Zera

Thanks for the information.  Very useful and important. 

Bonnie O

I looked up the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and they are on the AHRQ - Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.  I have noticed several commercials recently released by this agency in my area.  They depict someone asking a lot of questions of waiters or clerks, but when they are in the doctors office, they don’t ask any questions.  When I saw the commercials, I first wondered what the AHRQ was - looking it up I saw it was the government.  Then I thought, okay - good, the government is trying to bring down medical costs by encouraging people to learn more about their bodies and how to keep them healthy.  It is also encouraging preventative medicine.  I see that as beneficial for our society, but I wonder about this.  Is there now a larger effort to "confront" the areas of medicine where a lot of money is spent?  Why doesn’t the government stop the use of pesticides which are estrogen based and detrimental to women’s health instead of encouraging them not to be checked.

I have always been wary of mammograms.  I don’t like the fact that it is radiation.  I space them longer than a year in order to avoid so much exposure, but I know that right now, that is the most used method.  I could get thermography, but if they found anything my doctor would want me to have a mammogram because that is what they know how to read. 

Annie

Those are great methods to keep your breasts healthy, and I ascribed and practice(d) most of those, but at one point I knew I would have to have a mammo because most doctors cannot read thermographs.  If I hadn’t had one, I don’t know if I would be here today.  Unfortunately, that is all they have. The medical industry continues to invest in that method of detection, therefore we are subject to it’s consequences. I don’t like it.

Deniseann

I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 47, and I think the lump was there for awhile, because I went in to be checked for it and they said it was just a cyst.  I heard that a couple of times so I didn’t follow up as much.  I had a dream and in it my mother told me to get a mammogram.  I didn’t remember it very well, but there was this nagging memory of this dream.  Then I was watching the Rosie O’Donnell show and it was October and breast cancer prevention month and she was very emphatic - "If you haven’t had a mammogram for a while… (or something to that effect) do it now.  Make your appointment!!"  When I heard that I could hear my mother’s voice saying it again so I made an appointment with someone different and then I was diagnosed.  I was very lucky because it had been in there longer than it should have been.  It didn’t go into my lymph system or anywhere else.  Thank God and my sweet angel that was helping me.

It is funny, politically I have very little in common with Rosie O’Donnell, but I will always appreciate her because she was in the right place at the right time for me.  The funny thing is, I never watched her show that much, but that day I decided to. 

Maggie

My best friend is a nurse and she has talked about medicare fraud for years and years.  When asked on 60 Minutes how long she had been reporting the medical overcharging on her bill, she said "Six years."  My friend said that she used to report it but nothing ever came of it.

Eric Holder and Kathleen Sibelius have recently continued the pursuit of the criminals involved, but they have only been able to scratch the surface.  The estimates of the cost of fraud are between 54 and 90 billion bucks.  Everyone says that we have some of the highest healthcare costs in the world, but they fail to reveal that over half of those costs are Medicare and Medicaid, and the estimates of how much of our nation’s healthcare bill is spent on fraud is never revealed or considered in those statements.  

Seems to me, the more judicious course would be to clean up the fraud and attack cost saving measures in other ways.  But what does our government do?  A government panel recommended that women do not start having mammograms until after 50.  If I had done that I would be dead right now and so would two of my friends.  Is this a government panel or are those recommendations made by the insurance companies to the government to cut insurance costs.  The gov is pressing insurance corps to lower their costs if they want to benefit from all of the new insurees that will be required to purchase insurance by the new healthcare bill.  The bargaining tool is the gov can leave out the stipulation that everyone has to have insurance, so the insurance companies are showing where the perceived waste is, so the gov starts to plant the seeds to get the costs down.

I don’t like mammograms.  I think too much radiation may be a cause of cancer.  They say if people don’t spend the money on wasted tests then there is more money for research, but if you don’t get a mammogram then you won’t know if you have the big c.   I don’t know what the answer is, but I do know there are too many men making these decisions about women’s breasts. 

Barbara

I have been posting for a couple of years on the internet that the fraud must be cleaned up. They have begun, but it is only the tip of the iceberg.

As to Iraq, as of Nov 6 my son is a veteran.  They are right now pulling out of Iraq.  His old unit is there right now pulling down outposts and tents and closing down shop.  As to Afghanistan, they cannot leave the soldiers hanging without enough support to preserve what is necessary, but with all the corruption in the government and with the tribal leaders it may not be a situation that we can have much influence on.  They have to want a better situation in their government for it to work for them, otherwise we are wasting our time.

Deber

Oh my gosh.  It is almost laughable if it weren’t so true.  I heard a report on the news this morning that recovery.gov has some kind of technical problem with the website.  For some reason recovery.gov has claimed that a district in Arizona has saved 30 jobs, problem is - there is no such district.  The bureaucratic hodge podge has gotten so out of hand it is shameful at the least, and frightening in the worst.  It is appalling.  Someone needs to start making sense because they will get more people turning against them.  

