Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Healthcare and Our Children

I recently saw a Catholic blogger refer to Congressman Ron Paul as a "kook." (I wish that certain "hired gun" apologists would stick to writing tracts and pamphlets.) In spite of such observations, Dr. Paul's reflections on the government control of our children's health care are worth taking into account, whether or not you agree with him on foreign policy. Yes, I realize that there are some cases in which medication benefits children with special needs. But the numbers of children on medication seem to be mounting. Do they ALL really need to be on drugs?

The congressman says:

This week Congress is again grasping for more control over the health of American children with the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Parents who think federally subsidized health care might be a good idea should be careful what they wish for.

Despite political rhetoric about a War on Drugs, federally funded programs result in far more teenage drug use than the most successful pill pusher on the playground. These pills are given out as a result of dubious universal mental health screening programs for school children, supposedly directed toward finding mental disorders or suicidal tendencies. The use of antipsychotic medication in children has increased fivefold between 1995 and 2002. More than 2.5 million children are now taking these medications, and many children are taking multiple drugs at one time.

With universal mental health screening being implemented in schools, pharmaceutical companies stand to increase their customer base even more, and many parents are rightfully concerned. Opponents of one such program, called TeenScreen, claim it wrongly diagnoses children as much as 84% of the time, often incorrectly labeling them, resulting in the assigning of medications that can be very damaging. While we are still awaiting evidence that there are benefits to mental health screening programs, evidence that these drugs actually cause violent psychotic episodes is mounting.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! It's not often you hear honest criticisms on the huge influence Big Pharma has on our politics and our society -- especially from a physician or a Congressman -- which, of course, Dr Paul is both! God bless him, I tell ya; there are too few physicians willing to say it out loud.

And as far as the neo-con/republican-first/Faith-second Catholic critics of Dr Paul and his foreign policy, I say, "pooey on them!" One of the MOST attractive things about Dr Paul's ideas IS his foreign policy! Again, he is one of a rare few who has the courage to speak up for America's interests first before the interests of all other foreign countries (especially those countries whose internal policies are as racist and religiously-descriminatory as any apartheid-type country can be)!

Brantigny said...

What people are wishing for is FREE health care. Free means you don't have to pay for it then, but you will pay for it in the form of higher taxes. Of course people who pay no taxes are the first to jump on this band wagon. So a child with a parent who makes 6 figures is going to be equally treated as one with a parent who makes minimum wage. It is not good for either if both have to wait to be seen for 6 months. Any program the government runs is always prone to mismanagement and abuse.

Does anyone think that the Fema reposnse would have been better if a liberal was in the Whitehouse? Or social security would be better after every president since Roosevelt? Or the Post Office?
Really the only agency of the government that is even partially efficient is the IRS, cause takin' money is what they do best.

Rely on God and your self and you will be happier.

Anonymous said...

There is a psychiatric / pharmaceutical plan to "suicide screen" every child in the United States before they graduate from high school. Evidence exists that shows massive pharmaceutical backing that will result in even more overdrugging of kids with psychiatric drugs .

Can you take a moment to view this very short video? Click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY

And then sign and forward this petition http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html to your associates and everyone you know? It already has over 23,000 signatures.

It's simply a race to inform enough parents so something can be done about this.

Federal Bill to ban funding for screening: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h2387_ih.xml