Showing posts with label essential. Show all posts
Showing posts with label essential. Show all posts
What The Debate Over Birth Control Pills As An Essential Benefit Tells Us About National Health Policy Making
Sunday, February 16, 2014
While the physician Disease Management Care Blog understands the logic behind essential health benefit determinations, believes good health care includes access to reproductive services and also knows that an unintended pregnancy poses special threats to a womans health, it also sympathizes with the U.S. Catholic Bishops stand on birth control pills. Such is the luxury of cognitive dissonance. Yet, the DMCBs real discomfort is over the broader health policy implications of defining BCPs as an essential health benefit that must be covered with only a few exceptions:
1. There are really two ultimate paths to a federal takeover health care. The first is obvious: formal through the "nationalization" of either the payment or delivery of services. The second is de facto is through the creation of laws, regulations and standards that amount to an expanding domination of the payment or delivery of services. From an end-user perspective, the DMCB thinks there is little difference between the two and believes we are underestimating the ultimate end game for this and multiple other rules and regulations.
2. Decision-making like this can cut both ways. While womens health advocates can take comfort in the Obama Administrations courage in the face of the Bishops push-back, its possible that future hyper-rational, inflexible, evidence-based, legalistic, uniformist and technocratic decision-making like this will result in endless legalistic, politically charged and awkward decision-making that will always vex some big constituency. This is the same science used to provoke the controversy over the merits of mammography in women less than age 50 as well as prostate cancer screening in men. To make the point, the DMCB poses this silly but troubling thought experiment: since men are just as responsible and should be given every incentive to not cause unwanted pregnancy, should condoms be an essential health benefit? If persons with cancer run out of treatment options, should a right to control their own bodies and its technical availability make assisted suicide an essential health benefit?
This time it was the Catholics turn. The next one could be yours.
3. Without some sort of accommodation (which may be in the works), the Bishops arent going to back down. While a majority of their parishioners may believe in and have used birth control, that test fails at two levels: 1) societys institutions are supposed to stand for a higher standard and 2) decades and even centuries of religious interpretation are not up for a vote. Standing for something is what faith is all about and Church leaders are simply not going to roll over on insurance that covers birth control for their employees and theyre not going to offer access to birth control pills in the course of the provision of health care. Their only choice, other than millions in fines is to exit the health care arena. David Brooks has an excellent discussion of why thats a problem.
4. It is said that the art of politics is the art of the possible: to work out compromise where everyone can walk away a winner. While coverage of birth control pills is a victory for womens health advocates that a "base" can feel good about, this is also arguably a failure for a President who was committed to bridging differences and creating a health care system that had broad support.
Image from Wikipedia
Protein Diet Essential to Successful Weight Loss
Monday, February 3, 2014
(Article first published as Protein Balance Found to be Key to Successful Weight Loss Diet on Technorati.)
Medical researchers have been busy working to determine if successful weight loss is merely a matter of caloric balance or if calories from different food sources have a different effect on how our body stores fat. New information now provides evidence that some calories are more demonic than others and can impact your path to permanent weight loss.
Caloric Balance is Essential to Weight Loss Efforts
The results showed that those on the low glycemic, high protein diet were 45% more efficient in maintaining their lost weight. Dr. Thomas Larsen, the co-author of the study theorized that the higher protein content provided a stronger satiety effect while improving blood sugar control. He concluded, "There has been considerable controversy over the role of glycemic index in general, and obesity treatment in particular. This study provides very strong, supportive evidence for the importance of this low-glycemic concept."
Protein Boosts Metabolism, Assists Weight Loss
Critical metabolic changes begin to take place when you increase protein consumption to 30% of calories and decrease or eliminate sugar and ined carbs that drive blood sugar levels out of control. Since protein is much more difficult to break down, your body exerts more energy to metabolize a calorie of protein than the same simple carb calorie. And protein provides essential branched chain amino acids that your body requires as basic cellular building blocks. The answer is clear. All calories are not created equal.
One of the best ways to shift your body into fat burning mode is to begin each day with a good source of protein. This fuels your metabolic engine and limits blood glucose surges that can last all day. Ideal sources of protein include red meat (free range beef, minimally cooked) and cottage cheese, as well as milk, eggs, fish, chicken, legumes, peanuts, cheese, nuts, and seeds. Try increasing the amount of healthy protein in your diet and watch your weight loss goal become reality.
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