the causes, prevention and treatment of long COVID
I grew up under the NHS and the level of peace of mind and knowledge that you'll always be treated, is a most precious thing. I no longer live in the UK and when I try to explain to people that there's no such thing as health insurance in the UK, they find this hard to grasp. No-one is trying to get a certain job because it is tied to medical plans or working out which insurance they can afford.
User Klassik in some fairly lengthy posts above laid out the structure, but I will add that one of the main reasons the NHS is less expensive to implement overall, is that the government is only ever paying when someone is ill. This means they have a vested interest in public health initiatives, because they aren't profiting from anything.
Nevertheless the idiotic narrative of fiscal scarcity still reigns in the UK since Thatcher, and the fact of the matter is that this is pressuring the NHS and pushing further into privatisation territory. The remarks Klassik makes about people believing things are 'tax funded' rather than than issued spending by central government are key to understanding why a system of public provision in any capacity is not 'a financial burden'. Without understanding this the argument quickly fizzles.
Thanks for the good info! The problem we’ve always had is that campaign finance reform , to the super-wealthy, is like holding up a Cross to a vampire! The idea conjures up visions of a redistribution of wealth, which is anathema to them. The WEF ilk are consumed with maintaining control & exercising power over the rest of us! We need to get serious to counteract their agenda…and fast!
Robert, the election has passed, but I am really concerned about RFK, who was appointed by Trump, to head the powerful health agency ( controlling 3 powerful Federal health agencies), not getting confirmed, in the Senate, by treasonous(to Trump & the American populist sector) Republicans! If RFK can get confirmed, I hope he would reach out to Jill Stein, to help him reform the health care system. Of course, this requires the approval of President Donald Trump. This is a doubtful crapshoot, unfortunately. Keep our fingers crossed. Pray, even. Thank you, Ralph Nader, for your lifelong fight for our consumer rights & for your inviting important educational guests on your podcasts.
Im not a follower of RFK Jr or Trump re healthcare but when Trump in his first term wanted to frustrate a federal agency he appointed industry cretins with reputations for being hostile to regulation.
Has RFK ever talked about the UK National Healthcare Service?
I would love to talk to Dr. Makary in person and tell him the horrors of dealing with hospitals and doctors that run all the tests, say they found the problem, sends us home just to see the problems come back. This happened to the most important person in my life and after she was home and her situation started to get worse, I went on the internet to find out that she had Drug Induced Liver Injury, cause by an antibiotic.
Did the doctors ignored what was in her chart? Didn't they know that the antibiotic could cause liver injury? Why was the internet more helpful than seven specialists, plus the hospital doctors who saw her?
The system already sucks, now we also have to worry about medical incompetence.
On a brighter note, although still a sad example of how doctors these days seem to just want to prescribe pills, I was able to build bones without medication for osteoporosis. I refused to take those medications. I had osteoporosis in 4 out of the 5 markers observed in the scan. A year later, just by doing some research and finding out that silica, boron and vitamin K can help build bones, besides calcium and vitamin D. I still have osteoporosis, but in only 2 markers, and the numbers are improving. Not thanks to doctors though
Thanks for this information. Would you be willing to say what amounts of boron, vitamin K, calcium, vitamin D, and silica you are taking and how often? Are you also taking magnesium? I've been taking boron, Vitamin K, calcium, Vitamin D3, (no silica), and magnesium but have not yet had tests, and I've been wondering how well this works. I also did not take osteoporosis medications, since I read that they were causing bone disintegration. Yikes! I don't know about these markers you mention. I've never heard about this from my doctors, even though I've had bone density scans. Can you refer me to something that explains this? It is really unfortunate that we have the difficult responsibility to educate ourselves because doctors, who must learn a lot in medical school, do not always know much about nutrition and supplements. Congratulations on your dedication to your health and your improved bone density. That's great work!
I used the word "markers" because I don't know what to call them. Those are the numbers that the scan shows - spine, right and left hips, right and left femur necks. I was able to reverse two back to osteopenia, one I reduced from -3.5 to -2.9, so almost reaching osteopenia numbers again. The other one I am still high number osteoporosis but reduced by a lesser amount.
