Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
Across the country low income senior citizens and disabled people will lose help paying their Medicare part B premiums next Monday because the federal money that funded the program has dried up. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted for the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act by a margin of 355 to 60. But once it made it to the Senate it has died because it fell two votes short of reaching the required sixty votes to bring it to the floor for a full Senate vote. My Congressional Representative voted for it in the house but both of my Senators voted against it. I applaud Bob Inglis and denounce Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham for voting against a program that helps seniors who need it badly in favor of a bill that helps the insurance companies. Losing part “B” will cost these low income seniors and disabled people to the tune of $96.40 a month but it will also cause a drop of 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. This will cause more doctors to cut the number of Medicare patients they accept, or refuse them all together. The American Medical Association said it was “outraged that the senators voted to protect insurance companies at the expense of seniors”. Check and see how your senator voted on this issue and vote accordingly in the fall, I will.
Today is a milestone in my life. It has been six months since I smoked a cigarette. Everyday that goes by is a record for not smoking also as I am not doing like I have in the past and smoked cigars or a pipe instead. And no, no left hand rolled cigarettes either. I still have urges and I have to fight them when they rear their head up and try to temp me. I get the urge most often while sitting outdoors watching the birds, especially the hummingbirds. No the hummingbirds aren’t the culprit but I enjoy watching them the most. My sister in law still smokes so her cigarettes and lighter are layed on the tables on our porches for me to look at and get the cravings from. But I am fighting off the urges when they come and am dedicated to not smoking in my life ever again. It took quite a lot of will power to make it this far and I am not wanting to fall back into the ranks of the smokers. Not that I have anything against them or ostracize anyone who smokes from my presence. The smoke doesn’t tempt me it only stinks. That is unless it is a sweet blended tobacco like from a pipe or cigar. My niece recently switched to number 9 Camels I think it is and they smell extra good like that but I still fought back the urge to pull one from the pack and break off the filter and lite it up. I didn’t like filters on my cigarettes and always smoked a non filter brand such as Pall Mall. I want to thank all the well wishers who have urged me on in my not smoking as their words of encouragement has helped more than they know. My thoughts to you who maybe trying to fight the monkey on your back that is nicotine and cigarettes is try not to think about them and when you do think of the nasty aspects to them as their is very little good about smoking. It just leaves your mouth smelling like an old dirty ashtray and can lead to serious health problems down the road. So here is wishing you the very best in your personal efforts in quitting smoking and if you have quit already that is great and I applaud you and your willpower.
The Senate holds a hearing today in its Environment Committee to review the process that has changed the way the EPA is able to screen chemicals for cancer and other health risks. The undermining of the EPA’s ability to determine health issues by the Bush administration has increased the steps required before the EPA can stop the use of certain chemicals by years in some cases. They have decreased the ability to determine health dangers by letting non scientists have a bigger – sometimes secret – role in a chemicals determination. They have doubled the number of steps required and have risk assessments way behind, sometimes by years. Extensive involvement by the White House and EPA managers has eroded the independence of the EPA scientists who determine the health risks posed by chemicals. Multiple government agencies -who could be affected by the findings – are now allowed to participate at every step of the investigation into the chemicals they use. If the EPA were to find against them or their contractors they would face serious restrictions and cleanup requirements. “By law the EPA must protect our families from dangerous chemicals,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the Senate committee’s chairman. “Instead, they’re protecting the chemical companies.” Hopefully she and the other Senators can get to the bottom of this and get the EPA back on track and not being run by people with a vested interest in the outcomes of investigations.
Today marks a milestone for me. Today is the twelfth week that I have gone without anything to smoke. I know I posted earlier about smoking cessation, and I have not had a cigarette in those twelve weeks. Three whole months it is today that I have smoked nothing at all. I know I told y’all that I had quit once before and went over twenty years without a cigarette and that is true. What I didn’t say was that I was not smoke free during that time. I smoked marijuana and cigars to cover the smell, and a lot of both. I would smoke cigars and chew on them as I worked. I worked outside or was driving to the location most of my adult life so I seldom if ever experienced a place I could not smoke. Now I would respect other peoples homes and never smoke in a customers home. So you see me being smoke free for these 12 weeks is really a milestone for me. I was sneaking my first cigarettes before I hit my teen years and never quit smoking something except for about 8 weeks during boot camp in the Army, and even then I got in trouble for sneaking and smoking so it wasn’t even a complete eight weeks there either. I do still have some trouble not smoking something. It just seems so natural to me to reach for a smoke. The keyboard I use is a natural one so it is too big to fit the little slide out drawer beneath my desk that a normal keyboard would reside in. I had a half pack of cigarettes in there up until yesterday. I was sitting here waiting on my ftp program to work and slid the drawer out and was pulling one out of the pack when I decided to just throw them away. Even after twelve weeks of no smoking the moment my hands were free and I saw them I was ready to light one up. I know several of you have been reading when I wrote of quitting smoking, and struggling with your own demons tugging away at you trying to make you smoke again. Don’t give in. You will not only feel and breath better, but you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you held out against the most insidious and addicting drug in the world. Best of luck with your quitting yourself and if you need someone to talk to drop me a line as I understand how difficult it really is to quit.
