#MakeAmericaHealthyAgain, An #OpenLetter to President #DonaldTrump, Part 1

By Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, DO, AOBNMM, ABIHM

Dear President Trump:

I am a big fan and worked diligently to support your election. Not only did I financially contribute to your campaign, we promoted your work and actively campaigned against your competitor. We grew my Facebook page to more than 200,000 followers, most of whom support your agenda to Make America Great Again, especially your willingness to question vaccine safety.

But to Make America Great Again, we have to Make America Healthy Again.

What is happening now – with the Repeal and Replace of the Affordable Healthcare Act – will not move the needle to help Americans be healthy, meaning to be robust, productive and active without swallowing a handful of daily pharmaceuticals.

Something has to change.

For all other industries—automotive, energy, financial—you met with the CEOs, industry leaders, and experts to listen to their suggestions on how to solve their industry’s problems. Before a new ACA Platform can be finalized, you need take on this behemoth medical delivery system. It is very complex to understand being outside looking in. After 32 years as a practicing physician, and about half of those years as the Director of an Emergency Department, I know first hand the problems of what we collectively refer to as Healthcare.

Mr. President, please consider these ideas. I am asking you to put them at the top of your priority list. Change the system for the betterment of all Americans:

1. Save Medicare by eliminating the billions lost through fraud.
Medicare and the Vaccine Industry.
Does Zostavax save the healthcare system money?

In fiscal year 2015, Medicare paid out $568.9 billion for medical services. It is anticipated that total

spending on Medicare will reach a staggering $1.1 trillion by 2024 – that’s only seven years away.

Between 2011 and 2015, Medicare spending on drugs was $537 billion – more than half a trillion dollars, to medicate our seniors. Are they better off taking all those drugs?

At CMS, there is a phenomenal amount of waste. CMS and the GAO estimate that in fiscal year 2014, $59.6 billion – nearly 10% of total payments – was paid in fraudulent Medicare claims and $17.5 billion in fraudulent Medicaid claims. That’s in ONE YEAR. We must plug that hole, Mr. President – fire those who are responsible for the lack of oversight. Investigate and shut down fraudulent accounts. Simplify and streamline the billing procedures for all participants. That would immediately put more than $77 billion back into the budget for REAL changes in health.

We not only over medicate our seniors, but we also over vaccinate them, at great personal and government cost. In that same five-year timespan, the US government paid drug companies and doctors $4,256,233,887 – $4.25 billion – to purchase and administer vaccines paid for by Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D.

The U.S. Government is the top purchaser of vaccines from the pharmaceutical industry. The government buys more than $1.4B worth of flu shots per year through Medicare Part B. An entire white paper can be written on the failure of the influenza vaccine to prevent the flu. But what is rarely discussed is the amount of actual harm and illness being inflicted on our elderly through this worthless vaccine. And when flu shot side effects occur, government expenses go up through outlays of through Medicare Part A and Part C. It’s a vicious cycle – and only Pharma wins.

Here’s one specific example: Zostavax. Commonly referred to as the shingles shot, this vaccine pulled in $749 million in global sales last year for Merck. Nearly 30% of those revenues ($219M) came from the coffers of the U.S. government through Medicare Part D. Quite a coup for a product that doesn’t work and when it causes harm, costs the government even more money.

Seniors are targeted to receive Zostavax and it is not a benign shot, as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine:

Persons over 60 have a 36% increased incidence of serious adverse events within the first 42 days, a number determined by combining the data from FDA safety study with data from the Shingles Prevention Study. In persons over 80, the ability of the vaccine to prevent shingles, or its most serious complication, post-herpetic neuralgia, was no better than placebo. And seniors in this age group had nearly double the rate of serious adverse events in the first 42 days after the vaccination.

In fact, the Zostavax package insert gives further details:

The relative risk of dying from cardiovascular disease within 6 weeks of (ZOSTVAX) vaccination was actually 25% higher in the vaccinated group.

The zoster shot has not lessened the burden of disease; in fact, it has significantly increased the cost of care. Prior to 1993, and during the first 5 years of using the chickenpox vaccine, the rate of hospitalizations due to shingles did not change. Beginning in 2001, hospitalizations began to increase, and by 2004 the overall rate of hospitalization was 2.5 cases of shingles per 10,000 U.S. population, significantly higher than any year prior to 2002. Hospital fees increased by more than $700 million annually by 2004; in particular, persons aged 60 years or older accounted for 74% of the total annual hospital charges in 2004.

Zostavax doesn’t work. It’s expensive. It causes harm – and adds more cost – to seniors. Currently, plaintiff attorneys are going after Merck for these travesties. Lawsuits have been filed in both state and federal courts in Pennsylvania, alleging that Zostavax has caused serious side effects, including death.