In Your Ear!

America's Health Care System

2008-02-16T12:31:00.002-08:00

All statistics come from the OECD, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. For more than 40 years, the OECD has been one of the world's largest and most reliable sources of comparable statistics, and economic and social data.

This data show the United States has the world's most expensive health care budget, both in terms of % of GDP, and Per Capita. Simultaneously, the United States has some of the lowest ratings for access to health care, and some of the highest rates of disease and death.

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Health expenditure per capita

Sources:
OECD
OECD

For all those billions spent, we rank 22nd in the world for number of doctor visits-- the Japanese get more than 3 times as many doctor visits as Americans get, for a fraction of the price.

Doctors consultations per capita

Source:
OECD

We rank 22nd for number of physicians per thousand people:

Source:
OECD

10th for nurses per thousand:

Source:
OECD

25th for hospital beds per thousand:

Source:
OECD

23rd for acute-care beds:

Source:
OECD

At the same time, we're among the LEAST HEALTHY nations in the world in many ways. We rank 8th in the world for cervical cancer survival:

Source:
OECD

We are the #1 most obese country in the world:

Source:
OECD

We rank 22nd for prevention of asthma-related deaths:

Source:
OECD

We're way down the list for lifespan:

Source:
OECD

Source:
OECD

23rd for prevention of deaths from heart disease and stroke:

Source:
OECD

Source:
OECD

We're behind Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Australia, and Norway for prevention of deaths from certain forms of cancer:

Source:
OECD

Infant mortality

27th for infant survival, nearly 3 times lower than Japan:

Source:
OECD

16th in the world for kids' healthy teeth:

Source:
OECD

22nd for prevention of deaths from asthma:

Source:
OECD

Where's All The Money Going?

For all the money we spend, we're not healthier for it. Something is wrong with this picture.

Somehow, those other countries' government-run systems deliver more access to more health care to more people for a whole lot less money than the U.S. These stats sure make it appear that our for-profit, competitive system is anything BUT efficient. Where's all the money going? A 2003 Harvard study concluded that administrative costs accounted for 31 percent of health care expenditures in the United States, versus 16 percent in Canada. Why? Anyone who has ever dealt with insurance company red-tape knows why. American doctors have to deal with multiple insurers, each with their own forms and procedures and regulations. Doctors have to pay full-timer staffers just to handle the bureaucracy. Not so, in other countries:

Costs of Health Care Administration in the United States and Canada

Sick For Profit

CEO salaries and bonuses? CEO Stephen Hemsley of United Health Care earns over 100 thousand $dollars PER HOUR:

Source:
Sick For Profit

CIGNAs Edward Hanway spends his holidays in a $13 million beach house in New Jersey. CIGNA executives enjoy gold-plated flatware and gold-trimmed china on private jets, while regular Americans are routinely denied coverage when they need it most.

Clearly, our poor access to health care does not justify the exorbitant cost of our health coverage.

Picnic To Impeach

2007-09-28T22:34:00.000-07:00

Click the pic to join the picnic to impeach the Bush administration.

The Great Psychiatry Swindle

2007-09-28T00:47:00.000-07:00

Native Americans and Alcohol

What do you think Native Americans were doing before they were invaded by the Europeans, getting drunk every night?

Actually, you can blame the western Europeans for stealing their land, destroying their culture, and introducing them to alcohol.
Indians and alcohol

But wait, isn't alcoholism genetic? Not according to the following study, which compared 438 pairs of twins:

"...genetic influences were moderate for all alcohol abuse ...debilitating drug use [was] largely environmentally determined."
Wiley Interscience

Iraqis, American Kids, and Psychiatry

"Most Iraqi people now deal with each other in an aggressive way; they show disturbed behaviour." says Dr. Haidr al-Maliki, a psychiatrist in Baghdad. I'm sure not even Dr. al-Maliki would pretend the cause of disturbed behavior amongst Iraqis today is 'genetic'.
BBC

But American psychiatry's response (with their collaborators in the wealthy pharmaceutical industry) would be to label it a genetic problem, or a "chemical imbalance"-- and then prescribe Ritalin, thorazine, Prozac, and all their other snake oils.

