Interesting things can happen when
I channel surf. The heavy snow kept me indoors last Friday. Therefore, I took a
break from my writing and turned on my television in the afternoon. That is
something I rarely do. Seeing no good movies on for a wintry day, I turned to
public television and was surprised to see Senator Rand Paul on the Dr. Oz
show. Too interesting not to watch, I
thought. Not only is Rand Paul a senator from my home state, he is also
running for the Presidential nomination on the Republican ticket. After
watching the interview and then hearing Dr. Oz extend an invitation to anyone
running for President to come be interviewed on his show, I understood and
found myself supporting this idea.
Why
would I think a Presidential candidate get afternoon time on a medical show?
The reason made perfect sense to me. Since President Obama instituted the
Affordable Health Care Act known as Obama care that included the individual
mandate forcing private citizens to carry health insurance in response to the
concern over “health care” in our country, anyone running for President should have
a forum where he/she can take a stance on what each believes needs to be done
regarding the health care crisis in this country. None of the monitors of the
series of Presidential debates have posed these questions. Someone needs to do
it.
This crisis will
not be solved by providing “sick care;” it will only be addressed if the
government finds a way to help people address the health care issues of this
country that are creating such a burden on the American taxpayer – prevention
rather than intervention. There are three concerns as I see it and only one of
these was addressed to my satisfaction in the interview – obesity, drug
addiction (legal and illegal) and dirty air and water. The one that was
discussed in length was drug addiction.
When asked about
this, Senator Paul said that drug addiction was a health care problem not a
criminal problem and I have to agree with that. I do, however, believe that all
the areas of drug addiction (both legal and illegal) should be addressed. If
this is done, another concern about the corruption in the pharmaceutical
industry will be addressed as well. Senator Paul also talked about dealing with
pre-existing conditions as one of the facets of Obama care that he saw as
beneficial. I was disappointed that Dr. Oz did not take a more proactive stance
about changing the health care law to do more with changing lifestyles to deal
with the biggest problem facing our country today – obesity. Cigarette smoking
still contributes to lung and heart disease but it is slowly being replaced by
obesity and a sedentary life style. I would have liked to hear what Senator
Paul thought about how the current health care law provides measures for this
problem. The other problem that was not addressed was dirty air and water.
The current crisis
in Flint, Michigan
should help people in this country understand the dangers that exist to our
health from air and water pollution. Any health care law that doesn’t address
clean air and water is no more than a stop gap measure and blaming one governor
in Michigan
without thinking about the dangers that are present in our own water and air is
not going to be effective in solving the problem. I see toxic cigarette butts
filling our drain systems everyday. Any legal actions to promote better public
health need to begin here where the diseases are prevented in the first place.
And since this is my blog, I believe these should begin at the local level.
However, until this can occur and so long as the federal government is going to
legislate my health care, I applaud Dr. Oz’s invitation to all those running
for President to answer these questions the media refuses to ask.
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