James,

I think all of those factors come into play.  I believe the president is trying to fix a very broken machine in a way that many believe will eventually break it more.  I think he is one of the most hardworking disciplined man I have ever seen.  He has many attributes that are important for this office, but he has never governed before and I think he relies on others too much.  Maybe that is the name of the game in the 21st century. 

Wouldn’t it also have to do with the fact that it is rare that any legislation is really deficit neutral?  How can they raise taxes when so many are hurting?  I don’t get that.  How come political motives come before what the country needs?  Why didn’t they hit job creation right out of the gate?  It doesn’t make any sense.  Yes, everyone notes that our healthcare costs are higher than any other nation, but we have a higher survival rate in many life threatening diseases.  More than half of our health care costs are medicare and it has been estimated that somewhere between 54 billion and 90 billion bucks of that is medicare fraud - which has been going on for years, as well as reported for years, and the government didn’t do anything about it.  Congress didn’t do anything about it.  Crazy. 

They say they are going to save $90 billion in medicare per year — that is the fraud they think they are going to clean up.  Let’s seem them clean it up first.  I think think if they had gone in and focused as much energy on job creation as on healthcare, got a few wins under their belts that the whole nation could be satisfied with, the nation might be open to some of this plan.  As it stands, there is some very good legislation in it, but it is overshadowed by the huge bureaucracy it will create.  In my business I have to deal with several of them throughout any given month, and I tell you that when I get on the phone I pray that whomever answers has a slight inkling as to how to help me.    

Stacy I agree, I don’t think that educating them about sex encourages them to have it.  

I have a 16 year old son and he is shy about the talk, but we incorporate it into our "what is important to talk about" talks, as well as I always tell them that we talk about it so that they don’t get erroneous info and concepts from their friends or TV and movies etc.  I don’t or can’t control the world, I have my one little corner where I work to keep sanity alive as much as I can.

Nor do I believe that if they know about condoms and birth control it will encourage them to have sex.  There are some kids that are curious, easy to persuade, rebellious or whatever,  or just don’t know what they are doing, that end up pregnant or mixed up in relationships that they are not mature enough to handle or truly understand.  So it is a one day at a time effort of keeping my little corner cleaned up. 

Lesley

Forget the kids, I love this stuff.  I used to dig in the San Joaquin Valley in CA - Native Americans of course.  We had to dig the garbage pile.  It was a lucky assignment because I found a beautiful black obsidian small spear head, a beautiful chert scraper, shell beads and Spanish trade beads, but my favorite finds were abalone barbed fish hooks.  The Yokuts traded with the Chumas hence the abalone shell. Although aged, thin and fragile and almost light as air because they had dried so thin, they were still beautiful and full of human touch.  The sun glinted off the pink of the shell and it was easy to see that some ancient fish was as attracted as I was to it’s charms. 

Mr Wow:

I agree and I enjoyed this article to no end.  A great laugh in every line.  The fun never stopped.  Thank you. 

Rita

No, I am not naive and believe that because someone could have an abortion if they get pregnant so they don’t have to worry about it,  is what goes on in a young person’s mind before they have unprotected sex.  Some people do use abortion as birth control.  I don’t know how prevalent it is today, but it is not uncommon, nor is it that common.  I don’t care, what goes on in their head is none of my business, they have a right to make their own choices about their bodies, and live with our without the consequences.  As I have to do with my body.

Sara

I have come to understand that it takes a long time to teach anything to human beings.  We are a stubborn lot.  I just think war is a waste of time.  Sometimes we are forced into it, but should be avoided at all cost.   

deber

I am not sure that the Healthcare bill won’t make it through the senate.  Look what happened in the house?  They did a lot of arm twisting so who knows what will happen.  Some may talk bold, but now I think it will be an even greater push to get senators to vote for it.  The republicans should be looking at all the gerrymandering that went on of the districts because the dems got so many districts redrawn to favor them and then ran moderate or conservative dems to take over repub seats.  They will not stop, so if the repubs stay asleep, there will just be more.

Many thought that after what happened on the first tuesday in nov, and would make many dems think twice before voting, missed out on what was really happening.   I think this will be a battle to the end.  I also believe the republicans have to come up with a better bill and some better ideas, and quit worrying about sacrificing a few of their sacred cows, because if they can’t persuade and come up with some ideas that are easy to incorporate and create an environment for better healthcare for the poor, I think they will also have problems to face.  The dems have successfully changed the argument - the repubs need to get out front more and really be honest about what they can do for those that are without healthcare.  There are many other ways and devices to use to open up this issue.  As an independent, I want something I can back that is practical, won’t bankrupt us or our grandchildren, and sets a lasting framework for healthcare in this country.