Congressional Democrats Call For Improved Health Care For Rural Americans

John DuBois, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), Reps. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) and Steve Kagen (D-Wisc.) came out Thursday to support a report released by the Center for Community Change and the Center for Rural Affairs on rural communities' attitudes toward health care reform.

"Health care currently is for the privileged and that’s not how it should be,” Clyburn said.

According to the report, entitled "Sweet The Bitter Drought: Why America Needs Health Care Reform," 82 percent of rural counties are classified as medically under-served areas. Medicaid and Medicare account for 60 percent of rural hospital revenues. In 2006, twenty-five percent of family farmers with health insurance reported debt from medical expenses. The likelihood that rural Americans are under-insured are seventy percent higher than for urban Americans.

“Medical debt leaves women and rural americans afraid because doctors won't give them check-ups without insurance, even if it is a dire situation,” said Cindy Shawcross of the People Escaping Poverty Project.

The Grassroots' Fight For Health Care

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

Organization for America is working as a relay on the local arena for President Barack Obama's agenda on health care since he got elected last November. It is holding thousands of events across the country to push for health care reform. A press conference was held today in Washington D.C. with U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen (D-Wis.) and Dan Grandone, Organizing for America’s Wisconsin State Director.

Organization for America is a project supported by the Democratic National Committee to support President Barack Obama’s agenda for change and his will to draft a legislation for health care.

Before running for Congress in 2005, U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen (D-Wis.) was a physician. “It is tough to be a doctor and prescribe something for patients that they simply can’t afford. What good is a physician if a patient can’t afford a therapy or can’t get the tests they require?” he said.

Kagen was pleased President Obama has accepted that there should be no “discrimination due to any preexisting medical condition... Putting our best foot forward is to apply our constitutional guarantees to protect us against discrimination to our health care industry,” he said.

The U.S. has “to establish a standard health benefit plan that each and every insurance company has to offer to all the citizens,” Kagen said. “Creating a competitive market place in health care insurance industries is very critical in driving down costs for everybody.”

Grandone’s organization in Wisconsin is “going broader and deeper to the heart of all kinds of community...People are very hungry to be included in this dialogue, in this process,” Grandone said.

Obama will discuss health care reform at a town hall meeting tomorrow in Green Bay, Wis.

Do you weigh what you did in high school?

By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service
“Pollution begins at your lips; you are what you eat, and from the Kagen point of view, you ought to weigh today what you did as a senior in high school,” stated Congressman Steve Kagen (D-Wa.) at the House Agricultural Committee hearing on obesity in America. Kagen said that America is overweight and that there is no question about it. He pointed out that, “if it tastes good, it’s probably not good for you.”

Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) said that obesity is affecting economics, health, and the well-being of our people. “Obesity is contributing to rising healthcare costs, the loss of productivity in the workplace and various life threatening conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases as well as stroke,” stated Fortenberry. The congressman said that he believes access to good nutrition and nutritional education is the key.

Congressman Joe Baca (D-Calif.) said that, “statistics indicate that more than 1/3 of our population is considered obese.” He explained that he is troubled by the economic consequences our nation faces due to obesity. “We can continue to work together to fight obesity and create a healthier nation,” said Baca.

William Dietz, director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that a recent paper suggests that “the deaths for obesity in adolescents are approximately equivalent to those deaths attributable to smoking.” According to Dietz obesity related disease is accounted for 25 percent of the increase in medical costs between 1997 and 2001. He said that we have a choice: we can pay for the care of these diseases or we can choose to prevent these diseases.

Dietz stated that, “60 percent of adults are overweight or obese, 30 percent of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. that far exceeds the capacity of the medical system.” He went on to say that people must make good choices, but also pointed out that they must have good choices to make. He said that children in suburbs can’t walk to school because of a lack of sidewalks, and inner-city populations are surrounded by fast good restaurants.

New York City has implemented regulations in childcare programs such as requiring children 12 months or older to participate in 30-60 minutes of physical activity, restricts television viewing to 60 minutes, and prohibits the availability of sugar-sweetened beverages. Dietz said that there are already states that are taxing snacks and sugar sweetened beverages.

Dietz said there seems to be a connection between television and obesity, “the more television a child watches the more likely they are to consume foods while watching television, and the more likely it is those are foods are foods advertised on television.”

Kagen posed the question, “is it a form of child abuse to continue to feed children things that are not good for them?” Dietz said that it is an odd form of abuse because it comes from giving too much rather than giving too little.