I do use magnesium. Calcium plus D3 - 600mg/800iu. Vitamin K - 100 mg. Boron complex - 3 mg. I use the recommended brands from USP, which is United States Pharmacopeia (they don't have a suggested brand for Boron though) Since the FDA does not regulate supplements, I go to them to make sure the calcium supplement for example has actual calcium in it, and the dose. advertised. I take those supplements daily plus I eat food that are rich on those vitamins because the dose I take is not exactly what the label suggests. I am trying to get more from food than from supplements. But prunes, raisins and green beans do have boron. For silica I use Fiji water, 500 ml every day. I wish there was a better brand that doesn't use plastic and doesn't exploit the Fiji Islands but so far I could not find an alternative. I do believe it made a difference on my increasing bone density, in one year. Will continue until next year and see if improvements continue.
I'm totally with you on the osteoporosis medications. On Worst Pills, Best Pills website - another one of Ralph's gems he shared with us - there are several articles about how risky those medications are.
Thanks so much for responding. Please watch eating those raisins. I've read that even organic raisins have had a high amount of pesticide content measured, and some of the pesticides now are extremely troubling, causing nerve damage. I grieve for the way our planet and our people are being harmed.
Reference Medicare Advantage segment: I know it may be hard to believe, but The Wall St Journal (!)
recently had this illuminating & scathing article:
"The One-Hour Nurse Visits That Let Insurers
Collect $15 Billion From Medicare:
Information gathered from Medicare Advantage patients in their homes triggered
extra payments
Also, you may want to reference from The Office of the Inspector General (Oct 2024)
"Medicare Advantage:
Questionable Use of Health Risk
Assessments Continues to Drive Up
Payments to Plans by Billions"
The tactic is rampant and very simple--- find/ invent/scam to create " a sicker patient" which result can then be billed to Medicare at a much higher rate. (And if/when we are sicker ignore addressing treatment!) And some of us might just think that our Medicare " entitlement" is just plum broke and must needs to privatize the whole shebang.... but what's busted is all this fraud, waste, and abuse of this growth assets class...I resided and worked for six years in Germany ("on the economy" as they say meaning not military) and had detailed interaction with socialized medicine firsthand (from my wife's troubling second pregnancy to child, adult and elder care) it was all just first rate. Granted Germany being the size of say, Texas and to offer that system to scale WILL BE OUR Challenge...anyway the above eye-opening article & report might clarify what secrets the disadvantaged cannot readily discern.
Timothy, interesting insights. It is interesting that you mention Germany because, while every western country has a better healthcare system for the majority of their citizens than the US has, the German system is relatively lacking compared to other non-US western countries. While Germany does have universal healthcare and public health insurance for some citizens, their system is very much a two-payer, private-public system and has inefficiencies and poor outcomes because of that. In fact, it was just in the Deutsche Welle this week that there is a proposal to significantly reshape German health policy, though it seems to be reforms rooted in neoliberalism: https://p.dw.com/p/4gVa4
The Canadian system lauded by Mr. Nader is also a public-private system which, like in Germany, struggles to properly provision health services for all citizens due to the privatized nature of part of the system. The provincial organization of the Canadian healthcare system also causes unnecessary problems which need not exist even with provincial operation of healthcare.
The British NHS system is by far better than the Canadian and German systems and is only hamstrung by the UK’s austerity governments (not that Canada and Germany are much better in this regard). Healthcare in the UK is truly a public service. There is no question about insurance for most things. Hospitals are publicly-owned and the doctors work for the public. We really should be pushing for an NHS-like single-provider structure, in my opinion.
Paying for any sort of reform is never an issue for the US federal government. That’s not the problem, the problems are purely political. Any sort of reasonable reform (meaning not Medicare Disadvantage For All) will face severe political backlash from the insurance industry, the AMA/physicians, and the large number of healthcare providers, many of which are religious and higher educational ‘non-profit’ industries which have immense popularity with the public. Any sort of healthcare reform will need just transitions for displaced workers for reform to even have a chance of being politically viable, but it is going to require a lot more political muscle than just that to overcome the protestations of those involved in the healthcare industry at the current time.
Let me also make this abundantly clear, providing single-payer/single-provider healthcare coverage only solves part, and maybe even a small part, of the problem. Even as things are in the US with a significant portion of the population not having access to healthcare, there are medical staff and facility shortages. Doctors and nurses are often overworked as it is. We need many more doctors, nurses, and other medical care providers if we are to hope to offer high-quality medical care, and not just ‘drug-and-pray’ healthcare, to all citizens. This is going to require public investment to help steer young people towards the healthcare professions as I would hope the goal is to develop our own healthcare workers rather than robbing the developing world of theirs as is often the case in countries where governments do not invest sufficiently in education and offering job opportunities to aspiring healthcare workers (the US, Germany, Canada, and the UK all fit this description to varying degrees).
