the sick elephant in the debate room

Question: Why is universal health care still in not being talked about in the health care reform debate?

The answer: the many people invested in our current system continuing who know how to lobby hard.

Recently there's been some movement to try to push towards it without getting too aggressive:

The Securities and Exchange Commission - in a somewhat surprise move - has decided to allow shareholders to vote on a proposal for universal health coverage. According to an article in the NYT this morning, the proposal "asks companies to adopt 'principles for comprehensive health care reform' like those devised by the Institute of Medicine".

The American Medical Association - a group that has in the past taken a perhaps surprisingly nonsupporting stance on the issue - has asked American medical schools to increase enrollment this year, in an effort to address the looming (and very real) possibility of not having enough physicians if everyone does gain access to health care. Dr. Joseph Martin, in a Boston Globe article this morning discusses that this is particularly true of primary care physicians. This has certainly been the case in Massachusetts as the state version of universal health care went into effect this year - with politicians and taxpayers alike upset about the state under-budgeting for the implementation of the reform.

The implementation of a universal health care plan will not be easy, it will not be cheap, and it will not be a seamless transition however slow we try to do it. But that begs the question: if we aren't willing to go through reforming health care, what band-aid "solution" are we settling for?

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A great quote from Dr. Ian Furst (an oral and maxofacial surgeon in Canada, who writes on: http://www.waittimes.blogspot.com) : "It’s all well and good to make the argument that paying for the small stuff will save us money on the big stuff. But there will be a period (20 years) where we have to pay for both. Are you prepared to make a 20 year gamble that it will pay off in the end? Is there an economist somewhere that has actually run the models to prove that it’s true? Also, the major burden on health care is not from lack of drugs but lifestyle choices and old age. In an ideal world I think that acute and chronic problems should be covered but I don’t want to give up my ability to have my cancer or heart attack treated. Unless everyone is willing to pay during the transition it’s not going to happen"

farmers markets, organic foods, % of paycheck, oh my!

It's that time again -when the farmers markets start to open up all over the nation with cheap, delicious fruits and veggies, bread and honey, and of course, wine and beer.

Question: What are your priorities? - local? healthy? cheap? organic?

1) organic food costs more, but might be better for you - how to maximize
NYT Strategic Spending Guide (what to buy organic)
Big Business, Organically

http://www.ewg.org/

2) how to eat local?
Local Harvest inc. family farms, local organic, etc
Food Routes: inc. how to Buy Local or other sustainable options that can be ordered online
The Food Project: local food in Massachusetts

(photo from: http://www.richardahouser.com/)

3) how to make it affordable
compare prices - some things will be cheaper in certain places (like tomatoes at any farmers market in the northeast throughout the whole summer) or worth the extra cost (milk, for example). I think ultimately, each person has to figure out what works for her/him. I'm definitely open to suggestions or stories for this answer.

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For more information, check out
The Omnivore's Dilemma - warning: you may never eat corn again.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - one family's experience with trying to eat locally for a whole year

The Role of the Poet

Because the quote doesn't really fit - in a separate post:

"The poet's role has changed over the centuries, the ages. The poets, the griots, used to be the keepers of the facts; they were the story tellers, and the stories were allegorically written truths: where we came from, how we migrated over this river, got with this tribe, became this nation, and tamed the mountains. It changed from that to being purely entertainment. And once it became purely entertainment, it lost something." -Malik Yusef in Word on the Street

Morning After Pill for HIV?

It may be possible - according to a recently published article on HIV in the NEJM about the success of post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV. This means that you a take a pill (or a regimen of pills) very soon after possible exposure to the virus and it actually prevents the virus from invading your healthy cells. It's approved by the FDA for this purpose, standard procedure if a health worker is exposed while handling blood infected with HIV/AIDS and even covered by many insurance plans. Sounds like it should be as standard a procedure as putting your arm in a cast quickly after it's broken - so what's the catch?

*It's only available in San Francisco.
*It costs over $1,000/month without insurance.
*The CDC is really not into it (thinking it may actually encourage more risky behavior) so there's no federal funding for it right now.

