(NaturalNews) You can't fix one broken system by replacing it with another broken system. Sure, the current health care system of "that's a pre-existing condition" insurance companies, employer-funded health insurance and miserable Medicaid is a public health disaster, but if we're going to fix the system, we have to come up with something that actually addresses the root cause of disease in America.
The current health care reform debate in Washington is really just a distraction -- a ploy to keep everyone focused on all the wrong topics while quietly refusing to talk about the big issues that threaten the
health of an entire nation.
Here are the top 10 things missing from Obama's
health care reform plan (and often absent from the
debate):
#1) Ending the FDA's suppression of
natural cures and safe, effective nutritional
supplements.
#2) Initiating a real investment in public education to teach people about how to prevent disease with
nutrition.
#3) Ending Big Pharma's
monopoly on drug prices and drug
patents (not to mention patents on human genes and animals).
#4) Restoring the ability for local
doctors to practice
local medicine without being controlled from bureaucrats in
Washington.
#5) Cracking down on junk food
advertising, soda advertising and pharmaceutical ads that convince people to purchase
products that will only harm them.
#6) Banning dangerous chemical ingredients that cause diseases in the first place (aspartame, MSG,
sodium nitrite, etc.)
#7) A real effort to improve school lunches and serve
food that's nutritious instead of food that's cheap and convenient.
#8) Ending bizarre food subsidies on crops like
corn that end up making high-fructose corn syrup the cheapest sweetener for manufacturers to use.
#9) Affirming
health freedom for parents who wish to opt out of the current system of forced
vaccinations and gunpoint-enforced chemotherapy.
#10) Requiring honest food
labeling where irradiated and GMO
foods are clearly labeled as such.
The Health Revolution Petition is more relevant now than ever...
In fact, the current
health care reform debate is missing a long list of items that are essential to a genuine improvement in the health outcome of the American people.
With the help of several health
freedom pioneers (and attorneys), I put together the
Health Revolution Petition (
http://www.HealthRevolutionPetition.org) which offers an affordable, freedom-oriented approach to
real health care
reform.
Here's the full text of the petition:
We, the People of these United States of
America, hereby call for revolutionary changes in our
health care system that encourage health and prosperity instead of
disease and corporate profit.
Specifically, we call for:
1. Federal
government encouragement and reward for the People taking personal responsibility for their own health
- A full federal income tax deduction, with no minimum, for the purchase of any product, service, or device that is intended for use in the improvement of health. This includes, but is not limited to, dietary and herbal supplements, gym memberships, health coaching services,
exercise equipment, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies or any other health-enhancing products and services.
- The immediate creation of an investigatory panel, comprised of leaders from both conventional and naturopathic backgrounds, that would investigate the "Citizens In Charge" debit card health care system described at
www.HealthRevolutionPetition.org/CitizensInCharge.html * The "Citizens In Charge" health care system is a "socialized-free-market" system of health care that eliminates all
health insurance and puts health care decisions back into the hands of the People, allowing them to spend their government-provided health care funds on any health-related products or services they choose (conventional, alternative, licensed or unlicensed).
* The investigatory panel shall report on the economic viability (and potential savings) of the program, as well as the likely improvements in health care outcomes. This report shall be made publicly available on the internet for all citizens to read and discuss.
2. Restore Health Freedom to All Americans and Legalize Healing
- Allow all practitioners of the
healing arts, licensed or otherwise, the freedom to practice
healing arts with the consent of
patients. End all government persecution of alternative and complementary care practitioners and clinics.
- End FDA oppression of
free speech about health products and therapies.
- Protect access to dietary supplements, colloidal silver,
medicinal herbs and anti-cancer products.
- End
FTC and FDA assaults on the Free Speech rights of natural health
companies who accurately describe the health
benefits of their products.
- Affirm the rights of American moms and dads to choose to avoid mandatory vaccinations of their
children.
- End federal assaults (DEA) on the possession or sale of medicinal plants that have been medically recognized and legalized by States such as
California.
- Legalize Healing: End state monopoly medical licensing laws that grant conventional medical authorities absolute power to decide who can or cannot practice medicine.
3. End
FDA Tyranny, Censorship and Corruption
- End the FDA's definition of a "
drug" and strip it of authority to censor truthful health claims about dietary supplements.
- End revolving door employment between the FDA and
Big Pharma; fire current FDA employees and advisors with past financial ties to Big Pharma.
- Require full disclosures of financial conflicts of interest of FDA managers, scientists and decision panel members.
- End the FDA's Big Pharma-initiated attack on compounding
pharmacies and bioidentical hormone
therapy.
- Investigate the FDA's collusion with pharmaceutical companies in hiding clinical trial data from the American public.
4. Protect the Food Supply
- Ban GMOs in the U.S.
food supply.
- Ban harmful food additives: MSG,
aspartame and sodium nitrite.
- Require honest labeling of irradiated foods.
- Require country-of-origin labeling for all foods sold in the U.S.
- Ban the importation of foods using pesticides outlawed in the U.S.