Again, fully provisioning the public healthcare sector is completely feasible from an economic standpoint. The impact on taxes pertaining to healthcare reform would be dependent on an analysis of the inflationary/deflationary aspects of the reform. We won’t know that without a defined policy approach, but proper reform will likely not require much of a tax increase, or any increase at all. So, yes, the problems are not economic aside from the need for progressives to understand the economics of the situation and communicate that to the public. Aside from that, the problems are purely political in the areas I mentioned earlier regarding overcoming the privatized healthcare industry.
I have often heard that the problem with US health care is the health insurance companies which block regulatory reforms such as Medicare for all through lobbying and political donations which are not transparent. In addition as a voter I cant easily and readily discover what candidates for election have done and cant discover what they have done once in office. I have to rely on a canidates website claims which consist onlu of brief bullet points.
Hi Robert,
The lobbying from the health insurance industry is a major barrier towards healthcare reform (and it is a major cause of the privatization of Medicare), but it isn’t the only barrier towards healthcare reform. There are actually many barriers, but I believe they are all solvable with enough political will and if the public makes demands that several steps be taken in the reform process.
Like I mentioned in response to Timothy, there are several potential universal healthcare models which could be implemented and they all present varying levels of political barriers. The UK NHS type model (Beveridge model) will have the most barriers since health insurance will be done away with entirely along with the private health provider industry. Models like Germany (Bismarck model) will likely have the least barriers since private insurance is kept around and providers are mostly private. The Canadian model (National Insurance model) is a bit in between in terms of barriers. It is my opinion that the Beveridge model is by far the best model, but as mentioned earlier, it has the highest political barriers.
Not only will the insurance industry itself protest reform, but so will employees of the health insurance industry. Politicians will be sensitive to that so just-transitions must be offered to any displaced employees such that their employment and salaries are guaranteed without too many burdens from retraining and relocation. Doctors, clinics, hospitals, and the AMA have long been thorns in the side of healthcare reform. These entities fear becoming nationalized (in the case of the Beveridge model) or having to work under an insurance model where their compensation is tied to government policy rather than the free market. Doctors as a whole tend to be politically active and so for sure politicians will be sensitive to their concerns. Healthcare reform has to be structured such that doctors are assured that healthcare reform is a benefit to them, not a hinderance or threat.
Clinics and hospitals are often owned by religious/non-religious charities and university systems. These entities are generally viewed very positively by the public, but they will protest healthcare reform because the current system is quite profitable for them even if they are non-profit organizations. This is a big barrier as well as these organizations are also politically active.
Perhaps the biggest barrier is with the public in a broad sense. The public believes that healthcare reform will be a significant tax burden on the public. This is simply not true. Not only will it not be a tax burden, but it will significantly improve the financial situation for almost all citizens. The Beveridge model especially frees employers from having to provide health insurance and workers will be healthier and more productive with improved healthcare. Healthcare reform is a net positive for employers. There are many economic misunderstandings about healthcare reform and that is perhaps the biggest barrier of all since those fighting against reform, the entities I listed above, can use misinformation to make the public fearful of reform just like they famously did in the 1990s.
I’m willing to write more about this subject if anyone has any questions about it. This is just a very brief overview of the hurdles which will need to be overcome and of different universal healthcare models. I certainly encourage the RNRH to discuss these topics at a much deeper level in future programs because these are conversations we need to have if we are to formulate good healthcare reform policies to present to politicians and demand that they implement the reforms. As things are, the healthcare reform narratives are dangerously raw.
klassik,
thanks for your over view.
If the US voters ever demanded reform of the corrupted parasitical medical insurance and professions, I think it would require someone like Jill Stein with her qualifications, knowledge and expertise to lead the charge. Jill Stein promises on her web site to:
"Immediately implement National Improved Medicare for All as a precursor to establishing a UK-style National Healthcare Service which will replace private hospital, private medical practice, and private medical insurance with a publicly-owned, democratically controlled healthcare service that will guarantee healthcare as a human right to everyone in the United States
Cancel all medical debt
Advance reproductive rights and codify Roe v. Wade
Ensure the U.S. healthcare system operates with full protection, respect and inclusion of human rights for all, including women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, Black, Indigenous, and people of color
Restore public trust in the government’s medical agencies and institutions by enforcing audits, transparency and oversight in their internal processes
Restore confidence in the FDA, CDC and other regulatory boards by 1) closing the revolving door between corporations and regulatory boards and 2) getting corrupting big money out of politics by adopting public financing of elections.
