Healthcare

Some folks are still pushing the HSA (Health Savings Account) as a great way for healthcare consumers to control costs.  While this seems like a reasonable assumption, my experience has been that the healthcare industry is anything but transparent.  Also, healthcare is not just like other consumer markets; it is not like you can just do without that cast for a broken arm if it seems to pricey.  Maybe next month casts will be on clearance, you never know.

I have been self employed with an HSA for our family for about 4 years.  Our experience with finding out even approximately what a procedure would cost was a nightmare.  Last year Nolan was having one of the most simple procedures done, ear tubes.  Yet no single person could even give a ball park figure for what the procedure would cost.  Individual calls needed to be made to the doctor performing the procedure, the hospital, the anesthesiologist, etc.  Also, the costs for everyone varied on where the procedure was done.  

When it was all said and done, the cost was $6,000 for a  10 minute routine procedure with no complications.  This was up from $2,500 just two years earlier.  The most touching part of the whole experience was realizing that the people doing the actual procedure, the doctor and the anesthesiologist, were less than 20% of the total cost.  

Of course the ear-tubes were not covered because Nolan had one ear infection prior to getting our HSA coverage, so it was considered a preexisting condition.  On a related note, Karen's entire back is not covered, not because she had some sort of prior procedure or injury, but because she has been to see a chiropractor.  Also, her lungs are not covered because she has asthma.  Brilliant.  

On a related note, I am not sure how to rectify that 1) government run Medicare is way more popular than private insurance;  

while, 2) People in the age group covered by Medicare are opposed to Obama's healthcare reform plan:

“Obama’s plan is most popular among younger Americans and least popular among senior citizens,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “A majority of Americans over the age of 50 oppose Obama’s plan; a majority of those under 50 support it.”

Most of the opposition to the Obama public option that I have seen seems to be based on fear of government run care ruining what a good thing we have going with private insurance.  I am not up to speed on all this free-market anti-socialist thinking, but I really don't understand what cherished institution or principal would be undermined by a public option.  It is not like the insurance industry provides an actual product or an actual service; the heath care provider is doing that.  All the insurance company is doing is aggregating risks and skimming profit.  What is so capitalist about that?  Wouldn't it be even better  to go back to a freer and simpler time where there was no insurance at all, so healthy people were not forced to pay for the sick people and the sick people could just go broke and sit in debtors' prison, especially all those older folks who can't stand the thought of my family having access to socialized medicine but don't want anyone to touch their Medicare.  People in glass houses...

Posted by Jim

Marguerite Kelly of the Washington Post.... I bow down.

My mother in law clipped and article out of the Des Moines Register this weekend title "Keep a record of son's tantrums to discover trigger". I immediately got defensive and wondered what prompted her to send this to me. I owe my mother in law a big apology. She did not clip this article to not-so-subtly tell me how to be a better mom but to encourage us that we were on the right track. It turn out that this article was originally published in the Family Almanac column of the Washington Post with the title, "From Sweet to Monstrous in a Heartbeat". The Family Almanac column is written by Marguerite Kelly at the Washington Post. It is a column where a family writes in with a problem they are dealing with and Ms. Kelly writes a response. I often skip past this type of column becuase they rarely have any common sense advice and often suggest unrealistic solutions.
Well... it seems the Ms. Kelly is not only a down to earth parent who knows what she is talking about and is not afraid of dishing out real advice to struggling parents but is a woman who is also aware of how diet and environmental toxins can effect a person's behavior. As I was tracking down where this article originated I discovered that this particular response by Kelly was not the 1st time she has referred to the removal of dyes, preservatives and salicylates from a child's diet as a way to help moderate behavior. (click here for another posting) Thank you, thank you, thank you Marguerite Kelly for bringing this more natural solution and other completely reasonable solutions to the mainstream, even if you still only get published on page 8E.

ADDED AS EDIT 7/21:
I emailed Marguerite Kelly after reading her article and much to my surprise, she wrote me back. Here is her response. It is nice to know people like this are out there.

"Karen,

Thanks for your thoughtful note and your kind words. And yes, I have heard of the Feingold diet. In fact, I've recommended it so often that I've been accused of being a shill for it so this time I wrote about it without giving it a name. The diet, and many other treatments to correct physical conditions, will be included in the book I'm writing, tentatively named, "Where Do We Turn?", which, with luck, will be published before your child starts middle school.

Marguerite"

Do You Really Have the Power to Change It?

