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Healthy Eating Endorsed by Mickey Mouse

As a child I read pretty much every book written by Beverly Cleary that I could find at the library. In one of the books I recall reading a side storyline about how there was advertising on television for something for children, and how much the television advertising directly influenced the requests that the children made for products at the local store. The more junk that gets peddled to kids, the more they want. If there were advertisements for only healthy food on the channels they watched, they would not be so driven toward the junk food. Seems like a far fetched fantasy, doesn’t it? Now the Walt Disney company is going to be making that dream a reality.

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The FDA Smacks Down "Corn Sugar"

I have my eye on you, high fructose corn syrup. I have seen the way that you have infiltrated our world and invaded so many of our food products from soda to bread. Bread! I had to throw out a half loaf of bread when I discovered that one of the ingredients was switched up on me from sugar to high fructose corn syrup. How dare you make the claim in your ads that you can enjoy it in moderation when it is in so many products?

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Do Not Sunbathe in the Middle of the Road

Being a parent is really difficult as far as jobs go, and it doesn’t get much easier for quite awhile — I imagine that my mother would argue that she is still on the job nearly thirty-five years later. There is so much advice to be given to children, much of which has to be repeated over and over again until it sinks in and has some meaning to the child. Make sure to put on sunscreen when you lay out in the sun, for example. Even the best sunscreen is not a perfect protection against the sun and you will eventually get a sunburn. Oh, and then there is the piece of advice that most parents never think that they will have to give their children but apparently is sometimes quite necessary — don’t sunbathe in the middle of the road or you may just get struck by a vehicle.

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Blue Hair Suspensions and Mixed Priorities

There are many problems that have been facing our school systems for years. I would like to mention a few of them and then bring up a completely non-issue that has been made into an issue unnecessarily. The issues are teen pregnancy, drug addiction, and gang membership. The non issue is blue hair. You can re-read that if you would like as it is still there — blue hair. It is a non issue that was made into one by a young woman being suspended because her hair was dyed with Kool-Aid.

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The Face of Medicare Fraud

I have heard over the last couple of years a number of ideas about why the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, affectionately known as Obamacare by its enemies (side note — if you hear someone refer to it as this, you can be assured that their arguments will be heavily one-sided and based more on talking points than reality) is a bad idea. Some of them include the notion that people will, out of greed, opt to pay a penalty for not having insurance and then get it when they absolutely need to do so based on knowing they will not be denied due to a pre-existing condition. Another is the argument that since Medicare is bloated and not functioning as is, introducing reform will do nothing to help it.

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The Magic of Electronic Prescriptions

I was recently introduced to the magic of “Electronic Prescriptions” or “E-Prescribing” — or “E-Rx” if you prefer the funky — when I last visited my doctor for a 90-day refill of Benicar for $50.00USD:

Although e-prescribing is technically regarded “optional,” you could face payment penalties starting in 2012 if you are capable of participating and decided not to do so in 2011. This is as per a Dec. 13 PQRI National Provider Call sponsored by CMS.

Between 2012 and 2014, the payment adjustment will start for practices that are unsuccessful e-prescribers. Eligible professionals who don’t e-prescribe in 2011 could collect one percent less than the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule amount in 2012, and that pay cut will go up to 1.5 percent in 2013 and two percent in 2014, said CMS’s Daniel Green, MD, during the call.

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Cathy and Her Catholic Hospital Sterilization: Ten Sentence Story #150

When Cathy crossed the threshold of her local Catholic Hospital with her latest child squirming from her birth canal, she could feel her heart beating in her fingertips and she was terrified and filled with shame.

She’d had enough children and she wanted to start enjoying sex without having to worry about the nefarious curse of her husband’s sperm and her incredibly fertile eggs over the following nine months.

Cathy knew it had to be done and she didn’t feel bad about coming to a hospital she tithed to as a good and faithful Catholic for the last decade or so; it was her turn for help now and she came to take her share home with her.

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