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Posts Tagged ‘Healthcare’

Obesity: a Disease?

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 20, 2013| 6 Comments »

You know that part in the Officer Krupke song of West Side Story, when the character says, “Hey, I gotta social disease!”?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq28qCklEHc

O God, why do I think of life as one long musical comedy? Well I guess it’s better than a Shakespearian tragedy. I was listening to all the talk yesterday about how the AMA has now classified obesity as a disease. Here is what they said at their annual meeting:

“RESOLVED, That our American Medical Association recognize obesity as a disease state with multiple pathophysiological aspects requiring a range of interventions to advance obesity treatment and prevention.”  http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/06/19/193440570/ama-says-its-time-to-call-obesity-a-disease

So, supposedly, if insurance company clerks agree with this assessment, they will pay more doctors for actually taking time to sit with patients and counsel them about the dangers of obesity, and how to fix and/or prevent it from happening. Sounds lovely in writing doesn’t it? So of course I had to ask my doctors what they thought…granted, this will apply to mostly family practice docs, but still.

“Probably just they’ll start covering more gastric bypass surgery,” the Bride said. She takes that global, public policy point of view, citing economic and social issues with our American widening of the collective belt.

“It’s good for the health of the country,” Bob says. More people will be able to access treatment and more insurance companies will have to pay for that treatment. One caveat he mentioned was similar to the Bride’s concern for an increase in gastric bypass surgery and lap bands – citing the fact that no surgery can be done without risk. He also wondered aloud if more drug companies will now push their efforts into finding the wonder drug for weight loss; you know, instead of curing cancer or AIDS.

Semantics – it’s all in a word and how we phrase something. Addiction was always thought of as a social disease. Alcoholics and drug addicts just needed to stop, just put the glass or the needle down for good, cold turkey. In this interview with Russell Brand, we get the sense of its (drugs and alcohol) complete and total mind/body control. http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8857821/fixing-a-hole/

“I cannot accurately convey the efficiency of heroin in neutralising pain. It transforms a tight white fist into a gentle brown wave, and from my first inhalation 15 years ago it fumigated my private hell. A bathroom floor in Hackney embraced me like a womb, and now whenever I am dislodged from comfort my focus falls there.”

The problem with food is that we need it, we can’t just put it down and stop eating. We can join a 12 step group and leave our bar-hopping days behind, but we still need to sit down at a dinner table. In Mika Brzezinski’s new book, she talks about her struggle with anorexia and her friend’s struggle with obesity as if they are 2 sides of the same coin. https://mountainmornings.net/2013/05/07/and-all-that/ So then it makes sense, if anorexia is considered a disease worth treating, why not treat obesity?

On a lighter note, the Love Bug is absolutely perfect! At her latest pediatric appointment (9 and 1/2 months), her  height/weight charting shows her to be at the 68th percentile for weight, and 84th for height. “Yeah, I’m tall, you got a problem with that?”IMG952245

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Flip Flops vs Fleece

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , on October 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

No, I’m not referring to the Presidential debate last night. In fact, I’d just as soon forget it.

Kabuki theatre at its best, stylized and predictable; one character claims the other’s ideas as his own, while the other looks down and then lectures the audience. The problem is, running a country isn’t like performing in a play. Leadership depends on character and commitment. We Dems know who to believe, we know who we can trust. The GOP also thinks they have the man for the job. The guy who thinks of healthcare as an entitlement program, and 47% of American citizens as freeloaders.

“What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don’t know and I don’t care.”

The point that rattled me in the debate was when the topic turned to healthcare. Listening to Mitt, one might think he did a splendid job in MA, crossing the aisle and actually “working” with Dems to get his version of affordable care passed. You know that version, the almost identical one to Obamacare, which thanks very much for not meaning any disrespect by using the term…which was the point at which I really started wondering who was in Mitt’s body. Shapeshifters beware, this guy is a natural, he even takes on Big Bird.

Mitt said Obamacare has, “…killed jobs,” and what he would do is “…craft a plan at the state level that fits the needs of the state.” Sirens started going off in my head, state’s rights and all. OK, so introducing all those little ultrasound bills, and TRAP regulations are just fine with him. What’s really fine with Mitt is taking us back to a clear, third-party payer system – getting government out of the doctor’s office and back into the hands of the health insurance industry with everybody making lots of money. Never mind that every other G8 country has a form of universal health care in place for its citizens, Mitt knows that we Americans take care of our poor.

Remember when Mitt said on “60 Minutes” that we Americans don’t let people die in their apartments – we call the ambulance? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-watson/in-ultimate-display-of-ig_b_1910259.html Emergency Rooms (or Departments, as Bob calls them) are his plan of last resort for fixing the problem of the uninsured. Under EMTALA law http://www.acep.org/content.aspx?id=25936 anyone who presents to an ER must be seen, whether they can pay or not. This was one of those smack yourself in the head moments. Mitt thinks it’s perfectly OK to pass those costs on to taxpayers, who presumably can afford medical insurance, but just barely because those costs are skyrocketing…because we have so many uninsured people who cost hospitals and ERs 4-5 digits worth of care per visit, that gets passed onto taxpayers…and the Catch 22 continues.

Listen carefully over the next few weeks. Listen to their debates in the context of what they have said before, so you can see beyond the Kabuki make-up. And while I was going to talk about the weather, and how one day you’re wearing flip flops, and the next you’re wearing a fleece jacket, I seem to have gotten off track. “It’s not good being poor.”

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