Why is Herr Rückl so happy

to be called a (mass murdering) Socialist? Herr Rückl, Ph.D., stated,

"Bill Bryan's contribution was a classical redneck hate piece."

Is it hateful to point out

Rückl's deceptive use of health statistics? Herr Rückl stated

that U.S. life expectancy was 70, when in fact it is 73.9 for men and

79.4 for women, per the Clinton era National Center for Health Statistics

(1998), U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services not some "Republican

spin meister."

Oh, yes! I checked out the

WHO site that Rückl used to come to the 70 figure. It's called Disability

Adjusted Life Expectancy (DALE) and is a rather new concept. Unfortunately,

the numbers are squishy and can be manipulated for a variety of political

agendas as Rückl attempts to do. Is it any wonder that (surprise!)

the U.S. was rated as low as it was by the Socialist-controlled WHO?

Also, even before DALE, how

patient histories were entered in other countries varied enormously.

As to the change that I'm more

interested in the political than the medical, it was the unrepentant Socialist,

Herr Rückl, who lambasted Capitalism as the reason that U.S. health

care is so inferior.

Dear readers and Herr Rückl,

please note: U.S. health care would be much better if it were not for

government interference.

One of the reasons that hundreds

of thousands of Americans travel to Canada and Mexico each year to buy

cheaper drugs and receive medical services not available in the U.S. is

government interference via the FDA and DEA. For instance, about 20 years

ago former Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox was told he had a terminal cancer

and was advised to get his affairs in order because he had less than a

year to live. Via a friend who'd had a similar cancer cured, Gov. Maddox

went to Mexico to receive cancer treatment.

Why? Because our FDA would

not allow any doctor in America to use that form of treatment. As far

as I know, Lester Maddox is still alive and people who have this form

of cancer still have to go to Mexico to obtain lifesaving treatment because

the FDA still forbids using that treatment.

There are so many, many ways

to improve the quality of medical care in the U.S., but most of those

are blocked by the FDA, DEA and a host of other federal, state, and local

agencies. A few items:

1. According to a world-class

surgeon whose practice consists of 50 percent clients from Europe, Mid-East

and Far East, "I could develop and train a high school graduate with

average intelligence (IQ of 100 and SAT scores 1150) and great manual

dexterity to be a phenomenal surgeon in my specialty in three years four

years tops."

Why then is medical training

so much longer and more expensive? Why do you have to get a degree before

you get into medical school? Answer: Government trade restrictions lobbied

for by the American Medical Association (AMA) and enacted into law which

restrict the number of surgeons so as to increase the fees of surgeons.

This is an example where Capitalism is limited by government decree to

the detriment of the general populace.

2. Why are there so many medical

lawsuits? According to the Journal of American Medical Association, about

80 percent of medical malpractice lawsuits are without merit a type of

legal blackmail. However, also according to JAMA, about 80 percent of

the cases where malpractice caused death or serious injury, no lawsuits

were filed.

How many people are injured

or killed by medical malpractice? Again, according to JAMA, about 120,000

die each year due to heart-lung machines installed backwards, healthy

kidneys removed by mistake, instruments left in the body cavity, penicillin

given to patients who were known to be highly allergic, etc. But, by far

the two greatest killers are caused by unsanitary behavior of the doctors

and nurses that spread contagious and administering the wrong type or

dosage of medicine. The old saying, 'A doctor buries his mistakes,' is

still true today.

In my July 11 letter to The

Citizen, I asked my medical litmus test question: "If you, as a government

medical bureaucrat, could enroll that same person in an inferior, Russian-style

health care program for $4,000 per year; or, enroll that same person in

a medically superior HMO run by Kaiser Permanente for $3,000 per year,

which program would you select?" Herr Rückl refused to answer

and whined that "I didn't even mention Russia, or East Germany, in

my article." Regardless, would Herr Rückl please answer this

question?

Also, in Herr Rückl's

July 25 letter to The Citizen he rightly criticizes our pathetic K-12

education system then wrongly mentions his expensive Socialist solution.

Would Herr Rückl answer my education litmus test question? "If

you, as an education bureaucrat, had $10,000 per year to send a child

to an educationally inferior government school; or $5,000 per year to

send that same child to an academically superior private or parochial

school, to which would you send that child?" Would Herr Rückl

please answer this question?

At the end of Herr Rückl's

letter he writes: "So, and now I guess I have to go and get a bulletproof

vest." Most illustrative. I firmly believe in peaceful ways and means

to improve society via dialog (Socratic Method), legal political processes

using scientific method and the concept of best evidence, and Herr Rückl

wants to get a bulletproof vest? Herr Rückl, admirer of blood-drenched

Socialism, feels threatened by the peaceful and free exchange of ideas?

Again, most illustrative, Herr Rückl, Ph.D.!

William Bryan

[email protected]

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