Kyle,

Healthier lifestyles would benefit us all!

On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 6:27 PM, Cleveland, Kyle E. <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> 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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-- 


Kendall

An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's redundant!)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

-George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950

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