As you may have already seen, the media is abuzz with news of town hall meetings, “death panels” , and the “emergence of socialized medicine”. But what us generally-healthy teenagers don’t take the time to consider is that the health care debate (and some would say debacle) is important to everyone, regardless of age. It’s an intricate issue, with long-lasting ideological, moral, fiscal, and political implications.

I rarely shop at Whole Foods, which has two locations in the Twin Cities. If I am looking for organic foods, I tend to look for them at the regular grocery store I shop at or go to Trader Joes, which one person described as the “poor man’s Whole Foods.”

But I might consider shopping at the grocery chain more in the near future because of the insane and asinine boycott going on by some on the Left.

The repetitive harmonious theme from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign was “hope” and “change”. Two hundred days into the new administration, change has occurred, but there has been little, if any hope at all. It started with a stimulus bill that has done very little to revive a frail and sinking economy and a bailout of automobile industry’s that came at the expense of taxpayer’s money. With the recent push by the White House and a Democrat-controlled Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system, the angry outcry of many Americans is being heard across our vast country. The simple fact is that people are not thrilled with the government interfering with their lives, especially with their health care.

As far as the extent to which health care costs are causing further economic strain, look at the number of those who no longer have insurance – an additional nearly 5 million people since Sept. ’08 are uninsured. So how are these people paying for the prescriptions? Better yet, when they must seek care where are they turning to and how are they financing it? Increasingly, foreclosures and bankruptcies are the only way out.

As a physician of more than thirty years I get concerned when I see the emphasis put on race and economics as the sole cause of health care disparities. High cholesterol comes not just from diet, but lipid or fat disorders and also has a genetic component as deceased tennis great Arthur Ashe’s life demonstrated. Obesity correlates with diet, lack of exercise and sometimes genetics. Diabetes reflects obesity, diet, and genetics.

High blood pressure results from intrinsic poorly understood likely genetic etiologies in 90%+ of the cases; however, the influence of diet, diabetes, and obesity cannot be discounted. Lead exposure on an inner city street where polluting paint and fuel inefficient cars may travel hurt as much as the lack of trees for pollution filtration. Asthma reflects environmental exposures, smoking, and genetics. Lack of access to physicians is often the result of where you live, how much money you can pay for your care and your level of understanding about your health.

By Brandon Brice My fellow Republicans, Independents and Democrats, we are witnessing in the Republican Party a severe identity crisis. Conflicts exist amongst moderate and conservative members of the party, and a lingering stereotype of Republicans only caring about the almighty dollar. There are stigmas of greed, corruption and lack of compassion for everyday hard [...]

This is a personal issue for me since I was uninsured after being insured for over 20 years via my employer and becoming seriously ill and hospitalized. According to the doctors, whom I became friendly with, I should have been dead because I walked around for two weeks with a heart rate of 318! The normal heart rate is between 70 and 100! Well, I guess God wanted me here to tell this story!

My experience of hospitalization and subsequent clinic visits without healthcare insurance when previously I had insurance was demoralizing, eye opening and obviously anti-American and anti-Middle class. I can safely say that illegal aliens demand and receive FREE and better health care on the American taxpayer dime than Americans.

by Linda Vallee We have spent the last six weeks sending this out to every newspaper in the USA we could find and have posted it on blog’s everywhere we could. Please cut, paste and send this to anyone who is undecided if you think this will help … perhaps they will put weight into [...]