Expand public funding - and phase out private/corporate funding - of medical and pharmaceutical research, conducted in public health agencies, public universities and medical schools
Ban patents where the research and development has been paid for by taxpayers via public colleges, the NIH, the CDC and other governmental entities Restore funding to all medical governmental agencies including Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institute of Health (NIH), and the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
Take the pharmaceutical industry into public ownership and democratic control. Big pharma has failed to serve the public interest in an industry awash in private profit as it gouged consumers with monopolistic pricing in a business model centered on addictive opioids and patent-protected medicines. It’s time to ensure the production of life-saving medicines that millions rely on with their production as public goods. Eliminate healthcare inequities and gaps in all disadvantaged communities by investing in local clinics and community hospitals
Establish a Federal Community Care Agency to provide community-based support, long-term in-home and in-community care, and visitation care to seniors and to people with disabilities Ensure fair compensation for home caregivers
Guarantee long-term care for all patients in their home and community. Prohibit the keeping of people’s possessions by assisted living facilities after death
Eliminate Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) and other burdensome and discriminatory compliance requirements and enact protections against healthcare surveillance
Offer responsible and transparent end-of-life care to those who want it
Respect bodily autonomy and personal freedom and choice in medical treatments, including the right to dignified assisted death
Fund and support research and development of treatment for rare diseases Federal legalization and funding of cannabis medicinal research
Launch an urgent national program to rebuild the U.S. epidemic/pandemic response
Review and update the 2006 Pandemic Preparedness Act (last updated prior to COVID in 2019) to ensure U.S. pandemic preparedness is fully funded. Ban private investment in CDC healthcare projects in order to restore public trust Strengthen the infrastructure for accelerated emergency distribution of information, medications, vaccines, and treatments Fund and provide high-quality personal protective equipment such as N-95 type masks and all diagnostic testing (including viral load testing) free at local pharmacies Mandate and provide funding for high-quality air filtration code improvements for all public transportation, public buildings, schools and businesses
Restore OSHA-supported airborne protections for healthcare workers Establish policies that will eliminate SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools, healthcare facilities, and on public transportation
Further study the Novavax protein-based COVID-19 vaccine to determine safety and efficacy for children under 12; remove restrictions if findings allow
Address Long COVID COVID-19 likely increased the disabled population in the United States by over 1.2 million persons just from 2020 to 2021. As of August 2022, some 16 million Americans were affected by long Covid, with 2 to 4 million out of work due to the condition. Long Covid causes both cognitive and physical impairments and can develop after the initial illness, with each subsequent infection increasing the risk of developing it.
Ensure those affected by long Covid are protected in their workplace, and their needs for housing, healthcare, and economic security are met Fully fund research into the causes, prevention and treatment of long COVID
Not bad!
Robert,
The Green Party’s healthcare proposal is miles ahead of anything from the major parties. I probably would not advocate for Medicare For All as an intermediary step before going to an NHS-like system, but I do agree that an NHS-like Beveridge system should be the goal and I'd probably try to get to it as soon as possible. Of course, this will require large investments in public health facilities and in the education system to try to produce more healthcare workers.
I’m not sure if you’re a member of the Green Party, but if so, the suggestion I would communicate with your fellow members/supporters is the importance of developing solid, empirically-based economic policy and then make that economic platform the center of their policy agenda. Whether it is healthcare, military industry policy, or environmental policy, everything must come from solid economic policy and the current GP economic policy falls flat, if I’m being charitable in describing it.
The Greens should never be advocating for things such as a balanced budget. We know from empirical macroeconomic theory that a balanced budget simply isn’t necessary for the US federal government and, really, it just shifts the deficit burden towards the public and their budgets and services. Full employment should always be the goal and policies should be implemented to ensure full employment. GP economic policy should be rooted in the factual basis that a currency-issuing government such as the US federal government can always fund their policy objectives with the limits being real resource limitations. With real resource limitations in mind, we understand one of the actual rôles of taxation.
Whenever progressive policies are proposed, the question of ‘how do we fund it?’ will certainly come up. I think once the GP has an empirically-based answer to that and makes it central to their platform, they’ll have a much better chance of succeeding in promoting, and hopefully implementing, progressive policies.
