How can we find the truth if we are not willing to QUESTION EVERYTHING? -Carl Sagan
Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction.
Everybody wake up... if you're living with your eyes closed. -D.Matthews
I just finished reading Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. Eggers is my favorite author and his writing style comes through again for me. He writes a non-fiction story like a novel. It is constantly flowing and moving, like his other books. He weaves the character's background and history into the story, in a way that sounds like it took years of research and conversing with each person in the book.
His great writing sets the stage for a fantastically unbelievable story of what can happen in our country when our government does not serve us. Zeitoun stuck around in New Orleans when Katrina hit, and his accounts of the post-storm happenings gave me the first true sense of what was going on there. The story then weaves in another whole issue: the plight of Arab-Americans in the post 9-11 world. The story reminds me that our government needs to serve and protect us, but also needs to be kept in balance with itself.
The book is a condemnation of what can happen when authority go unchecked and does not serve the people. To me, it is also a reminder of some of the catastrophes that went on while the worst President in our Nation's history was in power.
Please buy this book at McSweeney's or Amazon. Proceeds benefit the Zeitoun Foundation, which funds several organizations working in the New Orleans Area.
I guess McDonald's sponsorship wasn't enough. Now the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP): "We've made a conscious effort to diversify our sources of revenue," Heim said. "This is the first of what we hope will be many Consumer Alliance agreements. We're looking across a broad spectrum. This is just our initial partnership."
"Consumer alliance agreements." What kind of stupid term is that? This an "industry" alliance. How dare you call it a "consumer" alliance? A few years ago the AAFP partnered with McDonald's on its obesity project. Now Coca Cola. Who's next? Frito Lay? So we can have education program on picking which chips are best for you? Mars? So we can educate you on which candy bars to buy?
The AAFP should take the advice of someone Micheal Pollan posted on his NY Times website: "Eat foods in inverse proportion to how much it's lobby spends to push it." -Krik Westphal
Meanwhile, some lawmakers are starting to get it: "I don't think that most parents truly appreciate the role soda pop has in causing weight gain," California State Senator Padilla said.
I hope the AAFP changes this direction. Substituting one industry (Big Pharma) for another (Big Food) will not help our patients. How many mistakes does it take? First med organizations partnered with the smoking industry. Then (and now) pharmaceutical industries. Now Big food industries. When will we start to reframe what our medication organizations do? How about we start medical organizations that don't rely on industry funding? Join the National Physicians Alliance.
Op-Ed Contributor - Big Food vs. Big Insurance - NYTimes.com: "the government is putting itself in the uncomfortable position of subsidizing both the costs of treating Type 2 diabetes and the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup." -Michael Pollan
"One of the leading products of the American food industry has become patients for the American health care industry." Doctors promote this by believing that drugs are better than vegetables.
"There’s more money in amputating the limbs of diabetics than in counseling them on diet and exercise." I would say A LOT more...
"Terms like “pre-existing conditions” and “underwriting” would vanish from the health insurance rulebook — and, when they do, the relationship between the health insurance industry and the food industry will undergo a sea change."
On his major thesis- that the health industry will force the food industry to change- I'm not so sure I agree. The private health sector is too fragmented. They don't know whether a person on their plan will still be their in a year when the employer or employee changes jobs. I don't think they have enough steak in the game to force big changes in the food industry. They may start offering more exercise and nutrition counseling, but I don't see them going further.
To reform the food system, we would need to take on the food system. This is a good job for the HHS secretary, the Surgeon General, and the rest of us.
He had many excellent frames. I've been advocating for him to use George Lakoff's frame's of health care and he did just that.
A classic frame was talking about the public option like public colleges: "But by avoiding some of the overhead that gets eaten up at private companies by profits and excessive administrative costs and executive salaries, it could provide a good deal for consumers, and would also keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable and treat their customers better, the same way public colleges and universities provide additional choice and competition to students without in any way inhibiting a vibrant system of private colleges and universities. "
Most importantly he brought health care from a policy issue to a moral issue. He first brought up stories of people who can't pay for their health care. You can see another example, of a boy's family who can't pay for his cancer care here:
He then brought up Teddy's letter on why a fellow American thought that his fellow Americans should have the same access to care that he did.
"On issues like these, Ted Kennedy's passion was born not of some rigid ideology, but of his own experience. It was the experience of having two children stricken with cancer. He never forgot the sheer terror and helplessness that any parent feels when a child is badly sick. And he was able to imagine what it must be like for those without insurance, what it would be like to have to say to a wife or a child or an aging parent, there is something that could make you better, but I just can't afford it. "
Continuing he puts health care in the frame of the Family of Americans:
"That large-heartedness -- that concern and regard for the plight of others -- is not a partisan feeling. It's not a Republican or a Democratic feeling. It, too, is part of the American character -- our ability to stand in other people's shoes; a recognition that we are all in this together, and when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to lend a helping hand; a belief that in this country, hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play; and an acknowledgment that sometimes government has to step in to help deliver on that promise."
Keep talking about health care as a moral issue. It IS in our country's character to get everyone health care. Keep telling the stories of friends and family who were denied by insurance companies for life saving care. We are here to end that, because that is not the way we live in America.
"We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it. I still believe we can act even when it's hard. ... I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history's test. Because that's who we are. That is our calling. That is our character."
Thank you President Obama, for speaking to our hearts.
When you speak tomorrow night, speak of all the people in this country who have an illness and cannot get care because they cannot pay for it. This is not right in our country. We need to pass your American Health Care Plan to insure everyone of our siblings, friends, parents, and children. Every day from now until health insurance reform passes, you should read a letter from someone suffering because of lack of health insurance. The people will win over the insurance companies. Our country is great and we can achieve the right of quality, affordable healthcare for ALL.
In the above article I point out the fault in previously published guidelines on nutrition industry - research interactions. Instead of the industry policing themselves with guidelines, I argue that the journal editors should make and enforce policies on industry collaboration in nutrition research.
I cite several policies by other medical journals that the nutrition journals could adopt to increase the integrity of nutrition research.
The response to my letter was from Mr. Hentges. He side stepped most of the issues I brought up. He could not defend his group's initial argument that industry is more likely to have better results in their research. He also did not respond to my idea of stricter journal editorial policies.
However, he did agree with me that increased full disclosure of conflicts of interest would benefit research. But, he did not further back up this claim with action. His own conflict of interest statement states that he is the director of ILSI supported by North America "industry membership." Full disclosure would mean stating all the food industries that ILSI is funded by. Surely readers might want to know if he is funded by Coca Cola, Kraft, and the other food giants. These details used to be on their website, but I could no longer find it.
I will continue to view industry-funded nutrition research skeptically. You should to. Now it is time for journal editors to reform their policies.
We need to start talking about how insurance companies and HMOs have harmed the care of many of our family members and friends. The American Plan, proposed by Obama and the Democrats will guarantee every American the right to see their doctor. It will put health back in the hands of Americans and their doctors and nurses. Are you for or against the American Plan? If you are for it, you better call your representative and Senator. If not, the evil insurance companies will win again.
We need to start talking differently about health care. NOW.
I describe my self as a person who loves everything life has to offer. While my occupation is in medicine, I enjoy traveling, photography, music, and outdoor activities. I'm also an activist and believe that we should all Be Active (View My Blog) in making a better world. I grew up on Long Island, then studied Nutritional at Cornell. I've graduated from the U of Rochester Medical School, and was a resident and chief at Tufts Univ Family Medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance (Boston). I now a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at UCLA.
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