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Op-Ed Contributor - Big Food vs. Big Insurance - NYTimes.com
This is a really interesting take on insurance companies as allies for better health.
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As for the insurers, you would think preventing chronic diseases would be good business, but, at least under the current rules, it’s much better business simply to keep patients at risk for chronic disease out of your pool of customers, whether through lifetime caps on coverage or rules against pre-existing conditions or by figuring out ways to toss patients overboard when they become ill.
But these rules may well be about to change — and, when it comes to reforming the American diet and food system, that step alone could be a game changer. Even under the weaker versions of health care reform now on offer, health insurers would be required to take everyone at the same rates, provide a standard level of coverage and keep people on their rolls regardless of their health. Terms like “pre-existing conditions” and “underwriting” would vanish from the health insurance rulebook — and, when they do, the relationship between the health insurance industry and the food industry will undergo a sea change.
The moment these new rules take effect, health insurance companies will promptly discover they have a powerful interest in reducing rates of obesity and chronic diseases linked to diet. A patient with Type 2 diabetes incurs additional health care costs of more than $6,600 a year; over a lifetime, that can come to more than $400,000. Insurers will quickly figure out that every case of Type 2 diabetes they can prevent adds $400,000 to their bottom line. Suddenly, every can of soda or Happy Meal or chicken nugget on a school lunch menu will look like a threat to future profits.
When health insurers can no longer evade much of the cost of treating the collateral damage of the American diet, the movement to reform the food system — everything from farm policy to food marketing and school lunches — will acquire a powerful and wealthy ally, something it hasn’t really ever had before.
By T.R. Reid -- Five Myths About Health Care in the Rest of the World
A little light on the subject - and from the Post, no less!
By T.R. Reid -- Five Myths About Health Care in the Rest of the World - washingtonpost.com
Nice to have a little light shone on all the mud flying around out there
Healthcare Debate explained on the backs of napkins (All)
This is excellent! I don't think I've heard a clearer explanation of all of this anywhere.
The GOP Has Become a Party of Nihilists - TIME
Where IS the rational GOP who would say, as a Republican famously said to McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?" to Rush Limbaugh and the others when they make their ridiculous and dangerous statements?
Op-Ed Columnist - Priority Test - Health Care or Prisons? - NYTimes.com
Astonishingly, many politicians seem to think that we should lead the world in prisons, not in health care or education.
What You Need To Know About Health Care Reform-Minyanville
The scariest thing about the health care reform bill is not the vision of granny-killers roaming hospital corridors. It’s the fact that few rational people seem to grasp how it really may change our lives. The facts have gotten lost somewhere between the howls of protesters and the sputters of proponents.
Rick Perlstein -- Birthers, Health Care Hecklers and the Rise of Right-Wing Rage
In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition
The GOP's Misplaced Rage - The Daily Beast
"Until conservatives once again hold Republicans to the same standard they hold Democrats, they will have no credibility and deserve no respect. They can start building some by admitting to themselves that Bush caused many of the problems they are protesting."
Dr. Andrew Weil: Why I Am a Conservative on Health Care Reform
"Since when is it conservative to embrace new, overpriced, corrupt systems, like the health-destroying and ruinously expensive protocols of much of modern medicine? "Conservative" has several meanings, but two central ones are "favoring traditional views and values," and "avoiding excess."
I hold that nothing could be more wild, unconstrained, and downright liberal than the path medicine has taken in just the last 20 years -- an unprecedented bacchanalia of excess and contempt for traditional American values."
The Minimalist - Recipes for 101 Simple Salads for the Season - NYTimes.com
Salads! and dressings, too - good inspiration.
Op-Ed Columnist - Lettuce From the Garden, With Worms - NYTimes.com
Michael Pollan, Food, Inc, a look at industrial food
Hyping swine flu isn't really healthy - Los Angeles Times
Great reporting on the reporting about this topic, plus some sensible advice and straight facts.
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Television in particular can struggle with a story like this, when reporters and news anchors muddle along, untethered for hours in the vast space-time continuum created by the Web and cable TV.
Desperate to fill to the top of the hour and armed with little clarity -- no one can say for certain how prolonged or deadly this flu episode will be -- some newsies can't stop spinning. And conjuring a frightening reality that isn't quite real. -
Maybe Jill Biden forgot to put away the remote control and that's why hubby Joe, all twitchy and cable-TV-charged, practically suggested a shutdown of plane and subway travel.
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Green Construction Supplies,
A treasure trove of actual brands and products - there are plenty of sites that tell you why you should build green, and what kinds of products to use, but it's hard to find specific recommendations like this one has.
War on Drugs: The Price Tag
This is good - having lived in Humboldt County when CAMP was invading (feels like a war zone) I can attest that this seems like not only a HUGE waste of money, but a "war" against something that isn't really a threat to anybody. For the record, the only drug I do is coffee (which is more addictive than pot, by far).
Cook for a day, eat for a month: A handful of recipes and a freezer add up to more "freeper "time
"People think you're a nut," she says. "They think you have to be really organized or anal or something. I'm just lazy."
Once a Month Cooking and Freezing Recipes Tips Lessons - OAMC - Cook and Freeze Meals Ahead of Time Meals for a Month
I'm going to try this!
A New Cigarette Hazard - ‘Third-Hand Smoke’ - NYTimes.com
There's a real reason I don't like to be around smokers, or in rooms where people have smoked, even when they are not smoking. I really can't stand the smell and now I know it's not just being picky. It's actually toxic.
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“Your nose isn’t lying,” he said. “The stuff is so toxic that your brain is telling you: ’Get away.’”
8 ways to cut calories when... | Eat Well | Best Health - Live Better. Feel Great.
Some great ideas here that I hadn't heard before (unusual).
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