American commercial medicine today neglects the most powerful healing tool gifted to humankind: the heart-mind connection (read The Heart Mind Connection, by Windsor Ting). Commercial medicine instead focuses on finding a specific biochemical mechanistic remedy for each separate pathological symptom. Ignoring this powerful, God-given tool seems a tragic mistake. Could it be that this is why there is so much dissatisfaction with our health care delivering industry?
A good friend of mine, who spends considerable time with terminally ill people, told me this story of how important the heart-mind connection is to the healing process:
I went to the hospital to visit my elderly friend, who was dying of terminal cancer. He was not expected to leave the hospital, with a life expectancy of a few weeks at best. I had just arrived when an older gentleman strode into his hospital room. He exuded confidence and care. I stepped aside in respect. He spoke loudly enough, so I could hear him quite clearly, to my consternation.
"I remember your pranks when we were kids," he began, "You were good-for-nothing then, and now look at you. You got yourself so sick you're about to die. Can't even hardly raise your eyes to look at me. Go ahead and die, you good-for-nothing, no one will miss you. The world is better without you."
There were a few seconds of shocked silence, and the sick one began gurgling. I didn't know what was happening. The gurgling turned into giggling, then laughter, and in seconds the sick one had lifted his arms, the visitor helped him sit up, and they were in each others arms laughing up a storm on his hospital bed. Neither could not stop laughing. There was no other conversation.
A nurse, hearing the commotion, came to investigate. Irritated, and concerned for the health of the frail cancer patient, she asked the old gentlemen to leave. He left with a smile after being with his friend for only a few minutes.
A few days later the terminally ill patient was discharged from the hospital. His cancer was in remission, and he lived years beyond his prognosis.
Health care providers have researched the heart-mind connection, and the unfortunately named "placebo" effect. It's one of the total-person wellness achievement practices gleaned from cultures other than modern European.
We have largely left the heart-mind connection, since we in America have married health delivery with commercial profiteering. Using technology to fix specific symptoms of debilitation reaps billions in profit for the owners of various drugs or devices. We call this system "fee-for-service", and it's pretty broken. Holistic care of the total person has been neglected, replaced by the practice of focusing on individual symptoms to which profit-making healing procedures are applied. Procedure-based health care is very expensive. So health insurance companies go to great lengths to limit the amount of this care it will pay for. This form of rationing further ratchets up the cost of care, as insurers pay a mint for the legal justification required to defend their denials of specific procedures. As medical inflation rates soar, across our nation, too many of our citizens can no longer afford reasonable health care. And even when we do have insurance, our doctors have less and less say in deciding how to care for us.
Sadly, this is the way the system has been designed for quite some time now. In the early '70's, government and health care promoters colluded to promote this highly profitable, procedure-based form of health care. Patient wellness took a back seat to the profit motive. Nixon's secret tapes reveal just that in his private conversations with CEO's of drug companies, hospital associations and health insurance companies. These tapes reveal that government conspired with commercial health interests to reduce health care delivery while increasing government bureaucracy and cash flows connected to compensation for procedures. Rather than paying for good health of the citizens, the government would pay for the amount of health care delivered—measured in numbers of tests, procedures, and prescriptions. Of course, this was not public information; it was a commercial secret, until the freedom-of-information act uncovered Nixon's secret tapes. Remember? It took a while before the legal hurdles of "national security interests" were overcome.
And ever since, as Americans have evolved from "citizens" to "consumers," health care delivery has moved away from compassion to profit. Price-gouging through the fee for service system increasingly reaps billions for the industry. Unfortunately, the health reforms of our politicians—Obama, honest Republicans (are there any?) and dishonest Democrats—leave untouched this greatest mistaken expense in the health care of our nation.
My friend who told me the story at the beginning of this column is not a politician. He is honest. And while he has been personally involved with the Apsáalooke teasing clan culture for decades, he did not know of its vast potential for healing. I'm not sure that anyone fully understands this healing phenomenon. But because it's free, and not subject to patent or license, it will probably never be formally studied. In the meantime, could it be that we're not getting our money's worth in this country when it comes to health care? Is it possible that when health care becomes an "industry"—particularly one that accounts for so much profit—we the people lose out? http://greenwoodback40.blogspot.com/
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David Graber
Hardin, MT 59034
www.greenwoodfarmmt.org
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