Tonight I was watching a segment of "Now" on PBS that was dedicated to food processing. Their guest was Robert Kenner, the maker of the documentary "Food, Inc."  The main topic of the program was that our food is all being made around what McDonald's buys. For example, McDonald's is the largest buyer of beef in the U.S. which changes the way cattle farmers raise their cattle since McDonald's wants all the burgers everywhere to taste the same. While this topic is very interesting, one particular strain of the discussion struck me as perplexing. Kenner was talking about how people feel powerless as a food consumers to make changes in what is offered at the supermarket. It seems that WalMart says NOT true. Recently, it seems that consumers were buying more milk without rBST (artificial bovine growth hormone) and WalMart changed who its suppliers were.  The owners of Stonyfield Farm are now supplying WalMart shoppers with  growth hormone free dairy products thanks to consumer response to the negative impact growth hormones can have on us humans.  The point to be made was that if the consumer can get WalMart & or McDonalds to change who their suppliers are, we can change the whole industry for the better. 

While I agree with this, in theory I have some other thoughts as well. It seems that there is so much cover- up about harmful products in the food industry that it is often hard for consumers to know that there are harmful products in their purchases.  When we don't know that there are harmful products in our products, we can not stop buying them. The other issue I have is that milk containing rBST is often $2.00 less expensive, if not more, than organic. So my question is this...can the consumer really be powerful with their choices when they can not consistently afford them or are not sufficiently informed about them?  What do you think? 

Click here to see a trailer of "Food, Inc."

Click here to re-read Jim's post about corn corn everywhere which is a big chunk of what "Food, Inc." is about. 

Technocizinig the Classroom

Through a course I am taking to renew my teaching certificate I was listening to a "webinar" on the Discovery Educators Network. No Mind Left Behind: Using Media to Reach Your Students presented by Jannita Demian and Matt Monjan, suggests that we not making our presentations in the classroom worth listening to and by using technology we can better reach our students in a format that is interesting to them. I do think this is true. I often think of myself as "in the know" about technology and how to use it but honestly, I am terrified to try it out in the classroom. This course is going to make me branch out and start thinking about how to make the presentation of material in my classroom more engaging for my students so that my presentation WILL be worth paying attention to. Hopefully, I will have the resources to make these changes in the classroom when the time comes.

This article about an English teacher going paperless in her classroom was particularly inspiring to me and for all you educators (esp. high school teachers), I think you will be inspired too.

For you elementary skeptics out there that think you can't really get kids involved with technology in the classroom, check this site out!

More on School Reform

First of all, I would like to send a shout out to my friend Laura for keeping it real with her comments on the last blog post. I often find it hard to keep on topic with the item I start, espcially with things like education and food and she expanded on the last rant about Arne Duncan's idea for school reform in a way that I think needs to be addressed as well. Apparently, Jack Cafferty does too. Mr. Cafferty is not one of my favorite newscasters but today I was intriqued by the title of this excerpt from his new book Now or Never, "Parents, your kids aren't that special". Once I started reading, I was surprised to find that he, like Laura, was touching on how school reform doesn't necessarily start at the schools. Here is a quote...

"I don't know the status of parenting in America. But I know a little about the status of education in America. Parents' growing inability to impose manners and limits on their kids when the kids are in school is reflected in record dropout rates, as well as teen drug and alcohol abuse, teen sex, and unwed pregnancies. Maybe it's parenting that's on the decline, more than the schools."

He goes on to say that the general public does a poor job parenting and we are all paying for it whether it is the family sitting next to you in a resturant with screaming kids that seems oblivious to the fact that you don't want to pay to hear their children scream or the declining state of our education system. I am not sure I appreciate the abrasive manner in which Jack Cafferty presents his material but I do agree with both he and Laura. Our society in general is too caught up with making sure our kids feel good about themselves, if we have enough money to make ourselves feel good and who to blame when we don't all feel hunky dorey that we we can't see where the problems really begin. Maybe we should start spending some of that education money on teaching parents how to parent instead of on lengthening how long our kids are in school. I wonder... do the studies Mr. Duncan is reading, which state India and China have brighter students, point out that those cultures also require high levels of obedience, discipline and respect? I am going to guess not.

Karen

Longer school year...Is this really the way to make it better?

So this blog is essentially dedicated to the things that make me go Hmmmm....and often there is a long lag between those things.

I am a fan of Obama as most of you know but I am not a fan of his choice for education secretary, Arne Duncan, for one simple reason. Duncan has extensive experience in educational policy and management, but has not been a teacher. This is a step that many of our school districts have taken to in the recent past, hiring people to run school districts that have no experience (what I really wanted to say was no idea) with how things go in an actual classroom. Now, I am no seasoned veteran teacher with only 10 years in various classrooms but I have been in a LOT of schools and several districts. Each time you find someone in public education who seems to know how to fix all the problems with low test scores and problem children in the classroom you often find out that he/she has an MBA or an administrative degree with no classroom experience. I would not hire someone who had studied methods of practicing medicine but no hands on experience to be my doctor, WHY would we hire someone who has studied METHODS of education to change our deperately faltering school system!? ok- enough of that... I don't like the pick Obama made but I can't change it so I am going to try and figure out how to live with it.

