I prefer to think of the Democrats SCHIP initiative as the "SoCialized Health Inflation Plan", or better, "Soft Core Health P*rn". No doubt, Senator Ted Kennedy would be one of the few elite able to wiggle from under the snug blanket of its eventual regulatory rigors to enjoy some gratuitous Ben and Jerry's while recovering from some expensive private medical procedures.
[Nice timing, by the way, on Kennedy's press release (Friday 3pm ) confirming that he is, in fact, an unhealthy, bloated pusbag. Wouldn't want to cloud the SCHIP issue or anything...]
After all, Herr Kennedy holds a blauschein and is considered "essential to The Cause" and would be forgiven his indulgent trespasses while the rest of us peasants would certainly be marched into the street for daily morale building calesthenics. Just like sunny Cuba, eh Comrade?
From a proud Socialist website, The Socialist Teacher's Alliance:
There is no mystery about Cuba's core strategy: prevention. From promoting exercise, hygiene and regular check-ups, the system is geared towards averting illnesses and treating them before they become advanced and costly.
This is on display in the neighbourhood of Vedado. By 8.30am the pensioners of Parque Aguirre are assembled and following the lead of Carmelina Díaz, 76, and raising arms, swivelling hips and marching on the spot.
Mrs Díaz learned these techniques "for those in their third age" at the national sports institute. A volunteer, she has led these sessions five days a week for 21 years and keeps note of attendance in a leather-bound copybook. "It's not just physical, it's also social, we arrange outings to the theatre, the beach," she says.
A star participant is Lilia García Fernández, 81, who uses a cane to circle the park three times before the class. She has seven ailments, including diabetes, rheumatism and arthritis, but remains relatively fit. Asked when she last visited a hospital she pauses. "Ooh, I don't know, more than five or six years ago," she says.
Perhaps the question to Comrade Fernández might have been better phrased, "When were you last allowed to visit a hospital?"
More frightening is the hint by a recent Johns Hopkins study that ecomomic privation could be a viable solution to "a country's" health problems:
Cuba's economic crisis of 1989–2000 resulted in reduced energy intake, increased physical activity, and sustained population-wide weight loss. The authors evaluated the possible association of these factors with mortality trends. Data on per capita daily energy intake, physical activity, weight loss, and smoking were systematically retrieved from national and local surveys. National vital statistics from 1980–2005 were used to assess trends in mortality from diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, and all causes. The crisis reduced per capita daily energy intake from 2,899 calories to 1,863 calories. During the crisis period, the proportion of physically active adults increased from 30% to 67%, and a 1.5-unit shift in the body mass index distribution was observed, along with a change in the distribution of body mass index categories. The prevalence of obesity declined from 14% to 7%, the prevalence of overweight increased 1%, and the prevalence of normal weight increased 4%
In a press release announcing the findings, Manuel Franco, MD, a PhD candidate in the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology,waxes triumphant that they may have finally stumbled upon the Final Solution a cure for the disease of freedom of choice obesity:
"Population-wide approaches designed to reduce caloric intake and increase physical activity, without affecting nutritional sufficiency, might be best suited for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and diabetes."
The Republicans should take this entire issue of Hillary Stealthcare and publicly extrapolate its nightmarish ramifications in plain English to the unwashed masses. Try telling the average corpulent working class Democrat that the healthcare he so badly thinks he deserves fo' free is going to come with strings.
Because if I am footing your healthcare bill for perfectly preventable "lifestyle" diseases, then dammit Bubba, you had better stop inhaling those Moonpies.
Your Wii will be confiscated, and you will be given a more suitable Chinese version.
And forget two packs a day.
But hey, I'm sure your old buddy Teddy will loan you some of his stash. He feels your pain. Right?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>and while you are munching those Fritos, Bubba, get real familiar with these images.
Do you read these comments anymore? :-(
I sent you a message that I was back in the area months ago and, sadly, you never replied.
Hoping you notice me this time *GRIN*
XOXOXOX
V5
[JANE SAYS: YES, idiot. I read them. YOU are the one who never sent me a response to my EMAIL.
EMAIL. 'member THAT?
Goof.
xoxoxoxoxo
Janie]
P.S. Hope your arm is doing better
Posted by: V5 | October 14, 2007 at 01:01 AM