Health Care Blog
Men: Take Charge of Your Health this June
Posted by on June 10, 2015 at 8:49 PM EDTThis post is crossposted from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Happy National Men’s Health Month! Maintaining your health is a year-round process, but Men’s Health Month in June, including Father’s Day, is a great time to kick-start a new year with your best possible health.
What can you do to make sure you’re on the right track? Here are some key tips:
- Eat right: Take control of what’s on your plate with a balanced diet that provides the right amount of calories and the nutrients you need.
- Hydrate: Drink plenty of water throughout the day.
- Exercise: Keep moving and get at least 30 minutes of mild-to-moderate exercise every day.
- Sleep: Plan for seven to eight hours of high-quality sleep each night.
- Checkups: Know your key stats for cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose and body fat percentage.
- Engage: Get involved in social and volunteer activities in your community to stay connected.
Men don’t always like to talk about their health, but finding someone who can back you up is one of the best ways to make sure you stick to your commitment to being healthier. Other guys – friends, family, mentors – understand where you’re coming from, and together you can work to meet your goals. Check out the Brother2Brother initiative for tips on how to start the conversation today.
In addition to friends and family, make sure a trusted health care provider is on your team for checkups and any concerns you have. Here are some of the things you should consider when choosing a health care provider:
- Review the list of providers under your insurance plan. You’ll find general practitioners as well as those who provide more specialized care. Pick the one that you think would best meet your needs.
- If you don’t have health insurance now, check out healthcare.gov to see if you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period for the Health Insurance Marketplace or coverage through Medicaid. Community health centers can also provide care if you cannot get insurance at this time.
- You may not find the right fit with a provider on the first visit. Make sure you feel comfortable with the health care team and office. If it’s not right for you, you can look for a better fit.
Once you’ve chosen a provider, it’s important to define your own role as an active partner in your care.
To be more engaged in your care, make a list of things that are bothering you and questions to ask before your appointment. Bring a friend or family member to make sure you address everything, or just to offer support. And when you sit down with your doctor, ask plenty of questions.
For more information on staying healthy and getting the care you need, check out the Coverage to Care initiative.
You can also find more information about men’s health issues by visiting Men’s Health Network and the Men’s Health Resource Center.
Have a happy and healthy Father’s Day.
Gregory Pecchia, DO, FACOFP, Advisor, Men’s Health Network and Brandon Leonard, MA, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Men’s Health Network
Learn more about Energy and Environment, Health CareRead the Original Letter Written by the Pennsylvania Woman Whose Story the President Told Today:
Posted by on June 9, 2015 at 11:59 AM EDTToday, speaking from the Catholic Health Association's annual assembly in Washington, D.C., President Obama outlined the state of health care in America, now that the Affordable Care Act has become part of the fabric of our health care system. In it, he told the story of Debra Lea Oren of Palmer, Pennsylvania. Debra, who suffers from osteoarthritis so severe it put her in a wheelchair, couldn't walk or stand for years. She was in constant pain.
Today, she's back on her feet. Here's why:
Debra was able to enroll in an affordable health plan that covered the surgery she needed to help her walk on her own again. As a result, she can walk to the grocery store. She can cook and exercise. She can get herself to her doctors' appointments on her own two feet (and two new knees).
“I walk with my husband Michael and hold hands," she wrote to the President in February. "It’s like a whole new world for me.”
This is what health reform has meant to millions of Americans.
Learn more about Health CareCan You Guess What These Charts Are Telling You?
Posted by on June 9, 2015 at 11:24 AM EDTLove charts? We’ve pulled together a select batch of them and removed the titles and labels.
See if you can guess the story each of them tells – then challenge your chart-loving friends to take it, too. We guarantee you’ll learn something that surprises you.
Please enable JavaScript to take the quiz.What Am I: Can you guess what these charts are telling you?
Thanks to five years of the Affordable Care Act, health care looks a lot different in America. How different?
Find out by taking this quiz to see if you can figure out exactly what the President’s health care law is doing for millions of Americans across the country.
1. What am I?
- Percentage of people watching Grey’s Anatomy
- Percentage of Americans without health insurance
- Number of emergency room visits in the U.S.
- Total number of sick days used by workers in the U.S.
Well done. In fact, more than 16 million Americans have found an affordable, quality health care plan under the ACA, causing a cliff-like drop in the number of Americans living without the health insurance they need. And that’s a great thing!
Not quite. It’s actually the percentage of Americans without health insurance since 2000. See how it takes a nosedive recently? That’s thanks to the ACA, which became law on March 23, 2010. Under this law, more than 16 million Americans have gained affordable, quality health care coverage, driving our country's uninsured rate to a new low.