How do we fund it? By cutting spending on military and intel. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf
Thank you for referring us to this article. Here is a link to the wsj article:
https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/medicare-extra-payments-home-visits-diagnosis-057dca8b?msockid=3bfa9ab227996415345488d4261d6560
Here is a link to another source where the article can be read in full:
https://www.asrn.org/journal-nursing/3173-the-one-hour-nurse-visits-that-let-insurers-collect-15-billion-from-medicare.html#:~:text=An%20investigation%20of%20insurer%20home%20visits%20found%20the,period%2C%20according%20to%20an%20analysis%20of%20Medicare%20data.
Yes Ralph, The System preys upon the unfortunate and ill. Then it feeds intense Red and Blue Propaganda to the unwitting during the "Selection" cycle. National brainwash is a very hard thing to overcome and we get, yet another cycle of corruption, exploitation, and perpetual War for $profit$. The only choice allowed for The People is whether it is named Trump or Harris, and most of this sick society is fine with that and will vote for more it on the next cycle.
Thank You for sharing with the American people and me today,Mr.Nader and will reStack ASAP 💯👍🇺🇸💙🌊🌊🌊
A consistent criticism I have of your otherwise excellent show is that you treat our current government as though it is a functional or semi-functional democracy. This perspective fatally ignores the oligarchic power of the wealthy. Their influence is clearly shown in the increasing shrinkage of actual influence that the People and their needs have on Congress and the President. People are left with the social issues, which corporations and banks regard as inconsequential. Meanwhile the economy, wars, tax policies, the environment, including the Climate Crisis, regulatory and immigration policies, judicial picks incl the SCOTUS, and of course our horrendous Foreign Policy, is all under the control of the oligarchs and their minions. Yet if you interview a Democrat they will downplay their role and emphasize the evil of the Republicans. When in truth these “opponents” have already negotiated the corporate friendly outcome, while pretending to be adversarial. That pretense will be enthusiastically supported by an utterly corrupt corporate media. This process, repeated endlessly, represents an extremely effective propaganda apparatus that is risking the ruination of our country; keeping the general population stupid and distracted while reinforcing the extreme sociopathy of the wealthy parasites.
Dr. Makary is spot-on about peanut allergy. About antibiotics: estimates of antibiotics prescribed unnecessarily are more like 28% or 15% or 20% in adults, 19% in children, with the highest estimate I’ve found was 37.8%. Even at the height of the pandemic, when lots of covid cases were getting treated inappropriately with antibiotics, the rate was calculated at 27.1%. And the antibiotics in meat is overwhelmingly an American phenomenon; they’ve been banned in Europe since 2006, though the ban (like all bans) hasn’t been 100% effective. I can provide references. About saturated fats and heart disease: Observational studies do in fact have mixed results, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2824152/ but the authoritative Cochrane Database, based on randomized clinical trials, is very convincing https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32428300/. And the data showing the contrary are often (usually) adjusted for serum cholesterol levels https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(23)01920-2/fulltext, which is ridiculous since the way saturated fats increase heart disease and stroke risk is precisely by raising serum cholesterol levels.
Ralph advises us to vote our conscience in this election, and that is great advice that I would also give to others, except that my conscience is split and in anguish at this nearly eleventh hour. I don't want to be in this position.
When I voted for Ralph, I believed that he was the very best person for the job and would certainly win, if only everyone had the opportunity to hear what he had to say, but as you know, everyone did not, since my candidate could not even get in to witness the debates, much less participate in them.
I believed at that time that, as a candidate, Ralph would be participating in the debates, so I suppose I did not understand how this worked. I was so very disappointed and disillusioned! My candidate was not allowed to speak! And this was considered a free and democratic election??? In my opinion, that was not right. Of course, I know Ralph was not running because he expected to win, but because he wanted to preserve our freedom of choice and our right to discuss and dissent and to support third parties that open the discussion of ideas, but why shouldn't a third party candidate be able to have a platform and speak to We the People? I don't know the details, and if Ralph cares to share them, I'd like to know, but the rumor I heard was that the Democratic party made the rules that governed how the debates were conducted, and the rules were skewed not to include other parties or candidates.
I cannot vote for Kamala Harris when she does not say clearly that we cannot support Israel's genocide in Palestine, and that we must totally and immediately cease sending further money and weapons and bombs, and endorse a cease fire, and open the borders to humanitarian aid immediately, and as far as I have learned, she does not protest the invasion of Lebanon. Also, I know her to be two-faced because of her backtracking about Medicare for All earlier.
