Progressive Wednesday

Healing Health Care

Problem:

We all get sick. We go to doctors. We go to hospitals. Hopefully we get better, and soon. But sometimes we don’t get decent answers. Sometimes we get answers we can barely stand. Sometimes we get answers we can’t afford.

Well, we’ve got some answers of our own.

Make Progress:

My old man was a probation officer. My mom a phys. ed. teacher. Both were unionized, and in part because of this, they both had almost ridiculously excellent family health care. Growing up, I had regular check-ups, vaccinations, trips to the dentist and ophthalmologist, and both my sister and I had braces, all covered.

For my money, it’s hard to pursue happiness if you’re sick all the time (even more so if you’re, say, five years old), or if you’re worried about doctor’s bills racking up, or if your teeth are rotting despite your best flossing and fluoridating efforts. And kids should always be able to receive more than adequate health care.

While most of us aren't doctors, we can help the health of those around us (and even ourselves). So let's, not eat, but pick four apples today.

• Click
• Mail
• Watch
• Bleed

Healing Health Care: Watch

Watch:

If you want to have your eyelids peeled back about the pharmaceutical companies and prescription drugs, head on over, once again, to the better-than-good folks at PBS. Their FRONTLINE documentary Dangerous Prescription will make you shake your progressive head. Just click this sentence to see the medicated light.

I'm not sure what else to say. If you'd like four highlights (or lowlights, depending on how you look at it), here goes:

1. “I think Americans need to recognize that every time they put a pill in their mouth — especially a new pill that they’ve never taken before — it’s an experiment,” says Dr. Raymond Woosley, vice president for Health Sciences at the University of Arizona.
2. Since 1997, more than a dozen drugs have been taken off the market due to severe side effects or injuries. It’s a statistic that may surprise the many U.S. consumers who believe that FDA approval guarantees a drug’s safety.
3. “When a drug goes on the market, only about 3,000 patients have ever been given that drug,” says Woosley, who directs a national center that studies drug side effects. “We will never know all the toxicity that can occur, especially the one [patient] in 10,000 or one in 20,000 that could be seriously harmed. Our detection will only happen after the drug is on the market and exposed to a huge number of patients.”
4. The Prescription Drug User Fee Act is legislation passed by Congress that allows drug companies to pay a fee of more than $500,000 with each drug application so that the FDA can hire more drug reviewers, thereby speeding up the drug approval process. Critics say the law has pushed the FDA too close to the pharmaceutical companies it is charged with regulating. FRONTLINE speaks with a former FDA safety officer, who recounts being pressured to tone down or alter negative drug reviews in order to speed approval of a new drug. Another tells of suffering agency retribution and retaliation for recommending against a drug’s approval.

Like I said, it’ll peel your eyelids back, which then, I suppose, will need medical attention. So let’s hope I only mean it metaphorically. Let’s hope.

Healing Health Care: Bleed

Bleed:

Sorry to make this sound so sucking-flesh-wound grizzly, but we actually do mean “bleed.– Though not for a vampire or a voodoo ceremony, but rather for, you know, your fellow humans. Why? Here's why:

• According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, every year in the United States, almost 5 million people are saved by blood transfusions. That's more than the populations of Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Vermont combined.
• Someone needs blood in the United States every two seconds. Put another way — three gallons of the stuff is used every minute here in the Red, White, and Blue.
• Approximately 20% of all patients entering hospitals require blood.
• 38,000 blood donations are needed every day to maintain our supply.
• Giving blood just once can save the lives of three people. I'm pretty sure that throws the “I don't like needles– excuse out the proverbial window.
• It's not just people in car accidents who need your blood. People with sickle-cell anemia, cancer, and leukemia require large amounts of transfusions. Severe burn victims need transfusions, as do folks undergoing organ transplants and many premature infants.
• Here's a final troubling statistic: only five percent of those who could donate blood do so (yours truly included… though that will change, and I mean pronto).

In case you’re at all concerned, you can't get an infectious disease from donating blood, and the process won't decrease your strength. And how often can you give blood? Every 56 days, baby. Just click this sentence for the blood donation eligibility guidelines from the Red Cross.

So give. And don't give until it hurts, because, if you're not a complete pansy, it really won't. If you'd like to donate blood through the Red Cross, just click this sentence. You can even watch an online presentation of the process. But if donating cabbage is more your speed, click right here, yo.

“Five for Fighting– Autism, breast cancer, children's poverty– ¦

What kind of world do you want? That's the question musician John Ondrasik, a.k.a., “Five for Fighting– wants you to answer. But he doesn't want it typed up and emailed. He wants it videotaped, tagged and uploaded to whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com. Why? Because he has started “the first video community that gives back.–

Here's what he wants you to do:

Tell the world what kind of world you want and raise money for charity by making and uploading a video of yourself, your friends or your family answering the question, “What Kind Of World Do You Want?–

Using the video software, Revver, they have set up a system that will donate 49 cents to one of six selected charities anytime someone watches your video. Just stick the video intro for the charity of your choice at the beginning. Those six charities are:

1. Fisher House – Watch the video intro
2. Breast Cancer 3-Day: Komen for the Cure – Watch the video intro
3. Save the Children – Watch the video intro
4. Autism Speaks – Watch the video intro
5. VH1 Save the Music Foundation – Watch the video intro
6. NY Police and Fire Widows & Children – Watch the video intro

Anytime someone watches your video and clicks on the sponsor's link at the end, that sponsor will donate 49 cents to your charity. You can get complete upload instructions here. By the same token, watch the videos that others have posted. Don't forget to click on the sponsor at the end. It's 49 cents each time, so watch and click, watch and click, and watch and click some more.

What kind of world do I want? I want a world that's better today than it was yesterday. A world where a child in the South Bronx has access to the same health care as one on the Upper East Side; where parents can raise their children comfortably and without fear, whether they live in Los Angeles or Sierra Leone. I want a world where it's harder to get a gun than it is to get a job; where we pollute less today than we did yesterday. I want a world where we wage peace ferociously, and war is proven ineffective. But most of all, I want a world that, when I leave it, is better for my daughter than it was for me, because I was in it.

Now– ¦ Where's my camera?

19,500 Miles to Graceland

Often here at Progressive Wednesday we talk about the actions of individuals that make a difference in the lives of others, and usually those people are one of many working as part of a larger community. While that is a noble thing and something that we strongly advocate, but Quinn Baumberger, from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, decided to take a different route. Literally.

When macular degeneration took his grandfather's sight, Quinn decided to take to the road on his bicycle to raise money to help find a cure for the disease. Over nine months ago Quinn hopped on his bike in Deadhorse, Alaska (not the best named city to start a dangerous journey on) and later the week he will hit the brakes for the last time in Terra Del Fuego, Argentina, the southernmost point in South America.

So how much did he raise? According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal:

Baumberger is nearing his goal of raising $19,500 for macular degeneration research, $1 for each mile covered.

So Quinn Baumberger rode his bike 19,500 miles through snow, rain, freezing temperatures, oppressive heat, intestinal bugs, fever, a sprained ankle and two robberies to raise money for a disease that has blinded over 10 million Americans. How can you help? Well, get the tires filled and brakes replaced. C'mon we could all use the exercise. No? Well at least check out his website.  Then make a donation to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation and help Quinn make a little progress.

Photo courtesy of Quinn’s website