2. What am I?
- Projected deficit reduction due to the ACA
- Projected reduction in number of uninsured Americans
- Projected reduction in patients harmed by hospital error
- Projected temperature in Antarctica
Nice one. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the ACA will generate substantial deficit savings that grow over time, for a total savings of $1.7 trillion over two decades. This is important because lower long-term deficits have a domino-effect of higher national income and wages over time.
So close. This chart is actually a look at how much the ACA will reduce the deficit over time. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office determined that the ACA will generate a total savings of $1.7 trillion for our deficit over two decades. This is important because lower long-term deficits have a domino-effect of higher national income and wages over time.
3. What am I?
- Drop in young adults with health coverage
- Drop in percent of patients harmed by hospital error
- Drop in government spending on health care
- Drop in Americans with health insurance
Right! The Affordable Care Act has helped reduce multiple different kinds of “patient harms,” including adverse drug events, pressure ulcers, infections, and more. The reduction in patient harms has helped prevent an estimated 50,000 deaths.
It’s actually the drop in patients harmed. Surprised? The Affordable Care Act has helped reduce multiple different kinds of “patient harms,” including adverse drug events, pressure ulcers, infections, and more, and the reduction in patient harms has helped prevent an estimated 50,000 deaths.
4. What am I?
- Percent of Americans who like pie charts
- The first dogs’ approval rating
- Percent of Marketplace enrollees who receive tax credits to help pay monthly premiums
- Percent of Americans who visited the emergency room last year
Nailed it. The overwhelming majority of Americans who shopped on health care marketplaces qualified for tax credits, which are helping millions of Americans afford the coverage they need.
Nope! It’s actually the percent of Americans who qualified for tax credits while shopping on health care marketplaces, allowing them to afford the coverage they need.
5. What am I?
- Americans who no longer have lifetime limits
- People who have access to free preventive services
- Self-diagnoses on webmd each year
- People no longer at risk of being denied coverage
Correct! Before the ACA, someone with a pre-existing condition, like cancer, could be denied the coverage they needed. The ACA prohibited that, ensuring that 129 million Americans will always have access to affordable, quality coverage.
Nope. Before the ACA, someone with a pre-existing condition, like cancer, could be denied the coverage they needed. The ACA prohibited that, ensuring that 129 million Americans will always have access to affordable, quality coverage.
6. What am I?
- Number of death panels created under the ACA
- Number of free preventive services now available
- Number of young adults who can stay on their parents’ plans
- Number of women who have access to birth control with no co-pay
Exactly. Zero death panels were created as a result of the Affordable Care Act.
Sorry, but the correct answer is zero death panels. The Affordable Care Act has never created one, nor will it ever.
You got questions correct.
Most people don’t realize exactly what health reform has meant for millions of Americans. Learn something new in this quiz? We bet your friends will, too.
Challenge them to take it — then head to wh.gov/health-care-in-america to see more, including the President’s remarks about health care in America.
Learn more about Health CareWho Said It? A Century of Attempts To Reform Our Health Care System:
Posted by on June 9, 2015 at 11:19 AM EDTFor nearly 100 years, American presidents from both political parties tried to reform our health care system. On March 23, 2010, President Obama finally did by signing the Affordable Care Act into law, which has helped millions of Americans gain access to quality, affordable health coverage.
Take this quiz to test your knowledge about what past presidents have said about the need to fix our health care system. You might be surprised by some of the answers.
Learn more about Health CareThe Letter Senator Kennedy Sent Me:
Posted by on June 8, 2015 at 12:30 PM EDTToday, President Obama sent the following message to the White House email list. In it, he talks about a letter from the late Senator Edward Kennedy on the importance of reforming our country's health care system.
Didn't get the email? Sign up for updates here.
On a day in early September of 2009, I received the following letter from Senator Edward Kennedy.
He'd written in May of that year, shortly after he learned that his illness was terminal. He asked that it be delivered to me upon his death.
It is a letter about the cause of his career -- what he called "that great unfinished business of our society" -- health care reform.
"What we face," he writes, "is above all a moral issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country."
Learn more about Health CarePledge to Love, Protect, and Cherish Antibiotics
Posted by on June 5, 2015 at 4:43 PM EDTThis week's White House Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship was a landmark event. The Forum spotlighted more than 150 unprecedented Federal and private-sector commitments that will help preserve antibiotic effectiveness by reducing the unnecessary uses that promote resistance in human and animal pathogens. These important commitments will help save lives and reduce suffering.
President Obama also signed a memorandum committing Federal departments and agencies to create a preference for meat and poultry produced according to responsible antibiotic-use policies. In addition, the Presidential Food Service has committed to serving meats and poultry that have been produced without antibiotics.
The Forum was an important event in my tenure at the White House because in addition to being central to my scientific identity as a bacteriologist, the Forum also meant a lot to me personally.
Learn more about Health Care
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