Brickbat: Just Walk It Off

Katarzyna Bialasiewicz / Dreamstime.com

Oregon officials are considering ending coverage of opioid painkillers for patients covered by Medicaid. Instead, those patients would be directed to massage therapists, chiropractors, and acupuncture specialists for their pain. Those currently receiving painkillers would be tapered off over a year.

Comments

[Adans smith]

Huh,tis just a flesh wound.

[loveconstitution1789]

The Drug Warrior always triumphs!

[Rat on a train]

Chronic pain patient activists expressed concern that the task force charged with creating the proposal comprises three acupuncturists and a chiropractor.

[Eddy]

They better not be walking into any bars...just experience the pain of life without alcohol.

[Cynical Asshole]

Just a coincidence, I'm sure. /sarc

[Drig]

Wow. I thought you were making a very clever joke. Then I read the link...

[Get To Da Chippah]

Eventually patients will be directed to rub some dirt on it.

[Rat on a train]

Walk it off.

[Fuck you, Shikha (Nunya)]

Grin and bear it.

[gaoxiaen]

Sissy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzIP0Yy9lAs

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

"...we believe pain patients have been put at higher risk with regard to overprescribing."

We further believe that pseudoscience is the way of the future. If spinal manipulations and pin pricks can't ease these proles' aches and pains, we are working on a list of state approved shamans and faith healers.

[Eddy]

Where's that witch doctor who used to do spam ads on H&R? The pain won't so bad if his spells bring your wife, dog and truck back.

Am I mixing up two jokes?

[gaoxiaen]

Doc Duvalier approves.

[Adans smith]

A short trip to GNC is all they need.

[ipsquire]

The placebo effect is quite solid science, despite the popular view that the placebo effect implies that a treatment is ineffective (which is flat wrong re: pain).

[Brandybuck]

Gosh, let's just ban everything except sugar pills then. You've just solved the healthcare crisis! Grats!

[Longtobefree]

you forgot the obesity epidemic

[Cynical Asshole]

To be fair, I've been seeing a chiropractor for my back for a while. I was skeptical at first, but they did X-Rays to see how the spine was aligned at first, and they did find that my spine had a misalignment, which they were able to correct. Of course, I have to continue to go in for "maintenance treatment" to make sure it doesn't get out of alignment again. I'm not sure if that's true or if that's just part of their racket. Still though, I'd rather that than take prescription opioids. But of course, every patient is different, so what works for some won't work for everyone.

Here's a crazy idea: why not let individual patients, along with their doctors, determine the best of course of treatment for their individual circumstances. It's crazy enough that it might just work.

[Inigo Montoya]

"Here's a crazy idea: why not let individual patients, along with their doctors, determine the best of course of treatment for their individual circumstances."

That is crazy indeed! Do you really want get to a point where independent adults start making their own decisions? Do you want people examining their specific circumstances and life experiences and making choices based on that, with no input from government officials and other experts whose expertise is recognized by government licenses?

Next thing you know, people might start wanting to be left alone and start demanding that government do less and less instead of more and more! What kind of monster are you?

[Edwood]

I just want to vote this comment up.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Chronic pain patient activists expressed concern that the task force charged with creating the proposal comprises three acupuncturists and a chiropractor.

Come on, Big Pharma. Step up your game. Surely you're not going to be outbid by lesser lobbyists!

[Rat on a train]

Many chronic pain patients oppose the proposal, arguing it will drive individuals to seek illegal opioids, such as heroin
The street dealer lobby is behind this.

[gaoxiaen]

Duquan Dukie Weems approves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4StUkmNi1k

[Harvard]

The wisdom that abides in that northwest corner can take your breath away at times.

[gaoxiaen]

The Dude abides. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iApz08Bh53w

[Longtobefree]

Since this will need legislative approval, can the pain sufferers of Oregon storm the capitol and arrest all non-physician legislators for practicing medicine without a license?
Could that work in DC as well?

To the barricades!

