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Spiritual healing: Author Chopra weighs in on health care reform
By: Nikki Schwab and Tara Palmeri
Washington Examiner
11/03/09 11:00 PM EST
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When spiritualist and best-selling author Deepak Chopra talks health care reform, he doesn't use Washington words like "public option" and "pre-existing condition."
Instead he shows concern for unnecessary surgeries and prescription drug addiction, something that plagued his close friend, fallen pop star Michael Jackson.
"I guess in Washington one of the hardest topics of discussion is health care reform," Chopra said Monday night. "And nobody is actually talking about health care reform, we are talking about health care insurance reform."
Chopra spent Monday at an intimate dinner at K Street favorite Teatro Goldoni with journalists -- including Posties Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn -- where he shared lessons learned from his 59th book, "Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How To Create a New You." And because this is Washington, he also gave his prescription on how the government could help improve the medical community.
"I think we need to have physicians that are employed by the government who are ethical, who know the facts and who can police the medical profession," Chopra said. "Unless that's done from within the medical profession, it won't happen," he added.
Chopra came to hold this view, in part, because he was deeply disturbed by what happened to Jackson. He condemned enabling doctors in Hollywood who write prescriptions for stars using various pseudonyms. But he said the problem stretched far outside Los Angeles.
"The No. 1 source of drug addiction in the world is not street drugs, but medical prescriptions," he told Yeas & Nays. That's where he said he envisioned the feds stepping in.
"They already have drug enforcement departments, right?" Chopra asked.
And though Chopra was skeptical of the content of the current health care conversation, he still gave President Obama a thumbs-up.
"I think President Obama is doing the best he can, given the so many special interest groups in Washington," Chopra said. "I think President Obama didn't realize he would be surrounded by mafia."
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