In the final analysis, fraudulent insurance practices hurt taxpayers since the maintenance of moderate insurance rates becomes virtually impossible. Consider these figures. The American public is swindled out of $42 billion a year. That's $3 billion a month, $800 million a week, $116 million a day, $4 million an hour, $80,000 a minute, and $1300 a second.
The federal government and the insurance industry are finally waking up to the problem and starting to fight back. In 1993, seven of the largest insurance companies sued one of the largest psychiatric hospital chains, National Medical Enterprises, for $750 million. In addition, every attorney general now has an assistant attorney general to oversee health care fraud prosecutions. As a result, some progress has been made. Wiseman states:
"Psychiatrists make up 8% of doctors, but 18% of those health care practitioners that have been kicked out of the Medicare system for fraud. Last year, $411 million was paid to the government in fines and penalties for health care fraud and 90% of that was paid by psychiatrists or psychiatric institutions."7
Although this is a start, it is Wiseman's belief that to truly resolve the problem the public must become more informed about what's going on, and insist on putting an end to the corruption.
Psychiatric Research
Each year, hundreds of millions of tax dollars are wasted on pointless research conducted by the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH). For instance, these are examples of the types of studies they are funding under the guise of learning more about sexual behavior: a four-year study of horses masturbating, an eight-year study of castrated quail, a four-year study on the nasal cavities of hamsters during intercourse, a two-year study on the sexual preference and behavior of prairie moles, an 11-year study in which female pigeon genitals were stimulated to measure how hormones affect sexual behavior, a 9-year study of maternal licking of the genital region of male versus female ferret babies, a 9-year study on the sexual behavior of lizards, a 23-year study of sexual odors and social factors that affect male Asian monkeys, and a 23-year study on the sexual behavior of male rats as a biological basis for human behavior.
To study the effects of drugs, a 13-year study was undertaken in which rats were given hallucinogens, such as LSD, to see how they react when startled; and a 31-year study looked at how rhesus monkeys respond to torture while on mind altering drugs.
The NIMH also carried out a 32-year study on the chemical reactions in the jaw muscles of pigeons to better understand eating disorders in humans.
"This is what the NIMH is doing with our tax dollars," says Bruce Wiseman. "We think it's a travesty, and we think that organization should be eliminated."7
Wiseman goes on to describe an NIMH study on sexual offenders that placed a Florida community at risk: "A few years ago, [NIMH] spent over a million dollars on a program down in Florida where they took 100 known child molesters, showed these guys pornographic material, and then turned them loose on the community to see how they would behave. Then, when these child molesters came back and reported their behaviors to these so-called researchers, they were immune from passing that information along to the authorities."7
If the NIMH were studying how to alleviate mental illness, it would be different. Unfortunately, these studies provide nothing useful to the alleviation of mental suffering. According to Wiseman:
"Billions and billions and billions of dollars are poured into the psychiatric industry. If they could have cured anything, they would have done so over the last few decades.... [Psychiatrists] don't actually know what bothers people. Their answer to virtually everything is to drug it. They have convinced governments that they need billions in appropriations. We wonder why we can't balance our budget when studies [such as the above] cost the taxpayers millions and millions of dollars. I don't think there are many Americans who realize that their tax dollars are being spent on studying the nasal cavities of hamsters during intercourse. On the one hand, it's ludicrous. On the other hand, it is destructive and wasteful."7
Inhumane Treatment
Involuntary Commitment
Each year, approximately one and a half million people are taken to psychiatric institutions against their will. That averages out to one person every 75 seconds. Often, there is no reasonable justification for committing a person. According to Bruce Wiseman, psychiatrists commonly make off-the-cuff diagnoses, having no real basis in medical fact, that result in people getting thrown into psychiatric facilities. This is not only possible, but easy to do, as it is sanctioned by state laws. Psychiatrists are given the police power to lock people up against their will. Sometimes, Wiseman states, people are put away for some of the most ridiculous reasons imaginable:
"A man who was picked up was pronounced schizophrenic by a psychiatrist and taken to a hospital, stripped and shocked. Subsequently, they found out that the man was simply speaking Hungarian.... That kind of thing goes on, on a very regular basis.
"Legislation has come out of Texas in the last year or so after the 'kidnapping' of a guy named Kyle Williams whose estranged wife apparently talked to a psychiatrist, and probably didn't have kind things to say about him. As a result, the psychiatrist ordered the guy picked up - a totally normal fellow - and he was thrown into a hospital."8
Laws vary, but individuals are usually locked up for at least three days. During that time, they have no constitutional rights, and no access to an attorney or due process of law. Treatment usually consists of drugs, and sometimes electroconvulsive therapy. After three days, they are then brought before a judge to determine whether or not they're sane. At this point, chances for release are slim since people are generally not in very good shape after all that has been done to them. Chances for release are far slimmer if the person's insurance pays for treatment. Wiseman reports:
"We get hundreds and hundreds of reports like this: A young mother took her child into a psychiatric hospital for an evaluation and the hospital insisted that the child stay. The mother decided to stay with the child just to comfort her. Then the mother wanted to leave; the hospital wouldn't let her. When she demanded to leave they placed her in a straitjacket and drugged her.
Cont ...