March 18th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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A reader pointed me out to this current food pyramid subsidy model showing what the daily recommended servings are for each category of food compared with how the federal farm subsidy programs actually work against the goal of a healthy nation. You can click on the image to enlarge it and take a close look at how powerful lobby groups have become.
There is no reason why dairy and meat farmers should be getting 50 billion dollars in farm subsidies. And if we are playing the subsidy game (which I think is a fraud), why are vegetables, one of the most healthy things we can put in our mouth, getting slaughtered at the table of entitlement handouts? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*
March 9th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Opinion
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The CDC has put out an interactive map of heart disease and stroke so you can compare your state or even county with the rest of the country. It offers data on mortality, hospitalizations and even penetration of generalist and subspecialist availability.
What I found interesting was the lack of definitive association between access to generalists or subspecialists and mortality. While rural areas with a low penetration of physicians generally had a higher mortality than urban centers, many urban centers with a high penetration of generalists and subspecialist also had a high mortality as well. One could presume that rural America has many factors separate and independent of health care that affects their mortality rate. The same could be said for urban America. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*
March 3rd, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, News, Opinion
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It turns out calling 911 isn’t free. Imagine that. 911 communications may actually cost you money. People who pay taxes aren’t the only ones who are fitting the bill anymore. In some places ambulances are charging fat surcharges for the extra equipment necessary for the ambulance ride? How much does an ambulance ride cost if you are morbidly obese? How does an extra $500 in addition to the base rate.
But even people who don’t require extra equipment will have to start paying extra for the right to make the call to 911 communications. How much extra? How much will calling 911 cost in Tracy, California? Well, if you want to pay a $48 per year fee, you can call 911 communications centers as many times as you want. But if you don’t want to pay the fee, how does $300 per call sound. If you’re having a stroke, calling 911 communications may just cost you your arm and your leg.
That’s right. $300 to call 911 communications for an emergency. Or perhaps the problem is too many people are calling for nonemergency reasons. If you can’t get the frequent abusers who show up at the hospital by ambulance for nonemergent problems to stop calling 911, maybe you can collect their $300 by garnishing their welfare and disability checks.
At some point, our country is going to have to stop excusing the actions of the economic tax abusers and start implementing personal responsibility with real consequences that hold folks accountable for their actions. I think charging a fee is an excellent deterant to unnecssary abuse of a system that is overwhelmed with nonurgent convenience care.
*This blog post was originally published at Happy Hospitalist*
March 2nd, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Opinion
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I took care of a young lady the other day whom I admitted for diabetic ketoacidosis. She asked me what her bicarbonate level was. I was a bit surprised since most of the time my DKA patients’ don’t care what their bicarb levels are. I told her it was eight. For the non medical types out there, that’s low. That’s critically low.
I asked her why she wanted to know. And before she could even get the words out, she had posted a Tweet onto her Twitter acount to update all her friends and family of her impending hospital admission. I found that fascinating. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Happy Hospitalist*
February 26th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Opinion
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What are some excellent weight loss options? I’m a true believer in diet and exercise. When you burn more calories than you consume on a daily basis, the laws of chemistry, physics, and all other natural sciences say that you will lose weight.
There’s also the option for gastric bypass, which is really nothing more than a really expensive way to make you stop eating so much. If you don’t exercise while you diet, or don’t continue to exercise after you stop dieting, your body will eventually slow down its metabolism and weight loss will become harder and harder. You will gain your weight back. Some people have literally eaten their way through a gastric bypass procedure and find themselves right back at square one. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Happy Hospitalist*