"there are currently an estimated 5 million school-age children on [Ritalin]. Another 2 million children are thought to be on other psychiatric drugs, such as adderall and dexedrine."
Frontline: medicating kids

Ritalin

Is it really logical to believe that millions of kids in the

USA

are so dysfunctional they need to be on psychiatric drugs? Or is this just drugs for profit. Are parents and teachers too easily swayed—or forced?
Kids on drugs

"District marks parents as alleged child abusers for wanting to take their 7-year-old son off the medication."
Times Union

Even pre-schoolers are being drugged.
Prozac nursery

A recent study by the University of Buffalo shows no long-term benefit, and damaging effects and children's behavior and development.
BBC

Psychiatry and Automobiles

Psychiatrists use a guidebook of mental problems, the DSM ("Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders". But it's just a list of illnesses, not a description of mental health. That's because psychiatry is not in the business of promoting mental health-- they are in the business of getting rich off of fixing problems after the problems occur.
DSM authors' financial ties to drug companies

Don’t you think there are auto-mechanics out there who invent imaginary problems with your car-- just so they can get you to pay them real money to "fix" it?

George Bush on Drugs

George bush's 'new freedom initiative' is designed to exploit this system.

In depth discussion of Bush's "New Freedom Initiative"

Mental Illness Prevention

Ultimately, promoting mental health requires preventing mental problems, not waiting until it's too late. And that requires fixing families and society. In the long run, it's more effective and less expensive than any psychiatric treatment. Insurance companies, psychiatrists, and insurance companies don't want prevention, because there's no profit in it.

"...research does suggest many important actions that individuals and families can take (or avoid) to lower the risk of schizophrenia and other mental illnesses..."
Schizophrenia prevention

"Emerging evidence suggests that certain mental health problems can be prevented, while in others onset may be delayed and severity of symptoms decreased."
the prevention institute

"Better understanding of the nature of mental health and mental illness is the key to changing the priorities, policies and practices in education, law, social services, housing and health critical in turn to the conditions conducive to mental health."
Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry

US Surgeon General on Prevention

Boston Globe on Prevention

University of Wyoming on Prevention

US Department of Health on Prevention

Bill Maher on Drugs

Note, I have never had any personal or professional association with Scientology. One does not need to be a Scientologist to notice how corrupt our mental health system is. I have never been diagnosed with any mental illness. I studied psychology in college. A loved-one committed suicide after years of conventional treatment for schizophrenia. He was not psychotic when he died, only hopeless and sad. His mind and dignity had been destroyed by years of institutionalization, pharmaceuticals, and shock treatment ("electroconvulsive therapy", or ECT). I believe people can have severe mental and emotional problems. I do not agree with the disease and drug approach to treatment.

I have no personal or professional association with the producers of these videos

Gettin Green In Santa Monica

2007-05-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

Critique of a Conservative

2006-11-04T04:45:00.000-08:00

This article published in 2003 by Stuart Epperson, Chairman of the conservative Christian broadcasting group, Salem Communications Corporation, claims that conservatives should not support a renewal of the Fairness Doctrine:

...let us suppose - and it is no stretch of the imagination to believe this - that President Hillary appoints radical liberals to the FCC. With the precedent established that the FCC can revoke licenses over obscene content, these Commissioners determine that conservative views constitute hate speech - and hate speech is obscene. For example, we are strongly supporting a Constitutional amendment and would declare that marriage is between one man and one woman. Let us suppose that these Commissioners declare that such a position is against national policy and constitutes discriminatory hate speech.

This is a misrepresentation of the Fairness Doctrine. It's also a misrepresentation of FCC Decency regulations. Epperson mixes two distinct legal issues-- Censorship and the Fairness Doctrine-- into one lump. Either he does not understand the distinction himself, or he is invoking them in one breath in order to manipulate readers.

The Fairness Doctrine is not censorship:

The FCC took the view... that station licensees... had an obligation to afford... discussion of contrasting points of view on controversial issues... that stations were also obligated to actively seek out issues of importance to their community...

This doctrine grew out of concern that... broadcasters should make sure they did not use their stations simply as advocates with a singular perspective. Rather, they must allow all points of view.
--Museum of Broadcast Communications

FCC Decency regulations have nothing to do with the Fairness Doctrine.

Official FCC Testimony

2006-10-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

My testimony to the FCC, presented at their public hearings on 10/3/06, in response to proposed rule changes for media ownership.

