i approve of this message too kyle. 


--- On Sun, 8/31/08, Cleveland, Kyle E. <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: Cleveland, Kyle E. <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Great ad, and McCain Adviser on the uninsured
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Sunday, August 31, 2008, 8:27 PM
> 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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