??? First off I am apologizing to my regular readers who have grown to expect new material by me daily. As you may know I have fibromyalgia? and it has really been digging its spurs into me these past few days. It is hard to deal with a disease that causes chronic fatigue and pain and there is no cure for it. These past few days have been especially rough on me. With me barely even feeling up to getting out of bed. Plus it is an invisible illness so people will look at you and say there is nothing wrong with you short of laziness.
??? It has now been 9 weeks without smoking for me. This week has been one of the worst since the first days though. With me feeling bad and so sore you barely can stand wearing clothes that you begin to feel sorry for yourself and start to reach for that cigarette. I have weathered the storm so far with the smoking. It was tough though especially with smokers all around me. I have had maintain my will power. I hope that those of you that are also quiting smoking with me are able to maintain and not start back to smoking. I know how hard it is not to fall back into that trap.
In my efforts to help people find health insurance I have found another insurance company that will accept individual family coverage as well as coverage for small business’s. They are Kaiser Permanente Health Insurance a nation wide company. They have different plans to accommodate your needs. If you are an individual they have a plan for you. If you need to cover your family with health insurance they can help you. And if you are a small business they are the perfect place to get coverage for yourself and employees. They not only cover you if you are sick but have plans for maintaining your health before you get sick. Plans to help you lead a well balanced life and and fighting stress or quitting smoking. You can even keep a check on your medical records and tests online. Check them out they may be exactly the right health group for you.
As many of you regular readers know I am an advocate of health care for all.But I doubt the governments will or ability to cover everyone under universal coverage. I have found a great site that can help you if you are self employed like I always was as well as most of my family. We always wanted to be on our own and not depend upon others. But there is the very real problem of insurance. You never know when you or one of your family can be taken sick. If you have no health care they don’t want to see you and treat you. You might be able to get treatment at some free clinic but quality of life saving treatments are not likely to be forth coming. Right now Peoples Health Care is only in Florida and Illinois but have some very competitive rates. Check out health insurance Florida for your own insurance plan. How can you not afford to have insurance?
??? Well this is my sixth week of being smoke free. It is still a battle though. I went to pick up an antique bedroom set we bought for my daughter and the auctioneer was smoking a cigar and goodness it smelled so good. Made me yearn for one of my own. But I made it through the loading and unloading of the furniture. Pretty heavy stuff and I am paying the price for it as my back, neck and shoulders are killing me even after doubling up on my pain pills. It was worth it though to make my little girl so happy. I call her my little girl even though she is no longer little but a young woman instead. Anyway we loaded the bedroom set onto my brother – in – laws truck and away we went smokeless.
??? It is still a struggle at times with me quitting smoking. Often times I lean back from this keyboard and still try to reach for a cigarette. I haven’t gotten rid of the cigs I smoked. I had a full carton in the freezer still until my brother came and snitched him a pack of mine as he is not making the progress of not smoking as well as I. I do not know how long the taste for a smoke will last in me as this is the first time since I was a teenager that I was totally smoke free. If I wasn’t smoking cigarettes I was smoking cigars or a pipe. Mostly cigars though as they were easier to smoke that a pouch of tobacco and a pipe to carry. Plus I had something to clench in my teeth and chew on when it wasn’t burning.
??? Six weeks in and I can taste my food better and the aroma of cigarettes don’t bother me, except to annoy or disgust me as I do not like the smell of them. I do still love the smell of a cigar or a pipe and that is the hardest thing to ignore. I am glad I was not close to a store when he was smoking near me today, or him offer me one of those as I might have taken him up on the offer. I hope I have the will power to stay smoke free but for some reason that type of tobacco makes me drool for some like it. Cigarette smoke itself I now find disgusting. I did notice something else that comes from no longer smoking. My nicotine stained fingers and nails have cleaned up. My fingers used to be stained with a semi permanent brown from the second joint of my fingers to the tip and nail. My index and middle finger were stained that way and no matter how hard I tried it would not come off even washing them in bleach did nothing. Now I could take a knife and scrape the fingernail semi clean but not the fingers. I am very tickled about that as my hands look clean now. Not like they used to be.
??? If you are trying to quit smoking cigarettes yourself, my advice would be to make up your mind that you are no longer a slave to the cigarette and are going to quit. Not that you are thinking of quitting or may quit. You have to make the decision that strongly says “I QUIT” then stick to it. There is almost half a pack of cigarettes in the old keyboard slide in/out drawer directly below my keyboard but even when I do get the urge I say “NO” and stick to it. In the end that is what it all boils down to- Saying No to Cigarettes.