At the same time, I cannot abide Donald Trump. He is a con man with no morals or ethics who delights in setting people against each other with biggoted and inflamatory language. I was a nervous wreck while hearing his negativity all the time. He wants power and is pleased to associate with right-wing autocrats, like Netanyahu. The situation in Palestine will not get better if he wins. He is also pleased to enrich the already wealthy, which leads to austerity for our people, to which I object, and he would not protect my Social Security. I have no confidence that he will leave office next time, if he gets his foot in the door again. I fear that we could become a dictatorship overnight in that case, especially after the Supreme Court ruling that held a President to be above the law. Trump once claimed that he could do anything he wanted and get away with it, as President, even kill someone on the street in public, (what kind of a human being says such a thing as President???) and I'm afraid he would do so (like Caligula, who was later assassinated by members of the Roman Senate).
I could vote for a third party candidate as a protest against the capitalist machine that is destroying our earth and food supply, impoverishing our people, and profiting on our weapons that kill others, since the capitalist corporate state and the violence around the world are a function of both parties, and that would be more along the lines I believe in.
But then I would not be voting against Trump, which I want to do to keep him from destroying our country, since the only effective way to vote against Trump, in my opinion, is to Vote for Harris, which I don't want to do because of the horrors going on in Palestine that make me ache and shudder for the people experiencing such unbelievable atrocities and suffering and death. Aaugh!
We are powerless in our own nation to help people our country is destroying. Can this be better than Trump, as bad as it is? Unfortunately, I think it can be better than Trump, as bad as it is, because I think Trump will try to take our democracy out permanently., and I'm afraid he will succeed. Once we lose our democracy, which has already been ebbing away, imagine the atocities that could be committed with impunity. Apparently, we have long been secretly surveiling our own people and are assassinating innocent people in other countries with targeted drone attacks, so it does not need to get much worse to be extremely bad.
I've read that this is what happened in Germany in the Weimar Republic. The people were enlightened and open to dissent, but Hitler asked for more power, and these enlightned pepole did not expect that their government could be subverted, and they gave him more power, which destroyed their republic.
Trump should never have been allowed to run for public office again.
Tonight I saw a video by Bernie Sanders. Here is a link to what he says about all this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf5MThSniiY
I enjoyed the conversation with Dr. Makary, but was taken aback by his recommendation to consume eggs. There is ample evidence that egg consumption is to be limited or avoided. One must be careful in reviewing the literature, as the food industry has done a great job of muddying the waters with fake science. It is easy to let cultural values or personal observations cloud judgement.
On the subject of nutrition, I would recommend Dr. Michael Greger, who follows a strictly evidence based approach. You will find numerous vetted references in all of Dr. Greger's publications and videos.
https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/eggs/
I have eaten at least one egg pretty much everyday for many years and never had a problem. I am, in fact, pretty healthy. It is an individual thing.
I beg to differ. You offer "anectodal evidence," as did Dr. Makary who offered the story of his elderly relative. Anectodal evidence is the lowest form of evidence. Not science. My uncle smoked three packs a day and lived to 96. Does that mean I should start smoking?
Look to multiple, peer-reviewed, randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trials.
It's complicated, so a source like Dr. Greger at nutritionfacts.org is a great asset.
I said it is an individual thing. I mentioned myself but I could give you a list of people I know that do the same. Every individual story is an anecdote. Anything related to food is individual. I was diagnosed with Barrett's Esophagus in 2020. Changed my diet - basically stopped all dairy - and three years later, no Barrett's. Same with IBS, never followed the diet suggested, just saw what worked for me. I am skeptical of any doctor that dictates what food all people need to eat. I listen, then see what works for me. I haven't checked your link but I will. In any case, saying that science says eggs are bad for everyone is ignoring real stories. A lot of science is based on a few studies.
Some people live long while smoking. My uncle did live to 85, smoking a lot. My aunt, his wife, got lung cancer even though she never smoked. My guess is, second hand smoking. Go figure.
My point is that Dr. Makary is a medical professional who has written a book which offers advice based on science and knowledge. He was not simply relating family stories for entertainment purposes. He should at least acknowledge that the best available scientific evidence is that eggs are not really a "superfood."
They are one of the only foods that give a complete essential amino acid profile. Avoiding eggs is just quackery. Moderation of consumption is good for most things. The question of cholesterol in eggs is a widely misunderstood thing. Most people don't even know what cholesterol is for.
Finally you're permitting the voice of a doctor who's skeptical over the covid vaccines, mentioning Vinay Prasad. In the past you've been quite chauvinistic defending them while attacking those raising these questions. I don't know whether permitting his voice is an anomaly. Why not permit more tough professionals questioning the medical system as this man did? I remember how revolutionary Dr. Mendelsohn was with his "Confessions of a Medical Heretic" was a generation ago.
