Category Archives: Business

Health Care

Yes, access to it is limited by overregulation:

The problem is that healthcare consumers have limited options. At the two ends of the spectrum, they can see a licensed doctor, or they can do it themselves. One option is extremely expensive, time-consuming, and reliable, and the other is free and still time-consuming but not as reliable. In between, there are few other choices. It’s possible to use a service like Teladoc or visit a drugstore clinic in some areas for minor issues like strep throat, an earache, or a sprained ankle, but in the absence of the current system of occupational licensing, there’d be a much broader continuum of possibilities between my unlettered amateur visits to Dr. Google and visits to an actual doctor’s office.

The problem is compounded by the fact that we pay for health-care via “insurance” coverage, which isn’t really insurance but just prepaid health-care. This system requires lots and lots of rules about what can and can’t be covered and what constitutes medicine. The entire healthcare market would function much more efficiently if there were more options. For treating a lot of conditions, you don’t need someone who went to four years of medical school and worked through a grueling residency. Better to save that talent for more challenging stuff and allow people to seek marginal improvements over DIY diagnosis.

But instead, we’re forced to buy “insurance” that isn’t really insurance, and they’ve totally destroyed the concept of insurance.

Saturated Fat

No, American Heart Association, butter, steak, and coconut oil won’t kill you.

I consider this reckless disregard for the truth. Any lawyers out there who can tell me why they wouldn’t be subject to massive class action?

Related: Moving on from “Let’s Move”:

In 2010, Michelle Obama kicked off the “Let’s Move” campaign to help combat childhood obesity. This well-intentioned effort drew national attention to a serious topic that needed to be addressed.

Sadly, I knew the campaign was doomed to fail; because failure is easy to spot when you wage war against the wrong enemy.

Exercise and healthy eating were central themes of her effort. I am the first to admit that exercise is vital to maintaining overall health, considering that I made my living as a personal trainer. But as I explain to all of my clients, exercise is a lousy way to lose weight, in spite of its many benefits.

Every week, I interview doctors, scientists, and researchers who are on the front lines of combating obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and other metabolic syndrome conditions.

The fact is our diet is almost exclusively to blame for these issues. For years, we have been focusing on the wrong enemy, as healthcare professionals, encouraged by the federal government, told us that fat in our diet was the root cause of these diseases. The so-called ‘experts’, aided by activist front groups, demonized saturated fat, and advised us to eat ‘heart-healthy’ grains and lean proteins. It turns out that this was exactly the wrong strategy.

Yes. And yet they continue to recommend it, and commit massive physical child abuse in Michelle’s school-lunch program.