Plenty of people have been whining publicly that they can’t afford health care insurance, some of whom I know. I’m talking about fairly young, reasonably healthy men and women with decent jobs who think the government should step in. Consequently, I sought out a solution at the grassroots level to see if I could help, and in the process, avoid a costly federal mandate.

Turns out it was easier to get health insurance than one might think. That’s right, an American who wants health insurance has a sure fire way to get it. Here’s how. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
2 Comments »

At what point does respect become subservience? This is a serious question because much has been made about respect for our leaders, especially at the federal level. Certainly, it is productive to treat elected officeholders with a measure of decorum. Politeness goes a long way toward getting heard. Nonetheless, it may be time for some tough talk and bold action. Of late, certain officials have told some whoppers: absolute, far-out, nowhere near the truth tales. The press somehow manages to let these pass with nary a challenge. The opposition party members seem to get a case of Timid Timmy, too. They let the bald faced balderdash fly into the ether with a look of consternation if they manage that much. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
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Dramatis Personae
Barack Obama, President of the United States
Joe Biden, Vice-President of the United States

OBAMA: I have one small concern about our health care proposal.

BIDEN: What’s that, boss?

OBAMA: Don’t call me “boss.”

BIDEN: I’m sorry — I thought that was the lingo. You know, jive talk. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
3 Comments »

One look at the House and Senate health care bills shows who Congress’ favorite constituencies are. It must be sheer joy to be on that list. If you or your group are there, it means Big Brother loves you and will address your every whim. Of course this largesse comes at the expense of others, but you’re not worried about that. You’re more important, more deserving, a little more equal than the rest.

What’s more interesting than who is on the dole, is who isn’t. For example, there’s not much in there for doctors. The bills are loaded with rules and regulations, those type of sentences that contain the words “shall” and “must.” Somehow, Congress left the goodies out. No scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours, no guaranteed minimums, no cushy boards to create steady streams of government cash into the pool of physician pockets. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
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The headline from Salon.com reads “Tweeting an abortion: A blogger takes to Twitter and YouTube as she terminates her pregnancy, and women should thank her.”

Now, I’ll be honest.  When I saw that, I had a mental image similar to that of the piece’s author (Tracey Clark-Flory), that of a woman laying there on the rock slab as they fired up the Dust-Buster and started vacuuming out her fallopian tubes.  But it’s not quite “all that and a bag of chips.”

[Read more →]

Tags: family & parenting, health & medical
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Sex is essential. People who have regular sex live longer than those who do not. These people also tend to be healthier and happier. Given the importance of sex in the lives of Americans, you would think that our government would do all it could to ensure that everyone had equal access to sexual services. Tragically, this is not the case.

In fact, our government has stood by while sexual services have been controlled by sex industry workers who seem far more interested in turning profits than turning tricks.

[Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
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Nancy Reagan used her powers of persuasion in her capacity as First Lady to get us all to “just say ‘no‘” to drugs. Now everyone knows that crack is whack, and only losers are users. Drug use is now the exclusive province of entertainers who take drugs purely for their value as entertainment to us. Barbara Bush focused like a laser beam on literacy, and taught a nation to read. The fact that you’re able to read this now is proof of her success in that endeavor. Hillary Clinton delivered on her promise of providing affordable and effective healthcare to every citizen, regardless of income level or pre-existing condition. Laura Bush focused like a laser beam on literacy, and taught a nation to read. The fact that you’re able to read this now is proof of her success in that endeavor.

We’ve been waiting for over a year to discover what weighty issue our current First Lady, Michelle Obama, would eliminate. And now we know, she is bringing her considerable persuasive heft to convince us all that we need to stop being so fat.

[Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
2 Comments »

Two recent events were undeniable… arithmetically indisputable, good news on the economic front. These of course were the rapid growth in Q4 of last year and the recent crash through the dirty-glass floor of double-digit unemployment. Gold prices are well down, oil is up but it seems that is mostly currency fluctuation. That’s good stuff. However public opinion is unimpressed. The recent spike which seems was captured only in Rasmussen’s robo-called three-day rolling average has endured scarcely a week. Even the Obies are going easy on the trumpets. So what is up? It’s quite simple. Everyone paying attention now knows that whatever blurps and blips take place in the short term, economically at least, we are fully and truly screwed. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, money, politics & government
3 Comments »