??? Here is something I did not know and all of us who are environmental activists should. The large cargo ships that carry all of the imports and exports to and from our country for the most part are huge polluters. They burn diesel oil that is closer to asphalt and is 1800 times dirtier than the fuel burned in U.S. trucks. The Bush administration is claiming to have made headway in talks with other nations to reduce the dangerous emissions coming from these giant diesel-burning ships that pollute U.S. ports.
??? During hearings by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Dr. John Miller, an emergency room physician from San Pedro, California said, “International standards for pollution from ship engines, written mostly by the shipping industry, are so lax as to be meaningless.” The panel is considering legislation to sharply curb emissions from the largest cargo carriers, most of which are foreign flagged. Bush officials want to pursue a new global standard instead of tougher standards for ships entering our waters, according to the associate director at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They say that if we make our own regulations and not use worldwide standards then we risk having shipping prices going up because there will be fewer ships that meet the new qualifications therefor fewer available ships to carry cargo to and from our ports.
??? Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said EPA should act quickly, regardless of the international action. “I just don’t get it,” Boxer said. “Our people are suffering because foreign flags are coming in and they’re filthy and they’re polluting. And we are sitting back saying we can’t do anything until we get this international agreement.”
??? The Bush administration and EPA are being pressured by Congress and environmentalists to enact new regulations and not wait on the U.N. International Maritime Organization to reach an anti-pollution agreement. The EPA intends to issue its new rules in 2009 after the global group comes to a decision about the pollution regulations. They [U.N. International Maritime Organization] are meeting again in April and last met last week. Ms Boxer (Committee Chairwoman) countered that talks have been going on since 2003 and asked, “How long does Jonah have to wait?”, a reference to, Jonah Ramirez, a 12 year old sixth grader from San Bernardino, Calif., who told the hearing of his battles with asthma. “If these particles that I breathe every day are safe, then why do I depend on daily medication and the fast relief of my inhaler to do something that everyone has the right to do: Breathe,” Jonah Ramirez asked the panel.
??? I know our economy depends upon shipping, both into and out of our ports but surely we can do something about emissions coming from these huge ships. I for one think that we are such a prized market that ship owners will do what it takes to keep returning to our lucrative markets. It might cause some short time problems but in the long run it will be better for us, especially those who live close to these large ports. Or even those who happen to live along the shore where these ships travel on there way to the ports. Plus- and this is something I just thought of- It may have an added benefits to U.S. business if the price of cheap imports from China go up.
??? Once again the EPA is in the news as Rep. Henry Waxman, (D-Calif) of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee subpoenaed documents reviewed by the agency’s administrator before he blocked a California tailpipe emissions law. There have been indications that the EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson overruled EPA staff who recommended granting the waiver.
??? What California wants to do and along with twelve other states – Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington – was to require automakers to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 30 percent in new cars and light trucks by 2016. This would bring the fuel economy standards up to 36.8 mpg four years earlier four years earlier than the new federal law which would result in a nationwide average of 35 mpg by 2020. The governors of four other states -Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Utah – said they also planned to adopt Californias newer tougher rules.
??? According to congressional investigators there are EPA internal documents that said California had a compelling need for the waiver, and that EPA was likely to lose in court if sued over denying it. But once again our executive branch seems to be in the pockets of big business. They have also lost a suit in federal court because they were ignoring the law when they imposed less stringent requirements on power plants to reduce mercury pollution. A three-judge panel – U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia – unanimously struck down a mercury-control plan imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency three years ago. It established an emissions trading process in which some plants could avoid installing the best mercury control technology available by buying pollution credits. such trading of pollution credits would have created hot spots of mercury contamination around power plants across the country. Power plants are one of the biggest sources of of mercury, which finds its way into the food supply, particularly fish. Mercury damages developing brains of fetuses and very young children.
??? The court decision was the latest in a string of judicial losses for the Bush administration’s environmental policies. You may remember that I mentioned them losing a battle for not regulating greenhouse gases. Courts have also rejected administration attempts to overhaul federal forest policies and streamline fuel economy standards for small trucks. The policy as established under the Clinton Administration required utilities to capture more than 90 percent of mercury releases. The standard as set by the Bush administrations approach was to capture 70 percent of mercury emissions. “This three-judge panel has done the world a favor and helped save lives,” said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Connecticut was one of the states that participated in the lawsuit. EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said, “This rule is still our policy until we evaluate how to move forward.”
??? It sounds to me as if they are going to drag their feet as long as possible allowing pollution to go on as long as possible so as to generate more profits for the big businesses that seem to have our Environmental Protection Agency in their pockets. Hopefully an administration change will return the EPA back to the role of protecting the citizens and not big business.