Friday, March 20, 2009

Bad news + inspiration = ACTION

How’s our health faring in these new and troublesome (and sometimes frightening) economic times? Not too well, according to a recent article in The Nation’s Health newspaper, “U.S. economic crisis having worrisome effect on health.” As if the nation’s uninsurance problem wasn’t bad enough....

And check out this new video (below) from the National Association of County and City Health Officials and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation about the public health response in a Kansas town devastated by a category 5 tornado. It’s pretty inspirational and illustrates just how vital our public health system truly is.



Bad news + inspiration = ACTION. So, visit President Obama’s health reform site to submit public health-related questions to regional health reform forums or just get involved in making sure public health has a seat at the table.


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1 comment:

JanaB said...

Call me a cynic but I find this truly comical. I actually started my "real" public health fight 10 years ago when I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. For one that also suffers from depression it was a nightmare trying to convince my physician that I was REALLY sick. . . 10 years later I will soon be graduating with my masters in public health- $100,000 in debt and currently without a job. The University Health Insurance capped out at $1500 dollars for my RX which was about 2 months of RX for me. . . so I had to go back on my mothers COBRA @ $401 per month and take on average about $250 worth of medications a month (thats just the co-pays. This price tag does not work out well on a student loan living in our Nation's Capitol. I haven't slept in 6 months!

What I think is amusing is that I AM IN ACTION and I do know the In's and Out's of the system but I think we need to be realists. . . even when policy gets changed it does take time. I think we as public health practitioners owe it to our communities to be REAL with the people we are attempting to serve.

Seriously, I am not going to get hired tomorrow and have health insurance start up the next day- it wouldn't have happened with Bush and it won't happen with Obama.

This is MY PUBLIC HEALTH. . you can read more about it on my blog. . . www.nwtose.com