Overall a surprisingly unorthodox program.
I would like to hear more about Covid from "tough" medical and scientific professionals to discuss the reports that people were injured by the vaccine and that they could not get any treatment for serious medical problems. Is this true? Is it false? Why can't we talk about it?
The adverse impact database is full of reports of these problems, which does not prove what caused them, but it does suggest that we need more information. When our people tell us they have been harmed, I believe we need to take the issue seriously and be sure they get the help they need to recover.
I heard that the developers of the Covid vaccine came out against something about the Covid vaccine, but I don't know what they were concerned about. Maybe they would come on the show and discuss the vaccine and their concerns.
There is a person, John Campell, who had a youtube program about Covid for some years and may still have it. I believe he earned his Ph. D. in nursing and has also written textbooks about physiology and anatomy. He had several people on his program who had become very ill after having the vaccine and who were continuing to struggle with their health. He let them speak. I know that testimonials cannot be construed as evidence, but they cause concern. Perhaps John Campbell would come on the show, or maybe someone who was injured by the Covid vaccine would come on the show to tell us about it.
I once saw a video by a woman who had a calm manner and a convincing presentation. She was a white professional woman with money. She said that she had been severely injured by taking the vaccine. She said that she could not get any help with this. She said she had to pay for everything herself to consult medical professionals and get treatment. I may be wrong now, but I am remembering a figure of about $350,000 in expenses. Her illness was severe and long-lasting with disoriention so severe that she was bedridden for, I believe, months. She said that she had improved but not yet recovered and wanted people who had suffered such difficulties to know that they were not alone. There might have been contact info, but I do not recall that. Most people could not afford to pay for medical care themselves, and I believe no one should be faced with illness and the inability to get care.
Was this woman a real person who was being honest, or was she an advertisement for some political entity? I don't know, and that bothers me. I would like to hear a discussion between people with a medical or scientific background about these things from a point of view that does not try to keep people quiet about it.
I had a friend who was a nurse during covid. My friend told me that the Covid vaccine was emergency authorized. and approved by the FDA. She would never have told me that unless she believed it. I was shocked when I found out that the Covid vaccine was neither emergency authorized nor approved by the FDA at that time (which the FDA itself made clear on its web site). That signals to me that there has been blindness even among professionals in this area.
Unfortunately there are many, many stories of vaccine injuries, well into the thousands. The weird thing about internet culture is that cultural fragmentation means that people take sides, assign labels and litmus tests to particular people and groups and reject them based on those labels, such as "The Great Barrington Declaration". There are top minds who've looked at the evidence and see whopping problems with the mRNA vaccines.
I picked up a book by Peter Navarro recently who got of of jail earlier in the year where he talks about muscular access by the Trump people of Remdesivir which is one of the most expensive and dangerous drugs out there. It killed many, many people together with the Neanderthal protocols they were using. VIPs got steroids, monoclonal antibodies and repurposed anti-viral drugs that actually work, though the Feds. tried to suppress many of them, as "unproven", "anecdotal", etc..
I'm looking forward to more and more lawsuits against the negligent during the pandemic of which Trump was a sterling example then the Biden people continued many of the very expensive and ineffective treatments.
I have an older sister who fell out of a wheelchair a few days ago that it is very hard to fall out of; many family members would do nothing and be apathetic or dismissive of remedies on this as the nursing home said they can't do an investigation or tell me how this happened and the health care workers cover for one another. I know how to contact the state oversight and will be doing that today.
I'm so sorry about your older sister. I'm glad she has you to intervene on her behalf. Nursing facilities can be frightening places. Some may have high incidents of abuse, even sexual abuse. In California there is an advocacy group called California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR). They give statistics on incidents of violations in facilities in the state, and expose the violence inflicted on ill seniors, and do other work to improve conditions. This can be helpful in the selection process for a facility, since one can chose a place with less of this problem, but our health care system needs to eradicate this awful situation. There may be something like this in your state that can help you. One essential help for seniors in a nursing facility is to get all family together and design a plan so the senion has frequent, even daily, visits from family members who drop in unexpectedly, so no one knows when they may show up, people who care, observe conditions, and intervene immediately, if a problem arises. Private funds can be quickly exhausted by long-term care costs. However, there are some ways to protect some of the assets with legal assistance. For instance, if one wants to protect their home in California, they must say they intend to return home, and I believe that then the home can be spared in their lifetime but not after that. I think MediCal pays for nursing care at home now, if that choice is made, but I am not positive. Your state's Medicaid may cover this in-home cost as an alternative to a nursing home. I would not want to go into a nursing home, period. I'll bet you feel the same. Still, it can be extremely difficult and costly to work out in-home care for someone we love. Good luck in finding a positive resolution.
