Women's Health Article

It's published in this week's Oy Chicago. Might make your head spin a little.

What killed Jennifer Lyon?

Meet Jennifer Lyon, age 37. She died a couple of weeks ago. Her killer: not having health insurance.

How can I know that? You are right. I don't. But she made a decision as so many people do, not to go to the doctor because it's too expensive, because they don't have insurance. She found a lump and didn't see a doctor until another one appeared.

I guess we'll never know what would have happened had she seen a doctor right away, had she had health insurance.

Tell your U.S. Senator, in Jennifer's name, to pass health care reform.

Click here for your Senators' contact info. And they do take every email into account.

Thanks to Marisa Sanders who passed this on to me. It's about an actor who didn't seek proper treatment because he didn't have health insurance.

Health care reform will help our economy

I wish there was a stastistic for how many people have stayed at jobs longer than they wanted to because they needed health insurance.

If health insurance becomes a non factor in someone’s decision to stay at a job, think of what this could do to our economy. Jobs could open up to people who really want them, and Americans could start taking the risks that our grandparents felt that they could take and what I think made this country so great: start a new business, invent an incredible device that will change the world, go back to school part time to earn a higher degree to change careers, or work at a small not for profit because that’s what you are good at.

Health insurance based on employer coverage is essentially anti-American. We are under the tyranny of a dictator and therefore unable to achieve the American dream.

I currently pay for my own health care. My employer subsidizes it but I pay an insane amount of money for insurance. Why? Because when I left my last job, I was denied health insurance. So now, I pay for COBRA. Go ahead, say it. “You are on COBRA, that’s so expensive!”

Yep, I do. And do you know what I don’t do much of anymore, buy stuff. I don’t really buy clothes because something looks cute, or go to a concert because I like the band, or buy my friends’ babies little outfits. My non essential spending has decreased significantly. Oh and I have a t.v. from 1994.

Almost all of my extra money is going towards health insurance. I’m not poor. I'm not suffering. I just try not to live in (much) debt, therefore I limit my spending. But I'm part of that statistic as to why our economy isn't growing: people aren't buying enough of anything.

I’m not complaining. It’s a personal choice. I could live without it, I guess. Play Russian Roulette. But I’ve chosen not to. I have other friends who don’t have health insurance or friends who do, but won’t go to a doctor for fear of being diagnosed with something that will prevent them from receiving coverage in the future.

Sadly, my COBRA expires on December 31. So I will apply to the state for insurance (which I will pay for), if, and only if, the state is still running the program. Or I guess I could leave my job that I love and start doing something I’m not as good at so that I can have insurance.

(For my friends in Israel and Canada who are reading this, I KNOW! Can you believe this? I KNOW. You totally don’t have to waste any of your energy on this. I KNOW! It’s insane. No, no, I’m not coming to live with you. Thanks for the offer.)

Or Congress could pass that health care reform bill before December 31 and then I don’t have to risk being a statistic that no one cares about.

And you can quit your crappy job and go to culinary school or work on that invention that you know will make you a million dollars.

My friends can go to the doctor to get a physical.

And then maybe, we can get this economy going again. Not on the backs of big firms on wall street that end up needing government bail outs, but on the backs of Americans who, if they don’t have to worry about going bankrupt over healthcare costs, are some of the most creative and innovative people in the world.

Or we can maintain the status quo.

I guess it’s up to the boys and girls with great health insurance coverage in Congress.

Condom study worth the money

People, mostly men, are up in arms about the $423,500 grant the NIH has awarded to the Kinsey Institute to study: why men don’t like using condoms. The guys laughing at the study say, “Duh. Just ask me. I can tell you. It doesn’t feel as good, it’s awkward, and ruins the mood.”

The issue though is less about why men don’t like using condoms as why they don’t like them enough to risk their own health and the health of the person with whom they are having sex when they often knowingly carry an STD or at the very least know they were exposed to one (and leaving out that information from their sexual partner).