You are an elected Democrat. You have voted for Obamacare and you may be asked to do so again. In any case, the two of you are now married. But Left and Right agree, she is on life support. Sentiment aside, do you want her to live or do you pull the plug? [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
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While I wasn’t old enough to have clear memories of Reagan’s Presidency, I’ve heard the stories and read plenty of articles about how the news was almost daily describing the plight of the homeless in America.  To watch the 6 o’clock news, you’d have thought we were all living in a van, down by the river and that only the elites owned double-wide trailers.  Then, almost as soon as Bill Clinton took office, those stories vanished.  A bubble began to inflate. [Read more →]

Tags: damned lies, health & medical
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The headline of the Reuters article “Countries re-think swine flu vaccine orders”, by Maggie Fox, doesn’t leave much to the imagination.  As the much-hyped disease fades into memory, dropping out of the public’s awareness, people have finally been able to take stock, to put numbers to things, and they’re finding that the drug companies are sittin’ fat.

[Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
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In the chart below, I’ve plotted IHE (Ishares Dow Jones Pharmaceuticals ETF), IHF (Ishares Health Care Providers), and IHI (Ishares Medical Devices), with SPY (S&P depository trust) included for comparison purposes. I’ve also included vertical lines marking various landmarks in the road to healthcare reform (left to right): May 11, healthcare industry players meet with Obama; June 8, Senate HELP committee releases initial draft bill; June 23, Obama presser on healthcare; July 22, Obama prime time presser on healthcare; July 31, Congress recesses to go home and get yelled at by constituents; November 19, Reid unveils bill in Senate; December 24, Senate passes healthcare bill. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, money, politics & government
5 Comments »

Dramatis Personae
Barack Obama, President of the United States
Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House

OBAMA: Guys, what’s this I hear about you conferencing my health care bill in secret?

REID: Well, Mr. President, like they say, legislation of this type is a lot like sausage. It’s better if the people don’t know how it’s made.

OBAMA: But I promised during the campaign that all negotiations surrounding this bill would be public. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
1 Comment »

It’s a contentious time in America. Between fighting over health care, over terrorists and TSA regulations, and dealing with standard-issue holiday stress, we all seem to be teetering on our last nerves. So for my debut column at When Falls the Coliseum, I’ve decided to start 2010 on an uncontroversial note and champion a cause we all can get behind. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, science
2 Comments »

It was during the first hour of 2010 that I resolved to visit my friend Monty Gelstein in the hospital as often as possible. He won’t know I’m there, but I will. And hopefully that good karma will assuage the guilt I feel for putting him there in the first place. I’d never administered electroshock therapy and should have practiced a bit before treating my best friend. [Read more →]

Tags: creative writing, health & medical
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I was posed a question by the reader wjv in an earlier thread, asking me if I could work some of my ideas on the nature of government, and the freedoms of individuals and groups, into a few thoughts on health care.  I must admit that I find it interesting that anyone would care what I think about it, but it was a great question/suggestion, and provided quite a bit of food for thought as I wandered the crisp, breezy woods yesterday afternoon.

[Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
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We’ve been dealing with health care reform for the better part of a year now, and progress today is still as iffy as it was before the “Summer of Angry Town Halls”.  The Senate is debating amendments and provisions, jockeying for votes, and trying to keep together the fragile coalition which allowed for debate on the Senate floor to occur.  The average American, having long ago made up their mind, is probably becoming tired of the same speeches, the same talking points, and the intolerable actions of Congress people on both sides of the aisle.

[Read more →]

Tags: damned lies, health & medical, politics & government
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Many unprogressives stubbornly insist that the health care reform legislation making its way through Congress will do little or nothing to provide coverage for the estimated 46 million people in America without health insurance. But these deniers and haters have simply failed to recognize the mechanism that will surely provide coverage for all; that is, the provision that will mandate, under penalty of law, that all individuals purchase insurance. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
No Comments »

Organic farmers are in crisis. After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to convert their conventional farms to organic in the past few years, they are now faced with the shrinking organic market and a mountain of debt. The middle class are looking for ways to cut expenses as they deal with job loss or job insecurity, and forgoing organic products has been an easy way to save a few dollars. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, recipes & food
2 Comments »

If you would have asked me just a few months ago if the healthcare system in this country needed fixing, my immediate answer would have been, “hell yes.” Like most Americans, I hated high deductibles, costly procedures, tiresome claims, ambiguous benefits, dysfunctional emergency rooms, etc, etc. Unlike most Americans, I had a chronic condition, so for me the madness was amplified. But now there is a president and congress committed to helping. So why am I not excited? [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
10 Comments »

My university has hand sanitizer dispensers all over campus. Until last week there was one attached to the wall between the two elevators in the building that contains my office. Then the sanitizer dispenser disappeared. Don’t worry. Today I discovered that a new dispenser had replaced the old one. And this new dispenser is automatic. I guess someone decided that having everyone touch the sanitizer dispenser with their hands in order to reduce the spread of germs wasn’t the best plan. An automatic dispenser solves that problem. It senses your hand and gives you some germ-killing liquid.