Duncan is speaking out currently about some of the ideas he has for improving US graduates' ability to compete on a global level for jobs. He is proposing that children are not ready to compete in a "world economy" and that the one way we should work to fix that is to lengthen the school year. Here is a quote from Duncan in an interview with CNN this week,

"American students are 'at a competitive disadvantage' because the United States has shorter school years than other countries such as India and China. It doesn't matter how poor, how tough the family background, socioeconomic challenges, where students have longer days, longer weeks, longer years -- that's making a difference."

As someone who has taught in schools where the children came from tough family backgrounds & socioeconmic challenges I have a real problem with this statement. More than 50% of the children in my 1st classroom were receiving free or reduced breakfast and lunch from the school district. Many of my kids had one or more family members in jail. Some of them had been taken from their homes because of neglect or abuse at least one time. Some of them had parents who were working so hard to keep their kids fed and clothed and in a decent home that they did not spend any time with their children and the children were fending for themselves to get to and from school, make dinner and put themselves to bed.

I do not think that a longer school day, week or year will keep these children from feeling hungry during the school day, worrying about who will be home when they get there or if they will get dinner when they get home. The only thing more time at school will do, in my opinion, is send dollars marked for education to the overhead required to run schools on a longer day, week or year. These dollars must be sent to districts with requirements for meeting children's needs first. Children must have their basic life needs met before they can function at a higher level in the classroom and I hope that somehow Mr. Duncan can see this before he requires our nation's schools to be in session longer.

Karen

Natural Can Be Beautiful

No ladies I am not asking you to ditch your make up! I just wanted to share the most recent all natural food masterpiece at our house. This cake & frosting was made from scratch with all natural food coloring and it turned out super. India Tree makes the food coloring that I used out of concentrated vegetable colorants (ie: beets for red) and although they are often not as true as the Wilton ones, the piece of mind that they came from naturally occuring food products it worth the sacrifice.

Healthy Recipe of the Week- Grrrrrreat Chicken and Rice Cakes with Bacon

I should have been clued in when I read the title of the recipe "Grrrrreat" Chicken and Rice Cakes but NO I got to the end before I realized this is one of Rachel Rays crazy crossover meals for pets! None the less, it is healthy and EVERYONE at my house loved it. Try it out, I promise you won't bark after biting.

Ingredients

* 1 cup chicken broth
* 1/2 cup rice
* 4 slices turkey bacon
* 2 large eggs, beaten
* 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
* Salt and pepper
* 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
* Sour cream (people's portions only)
* Salsa (people's portions only)

Preparation

In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken broth to a boil over high heat. Add the rice, lower the heat and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl and let cool.
While the rice is cooking, in a medium nonstick skillet, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until crisp, about 5 minutes; drain on paper towels. Finely chop the bacon and add to the cooled rice. Reserve the skillet.
Mix the eggs and bread crumbs into the rice mixture; season with salt and pepper. Shape into 4 equal-size patties.
In the reserved skillet, heat the EVOO, two turns of the pan, over medium heat. Add the rice cakes and cook for 4 minutes on each side. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving to your pup. Top the people's portions with sour cream and salsa.

Recipe of the Week

OK- I originally thought I would really keep up with one recipe a week that had no yucky stuff but was reasonable to make. Here is the 1st. Hope you like it. (PS- you have to use Grape Nuts, not the knock off or you risk artificially stuff, it still tastes good with the knock off though).

Crispy Rosemary Chicken (I believe this might originally be from the Dr. Phi. cookbook but I am not sure)

3/4 c Post Grape-nuts Cereal
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp dried rosemary leaves, crushed (I don't crush them- too much work, I just throw them in the blender with the cereal)
1/8 tsp pepper
4 sm. boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 T vegetable oil (I use olive)

Preheat oven to 400.Place cereal in blender and blend on low until finely crushed. Mix cereal with seasoning in shallow dish (I just stick it all in the blender together) and pour it into the shallow dish. Brush chicken lightly with oil then dip into cereal mix, turning to coat evenly on all sides.Spray cookie sheet with Pam (I use parchment paper on top of the cookie sheet and spray that, then I can toss it and move on when I am done), put chicken on sheet and spray with a coat of Pam. Bake 20-25 min or until chicken is done.

WHAT!? School diets can help test scores! Where have I been!?

