I met a woman here in the Netherlands whose husband has been struggling with opioid addiction for 10 years now.
It’s hard on her, her husband, and her marriage.
Very hard.
She said that, for the last 10 years, she has been living with a different man than who she married. She told me she’s not even sure the man she married exists anymore.
She’s been struggling with thoughts of suicide. Her own.
Things seem to be looking up, though. He has finally agreed to enter a rehab here in the Netherlands.
Luckily, the health care system here is such that it will not abandon them, and it will not bankrupt them.
The opioid crisis is global. Thank goodness she belongs to a health care system in which her insurance premiums are manageable, in which crisis care is covered indefinitely.
The Opioid Crisis
I find it ironic that the mainstream media has only recently “discovered” that there is an opioid addiction problem in the United States.
I assure you, there has been an opioid problem for quite a while.
Since I started my practice in 2005, I have watched many practice members and their families struggling with addiction to prescription pain medication. I can’t tell you how horrible it has been to watch my patients’ families ripped apart, and even lose their lives, because they or their loved one cannot break their addiction to pain killers.
I can’t tell you how sad it makes me that my daughter personally knows young people whose friends have died from heroine addiction after they were unable to obtain opioid pain killers from their “suppliers” anymore.
This shouldn’t be a thing.
It’s a scary world we live in when the United States, the richest country in the world, comes in #36 in the Save the Children’s “The End of Childhood Report” the world in terms of the quality of life our children experience.
What are we doing to secure the emotional, physical, and spiritual health of our children and our families?
Right now, from The Netherlands, I’m watching the U.S. health care debacle unfold.
Listen. I was not happy with The Affordable Care Act (ACA) that President Obama put forth a few years ago. It is FAR from perfect. The most glaring omission is a single-payer option.
But the insurance situation right now in the U.S. is better than it was in 2011, I can tell you that.
Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a health care bill that would dismantle much of the progress the ACA made.
Now the senate wants to push through a plan that will not only roll back time to the dark days before the ACA, but will make it WORSE, especially for our parents and children.
The Congressional Budget Committee evaluated the bill and determined that 22 million people’s current health insurances are in peril.
More: the cuts in the senate bill will roll back Medicare/Medicaid benefits that help pay the treatment for people struggling with opioid addiction.
Many of our parents, our children, our neighbors, and possibly even we, WILL die if they do this.
Tell them to stop
Call your senators and tell them to stop this nonsense.
It is outrageous that our future is at risk because our politicians are so short-sighted. Our government needs to own up to its responsibilities as our servants – not our killers via neglect.
Our kids need our support in the home and in our communities.
We have to stay healthy
In any case, we need to make your that our and our families’ inner and outer environments are clear of toxins, trauma, and emotional stress so that we won’t fall victim to the United State’s dysfunctional health care system.
As a doctor of chiropractic, I have known for a long while that chiropractic is an effective and affordable health care delivery method.
Health care. Not “sick” care.
Chiropractic care is health care. It keeps our bodies and minds healthy, minimizing our need for sick care.
Kids, as well as adults, respond well to chiropractic care, especially in terms of how chiropractic helps us to adapt to our environment.
Last year, the National Institutes of Health released the results of a survey of 2011 utilization of chiropractic care by younger disabled Medicare patients and its correlation of opioid use.
They found that those patients who were receiving chiropractic treatment used much less opioids than patients who did not use chiropractic care under their Medicare plans.
That was in 2011 – BEFORE the Affordable Care Act.
Now, our politicians are planning roll back these benefits, and many others.
Tell Them You Want A Single Payer Option
Call your senators and congressmen RIGHT NOW to tell them you want them to vote no on this current health care bill.
But it’s not enough to call your senators and congressmen to tell them you oppose what they are doing. They need to know that, if they’re going to craft a new health care bill, we need A SINGLE PAYER OPTION.
Also, we need to make sure that chiropractic care – as well as other natural forms of health care — are included in that option!
As of this writing, he senate pushed back the vote on their health care bill until after the July 4 recess.
They’re hoping to rally support around it, and they’re hoping we forget about it.
Call your senators and congressmen RIGHT NOW and tell them.
https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
There’s no time to lose. Government is supposed to serve us.
Our families need us.
