Farrah, Michael and Health Care Reform‏

The untimely deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson underscore what should be a prime consideration in reforming our health care system - balance.
First, we have Farrah, who preferred chiropractors to real MDs for persistent butt pain and experimental treatment to heavy duty chemo in an effort to spare her world famous mane. Underuse, at least at the outset.
Then we have MJ, who if reports are to be believed, died with his personal physician at his side, with a drugstore inside him, after his daily injection of Demerol. Overuse, otherwise know as abuse and addiction in reference to illegal drugs and on the street.
The current discourse seems to be centered on how to herd more people into the system as it is, ladened with procedure happy pill pushers which the post psychedelic Baby Boomers seem for the most part all too willing to accede to, albeit not in "Anna Nicole" proportions. The focus needs to be put on keeping our citizenry healthy unassisted, and out of a doctor's office unless there is a true need, instead of encouraging the making of appointments and the ingesting of pharmaceuticals at hypochondriac levels for what are mostly trumped up and heavily advertised disease du jours. And individuals need to take responsibility for knowing their own bodies and need to develop some common sense and intuition as to when medical assistance is required. Because as is illustrated in the cases of Farrah and Michael, the "too much or too little" approach is disastrous, and in this country, we are no where close to the middle ground.

Karen Ann DeLuca