You mean to tell me that for 30 years there has been scientific information that what happens at the lunch table can dramatically effect what happens on test day!? I have to admit that this information has been at my disposal for a very long time but apparently I just wasn't looking.

I recently received my Dec 2008/Jan. 2009 issue of "Pure Facts", a publication distributed to members of the Feingold Assoc. of the United States(FAUS), of which we are members. FAUS believes that the elimination of these additives: Artificial (synthetic) coloring,
Artificial (synthetic) flavoring, Aspartame (Nutrasweet, an artificial sweetener), Artificial (synthetic) preservatives BHA, BHT, TBHQ along with the initial elimination of some naturally occuring asprin chemical (salicylate) can reduce or even eliminate the symptoms of many many disorders. FAUS asserts that eliminating these products from your diet can improve problems with hyperactivity, attention span, sleep, impulsivity, depression, moodiness and these are just a few. As I was reading through the articles I came across an interesting comment about how New York City schools were seeing an increase in test scores by making simple changes to their school lunches. I was intrigued.

As I started hunting around for more information on this topic I discovered no really recent information but did come across a study done in the late 1970s and early 1980s in 803 New York City schools. The study required that school serve a diet lower in sucrose,that omits synthetic food color/flavors, and two preservatives (BHA and BHT) over a 4 year year period. The results were staggering. The average national performance rankings of the 803 public schools stood at 39.2% in the spring of 1979. After adhering to these dietary changes for 4 years the performance ranking increased to 54.9%! A change of 15.7% simply by ommiting many things that are bad for your body anyway! In case you are a skeptic like me you might say "Yeah, but what else changed in those 4 years that could contribute to that?". Well, first I want to point out that the schools were studied for 3 years before any dietary changes were made and showed no more than a 1.7% increase in performance rank. Secondly, I would add that the results note that the amount of fat was reduced in school lunch during this time as well and the conclusion is that a decrease in malnutrition is the most likely cause of improved performance.

Why have we not heard of these studies before? Why is no one demanding that more be done to remove harmful substances from our kids' diets?! I am in love with this study and the other one I read about in Appleton, WI that made similar changes with similar results. I am armed with my information and am considering approaching our school nurse with it on Monday. Anybody else coming with me?

Karen

ps- a quote from Ralph Nader on the Phil Donahue show, December 4, 1987 concerning the cleaning up of the food supply, "Attack silent violence the way we go after street violence!"

I knew there was a reason I kind of liked this guy.

The Skinny on Plastics

What do you know about plastics? Do you know what pthalates and BPA are? Do you have any idea how to keep these things out of your body if you want to? Here is the basic, skinny, down & dirty version of what kinds of nasty things are in plastics (and other things) and how to avoid them.

Phthalates-are chemical substances added to plastics to increase their flexibility. Phthalates have been used commercially for decades, and can be found in cosmetics, toys, food packaging, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and cleaning and building materials. They’re also used in pacifiers and teethers for babies.

BPA-(Bisphenol A)- It is used in the synthesis of polyesters, is used to make a variety of common products including baby and water bottles, sports equipment, medical and dental devices, dental composite (white) fillings and sealants, lenses, and household electronics. BPA is also used in the manufacture of all CDs and DVDs. BPA based epoxy resins are used as coatings on the inside of almost all food and beverage cans.

The other thing you should know about these items is that they are known to be endocrine disrupters. This means that they could potentially mess up your endocrine system which is responsible for your hormones and can cause a range of reproductive problems (reduced fertility, male and female reproductive tract abnormalities, loss of fetus, menstrual problems, changes in hormone levels; early puberty; brain and behavior problems; impaired immune functions; and various cancers).

What is own US government doing to protect us from these harmful agents you ask?

In 2007 the FDA said that BPA was not toxic to humans in the levels that they are now exposed. The information that it used was based on 2 studies done by the plastics industry. The FDA said that it used those studies because they were large and comprehensive. In 2008, the FDA decided to reconsider the safety of BPA after the National Toxicology Program's April 15 report suggested that BPA may alter human development.

President Bush signed a law in 2008 banning three types of phthalates in children’s toys and child care items, save in trace amounts. The law also temporarily prohibited three other chemicals pending further analysis. The six phthalates have been also band in European toys for almost ten years.

Even though some action has been taken, there has been no wide spread action taken to omit these chemicals from the general plastics production. For the time being, you will have to take matters into your own hands. These easy steps are a good place to start.

Store foods in glass whenever you can.

Never heat foods in plastics.

Use stainless steel or aluminum bottles for drinking water on the go.

Plastics labeled with recycling codes 2, & 4 tend to be safer.

Check out these lists for products that have been tested clean of BPA & Pthalates.

Contact your government officials to let them know how you feel about this issue.