But that can cause other problems. [Read more →]

Tags: all work, health & medical
6 Comments »

At least 60% of Americans have a Vitamin D deficiency. As we avoid the sun more and more for fear of developing skin cancer, we may be creating an even bigger problem. Vitamin D is absolutely essential for our bodies and 15-45 minutes of direct sunlight each day is the best way to get it (the darker your skin, the more time you will need in the sun).

When an adult does not get enough D they can experience the following: aches and pains, lowered immunity to disease, bone softening, increased rates of cancer (especially breast, prostate, and colon cancers), heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and high blood pressure. Men, age 40-70, with low levels of Vitamin D have a significantly higher risk of heart attack than men of the same age group with normal D levels.

[Read more →]

Tags: family & parenting, health & medical, race & culture
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The latest iteration of the proposed healthcare bill, the one being championed by Montana Senator Seiman Baucus (recipient of over $4 million in healthcare lobbyists’ money), ignores the President’s promise that he would not levy taxes on those who were not rich. It also ignores the promise the President made to negotiate the healthcare changes on C-Span but since he ignored the promise to make his campaign financing transparent, we really didn’t expect him to keep his word.

Part of the Baucus plan is to create new taxes for medical devices based on the three categories created by the FDA. The categories break down medical devices into those that present minimal potential for harm to the user (Class I), those for which general controls alone are insufficient to assure safety and effectiveness (Class II) and devices where insufficient information exists to assure safety and effectiveness solely through the general or special controls (Class III). [Read more →]

Tags: family & parenting, health & medical, politics & government
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Certain words in the English language make me cringe. There is one in particular that I have never liked, even before I had a child. Now that I have one, I really don’t want to hear this word. It’s not the “F” word. It’s the fucking “A” word. Autism. [Read more →]

Tags: family & parenting, health & medical
3 Comments »

For the first time in the US, an experimental surgery has been performed to cure a woman, Kay Thorton, 60, of her blindness. She had been unable to see for nine years because of a disease,  Stevens-Johnson syndrome, which has caused her corneas to dry out and become scratched. To her luck, doctors were able to extract one of her canine teeth and stick it in there in the most disgusting way possible. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical
1 Comment »

Last night, my husband and I had the following dinner-time conversation:

Husband: A few people in my office have swine flu.

Me: (choking) What? How do you know they have swine flu? Were they tested for it?

Husband: Their doctors told them they had swine flu. Doctors aren’t testing patients for it anymore.

Me: Then how are they sure it’s swine flu? [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical
No Comments »

In one of the uncountable number of healthcare articles to come out over the last three months it seems President Obama is going to try and “reset” the debate. Apparently the 44th President has not heard of the laws of physics: an object at rest wants to stay at rest. As much as I’d like to see any piece of legislation on this topic make it out of the crib, I think the reset tactic is flawed. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government
5 Comments »

President Obama was photographed riding his bicycle without a helmet. Like Obama, I don’t wear a helmet when I ride. So we have that in common.

I hadn’t been on a bike in ten years and haven’t owned one in longer. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, sports
1 Comment »

10. If you plan to get sick, you must give the government at least three months notice.

9. To pay for it, taxes will be raised only on those earning more than $250 per year.

8. All cigarettes will be banned, except Newport 100s (Obama’s brand).

7. Our new Secretary of Health and Human Services: Michael Moore.

6. We will not pass the cost of this plan on to our children, or to our children’s children; it will be paid for by their children.

5. Prostate exams will be made more comfortable, via candlelight and romantic music.

4. Once healthcare rationing begins, registered Democrats get first dibs.

3. Coming soon to every mall in America: free abortion kiosks.

2. In early spring, all the elderly will be rounded up and placed on ice floes.

1. The plan won’t cover people born in foreign countries — Obama included.
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, health & medical, politics & government
1 Comment »

Strange visions can come to us late in the night. Yesterday I beheld a TV commercial that was so bizarre it felt like a dream.  The scene was as follows: a woman was travelling on the moving walkway in an airport, looking robust, cheerful and confident — rather like the heroine of a Soviet propaganda film. She passed under an image of her own face when suddenly another woman ran up to her and declared:

WOMAN: You’re the colon lady!

[Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, television
4 Comments »