For more information see this article in Mother Jones.

the spiritual dimension of life

In honor of the recent death of Albert Hofmann, the chemist who discovered LSD (btw, he was 102 - even with all that tripping...), I've been thinking a lot about the spiritual dimension and what we go through in our search for "deeper meaning" - or as J. put it this weekend, the aesthetic truths (as opposed to the functional truths that we search for as scientists or journalists, etc)

From a NYT article on Neural Buddhists today discusses how science, especially neuroscience, is changing its view towards deeper meaning - "Over the past several years, the momentum has shifted away from hard-core materialism. The brain seems less like a cold machine. It does not operate like a computer. Instead, meaning, belief and consciousness seem to emerge mysteriously from idiosyncratic networks of neural firings. Those squishy things called emotions play a gigantic role in all forms of thinking. Love is vital to brain development.
...The mind seems to have the ability to transcend itself and merge with a larger presence that feels more real."

This concept of "feeling more real" is intriguing to me - because I think those are the moments we crave, perhaps not all the time, but most nights I feel like that's the search is for. But as R. pointed out - you can't actually search for it, or you'll miss it. The aesthetic truths can't be pursued - we just have to slowly figure them out as we go...

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Even though he tripped on LSD a lot, Albert Hofman found spiritual transcendence in other parts of his life as well. His advice to would-be trippers? “Go to the meadow, go to the garden, go to the woods. Open your eyes!”
(what a perfect quote for the beginning of summer)

the value of a smile (hear this, new england)

I was running along the river this weekend. If you do as often as I do, you know that you end up seeing a lot of the same people and because on this particular river almost everyone runs a loop - even though you can run over 10 miles on each side without crossing or turning around, almost everyone runs some type of loop because 1) loops are more fun than out and backs because you see more even though it's all the same river and 2) bridges are neat.

but the loop means that instead of seeing Familiar People once, I usually see them twice. Which was nice on Saturday, because there was this Pretty Good-Looking Guy who had a nice stride (I always check out people's strides) and smiled all happy-like (unfortunately not flirtatious-like, but that could have been because I was a sweaty fool) at me - Twice. Which is a big deal because in the northeast, runners are not so friendly and a smile at a young, albeit sweaty, woman, is more rare than you'd think. So after I passed the Pretty Good-Looking Guy the second time, I'm smiling all happy-like. Ahead of me, walking the other direction listening to his old school Walkman is a slightly tattered Old Man. And because I'm feeling so happy, I smile briefly at the Old Man as I run by, thinking very little of it.

But a few strides later, I hear him yell back at me (yell in a kind, not aggressive, way) "thanks for the smile; that was very nice". I regret that I didn't turn, I just gave him a behind-my-head thumbs up and kept going the other way.

But it just goes to show that a smile goes a long way. Note to the northeast: It is okay to smile. It doesn't mean you're flirting or hitting on anyone. It just means it's a nice day and you're a nice person. Try it, please? For the Old Man.

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"the eyes are the window to the soul"
-I forget who really said it, but I heard it from my 10th grade English teacher - who was FABULOUS.

dividing up your passions... productive?

a friend said to me the other day that your passions/interests can be invited into 3 major categories:

1) ideas/issues you like to read about/know about/be able to talk about - but not necessarily be involved in
2) ideas/issues you want to be involved with in some capacity; on weekends, as something with which you complement your main interests; you wouldn't necessarily claim to be an expert at these or have them define you, but you enjoy and are fascinated by them
3) ideas/issues that become your main interest, that you create a career around, that you spend most of your "purpose time" pursuing; that you have to because they fascinate you more than anything else - the things that make you feel fulfilled and accomplished.

I think for me 1) includes post-colonial/diaspora literature, new technology... and 2) includes environmental sustainability, wine, dance... and 3) medicine/health, gender equality, and inter-cultural understanding (in not always a so intellectual-sounding way...)

what are yours? and what helps you decide what to put in each category?

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"You massage the Universe's spine when you twirl
through time leaving shadows on the Sun..."
-Saul Williams (from The Dead Emcee Scrolls...)

health 2.0 and medi-cal cuts

First, a shout out to California doctors. A group of CA doctors is suing the state of CA for making $1.3 million in Medi-Cal budget cuts (effective Jul 1) - stating that the rates do not give beneficiaries the same access to care - because it covers less than half the price of private insurance. Read more about it in this WSJ article.

Second, I keep thinking about discussing health 2.0 - or this new wave of debate about online medical records, because I think it's fascinating. But I just haven't had the time to find legitimate, semi-unbiased resources. Any ideas?