Terry Thompson’s Blog

My last post expressed my concerns about how the president’s proposed health care plan would bolster conventional medical practice and the drug industry.  Well, wouldn’t you know, in Sunday’s paper, an Associated Press headline read, “Obama’s health care plan helped by drug industry.”  Teaching university level business courses and being a student of business have taught me that industries don’t “help” political movements unless there is something big in it for themselves. 

The article revealed that the nation’s drug makers have committed $150 to $200 million to the Obama administration to promote the president’s health care overhaul this fall.  The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is launching a multimillion-dollar media blitz–mostly television commercials–to convince the public of the need for government controlled, single-payer health care insurance.  This campaign will be in conjunction with  the liberal group, Families USA.  Also, the organization, Healthy Economy Now has received PhRMA contributions for its recently completed $12 million round of advertising nationally pushing the Obama plan.  Families USA executive director, Ron Pollack, said, “For PhRMA, this would improve volume for prescription sales because everyone would have better access to medicine.”

I, too, would like everyone to have better access to medicine!  That is, as long as the definition of medicine included everything that has been properly tested and proven effective, rather than just the “big pharma” produced, mainstream-accepted medicine.  You can bet that the practices of managed nutrition, dietary supplements, immune system enhancements, mind-body interaction, stress reduction, pain relief acupuncture, lifestyle coaching, and many other integrative medicine protocols will not be part of this marketing campaign.  On the contrary, the campaign will promote more access to conventional medicine including conventional oncology. 

This country does need health care reform.  But the reform it needs is lower costs, broader access to providers and medicines, and the freedom of patients to choose their type of care in coordination with their trusted physicians–all without the influence of big pharma’s deep pockets.  Watch the commercials closely and with discernment.  Look for the sponsors, particularly PhRMA, Healthy Economy Now, Families USA, and specific drug companies.  There is a reason that these organizations are sponsoring these ads.

At town hall meetings across the country and on every talk show in the nation, critics of the health care reform plan are sounding off with unbridled passion.  The liberals call them an organized mob, and the conservatives claim they are just every day Joes and Janes who are angry.  I have to be counted among those opposed to the plan.  I have not been a screamer at at politician’s meeting, but I am protesting by letter, phone, and this blog.  I am communicating with my Congressional representatives like never before. 

Since my health issue is with cancer, I fear what will happen to cancer treatment under the plan.  Actually, we shouldn’t call it a plan, since it is more rhetoric than a plan at this point.  As one who is totally convinced that conventional cancer therapy practiced exclusively is only going to realize selective success, I don’t want treatment turned completely over to a government that embraces it.  I have written previously about the pharmaceutical lobbyists who have more influence in Washington than any other industrial category of government influence.  Washington is absolutely predisposed to chemo and radiation as the treatment of choice for cancer.  They have little regard for complementary enhancements of any kind.  If the decisions of oncologist selection, treatment center selection, and therapy availability fall into the hands of the government agencies rather than the patients, conventional treatment will be the only game in town.  Any momentum we now have in the acknowledgement of complementary treatment will cease under the proposed plan.  Public activism is presently what is keeping integrative oncology alive.  Once treatment is controlled by the government, we will lose years of progress.

I don’t advocate yelling and taunting at town hall meetings, but I do urge you to write and call your people in Washington weekly if not daily.  Tell them to support a health care reform plan that reduces the cost of care and ensures the freedom to choose your treatment including the choice of doctors.  We are losing our freedoms at every turn like never before in the history of our nation.  Let’s be heard!

Well, I’m back from an eleven-day hiatus in my blog posts.  I spent last week at an extraordinary annual event called Oshkosh Airventure 2009.  This is the largest air show and aviation exhibit in the nation.  Most of you probably don’t know that I am a pilot with a life-long infatuation with airplanes and flying.  I am retired from a career in the Air Force as a pilot.  I now fly volunteer missions with the Civil Air Patrol and own a classic 1949 Beechcraft Bonanza airplane.  I have been to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for this spectacular event several times including the last three consecutive years. 

One of the highlights this year at Oshkosh was a public interview of Captain “Sully” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles, the pilots who landed the U.S. Airways Airbus A320 in the Hudson River after dozens of birds shut down their engines.  Their second by second account of the ordeal was both chilling and thrilling.  During the week, these pilots were guests at a charity auction sponsored by the event hosts, the Experimental Aircraft Association.  Jeffrey Skiles donated the flight jacket and shoes he wore while in the chilly waters of the Hudson.  A very benevolent member submitted the winning bid of $76,000 for the items.  That action plus observing thousands of people arriving in multi-million dollar personal aircraft convinced me that a lot of people are immune to the recession we are experiencing.  Yes, there are a bunch of extremely wealthy individuals out there.

I’m sure it won’t surprise you that my thoughts during the week swirled around my passion for funding more research into integrative cancer treatment.  What if we could bring hundreds of thousands of people together at an event like Oshkosh Airventure–all with a mutual passion for winning the war on cancer?  What if we could have auctions that would bring in $76,000 for a jacket and shoes?   What if everyone left there with hope and excitement about winning the war?  Just some thoughts.  Thanks for tolerating my time away from this blog.