[perlchpr]

Since this will need legislative approval, can the pain sufferers of Oregon storm the capitol and arrest all non-physician legislators for practicing medicine without a license?

I don't understand why you want to limit the fun to those in chronic pain...

[Longtobefree]

You gotta be a victim to break all the laws. But you can watch and keep score.

[Inigo Montoya]

You can never really know how someone else experiences pain, or even what different levels of pain in yourself are like till you feel them. (E.g., I've had tension headaches all my life, but when I got cluster headaches, I realized the term "headache" shouldn't even apply to both types.)

This whole moral panic over pain medication is ridiculous. Far from being near to a "libertarian moment," it seems more and more Americans care wat too much about what their neighbors do and even what they think.

If the guy down the street from me needs to pop pills just to get through his day, that's unfortunate, but it is his problem. It is also not my business.

Everyone from Jeff Sessions, to the Oregon legislators and on down to the local soccer moms who are so anti-drugs of any kind need to get over themselves.

[gaoxiaen]

Agreed. Just went through surgery for a new hip and then a hernia. Without Demerol I would have committed suicide.

[perlchpr]

Everyone from Jeff Sessions, to the Oregon legislators and on down to the local soccer moms who are so anti-drugs of any kind need to get over themselves stomach cancer, and be told to treat the pain with accupuncture and chiropracty.

FTFY. 😀

[perlchpr]

I guess the strike tag no longer works?

[perlchpr]

So, the "corrected" version of the quote above was supposed to read: "Everyone from Jeff Sessions, to the Oregon legislators and on down to the local soccer moms who are so anti-drugs of any kind need to get stomach cancer, and be told to treat the pain with accupuncture and chiropracty."

[Cynical Asshole]

No, not at all. /sarc

[perlchpr]

Heh. Guess I just fucked up the tags, then.

[Inigo Montoya]

I agree, even though I don't necessarily have a problem with acupuncture or chiropractic. Even if it is for surgical or cancer pain, I say go ahead and try it if you want to and see if it works for you. If it does, great. But if it doesn't, I don't see why in hell you should not be able to take prescription opiods, or smoke pot, or do an ayuwasca ceremony, take street drugs, or go to a faith healer if that's what you want to do! (Just don't insist on everyone else paying for whatever you decide works for you!)

Unless we are talking about young children or adults with severe developmental difficulties (to the point where they are forever dependent on others), people of all walks of life and all education levels should be trusted to make up their OWN minds about their OWN bodies. Period.

And it is also evident that people really do have varying levels of pain tolerance. I knew one guy who got a giant gash on his leg while whitewater kayaking and did not realize it until he was back at home a couple hours later and noticed blood spots all over his living room floor (his shin was bleeding pretty steadily but he didn't know). Other people are virtually incapacitated by anything more than a paper cut. I hate that idiots like Sessions presume to dictate to other people how to treat different levels of pain when he cannot possibly know how they are experiencing that pain.

[Longtobefree]

Sorry. You only have a 'right to choose' concerning your own body if the end result is the death of someone else.

[Trollificus]

In terms of seeing who is lobbying the most effectively based on the results of said lobbying, I'd have to say the heroin cartel/distributors are winning this round.

Because as legislators grandstand how strongly they are against "the prescription opioid crisis", and insurance companies look for excuses not to cover things, and the medical establishment looks at the likelihood of being held accountable if somebody dies after getting addicted, this creates whole new client demographics demanding to be served up stronger and cheaper pain medications, like heroin.

[TomInPA]

Funny how 'interfering in the relationship between doctor and patient' never comes up in the opioid discussions.

[Longtobefree]

Because that relationship no longer exists.
There is a relationship between the government and a health insurance company.
There is a relationship between the health care providers and a health insurance company.
There is a relationship between the government and an employer.
There is a relationship between the government and a you.
There is a relationship between the employers and a health insurance company.
But there is no relationship between you and a doctor.

[C. S. P. Schofield]

These idiots should have H. L. Mencken's essay on Chiropracty tattooed on their rumps, so they can see it each time they go to ram their heads up their rectums.