Background, in the words of the FCC

Audio Clip: My 3-Minute Reprimand of the FCC

Summary

Good evening, Commissioners. My broadcast name is johny radio. I'm a citizen and freelance radio producer & blogger. I believe that freedom of the press should not be reserved for the wealthy. I'm asking the FCC to protect and create low barriers of entry into mass media, through technology and regulations, for public, independent, and community broadcasters. Preserve and promote opportunities for alternate voices to reach larger audiences.

Licensing

When the FCC stopped offering low-power FM licenses in 2003, you silenced local voices, in favor of full-power stations. The FCC bowed to corporate lobbyists’ exaggerated claims of interference.
info
info

I urge you to reinstate low-power FM licensing (LPFM) for community broadcasters.

Ensure that evidence debunking radio intereference is never again suppressed.

Stop busting pirate broadcasters on falsified claims of interference with airports.

info
info

Public Broadcasting

Flip on any public radio station, and you’re likely to hear paid underwriting messages that sound almost like commercial advertising. When public broadcasters are beholden to for-profit contributors, this undermines the Public Broadcasting Act, which calls for “alternative telecommunications ...that involve creative risks and that address the needs of unserved and underserved audiences, particularly children and minorities.”
Comparison of Public Broadcasting in Europe and the US

Therefor, Commissioners, please provide more funding for public channels, not less. You can tax Fox and ABC if necessary.

Take Action
Save NPR and PBS

Last year’s outcry about "right-wing infiltration" in the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by Bush-appointed CPB Chief Ken Tomlinson, was no accident. When LBJ created the CPB in 1967, he made sure more than half the CPB board were appointed by the US President, with the intention of making the CPB a mouthpiece for the White House. It has remained that way for the past 40 years.
info
info

Commissioners, I call on you to amend the Public Broadcasting Act to make the CPB board members peer-selected public media experts, rather than political appointees.

Fairness

From 1949, the FCC’s “Fairness Doctrine” obliged broadcasters to provide equal airtime to opposing points of view. In a unanimous decision in 1969, the Supreme Court held that the fairness doctrine enhanced rather than infringed freedom of speech.
info
Supreme Court Decision

Yet, President Reagan dissolved the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, giving Fox news license to call itself “Fair & Balanced” without any due diligence. Reagan also gave Disney-owned KABC 790 AM license to promulgate white-supremecist hate speech and personal attacks against a local grammar school.
Left Perspective
Right Perspective

kpcc audio about the situation:
info

Take Action
Hear inflamatory KABC audio, and take action.

Real discussion has been replaced with shouting matches and personal attacks. Therefor, I urge the Commission to:

Reinstate the FCC Fairness Doctrine, expand it, and vote it into law.

Require that analysts from differing perspectives be given ample time to explain their views, without interruption. Bill O’Reilly shouting down his victims does not count as equal time.

Require "civility"--shouting matches and personal attacks must be disallowed or discouraged.

Take Action
Reform The Media
Confront Bias At ABC-TV
Confront Bias At Fox News

Censorship

Some observers complain about crass sexual content in the media. One wonders why they don't simply change the channel, until one realizes there are too few channels out there which don't use sexual titilation to capture viewership and advertising dollars.

However, adult Americans must be assured access to uncensored programming. Censorship on the basis of sexual content has been used in past to suppress political, artistic, and educational content.
info

Republican House Representative Gerald Allen, author of a pro-censorship House bill, recommends we "dig a hole" and bury Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Chorus Line, The Color Purple, and Angels In America. He met with President Bush five times in 2004.
info

Commissioners, keep censorship away from pay channels. Support the Stamp Out Censorship Act of 2005.

info
HR-1440, the Stamp Out Censorship Act of 2005

Respect parents' decisions about their children's viewing options.

info
TV Watch

Preserve uncensored late-night rules for non-pay channels.

info

Sensationalism

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell the difference between the news and the Jerry Springer show. The sensationalism which dominates corporate news channels, like Janet Jackson's breast, Jon Benet, Jeri Ryan's sex life, and Mark Foley’s emails are just distractions from far-reaching local, domestic, and international issues, like schools in crisis, corporate corruption, government ineptitude, and environmental degradation. Rather than take media to task for poor reporting, the FCC is penalizing channels for saying naughty words-- words every school kid knows.

Parents Television Council
PBS vs. the FCC
Democrats Stoop

Commissioners, stop participating in this phony, politically-motivated moral panic with excessive "indecency" citations.

