MyWellness Network

By Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-Mich.)

Washington, DC — Throughout the health care debate, the majority of Americans have expressed their opposition and frustration with the president and his Democratic Congress’ radical proposals. The public is opposed to the scheme’s practical harm; frustrated by the Democrats’ arrogant refusal to listen; and justified in its concern that willful Washington politicians will impose these unhelpful proposals despite the American people’s objections.

This is not how the sovereign citizens’ servant government is supposed to enact laws in our free republic. Especially when there is a far more sensible, affordable and contemporary path: patient-centered wellness for our people powered world.

Emulating the failure of their trillion dollar stimulus bill’s “wealth redistribution” that they assured Americans would stop unemployment from rising over 8.5%, the Democrats’ radical, nearly trillion dollar “health redistribution” will not work. For months, the case has been made and the public has concurred: government-run medicine’s cost, higher taxes, surcharges on employer provided benefits, Medicare cuts, rationing boards (such as the stimulus bill’s already appointed Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research) and personal mandates, will only increase the costs, decrease the quality and reduce the choices of Americans’ health care. Given such overwhelming and intense public opposition, why do the Democrats insist on imposing this scheme on the American people?

Ideologically, the Democrats are bent on governmentally reducing the supply of health care to “control” costs. This is patently absurd. According to the time-tested law of supply and demand, if the government reduces the supply of health care while the demand for it increases from demographic pressures and medical advances, the costs will spiral upward; and the government will increasingly intrude into your personal decisions and savings.

Believing their complete control of Washington provides a “once in a generational chance” to pass their radical health care scheme, Democrats bull ahead regardless of Americans’ opposition. Cynically, the Democrats feel the law, once passed, will prove immune to repeal. Accordingly, affronted Americans understand the Democrats’ health redistribution scheme is a threat to their wellness, prosperity and liberty.

Consequently, Americans have tirelessly sought to be heard and heeded by the president and his Congress. The response has been worse than silence. Confronted with public dissent, the administration and Democrats have sought to silence opposition by establishing a taxpayer-funded White House cyber “snitch site”; attacks on the messengers of unwelcome facts and statistics; smears against citizens peaceably assembling to petition this government for the redress of grievances; demonizing and investigating private sector entities; and assaults against a cable television network (and, thereby, the First Amendment). No wonder the American people’s disapproval of the president, his Democratic Congress and their health redistribution scheme is plummeting.

We live in a people-powered world, one which is finally catching up to America’s revolutionary experiment in human freedom and self-government. Therefore, in opposing the Democrats’ fossilized model of government-run health care that usurps self-government, the public and Republicans embrace the communications revolution and a globalized marketplace that disdains and decentralizes massive, bureaucratic entities and empowers people as citizens and consumers. Consequently, we understand health care reform must match – not resist – these economic and communications advances by decentralizing government to provide the sensible, affordable reforms that foster patient-centered wellness, which empowers American citizens to be consumers of health care through transparency and free market forces.

The heart of patient-centered wellness for our people-powered world is prudent, targeted, multi-track reforms that reduces costs by leveraging the communications revolution and market forces to increase the supply of health care amid rising demand. Immediate, obvious measures include reforming medical liability laws; ending exclusions for pre-existing conditions; expanding health savings accounts; providing tax credits for purchasing private health insurance; allowing association health plans; permitting health insurance purchases across state lines; encouraging individuals to insure against changes in health status; incentivizing preventative health care; and applying information technology to enhance transparency and increase efficiencies. All this can be achieved without trillions in new spending, taxes and government-dictated, radical changes to Americans’ current health care.

For the less fortunate and most vulnerable amongst us, there must be an expansion of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), which will provide patients with preventive and routine treatment; and end underserved people’s use of emergency rooms for primary health-care treatments. Doctors and other health care professionals can be incentivized to provide their services at these clinics for either immediate or future considerations; and a “Patient Navigator” program attached to each FQHC can assist the underserved in accessing the health care system. This approach will build true, community-based health care and increase the power of economically disadvantaged patients to control their own health care. Finally, people suffering from “orphan diseases” – rare afflictions requiring a lifetime of special care – should be compassionately assisted through our nation’s social safety net.

Unfortunately, trapped in the past of a big government ideology and purblind to the people-empowering wonders of our globalized world, the president and his Democratic majority cavalierly dismiss such sensible, affordable approaches and determinedly toil behind closed doors to impose their radical health redistribution scheme on unwilling Americans. If they prevail, their health redistribution will impel higher costs, lower quality, fewer choices and – yes – lost jobs during this painful recession. There is a better way – patient-centered wellness for our people powered world.

Paul Liberatore – Contra Costa Times

The annual Bioneers conference prides itself on presenting unsung “superstars” – “great people nobody has ever heard of,” founder Kenny Ausubel said during the weekend gathering at the Marin Civic Center.

But Andrew Weil, a pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, is a superstar physician just about everyone has heard of from his books and appearances on “Larry King Live,” the “Today Show” and “Oprah.”

An avuncular figure with his neatly trimmed white beard, bald head and easy smile, Weil spoke about the contentious health care reform issue at the 20th Bioneers convocation on Saturday.

He was the headliner of the morning plenary session, strolling the stage in jeans and a gray T-shirt, speaking without notes to a large but not capacity crowd in the 2,000-seat Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

He wasted no time in framing the current debate as not about health care, but about health insurance, pointing out that our overly expensive health care system is 37th in the world in terms of quality, about the same as Serbia.

“There is something very wrong with this picture,” he said.

He noted that in his recent speeches on health care, President Barack Obama’s only reference to preventive medicine was to encourage people to get a colonoscopy. But there was no mention of health education or the lifestyle choices – diet and exercise – that are major factors in disease prevention and health promotion.

