An Open Letter to President Bush and Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist, M.D.

© Copyright 2003 by the Editors of Explore! for the Professional Journal, USA
(Explore Issue: Volume 12, Number 4)

Dear Mr. President and Mr. Majority Leader,

We are again writing regarding the report of THE WHITE HOUSE COMMISSION of COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE published in March of 2002. It can be seen on the web at: www.whccamp.hhs.gov/finalreport.html.

This report covers the research of a two-year period of research and nationwide hearings into this vast field of what's known as Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The commission found great merit in this field and recommended further research AND IMPLEMENTATION of the commission’s findings.

The report is quite extensive and very detailed, but the results are clear—among other specifics:

1. This type of medicine is effective
2. It reduces human suffering, and
3. It conserves scant resources

Therefore it is disconcerting that such great work has been "filed" without much action on part of the two leaders who can do the most to advance these much-needed medical alternatives.

We know that Dr Frist’s opinions as a physician are held in high regard by you, Mr. President, and that both of you are constantly looking for ways to improve the human condition, as well as to reduce the cost to our Government.

Without going into great numerical detail, it is a fact that popular allopathic drugs for ulcers alone can cost upwards of $150 per month, per patient, and homeopathic medications for the same condition can cost $40 per month.

Heart surgeries that cost upwards of $80,000 per episode can be avoided by the use of preventative medical protocols that cost less than $4,000 for 6 months of care.

Some experts have speculated that the Government’s 0ne-trillion-dollar-per-year Medicare and Medicaid budgets can be reduced by as much as 30%, saving 300 billion dollars per year, or enough money to totally pay off the entire National debt over the next twenty years, or the diversion of those funds to reduce taxes, improve Social Security and improve Education.

This is not a small set of findings, and only represents the ‘government side’ of the equation. The effects on private sector finance is even greater, with its several more TRILLIONS of dollars also effected, by the same percentages.

This savings of money translates into better, healthier lifestyles, more individual free time, earlier retirement ages and improved productivity, promoting a greater chance for world peace as these benefits spread to the rest of the human race, in all countries on the face of the earth.

Please take this report out of its “file,” AND READ IT. Than please go before Congress and declare that it is one of our National Priorities TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.

We, who are past the age of 50, can remember President John F. Kennedy declaring in 1961 that we would go to the Moon before the end of the decade, not because we had something to gather by going there, but that by going there we would improve the human condition. No one alive today can argue that our trips into space did not have overwhelming benefit to mankind, and as a direct quote from Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the moon in 1969, “This is one small step for man, but One Giant Step for Mankind.”

Please, Dr. Frist and President Bush; READ THE REPORT AND MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Sincerely yours,

The Editors of Explore! For the Professional Journal