There was a question of negligence and a friend who had a mother and a friend in Florida nursing homes successfully sued, but they cap claims at $200K where the lawyer gets around a third. He saw my sister's situation as similar but it appears to have been an accident and the nursing home is not one of those corporate for profit chains owned by "private equity" but a private place. She is getting better care but since she is a dialysis patient the pain issues are serious when you have a fractured arm, etc..
Also I wanted to mention that here in CT the ombudsman has oversight and does some inspections of the nursing homes. I've spoken to them on the more flagrant issues. Very few people get better enough to leave the nursing homes because they don't rehabilitate as they could because the type of hands-on physical treatment, hydrotherapy, better nutrition, massage therapy, cutting out drugs and pain killers seldom happens. Some day there will be a book and a film about patients at nursing homes getting better and being able to surmount the hideous conditions of the sick care nursing homes to the great consternation of the strangleholds the pharma driven system has over them.
In 1922 Flemming gave the drug corporations the opportunity to make big bucks ,,, I had a friend who was a drug salesman so one day he bought a pill making machines from India ,,, and decided to make the penasilian pills iand other legal drugs in his garage ,, 30 years later he sold out a billionaire..
Sure medicare should cover the gaps ,, but it doesn't so ,, what's the plan to change it ? The drug and insurance corporations own and control the government and industry,,and we all pay more ,,
as far as advising the Democrats,, what happened ? Sleepy Joe, the one term Joe ,,, like trump's control of the Republicans told the Democrats what he wanted (Harris )and he got what he wanted . And now the Democrat leadership is boo hoo ,, tears in their eyes they may lose the biggest election in my life time ( I like IKE )
Good luck America
Have a great day ,,,my friends..
I had to wait for the excellent Tort Law webinar to end. Your email notice of The Radio Hour and "Supreme Court Stench" elicited a good laugh. now I will listen.
I listened, and disagree with Dr. Makary. The tRump-19 Virus killed more than a million people in the US (no accurate figures for worldwide deaths for those without the vaccine). The mRNA vaccine was an immediate and successful vaccine that saved countless lives. It had to be rushed into production. The boosters continue to prevent infection from the variants. The government paid for the research and could easily claim the patents for the vaccine, if there was a government and not corporate lackeys.
I almost died from the flu, which became pneumonia, in the 1960s. I have had a flu vaccine every year since, and have not had the flu again!
Now to tRump---many people say he had Jeffery Epstein killed to avoid incriminating details of tRump's pedophilia.
Sorry, Ralph Tuscher! The flu vaccine is a harmful, deadly fraud! I reference PhD Dr. Gary Null & engineer co-author Richard Gale articles disputing your assertions. I also reference Dr. Ninah Silver’s 2009 book ( the 9th edition), The Rife Handbook of Frequency Therapy with a Holistic Health Primer, pg. 19, which cites a study by a world-renowned immunologist, Dr. H. Hugh Fudenberg, that concluded that adults who receive the annual flu vaccine five years in a row “are a 1000% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.”Also, read pages 13-19, providing referenced info on the harmful ingredients, lies, & fallacious testing that characterize the govt. sponsored vaccine industry vaccines! Ralph, stop spreading harm, by your false information!
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How can anyone vote for Kamala Harris, knowing her track record as California's Attorney General?! She is horrible.
I want to hear Michael Moore and it keeps jumping to Ralph Nader. I don’t understand.
Hi all,
I just happened upon a very helpful series explaining our mishegoss Medicare system.
https://medigapseminars.org/ (Make sure the seminars you click are those for 2025).
Wish I'd found this a few years ago but better late than never...
And please Steve, Ralph, Hannah, David: If you can find any reason why this site shouldn't be recommended, speak before posting-- or just don't post & let me know.
Thanx, cynthia dean
Steve; thanks sooo much for this response; being quasi-Luddites ourselves, i really appreciate this;
BUT....you've got to keep trying: he's obviously on the phone: sometimes i just can't take it and stop listening: i've also noticed that the level of distortion tends to vary from session to session...he has a loud voice and is talking right into the receiver...so it varies...
maybe if you told Ralph he was losing listeners because of it, he might relent?
(find him "used" equipment...that sounds like a good compromise - no?
by the way: this was a very interesting show...