Also, why do some men willingly use condoms? The answer involves ethics and psychology more than anything else. Or perhaps a perfectly good, ethical man will whine about condom usage, and pressure his sexual partner into not using one, when his testosterone reaches a certain level.

In addition, according to the article, some men cannot maintain an erection with a condom. If you asked those men, I bet they wouldn’t mind tax payer money being used to find out why.

If your answer to this problem is monogamy, that’s great, but what about pregnancy prevention. Why should a woman be forced to swallow hormones 21 days out of the month when condom usage can prevent pregnancy just as well if used correctly?

Perhaps the outcome of the study could be a better condom? Maybe a spray on one that doesn’t spoil the mood. Ok, too much. Sorry.

It’s just funny how people are so opposed to sex studies when most everyone has sex, and with sex comes such great risks from fatal illness to unwanted pregnancy. Also if condom usage increased, that could decrease the cost to the government on monies needed to treat the uninsured who suffer from STDs include AIDS and receive their treatment via Medicaid or in emergency rooms.

David Williams, the vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste, a non-profit watchdog group that tracks mismanagement and wasteful spending by the government, said that he is "frustrated" by the grant.
"It's hard to see this kind of research going on when we have such bigger problems as a country that we need to face," Williams said. "The NIH is studying things that on the face of it sounds like it isn't really needed right now or that the answers are pretty obvious at times."
Williams concedes that while the amount of money given to this project is a "drop in the bucket" compared to the total amount of monetary support the NIH doles out each year, he says that cutting back on several projects like this one could go a long way.
"There needs to be more scrutiny over what is and is not funded," he said.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ReproductiveHealth/Story?id=7889403&page=2

Mr. Williams is being very myopic in his view. According to the Centers for Disease Control “approximately 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur annually, almost half of those affected are between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four.”

http://www.healthnews.com/family-health/sexual-health/stds-rise-america-2469.html

Mr. Williams, isn’t that a big enough problem for you? Or perhaps it’s not because while many of those diseases have major repercussions for women’s health and fertility, for men, many STDs are just viruses that they carry around and transmit to woman after woman without physical impact to themselves. A man can carry HPV with no knowledge while a woman infected with it can develop cervical cancer.

I wish the Kinsey Institute the best of luck with this study and I think so should every dude I know.

Obesity as the American Dream

A health topic that is featured in the news at least weekly, and this week more frequently, is the obesity epidemic. However, unlike the flu pandemic which was caused by germs, what causes obesity is simply American values and American culture.

Whenever an epidemic emerges, or any problem in our society, people want someone to blame (read: sue). The initial target was McDonald’s. I don’t blame McDonald’s for the obesity epidemic. To eat or not to eat McDonald’s is a choice. As Americans we have the freedom to choose what we want to eat, just as we have the choice to choose who our elected officials are. If I were to sue someone for gross negligence in terms of causing the obesity epidemic it would be our politicians. They are to blame for the rising cost of health care due to complications from obesity leading to the decreasing age expectancy rates.

If I were to put politicians on trial, with the charge of making Americans fat, the witnesses for the prosecution would include educators, fruit growers, doctors, and environmentalists.

As funding for education declines from the Federal and State levels, programs are cut. Although most schools do have some sort of physical education program, much of it is underfunded and undersupported. Many schools do not have after school programs beyond basic varsity sport that would encourage active behavior. Instead at 3 p.m. (or earlier) students are let loose and typically go home, eat, and play video games or do homework which are sedentary activities. Increased funding for after school programs would allow intramural sports or other non-television related programming that would get students moving and help them value an active lifestyle. The well funded suburban schools have hiking, biking and running clubs. We need these clubs for all students, not just the rich ones.