My Lady go to a Chiropractor, as do I. For back and posture problems. On such issues Chiropractic treatment works. God save me from people who think it solves everything.

[perlchpr]

Yeah. What, precisely, is chiropracty supposed to do for the shredded disk between L5 and S1, leading to the vertebrae biting down on my sciatic nerve?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

God Save you from people who think it solves anything.

[Griffin3]

So, my math says that's ~100,000 people affected. I wonder if it's going to take the form of an enormous spike in demand for black market narcotics, or a mass exodus of medicaid patients to Washington and California. No matter the chiroquactors' dream, it will not result in a massive influx of business for them. I expect that 80+% of these patients have already tried and rejected such voodoo medicine.

Reading the linked link, I sort of got the impression that regulators are not going to be involved with this, that it may come down to a bureaucratic rule passed down from the state medicaid people. I can't imagine any elected officials having the nuts to piss of that many reliable gimme-stuff voters.

[perlchpr]

As someone with chronic pain issues, I will attest that people with (severe) chronic pain will try fucking anything to make it stop.

[Cynical Asshole]

people with (severe) chronic pain will try fucking anything to make it stop.

Phrasing!

[perlchpr]

*laughing*

[loveconstitution1789]

If I get injured and I am refused pain meds, I will be suing.

This shift of drug warriors from weed to opiates is ridiculous.

I told you this would happen. If America does not just repeal all the unconstitutional Controlled Substances Act, the drug warriors will just shift focus. They refuse to be fired and will make up new drug emergencies that America needs them for. There is too much at stake to just quit.

[Cynical Asshole]

"Marijuana will never be legalized because there's too much money in it" - Hillary Clinton

Probably the only true thing she's ever said. There's too much money being spent on the drug warrior and too many phony-baloney jobs dependent on continuing it at all costs.

[DajjaI]

There is a difference between refusing to prescribe painkillers and refusing to pay for them. This is not a disaster. Many people on long term opiates don't need to be and it can become debilitating. Opiates are not that expensive, mostly people should be able to afford them.

[perlchpr]

Opiates are not that expensive, mostly people should be able to afford them.

This statement would make a lot more sense if the whole article weren't about people who are getting their medical treatment from welfare.

Also, if the government weren't artificially jacking up the price of the medication, as well.

[Mickey Rat]

It is not a black and white issue. Long term opioid use loses effectiveness and apparently can actually make the pain experienced worse. They are drugs whose use needs to be supervised by a competent medical professional, though I do not think getting law enforcement involved in any significant measure helps as lawmakers and enforcers do not have the medical expertise to making decisions to cover every patient's situation.

[markm23]

If the article is accident, the proposal IS a black and white issue. It isn't proposing competent medical supervision of opiates, but arbitrarily cutting them off from all Medicaid recipients, regardless of the source of their pain.

I propose an experiment: crush the kneecaps of the sponsors of this, and see how long they can get along with just acupuncture and chiropracty. This is not the initiation of violence - it's these heartless authoritarians that are proposing to initiate (more) violence.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

Why not just outlaw the availability of outpatient analgesics altogether, and restrict their use to immediate post surgical and trauma inpatient cases?

Can you just imagine what this would do for the illegal drug trade?

[Brandybuck]

Who the fuck put hippies in charge of healthcare?

[loveconstitution1789]

They took over like Socialists often try to do.

[Dillinger]

i heart my chiropractor

[ace_m82]

The State shouldn't do stuff.

[Edwood]

Can't wait for Medicare for All.

[Echospinner]

""What is notably missing is any review of any literature regarding the centerpiece of their proposed policy: Forced opioid taper to zero for all persons," Stefan Kertesz, MD, professor of preventive medicine at Birmingham based-University of Alabama School of Medicine, told STAT."

Sounds about right for Oregon. But the board members have all watched enough episodes of House and Grey's Anatomy to make qualified medical judgements.