- Save California's almond growers and end the fumigation of raw almonds.
- Require honest investigation into mad cow disease and the questionable practices of factory animal farms.
- Only permit "harmonization" of our healthcare and food laws with other nations if all the freedoms and rights mentioned in this petition are respected and guaranteed both domestically and in the harmonizing nation.
5. Restore Honest Science to Medicine
- Require the open, timely publication of all medical studies.
- Require open disclosure of all ties between study authors, researchers and for-profit entities.
- Require clinical trial results to report ABSOLUTE numbers, not just relative numbers.
- Require long-term testing of
drugs (at least 12 months) before approval in order to determine real-world
side effects.
- Require safety testing of multiple drug combinations that are commonly prescribed to real patients.
- End disease mongering and the psychiatric
medication of infants and toddlers. Outlaw the drugging of young children with mind-altering
chemicals such as ADHD drugs.
6. End Era of Big Pharma Domination Over Health Care
- End all drug-company-funded "benefits" to doctors, including vacation-style CME events, speaking fees, consulting fees and author fees.
- Investigate and prosecute drug company executives for intentionally hiding negative drug trial data and misleading the public about the
safety of their products.
- Get Big Pharma out of medical
schools.
- Guarantee the right of
consumers to sue drug companies and medical device manufacturers for damages caused by unsafe products.
- Restore power to
the FTC to regulate commercial drug advertising practices.
- Modify the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to double product liability and personal injury awards involving any
pharmaceuticals that are advertised in a Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) manner.
- Enact legislation that would impose substantial criminal penalties for executives of drug companies that advertise drugs for which serious adverse events were known by the company at the time the drug was submitted to
the FDA for approval.
- Regulate direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription medications by removing its jurisdiction from the FDA and shifting it to the FTC, which is normally the agency that exercises jurisdiction over commercial advertising. Additionally:
* Require such ads to prominently and conspicuously display, for a period of no less than five seconds, a toll-free phone number that drug consumers may use to report
drug side effects.
* Disallow the practice of using celebrity spokespersons for the promotion of any drug.
* Disallow ads that exaggerate claims of drug benefits or that do not accurately reflect the scientific findings of clinical trials.
* Require all statistical claims of drug benefits to be stated in absolute numbers, not relative numbers.
* Require drug side effects reports gathered through the toll-free phone number to be reported on a timely basis to the FDA.
* Require the FTC to disallow pharmaceutical "
lifestyle advertising" that suggests taking a drug will dramatically transform the lifestyle of the patient. Lifestyle advertising sends a dangerous message that the "before" person (depressed, miserable, unhealthy-looking) will be magically changed into the "after" person (healthy, vibrant, happy, energetic and sexy) by taking the drug.
7. Protect Children From Products That Compromise Their Health
- Restrict commercial advertising of junk foods, sodas and caffeine energy drinks to programming hours not commonly viewed by children.
- Eliminate
junk food and soda vending machines from all schools and public buildings.
- Get
processed foods out of the school
lunch program and encourage the use of fresh, unprocessed foods.
- End mandatory
vaccination requirements (as per section 2, above), restoring this decision to
parents.
8. Ban Man-Made, Non-Natural Cancer-Causing Chemicals in Cosmetics and Personal Care Products
- Ban man-made, non-natural chemicals in
cosmetics that have not been proven safe.
- Require government-funded testing of commonly used man-made, non-natural chemicals to determine their safety.
- Require honest labeling of cosmetics and
personal care products with appropriate cancer warnings.
- Recognize that the skin absorbs chemicals, and chemicals used on the skin can enter the bloodstream.
9. Invest in Disease Prevention
- Encourage and permit tax deductions for routine testing of vitamin D as part of routine patient exams.
- Encourage vitamin D supplementation and sensible sunlight exposure to correct deficiencies.
- Teach the population about nutrition, vitamin D, medicinal foods and
disease prevention by using Public Service Announcements.
10. Protect the Environment from Drug and Chemical Companies
- Require the EPA to investigate the
environmental impact of pharmaceuticals in the
water supply.
- End the chemical fluoridation of public water supplies.
- Require hospitals, pharmacies and nursing homes to dispose of expired pharmaceuticals in an environmentally-conscious away that avoids more drugs being flushed down the drain and passing intact through waste water treatment facilities and then into our bodies when we consume tap water.
(Note: The actual wording of this petition may change slightly over time for purposes of clarity and completeness. Any
changes will be minor and shall honor the spirit and substance of the petition text you are reading now.)
You can sign the petition yourself at:
http://www.HealthRevolutionPetition.org
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. In 2010, Adams created NaturalNews.TV, a natural living video sharing site featuring thousands of user videos on foods, fitness, green living and more. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also a veteran of the software technology industry, having founded a personalized mass email software product used to deliver email newsletters to subscribers. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, martial arts and organic gardening. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org
Have comments on this article? Post them here:
people have commented on this article.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Email this article to a friend
Share this article on: 
Now Available from 