The United States grossly under subsidizes fruit growers. The subsidies are appropriated to the makers of corn and soybeans. Typically this food is not used in grocery stores - we’re not talking corn on the cob or tofu - it is used as feed for animals. The very fatty animals that when eaten lead to obesity (although admittedly the cows need the food for milk, which allows the production of the healthy, but cholesterol filled dairy). It’s amazing that while the food pyramid is filled with fruit, growers can’t afford to provide it. Produce is a huge expense at the grocery store and why buy apples when Stuffed Pockets are cheaper.

When I would call a physician to the stand I would ask her about U.S. support of preventative medicine. While the FDA is busy putting on drugs that cause heart attacks and then taking them off the market, there is no funding or agency for increasing measures that would help people prevent obesity. For example, allowing gym memberships and yoga classes to be tax free would be a first step. Or even to allow the cost of the membership to be covered by flex plans would be a great benefit to workers who spend their days sedentary at the office. In addition, for the first time in human history the fattest people are the nation’s poorest, the ones without health insurance. If children do not receive regular health care, then how are parents supposed to be aware if their child is receiving good nutrition or is on track in terms of weight and height.

And lastly the environmentalists. The Associated Press printed last year that "The Bush administration, in one of its biggest decisions on environmental issues, moved Thursday to open up nearly a third of all remote national forest lands to road building, logging and other commercial ventures." What does this say about our nation’s values if we are planning to cut away at places where people hike and camp? It says we are not serious about promoting an active culture. The forests help maintain the air quality. I can’t tell you the number of times I became sick after exercising outside on an Ozone Action Day. But why shouldn’t I be able to utilize the beautiful Chicago lake path? Pollution as an answer is unacceptable.

It is up to us to elect politicians who will not be beholden to the agricultural and loggers lobby. We need to change our focus from Bextra to exercise. We need to stop complaining and start advocating for our children before insulin shots are sold in coffee shops and oxygen bars are not novelties but necessities.

High Holiday Healthcare

Maimonides, a revered Jewish scholar, listed health care first on his list of the ten most important communal services that a city had to offer to its residents (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot De’ot IV: 23).

Almost all self-governing Jewish communities throughout history set up systems to ensure that all their citizens had access to health care. Doctors were required to reduce their rates for poor patients, and when that was not sufficient, communal subsidies were established (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 249:16; Responsa Ramat Rahel of Rabbi Eliezer Waldernberg, sections 24-25.)
Source: Religious Action Center

Some of the most stressed out people in the United States this month are Conservative and Reform Rabbis. While most of us spend our last Sundays of fall enjoying the sun, they are busy preparing their High Holiday sermons trying to find words to inspire Jews (and some non Jewish spouses) who only seek this spiritual guidance one to two days a year.

Their mission is difficult. Before the 19th and 20th centuries, the Rabbi was most likely the wisest person in his small community. Today Rabbis have to intellectually, emotionally and spiritually stimulate attorneys, teachers, scientists, writers, politicians, CEOs, and physicians in a 20 to 30 minute speech that relates to their 21st century lives and incorporates the values of a books of laws and ethics that are a couple of thousand years old.

Sometimes the Rabbi does a great job and his/her words are remembered for years to come and requests are made for the sermons to be published online. Other times, Mrs. Cohen’s 40 day bout with insomnia is cured in three minutes and Tammy’s right contact pops out because she rolls her eyes when she hears about how she should get more involved at her synagogue. Less frequently, the Rabbi gives a controversial sermon that causes an uproar and either he/she leaves the synagogue or the congregants may even start their own synagogue.

The High Holiday speech that I want America’s Rabbis to deliver some day might lead to angry congregants, canceled memberships, new synagogues. But it doesn’t have to. If it’s done right, perhaps the results could lead to real progress in this area without needing to bring out the guillotine.

The title: Why Universal Healthcare is a Jewish Value
No scratch that. I already see people walking out angry.
The title: Is Universal Healthcare a Jewish Value?
Much better.