Require coverage of underreported news stories, as documented by the United Nations, Doctors Without Borders, and Project Censored.

Doctors Without Borders
United Nations
Project Censored

Take Action
Unreported: Judiciary Committee details crimes committed by Bush
Unreported: Comedian lambasts Bush at Whitehouse Dinner

Internet Freedom

The internet has created a wonderful new opportunity for underserved voices to reach niche audiences.

Therefor, I urge you to prevent media conglomerates from controlling internet content, or the public’s access to it.

info

Take Action
Support the Internet Neutrality bill
Contribute to the MoveOn New York Times advert
Stop the "COPE telecommunications law", which guts Net Neutrality
Stop the AOL Email Tax - MoveOn
Stop the AOL Email Tax - ActForChange

Technology

Consumers can now purchase radio devices with which they can listen to thousands of internet radio stations from around the world, without a computer. Some are portable enough to carry down the street.
Torian InFusion
Solutions Radio
Reciva

But we cannot do so in Pennsylvania, because Verizon blocked free community WiFi hotspots.
Verizon blocks access

Commissioners, I ask that you stop telecommunication corporations from blocking the creation of community hotspots.

Fund the creation of more public hotspots—you can tax Verizon for the money.

In April of 2006, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and majority leader Bill Frist (R-TN) introduced the PERFORM act, making it illegal to record songs off internet radio, the way kids have done for 40 years with AM/FM-- despite the fact that this practice is explicitly protected by previous amendments to the Copyright Act.
PERFORM bill

I ask the FCC not to support the PERFORM bill.

Today’s radio unnecessarily restricts the number of radio stations. According to internet architect, David Reed, spectrum scarcity is a fallacy. The same techniques which enable thousands of cell-phones to operate in the same region, called “frequency-hopping”, could be used to enable hundreds of simultaneous radio broadcasters in the same area.
info

Therefor, as radio goes digital, use that technological transition to increase the number of stations.

Thanks for listening.

Audio of the complete hearings

Submit your OWN testimony to the FCC on these and other issues. Comments are due December 21.

The Experts->

Media Consolidation

2006-09-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

FCC's Kevin Martin To Eliminate Local Media

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin intends to let a few giant media corporations swallow up local television channels, radio stations and newspapers. If the changes are approved, one corporation could own the major daily newspaper, radio stations and television stations in the same town.

If Martin gets his way, local media would be swept away.

Would it really be good for Los Angeles if the Chicago Tribune's parent company owned The Times, KCAL-TV, KCBS-TV, KTLA-TV and radio stations KABC, KFI, KFWB, KLAC, KLSX, KNX, KRLA and KSPN?
info

Go to the FCC Hearings, October 3, Los Angeles
October 3, 2006, Los Angeles: Official FCC Hearings

Fight media consolidation

Live audio and video webcast of the hearing will be available at the FCC’s website at http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/#oct3

FCC Town Meeting

on 8/31/06, the FCC conducted a town meeting at USC in Los Angeles, to collect community opinions about media consolidation. the panel included FCC commissioners Copps and Adelstein, congresswoman Solis, reps from media conglomerates such as disney and abc, reps from a variety of other media organizations, and others. the 'public' in attendance included folk from local indie radio stations kpfk, kxlu, hollywood movie- and tv-producers, media watchdog groups, women's groups, latino groups, and others.
info

here's a two-minute audio clip of my testimony to the panel:
audio

Revised Transcript:

(which i'll submit in writing to the FCC)

Summary

I'm asking the FCC to protect and create low barriers of entry into mass media for independent, low-budget, non-profit, small business, and underserved citizen voices, on the internet, radio, and television, through technology and regulations.

Case Study: An Internet Radio Station

My broadcast name is johny radio. I work with an anti-corporate internet radio station called KillRadio.org. KillRadio means 'Kill Corporate Radio'. It was formed about six years ago during protests at the DNC, because the Democrats are too right-wing.
info

Although I may not agree with that sentiment, I believe that freedom of speech should not be prohibitively expensive. These opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent the views of KillRadio.org.

Internet Freedom

The internet has created a wonderful new opportunity for underserved voices to reach niche audiences. It has leveled the playing field for media producers and consumers.

