Much like America's grassroots movements to dispose of
trash, wear seat belts, impose strict penalties for drunk
driving, and eliminate smoking from public facilities,
it will take a groundswell of individual initiative to
change the way the United States deals with health care.
At least according to Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who
served as the keynote speaker for "Health Care Solutions
for Michigan," a national health care policy forum hosted
by Eastern Michigan University Oct. 14 at the Convocation
Center.
 |
A HEALTHY SOLUTION: Arkansas Gov. Mike
Huckabee
said the key to controlling health care
costs in the
United States is to change the habits
— including
improving eating and increasing exercise — of
Americans.
Huckabee was the keynote speaker at a
national
health care policy forum hosted by Eastern
Michigan
University at the Convocation Center Oct.
14. Photo
by Randy Mascharka
|
The forum, one of five scheduled nationally, also provided
an opportunity for Michigan's legislators, including Gov.
Jennifer Granholm, and others in or with an interest in
the health care industry, to publicly discuss their positions
on health care policy in front of a large audience. The
forum was a collaboration between the National Health Policy
Council, the AARP, and the National Coalition on Health
Care. Allergan presented the event.
"Health care costs, by necessity, are a major issue. But
the real one is 'how can we make America a healthier nation?'" said
Huckabee, who was named one of the nation's top five governors
last year by Time Magazine and whose name has been bandied
about as a Democratic candidate for president in 2008. "If
not, we will have a broken, runaway system."
Huckabee, Arkansas's governor since 1996, said 75 percent
of dollars spent on health care goes toward chronic diseases
— chronic diseases he said that can be prevented with lifestyle
changes.
"There are three factors: eating too much, exercising
too little and smoking," said Huckabee. "Americans are
a lot like an NFL football team. You have 22 guys on the
field who desperately need a rest and 80,000 people in
the stands that desperately need exercise."
Huckabee once admitted to resembling some of those fans.
In 2003, he was diagnosed with Type II diabetes
before he lost 110 pounds. A product of the deep South,
Huckabee joked that all food, including even Twinkies,
were deep-fried and battered in that region of the country.
His eating habits changed and he began exercising after
a doctor told him "he was in the last decade of his life" if
he didn't change his lifestyle. Four years ago, Huckabee
admitted to being winded after walking up a flight of stairs.
This November, he's running the New York City Marathon.
"The prosperity of our nation has made us sick.
We used to eat foods that God created and intended us to
eat," Huckabee said. "Now, we eat man-made foods that are
completely processed. We've not only increased our (average)
size as people, but we've increased our diseases."
To make his point, he said that 16 percent of America's
gross national product (GNP) is spent on health care. No
other nation — including Asia and Europe — spend
more than 9.5 percent of its GNP on health care. If the
United States could even reduce that percentage to 11 percent,
the savings to the American public would be approximately
$700 billion annually.
"How do we do it? It's a cultural change. It won't happen
overnight," Huckabee said. "Why is this not being discussed.
Because politicians like to talk about things we can settle
in an election cycle. This issue will take a generational
cycle."
In Arkansas, he has worked to get public schools to revamp
their lunch menus to offer healthier fare and increasing
exercise programs in schools. He also has partnered with
former president Bill Clinton and the Alliance for a Healthier
Generation to fight childhood obesity nationwide. The program
affects approximately 54 million children nationwide.
Nationally, he said movement starts with an "attitude
change" through education and advertising. Next, it takes
what he called an "atmospheric change," similar to when
litter baskets cropped up in the late 1960s and early 1970s and "no
smoking" signs placed in public buildings in the last five-to-10
years.
And finally, action is taken.
"Action starts when the government codifies into law what
is already happening culturally," Huckabee said. "We must
and can do better. Otherwise, our kids will be dying at
50."
 |
HEALTH OF THE STATE: Michigan Gov. Jennifer
Granholm makes a point during a national
healthcare
policy forum hosted by Eastern Michigan
University
Oct. 14. She described
the issue of health care as a
moral and economic
one. Photo by Randy Mascharka
|
Granholm highlighted the work being done to provide universal
access to affordable health care in Michigan. This included
the two-year anniversary of the MiRx prescription drug
discount card (38,000 in the state are signed up now with
a goal of 50,000 by the end of the year) and continued
negotiations with the federal government to implement the
Michigan First Health Care Plan which, if successful,
would bring in $600 million in federal monies to fund a
no-frills benefits package to roughly 1.1 million Michigan
residents who are uninsured.
"In the 1990s, the issue of universal health care may
have been ahead of its time. I think its time has come," Granholm
said. "It is a moral issue and an economic issue."
Granholm pointed out that more automobiles were
manufactured in Windsor, Ontario, than in the state of
Michigan last year. Granholm said a prime reason is companies
located there due, in part, to lower health care costs
in Canada. Approximately $1,500-$1,700 of the cost of manufacturing
an American car is directly tied to health care costs,
she said. In Canada, that figure is roughly $300 per car,
said Larry Horwitz, president of The Economic Alliance
for Michigan.
"We're not allowing a soul, running for president, in
Michigan unless they talk about health care, fair trade
and the global economy," Granholm joked to Huckabee.
Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) who provided introductory
remarks, has been vigilant in his pursuit of a "Patients
Bill of Rights," which will ensure patients' care is in
the hands of doctors, not HMOs and insurance companies.
At the beginning of every session of Congress, Dingell
introduces the national health insurance bill his father
sponsored when he was a member.
"Forums like these are important," Dingell said, stressing
that there are approximately 1.1 million Michigan residents
and 46 million nationally without health care coverage. "It's
about the only way to get discussion in an informal and
impartial manner."
Richard Douglass, professor of health administration at
EMU, moderated the roundtable discussion, which included
Horwitz, Sean Gehle, vice president for Advocacy, Ascension
Health; George Rowan, a member of the Michigan Public Health
Advisory Committee and the Michigan African American Health
Institute; David Sloane, managing director, governmental
relations, for the AARP in Washington, D.C.; and Hollis
Turnham, Michigan policy director, Paraprofessional Healthcare
Institute.
The group further addressed the core issues related to
health care policy.
