Health junction

There is no formal blog post this month as I am completing the inaugural Russell Ride, which is just shy of 900 miles in eight days, to raise awareness and money to cure Type 1 Diabetes. I chose this challenge in March because of the depressing actions of the Trump presidency and my desire to do something positive. Riding a lot of fifty mile rides has helped my morose attitude. You can see my rides with this link to the Ride with GPS site, where I am listed as healthpolicymaven: https://ridewithgps.com/users/1222403/activities  I have logged over 1,000 miles in training rides just in the last 21 rides, with 69,764 feet elevation gain. Riding 100 miles a day should not be too difficult, assuming there isn't a strong headwind, but I have overcome that before. So far, the only media that seems interested in the event is the Napa Register, which is the local paper for the end destination. I will be speaking with people along the way, spreading the word about Benaroya Research's wor...

People are Dying in the U.S. because they can�t Afford their Insulin Type 1 Diabetics (Type 1 D), whom acquire the disease as children or young adults are dying because they can�t afford the price of insulin in the United States. In 1972, three years after my brother, Russell was diagnosed with Type 1 D, a vial of insulin cost $9. Today, that same quantity is $275, nearly triple what it was in 2010. For an insulin dependent diabetic, whom must take one to two vials a day for survival, this can be a $50 per day expense. Suffice to say, most people cannot afford to pay that much for medicine, especially lacking insurance. And if someone has a chronic condition like diabetes, it may be more difficult to obtain and keep employment, especially a job with good medical insurance. How does someone buy their essential insulin without the means, in the U.S. they go to GoFundMe.com and ask for help.   But even with the relative success of this social media phenomena, many are still unable to ...

How America Has Broken the Social Contracts for Our Children Trump Administration Republicans are intent on cutting social contracts for middle-class and lower income Americans, by undermining funding, creating negative campaigns about publicly funded programs, and voiding enforcement of current regulations. This article examines these primary expenses for families; healthcare, childcare, housing, and education in the United States, as compared to other industrialized countries. Healthcare The cost of U.S. healthcare is higher than anywhere else, yet the benefits and access to care are at the bottom of industrialized countries. As discussed in my 2013, book and many articles over the past decade, this is primarily due to a system which has little cost controls and reimburses healthcare providers on the basis of volume. The Trump Administration has removed the tax penalty for nonexempt families who do not obtain health insurance, which will undermine participation in the ACA insurance e...