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Show ALL DUNN by Roy Dunn HOWDY FOLKS My friend Howard had been in the hospital and it was his first day back on the job. "How are you feeling, boy?" I asked. He didn't look too good to me. "I don't feel as good since I received this copy of my hospital hos-pital account, as I did when I was released." He handed me a folded piece of white paper. "That's what my insurance company is being billed for the three days I was in the hospital." hospi-tal." He looked more mad than sick, but I reckon being mad is sorta like being sick, only worse. In looking over the itemized list, it was easy to understand why the insurance premium rates are so high for his bill totaled three hundred and thirty thir-ty five dollars for his three day stay. It seems that his doctor had ordered him to the hospital for tests when he complained of a chest congestion, on the chance that he may have had a case of pneumonia coming up. And just to mention a couple of items on that list, there was one hundred and eight dollars for his room (semi-private) and one hundred and twenty four dollars and eighty five cents for drugs. "That's a heck of a lot of drugs you must have been about dead. And if you were all that sick, how come you are back on the job this soon?" I commented. "I think I am being overcharged over-charged we all are but what can we do about it?" I handed him the piece of paper and as he walked away I heard him say, "We'll pay more for insurance protection next year that's what we'll do about it." And he had answered his own question. Doctors across the nation are being charged with blowing up, all out of proportion, their charges to the Medicare for their services. Most of them were violently opposed to the program in the first place and take a dim view of the government govern-ment investigation which is in progress at the moment. But then, there is always some kind of a government investigation in-vestigation going on, all the time. But who the heck is there to investigate the investigators inves-tigators ? When even some of the men in some of the highest offices of the land cannot be trusted, why pick on the physicians physi-cians who heal us when we are sick or hurt? Doctors are kinda like insurance in-surance you don't need them 'till your house is on fire then we can't do without them. But there are some senators and chief justices we could do without even if our house turned to the ground. Speaking of investigations", Capitol Hill appointed a committee com-mittee who in turn enlisted the help of 180 of the nation's top research physicians. Their job was to recheck the seven thousand new drugs which had been marketed since 1938, and determine whether they worked as advertised. These guys found out that at least three hundred of these drugs didn't measure up to the manufacturers' claims. Accord- ing to their findings, for example, ex-ample, mouthwashes are generally gen-erally about as efffective as plain table salt, mixed in water. wa-ter. The researchers want the manufacturers to stop claims of breath odor control and that these washes will relieve sore throat or reduce the number num-ber of bacteria in the mouth. And there were two hundred and ninty-nine other wild claims by various makers of drugs that the researchers criticized. But I reckon that's not cause to get too upset when you consider of the seven thousand, new drugs tested, only on-ly about seven percent of the whole was condemned. Trouble is I must have been getting one of the seven percent when I bought some-thnig some-thnig over the counter, instead of going to the doctor for his perscription, when I had the blahs. Now the physicians have teamed up with the psychiatrists psychia-trists and psychologists to study stu-dy the "dope problem" and have come to the conclusion that potheads do not get any pleasurre or marvelous expansion expan-sion off consciousness, as the potheads claim. Instead, the potheads and acidheads are trying for an escape from profound pro-found depression. When they get "high" it is only in ecstat ic defense and they do not wind up with expanded consciousness but with a contacted one. I'd like to expand my con-. ,, sciousness, but I think I'll call my doctor for an appointment, let's say for about next Jan- . uary 15. That's about as soon as I could get to see him. But by that time my consicious will have shrunk to about the size of a mustard seed, or expanded 'till I .couldn't get my hat on. In either case I wouldn't need a doctor and would still be a "knothead." But I'd rather be a "knot-head," "knot-head," than an "acidhead" anytime, any-time, i . SEE YA'AL LATER . I |