He blamed a corporate “disease management system” that is overly
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dependent on expensive technology – the overuse of high-tech scans that themselves may cause cancer, and the over-reliance on prescription drugs for treating each and every disease.

“Americans are taking prescription drugs at 10 times the rate as when I was growing up,” he said. And without naming brand names, he got a big hand when he took aim at the proliferation of ads for prescription drugs on television, saying, “If I were king, I would ban direct consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals. If I were on a desert island and had to pick 12 drugs to have with me, I’d pick things like morphine and aspirin, not the stuff advertised on TV. This is a big problem we’ve got to solve.”

He advised his audience against relying on politicians to solve it.

“They only pay lip service to prevention,” he said. “They are too beholden to vested interests. The corrupting influence of money is overwhelming. The profits are outrageous.”

Instead, he placed the responsibility directly on the shoulders of the average person.

“It’s up to you to change the balance of political power,” he said. “Health is an individual responsibility. But we’ve got to make it easier, not harder, for people to make healthier choices.”

He brought up some novel approaches to help people do that. He cited the example of Alabama, which is looking at combating its high obesity rate with a fat tax that would cause people who don’t lose weight to forfeit some health benefits.

“That’s something to experiment with,” he said.

And he brought up a Swedish attempt to make exercise fun by turning a staircase into a piano keyboard, encouraging people to make music while taking the stairs rather than an escalator.

“I like that,” he grinned. “It’s a novel strategy that won’t give people the feeling of being coerced.”

The bottom line, Weil told the group, is that “you can’t afford to get sick.” And he offered some simple ways of staying healthy.

“It’s not that complicated,” he said. “When it comes to nutrition, stop eating refined, processed and manufactured foods. That’s it. Just stay out of the interior of supermarkets.”

He recommended more of the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and in fish oil. He also suggested that Americans need vitamin D, which comes from the sun, saying that we suffer from a widespread deficiency of it in this country.

Within reason, “the sun is good for you,” he said.

Then there’s exercise. “You’ve got to move your body,” he said. “Figure out ways to move. You don’t have to run marathons or join a gym. Just try to walk. Walk a little more today than you did yesterday.”

And, lastly, “neutralize stress.” He said his favorite method was a simple breathing technique. “Try breathing deeper, slower, quieter and more regularly. Practice this. It’s very simple stuff.”

Despite the divisiveness of the health care debate, Weil said, “I’m optimistic about the future. If enough people demand change, maybe we can change things. But it’s only going to change if we get aroused enough and angry enough to make the change.”

Submitted by Heather Rudalavage of Intuitive Nutrition

What , you say- you never heard of Vitamin P?? Okay, so it’s not a real vitamin, but most of us are deficient in it. It’s called Pleasure. I heard this play on terms somewhere and it got me to thinking. Especially when a good friend of mine started to talk about how “the kids” were killing her marriage. “Honey, the Kids are Killing Us”- The Prequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. We both agreed that our marriages were in need of some romance, joy, fun, (you know, like in high school) maybe this lack of pleasure has something to do with the extra weight I am still trying to shed. Could it be that if I went out dancing or if my husband and I ran around the high school track and then collapsed in a fit of giggles and started making out under the stars, these last few pounds would budge?

It’s ironic isn’t it, that we Americans have more choices, more income, more food, more house, more car and more STUFF than any other nation on the planet and yet we are not the happiest or the healthiest. Could it be that we have begun to look towards food in an attempt to find pleasure? But, in a sad twist, have effectively taken pleasure out of our food and reduced it to numbers- how many calories does it have, how many fat grams, how many carbs, is it healthy, is it good or bad, should I or shouldn’t I. And now, we keep eating more food and still not getting any pleasure from it. Take for instance, wine. When we realized that the French have less heart disease, but eat more “rich” foods and drink more wine than we Americans do, we figured it must be the phyto -chemicals in the wine, if we could just bottle up the those chemicals in the form of a pill, we would have less heart disease too. Right?? Here’s the vital piece that may be missing. Maybe it’s not the chemicals in the wine, maybe it’s the fact that the French linger over their meals, sipping wine, chatting and laughing with friends. Over here, on this side of the pond, we are far too busy to linger over dinner. We rather shovel it in as fast as we can and then take a pill to make up for the rest. We have to take the kids to baseball, soccer, dance, spanish, piano…

What if we began to find more ways to add pleasure to our life, not in the form of accumulating more stuff, but working less and spending more time with our selves, our spouses our families our friends? What if we worked less and had less money to spend on after school lessons, but had more time to play a game of tag in the yard or go for a bike ride. What if we made a date night with our significant other at least once a month? What if we began to say grace and offer gratitude for our abundance? I wonder if these acts of attempting to add more pleasure to our lives would have an affect on our waistlines? I think it would, but even if it didn’t effect our waistlines we would still be better off.

Recently, I read about two different families who didn’t spend any money (other than necessities, groceries and entertainment) for a year. Both families saved about $10,000. As much as I would like to not see that credit card bill every month, I just don’t think I could do it. What about birthdays and Christmas how would I explain to my kids that Santa had to cut them off the list this year due to the recession? But, maybe it doesn’t need to be this extreme. Maybe I could find small ways to spend less and add more joy. Remember that friend of mine who said the kids were killing her, I mean, her marriage? She and I decided to swap babysitting services for an overnight. That way, we can each spend a night alone with our hubby’s and we don’t need to spend a dime, unless we wanted to go to dinner or something. Let the pleasure begin

Anyone have any thoughts they want to add? Anyone have any ideas on how to get off the hamster wheel?