| Photo by Waldemor Brandt on Unsplash
Part XVIII of a “Cancer/Medical Moonshot” Series
It appears that the “War on Cancer” is going bananas. Why? Because U.S. federal officials seem to want the country to become a “banana republic intentionally”?
“Going bananas” is an idiomatic expression that means to become extremely excited or enthusiastic. Its other meaning is to become irrational, or wildly out of control, or do things in a nonsensical manner. It is commonly used to describe energetic yet positive excitement (such as cheering wildly at a concert). Or, negatively, it can describe acting like a crazy person or becoming so angry that one is insane.
A “banana republic” is a politically unstable country with an economy dependent on a single, limited export (originally bananas). Or a nation that is now exporting less and less, as its labor costs are too high and uncompetitive in the world market. It is often characterized by extreme inequality, widespread corruption, and foreign control (usually by cartels, such as petroleum-exporting syndicates, or by vested interests, such as a foreign country). O. Henry (as in “O. Henry-ending stories”) coined the term in 1904. It originally described Central American nations, such as Honduras and Guatemala (or even the Philippines, a former U.S. colony), that U.S. fruit companies and cartels formerly exploited.
Nearly 200 U.S. rural hospitals have closed or reduced services over the last 20 years, with closures accelerating after 2022 due to financial stress exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some 400 rural hospitals—more than 20%—are currently at risk of closing, leaving many residents with reduced access to emergency and preventive care.
The impact on cancer patients? Some 424 rural hospitals stopped offering chemotherapy services between 2014 and 2023. Therefore, cancer patients living in rural areas are becoming very angry about their inability to receive chemotherapy or radiation treatments. Because many of the major cancer treatment centers are hundreds of miles from their homes. Or leading cancer institutes are situated in another state.
“Had the U.S. federal government invested the same amount daily in the 400 distressed rural hospitals, each would have received an additional $ 2.5 million per day. Then perhaps state, county, and city agencies may also provide additional investment and support to said hospitals.”
Medical care is becoming more difficult to access every year in Rural America. More-than 40% of the approximately 2,000 remaining rural hospitals operate at a loss, according to a 2026 report from the Chartis Center for Rural Health. The financially embarrassed hospitals may have no option but to close their life-saving operations soon.
Are many of the country’s decision-makers like apes who prefer bananas? Maybe the controlling politicians want to accelerate the turning of the United States into the world’s biggest “banana republic”? How so? The U.S. has launched — together with Israel — an undeclared war, and unauthorized at that by the U.S. Congress, against Iran.
Reportedly, the U.S. military spends at least one billion greenbacks a day on the war effort. Had the U.S. federal government invested the same amount daily in the 400 distressed rural hospitals, each would have received an additional $ 2.5 million per day. Then perhaps state, county, and city agencies may also provide additional investment and support to said hospitals. Yes, especially if many of them would be reorganized as cooperatives of medical workers, non-medical employees, patients, their kin, and in-laws, as this column has championed “Cooperative Economics”.
The next column, which is Part XIX of this series, will come out this Palm Sunday. It is the start of the holiest week of the Roman Catholic Church and some other Christian denominations that observe the Gregorian calendar. It is time to address the next op-ed piece to Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff. Perhaps the Chicago-born new pope may like to talk about moral leadership in ending the war against Iran. And also stopping the turning of the country into a “banana republic”.
