Digoxin costs about $2.87 per 25mcg dose for a 30 day supply. That dog doesn't hunt for me. My out-of-pocket for an emergency room visit and subsequent hospitalization averages four time the out-of-pocket for the uninsured because I have to pick up their share of the cost. That's no spin, that's how the actuarial tables work. I have great health insurance, but my employer, county government, offers $4.00 co-pay cards to virtually anyone who doesn't have a prescription drug plan. Sure, most of these meds are generics, but everything I buy is generic as well.
Is the health care system broke? It sure is. But most ER's in university or community hospitals do have a dispensary for the indigent. Here's the real problem: Many people below the poverty line do not have healthy lifestyles. Foods that population tends to eat is often highly processed. Fresh food ain't cheap. But, neither are cigarettes (ca. $5.00/pack around here). Given the choice of fresh fruits and veggies or a Big Mac and a pack of smokes for about the same price--the latter is going to win. There is an inverse relationship between income and obesity. There is an inverse relationship between income and diabetes. There is an inverse relationship between income and high blood pressure. Is the lack of income the causitive factor here? Probably not. You can eat well cheaply. You cannot eat well cheaply AND easily. Is education the answer? Maybe--if your audience is willing to listen and learn. Fatty foods are addictive as nicotine. Pleasant food texture due to fats plays so much a part of the palability of food. Healthy foods often do not have pleasant texture, but they can be made to mimic the textures found in polyunsaturated fats. Hummus, for example, has a fat-like texture due to the pasty-ness of the ground chick pea and it's very cheap to make. However, fat-mimic foods like hummus are not part of the cultural diet of most of America's poor. Most folks coming from rural southern backgrounds like my family ("poor white trash") use lots of fats in their cooking because fats and frying makes cheap foodstuffs palatable. Momma still cooks this way for family gatherings ("all day" green beans with a bit of fat-back or salt pork, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, various greens with fat added--you get the picture).
My parents are the only children out of twenty some siblings that did not smoke, chew, or dip snuff into adulthood. They had two things going for them: military careers that exposed them to culture outside of the PWT south and the free education that military service provided, and they were part of the great post--war diaspora that brought southerners north in droves to work in the auto plants. When my parents retired from the military, many of their siblings had moved to the Great Lakes area to work in the auto industry. The military of the late-50's and 60's was devoid of the caste system experienced by rural southerners and this same phenomenon was experienced by auto workers. Most of the diaspora continued unhealthy habits like smoking, overeating and excessive use of alcohol. There was a core, however, of poor white southerners who took advantage of education benefits, such as those provided by the G.I. bill, and came to the knowledge that these habits were incompatible with good health. As a result, there was a reverse diaspora of newly educated second-generation southerners who retuned south to cities like Huntsville and Atlanta and sowed the seeds of the "New South".
What most of these folks understood (including my parents), was that they had a personal responsibility in their own health. Good habits led to good health. It was a simple equation. The rest of the population that continued bad habits also tended to take less personal responsibility for the results of those bad habits.
It does not take a lot of money to establish a healthy lifestyle. It takes work and responsibility for your own health before you get to the point of chronic disease such as diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, arteriosclerosis--the list goes on. Folks like us (CPers) who have a disadvantage out of the starting block need to be even more mindful of our lifestyle. If we're not capable of making those decisions and actions on our own, then our caretakers need to be our proxies. This is a personal responsibility--as much as possible. It is not the responsibility of the federal or state governments to ensure that we take care of ourselves the best we can. In the cases where we can't take care of ourselves, this needs to be pushed down to the smallest local level possible. I have found local faith-based organizations to be the most effective resource for those in need. My family routinely works in inner-city Columbus at a non-denominational "Faith Mission" to cook hot, healthy meals for those who caan't feed themselves. We take no pride in this as we are crushed by the weight of their need. Many street folks have serious psychological issues that could be addressed by medication, freely available, but they cannot realize, in their altered perception of reality, that the meds will help give them the tools they need to function in society. No amount of "government programming" is going to make a drop of difference in these folks lives. What will make a difference is for people like me, and others on this list who are able, rolling up their sleeves and going down to the 'hoods and serving these people at their level. Yep, it's scary and dirty and you see some "interesting" things, but people have to be willing to give of themselves. That ain't the government's job. It's mine.
My name is Kyle Cleveland and my wife approved this message. ;-)
________________________________
From: Cerebral Palsy List on behalf of Peter Hunsberger
Sent: Fri 8/29/2008 1:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Great ad, and McCain Adviser on the uninsured
>
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/28/mccain-adviser-there-are_n_122095.html
>
I can't believe anyone in their right mind would attempt to spin the
US health insurance situation in such an completely inane way! Do
they really think that having (supposedly guaranteed) emergency room
access is somehow equivalent to having health insurance? Let's see
how this would work in reality; can't afford your digitalis medication
because you have no health insurance? Don't worry about it; the
emergency room treatment will be free when you have the heart attack
it was supposed to prevent...
This is just about the most stupid and insulting position on health
insurance I have ever heard (and being in the business I've heard a
lot)!
--
Peter Hunsberger
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