Preserve internet neutrality, and prevent media conglomerates from controlling access to internet content.
info

Take Action
Save The Internet
Save The Internet2
Save The Internet3
Save The Internet4

Technology

There are now on the market at least two new portable WiFi radio devices which enable people to listen to internet radio, wirelessly, while walking down the street.
info

Therefor, in order to promote that technology as an opportunity for alternate voices to reach larger audiences:

prevent telecommunication corporations from blocking the creation of free, public WiFi and WiMax hotspots in urban and rural areas.
info

fund the creation of more public hotspots.

The USA is stuck with an obsolete 100-year-old radio technology, which unnecessarily restricts the number of stations in a region. Modern radio techniques can enable hundreds or even thousands of simultaneous broadcasters in the same region, as described by architect of the internet, David Reed:
info

Promote the development of modern radio technologies.

Public Funding

Fund and enable non-profit and public-domain media channels without political interference, vis-à-vis the British BBC model.
History of Public Broadcasting in Europe and the US

Eliminate right-wing infiltration of Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
info
info

Take Action
Save Save NPR and PBS

Licensing

Preserve low-power FM licensing (LPFM) for community FM broadcasters.

Ensure that corporate lobbyists will never again be able to override your own technical data and suppress community broadcasting.
info
info

Stop busting pirate broadcasters on technically falsified claims of interference with commercial broadcasters and airports.
info
info

Censorship

What should we do with US classics like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or The Color Purple? "Dig a hole," Gerald Allen recommends, "and dump them in it." He met with President Bush five times in 2004.
info

Some observers complain about crass sexual content in the media. One wonders why they don't simply change the channel, until one realizes there are too few channels out there which don't use sexual titilation to capture viewership and advertising dollars. If the FCC promotes more small and non-profit media outlets, then those viewers will have more alternatives to switch to.

However, adult Americans must be assured access to adult-oriented programming if they want it. And I don't mean pornography: censorship on the basis of sexual content has been used in past to suppress political, artistic, and educational content:
info

Keep censorship away from pay channels. Support House Bill HR-1440.
info
HR-1440, the Stamp Out Censorhip Act of 2005

Respect parents' decisions about their children's viewing options.
info

Preserve uncensored late-night rules for non-pay channels.
info

"Every day, in many countries of this world, children are bought and sold, transported against
their will, and forced into lives of prostitution, slave labor and utter misery.” – Mary Robinson,
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, www.tinystars.org

This is a terrible tragedy, and one which certainly should not be ignored by mass media. However, the sensational 'news' which dominates corporate news channels, such as Janet Jackson's breast, Jon Benet, and Bill Clinton's sex life have little to do with the real tragedy of international child exploitation. When news channels use anti-sex hysteria to attract viewers' prurient interest, it's no different than attracting viewers with shallow sexual titilation.

Stop participating in this phony, politically-motivated moral panic with excessive "indecency" citations.

Content: The Fairness Doctrine

These are just distractions from far-reaching local, domestic, and international issues affecting millions of Americans in their daily lives, like schools in crisis, corporate corruption, government ineptitude, and environmental degradation. On-going problems are ignored in favor of fleeting news-bites. Real analysis has been replaced with shouting matches. Therefor,

Reinstate the FCC Fairness Doctrine, dissolved by the Reagan administration, expand it, and vote it into law.
info
a Conservative perspective

Require reporting of underreported news stories, as documented by the UN, Doctors Without Borders, and other sources.
Doctors Without Borders
United Nations
Project Censored

Take Action
Judiciary Committee details crimes committed by Bush: Unreported
Comedian lambasts Bush at Whitehouse Dinner: Unreported

Require that analysts from differing perspectives be given ample time to explain their views, without interruption.

Require "civility"--shouting matches and personal attacks should be discouraged.

Take Action
Reform The Media
Confront Bias At ABC-TV
Confront Bias At Fox News

Also present at the hearings were reps and parents from local, primarily hispanic school, Academia Semillas del Pueblo, which was recently criticized on-air by local Disney-owned KABC 790 AM radio station. Subsequent to the broadcast, the school began receiving bomb-threats and harrassment. i'll be interviewing a rep from the school on my show in the near future.
Left Perspective
Right Perspective

kpcc audio about the situation:
info

Take Action
Hear inflamatory KABC audio, and take action.

i can be contacted at:
johnyradio@gmail.com

Take Action
please comment below, if you know about more actions people can take on any of these issues, urgent news, or any key issues i missed. thanks!

Thank you for listening.