| Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
Monday, August 9th, 2004
The biggest all-out battle between Big
Pharma and the people of America is happening
in Wisconsin, for it is there that Big
Pharma, through its floundering "quackbuster"
operation, is trying to set a precedent
courtroom win in place. Big Pharma, through
the "Suster Case," has pulled
out all the stops. We'll see the next
chapter unfold on August 18th, 2004, in
a hearing in front of the Wisconsin Medical
Board. Big Pharma is desperate to win.
The "Suster Case," is, for
all practical purposes, Big Pharma's last
stand. Why? Because, over 50% of the total
US health dollar is now being spent on
what's been labeled "Alternative
Medicine," and they (alternatives)
are, for the most part, paid for by out-of-pocket
consumer dollars - not health insurance
or Medicare. All insurance or Medicare
will pay for, currently, is "conventional"
health care methods.
But Stuart Suster MD, a Milwaukee Pain
Management Specialist, a true American,
decided to change all that - and he set
out to force the issue of payment for
"alternatives" by insurance
companies. He offered "alternative"
pain management techniques, and he insisted
that health insurance companies pay for
them, and pay reasonable amounts.
If Suster wins his argument, then the
door is open for the billing of "alternatives."
His method will have faced the challenge.
Big Pharma, on the other hand, has a huge
investment in the medical status quo.
Big Pharma is COMPLETELY DEPENDENT upon
continuing what's known as "five-minute
medicine," the practice where conventional
Physicians are so over-booked with patients
that the Physician/Patient contact is
never more than five minutes at a time,
and goes something like "Hi, how
are you... let me write you twenty-two
new prescriptions."
The Story Gets Worse...
Stuart Suster MD, in his quest to offer
better pain management techniques, did
his research about what worked best, and
would get his patients back into a normal
life. But, he also researched "how
to bill" for those services. He hired
the best experts he could find to set
up his billing, including the services
of a health insurance expert who later
was appointed by the Governor, to be the
Insurance Commissioner of the State of
Wisconsin. I'd say that in Court, his
claims were unassailable.
Big Pharma, looking at this situation
from their New York ad agency viewpoint
(Quackbuster Central), probably went into
a panic, for they knew they couldn't beat
Suster in Court. The end of the huge profit
run of "five minute medicine"
was on the horizon.
So what did Big Pharma do?
Of course, they went for the sleaze.
What do you expect?
In Wisconsin, they had "ready-made"
sleaze already available - in the person
of one Arthur Thexton, the Wisconsin Department
of Regulation & Licensing (DRL) prosecutor
who became nationally famous (infamous)
for paying a quackbuster, one Bobbie Baratz,
over $70,000 in "expert witness"
fees - and then losing the case when it
was found out that Baratz had a "fake"
resume.
Thexton went to work for Big Pharma with
a vengeance. First, he tried to get an
agency, any agency, to prosecute Suster.
When that failed he went to a fifth-rate
Television station in Milwaukee, one that
had a so-called "Investigative Reporter"
and handed them over a hundred patients
records (was that a HIPPA violation?)
to the station,. The station went out
of its way to damage Suster in his community.
Then Thexton started using the Administrative
Law process to try and take Suster's license
away from him Etc., etc., etc...
All of Thexton's efforts have been recorded
elsewhere. But the important thing about
the case is the question "Why did
Thexton, and his quackbuster paymasters,
work so hard on this case."
Easy answer...
"Desperation."
Big Pharma, after all their investment,
has to be in shock at the lackluster performance
of their "quackbuster" gambit
- the one they funded, and put into operation,
around the time the AMA lost the battle
to the Chiropractors in the Wilk v. AMA
case.
The "quackbusters" have been
losing one battle, after another, for
years. Their visible leadership (the ones
they want us to see), like the self-proclaimed,
and courtroom humiliated, National Council
Against Health Fraud (NCAHF), and delicensed
MD Stephen Barrett and his ludicrous website
"quackwatch.com," have become
A SERIOUS LIABILITY to them.
Barrett, for instance, was declared in
a PUBLISHED Appeals Court decision to
be "biased, and unworthy of credibility."
The NCAHF, besides the obvious problems
with its president, Bobbie Baratz, currently
owes six Homeopathic Manufacturers over
a $100,000 in legal fee awards, it has
no ability to pay - and they are waiting
for the axe to fall. And fall it will
- I promise.
The "Suster Case," in Wisconsin
is an important one for Big Pharma to
win. If health professionals can be paid
by insurance companies for services that
work, and are safe and effective, why
would they use useless pharmaceuticals?
In Wisconsin. Big Pharma is still trying,
feverishly, to stamp out innovation
in health care. Are we going to let it
happen?
Stay tuned...
Tim
Bolen - Consumer Advocate
This "Millions
of Health Freedom Fighters - Newsletter"
is about the battle between "Health
and Medicine" on Planet Earth. Tim
Bolen is an op/ed writer with extensive
knowledge of the activities of a subversive
organization calling itself the "quackbusters,"
and that organization's attempts to suppress,
and discredit, any, and all health modalities
that compete with the allopathic (MD)
paradigm for consumer health dollars.
The focus of the newsletter is on the
ongoing activities, battles, politics,
and the victories won by members of the
"Health Freedom Movement" against
the "quackbusters" It details
"who the quackbusters are, what they
are, where they are operating, when they
appear, and how they operate - and how
easy it is to beat them..."
For background information
on the "Battle
between Health and Medicine"
A copy of THIS newsletter, and older ones,
are viewable at the website.
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