Originally posted by Dr. Davis on 2017-04-15
on the Wheat Belly Blog, sourced from and currently found at: Infinite Health Blog.
PCM forum Index of WB Blog articles.

What do you get for your money?

Shouldn’t the most expensive healthcare in the world also buy you the greatest health in the world?

If you pay $600-$1500 per month for a high-deductible health insurance policy for your family, does that mean that you and your family will enjoy better health? Because Americans spend nearly $10,000 per person per year on healthcare—-more than any other country on the planet, double the spending of the U.K., Canada, and Australia-—does this mean that Americans pay more and thereby enjoy better health? Less diabetes, less heart disease, less obesity, fewer cases of autoimmune disease, less arthritis, etc.?

Americans pay more for health but also are among the unhealthiest compared to other developed nations. According to an in-depth analysis from The Commonwealth Fund, the health of Americans compares poorly with other wealthy nations with more chronic disease, reliance on prescription medications, hospital procedures, and shorter lifespans. Sure, we do better than third-world countries, but we are at the bottom of the heap compared to other prosperous Western countries.

If we pay the most, why aren’t we the healthiest? Where is all this money going?

The money goes into the pockets of healthcare insiders, mostly hospital systems, the pharmaceutical industry, the medical device industry. Here, for instance, also from The Commonwealth Fund, is how Americans compare in the number of prescription drugs taken:

Americans are not only paying the most, we are the most exploited by the healthcare system. We most definitely do not have the greatest health from the process. We pay a lot of money for a system that takes advantage of us, squeezing us through drugs and procedures for the gain of healthcare insiders, not to provide better health. Do you think that the billions of dollars spent on direct-to-consumer drug advertising, for instance, make us healthier? Of course it does not—but you, in effect, pay for that advertising and the excess dollars spent on the drugs through your healthcare spending.

Lost in the healthcare scuffle is the fact that health is actually quite easy to attain without drugs, without procedures, without the doctor or the healthcare system. If the healthcare system is predatory, exploitative, and hell-bent on just building its own profits, then why even participate? Because your doctor says so? Because the glitzy TV ads and billboards say you should consider gastric bypass, a heart ablation procedure, or electrophysiologic procedure? You can achieve health virtually without cost. Health, like freedom of speech, should be free. But don’t count on your doctor or the healthcare system to tell you that because there’s no pot of gold in helping you and your family become healthy. It’s a lot more profitable treating a family of obese, diabetic, hypertensive, people with acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome, joint pain, depression, and one or more autoimmune diseases than it is having a family enjoying ideal health and slenderness.

This is why I say that the enemy of the healthcare system is not sickness–it’s healthy people. If you are healthy, you are worthless to the profit-seeking healthcare system. The aim of the Undoctored book and its message is to help you be worthless to the healthcare system because you become healthy, slender, and function at a high level despite not taking a statin drug, three blood pressure drugs, an acid reflux drug, an IV drug for autoimmune disease, or submit to unnecessary procedures. It is not just possible, but likely, easy, safe, effective, and costs next to nothing.

Over time, one of my goals is to craft a process in which those of us who are truly healthy and not dependent on the perverse practices of the healthcare system can opt out—only deal with healthcare practitioners who act as our advocates for health, opt out of conventional healthcare insurance, not be victimized by predatory hospital systems. It’s a big, ambitious, long-term goal, but something that I believe we must do in order to put a stop to this awful crime against Americans called modern healthcare.