Yes, you are correct. I saw Michael Moore’s “Sicko.” The film makes the compelling argument if every country in the Western world provides universal health care, why doesn’t the United States?

Moore provided anecdote, after anecdote, after anecdote, of poor or middle class people unable to afford adequate health care leading to their great physical, psychological, and economic suffering or even death.

You cannot help but leave that movie feeling embarrassed by our health care system and how we treat our poorest people.

The difficulty is how do you dismantle a system in which so many people make so much money off of? As a capitalist country, and given the years and years of school that doctors complete, how can we limit the salaries of our greatest resource?
I don’t have the answers to these questions. What I want is for the Rabbis of America to mandate their congregants to works towards fixing
America’s health care system. There are numerous Jewish sources that support universal healthcare. The speech should write itself. The difficulty will be writing it in a way that motivates congregants, and especially Jewish physicians and policy makers, to work for change.

The following responses, “you’ll have to wait for hours in line, you’ll have to wait for months for surgery, you receive substandard treatment,” are refuted by Moore, but also are irrelevant when so many poor and working and middle class people experience the above problems because they do not have insurance or their insurance companies have denied them funding for treatment.

If the United States ever offers Universal Health Care, it will be because of the private sector, not the Congress. Rabbis must ask their medically insured congregants and physician members, “What are you going to do to help fix this broken system?” They must explain why Universal Healthcare is a Jewish Value and that as leaders in the community they must commit to reforming it before the "book is closed and sealed. "

Problematic Palin

When John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, I, like many around the world, googled her and read the brimming news coverage featuring scattered details about her biography. I admit that even though she is a Republican, I couldn’t help but give kudos to John McCain for making such a “maverick” move. [How ridiculous is it that choosing a woman is seen as unusual given women make up more than half of the population, but regardless it was bold given that only one other woman has ever been nominated.]

And then her speech! I found myself enjoying her jabs at Barack Obama. Yeah, small town people are an awesome part of America Yeah, she probably does know a thing or two being governor so it’s fine that she is a heart beat away from the presidency. Yeah, come to think of it, pit bulls are like hockey moms.

But Sarah Palin, with all her charisma and rhetoric prowess is most definitely dangerous. And I believe that Americans will see beyond the superficiality and recognize that the prospect of a McCain-Palin presidency will not lead to a safer America, but a more perilous one. Their legacy could include unsafe abortions, an increase in teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, continued environmental damage, a retraction of basic freedoms, a continuance of the health care crisis, and more failed foreign policy degrading the United States’ reputation as a world leader.

McCain, no matter how independent minded he was at some point, has recently switched his stance on a woman’s right to choose. He has always been “Pro Life” but until recently he was opposed to overturning Roe v. Wade. If he is elected president, and pressured to appoint conservative judges, there is a real possibility that women’s lives will be in danger if forced to perform unsafe abortions.

You would think that the “Pro Life” crew would want women not to have unplanned pregnancies in the first place. Sarah Palin supports abstinence only sex education. Again, this is dangerous for our young people. Putting aside teen pregnancy, an abstinence only curriculum does not provide young people with the information that they need to prevent contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

Besides STDs, expect more kids to develop asthma due to Republican disregard of environmental protections. Watch wildlife and sea creatures die if Republicans expand drilling.

Freedom will suffer from a terminal illness as the Patriot Act is renewed under a Republican presidency.

Horrible diseases will continue to kill as progress is stunted without federal funds for stem cell research.

And those who contract those diseases will not be able to afford health care because the Republicans are not committed to providing affordable health insurance to all Americans, just as they are not committed to improving public education (with vouchers reducing fund for schools).

With joblessness rising, the sub prime mortgage mess, instability in Georgia, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan, the security of our country both domestically and abroad cannot be left to a senator who has compromised his values to appease the Republican Right and a governor who has the hubris to think that God supports her policies.

While both Palin and McCain are likable and even worth admiring, if elected their policies will make America a worse place four years from now.