One Strand at a Time

After beginning to explain the dysfunctional system which leads to Lyme patients going untreated, I felt a little overwhelmed by all the strands of this diabolical web. I had hoped to post a follow-up this week, but became a little paralyzed by the breadth and depth of the issues, which include but are not limited to:

• The Dole-Bayh Act of 1981
• Insurance Industry Exemption to Federal Anti-Trust Laws
• ERISA 514 (one clause in a huge federal bill that exempts Insurance companies from state laws)
• monied interest in developing vaccines, treatments, tests, etc.
• Insurance industry practice of denying claims as a matter of course in order to save money
• the confusing chaos around an emerging disease
• the closed-loop medical establishment (with repercussions from doctors protecting one another from outside scrutiny to the controlled distribution of research money)
• the lack of any independent, official body advocating for patient well-being as the number one priority in health care dispensation
• the impacts of a socio-political-economic system that puts corporate income at the top of its hierarchy of needs
• a medical science philosophy where a patient's symptoms aren't considered real until someone can devise a test to verify said symptoms.

There are so many threads in this web. Some of them, when seen by themselves, may seem innouous. Others are problematic enough on their own to make you wonder how any reasonable human being could have thought that it served any public good to put it in place. Still, its not until you start to see how all the pieces fit together that you see the infuriating nature of it. Each strand strengthens the diabolical web, while the individuals twisting their one strand can convince themselves that they are only doing what they are required to do. They can ignore how their works fit into the overall trap and maintain an internal feeling of plausible deniability when it comes to culpability.

Of course, its when you are sick and trying to navigate this system that you are most likely to have the light hit the web at just the right angle for you to see it. When you have the least inner personal resource to fight the system in order to get what you need.

I write this post today as a sort of check list. To help me remember some of the many threads that need to be explored in order to shine that light on the web. I'll simply have to tackle one thing at a time and see if I can manage to show how they are tied together along the way. For Monday, I'll update the story on the IDSA and what has happened since they signed an agreement with the CT State Attorney General to review their guidelines. The case of the IDSA, their conflicts of interest, their connetions to the medial establishment, their guidelines and how they get used is a perfect demonstration of the trap created by the web. To write about it though, I must try to pick little chunks at a time, as it becomes a tome faster than the vibrations of the prey reach across the web to the spider.

Who is the spider? Well, I think we are. Every one us. We have, every step of the way, refused to revolt against the system we've watched being built over decades. More than a century, even. Because while the medical system has been radically altered with laws created in the last 50 or so years, the foundation for it all goes back to the laws that gave corporations "personhood". There are so many profound social dysfunctions that spring from that one topic. But, it seems to be getting way beyond a discussion about Lyme Disease, doesn't it? What if there is no way to get solid research available to the public and to force insurance companies to let doctors determine the best treatment for their patients without tackling these foundational issues? The more I learn about the obstacles to getting treatment for Lyme Disease and any ensuing health conditions, the more I run into these questions. So, my blog will have to traverse the ground of issues specific to Lyme Disease, such as managing symptoms, getting the right tests, learning about treatment options, etc, as well as, bigger public policy questions of a health care system that serves the people well, including the political and legal obstacles to shifting towards something compassionate and sustainable. I hope you'll bear with me, as I'm sure it will be a meandering amble.