When Political and Health Priorities Collide
No one expects a county’s overall ranking to improve overnight. “Where you are on the curve isn’t as important as which direction you’re moving,” Willems Van Dijk says. Wyandotte County was rated at or near the bottom of Kansas rankings for three years in a row and is likely to be there again when the state’s latest numbers are released this spring. Yet Mayor Reardon is hopeful that the measures he is taking will ultimately shift the course. County planners must now consider the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists as well as drivers when designing road improvements, he notes. And a newly remodeled supermarket has doubled the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables that are available downtown. “There are a lot of polarizing issues in Kansas City,” he says, “but I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see that doing all we can to improve the health of our community isn’t one of them.” That mapmaking visionary of epidemiology, John Snow, would be proud. 

5 Comments

1. 1. oldvic 03:20 AM 12/15/11

   The golden rule of public health must be: avoid the problem, and only treat it if you can't avoid it. The best medical facility is the one that's not needed.
   It's like energy, or any other resource for that matter. Use only what you actually need, and you won't have to worry about recovering it later.

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2. 2. Archimedes 08:09 AM 12/15/11

   With regard to any individual and/or collective problem, the best way to address the same is through organization and a plan. The more intelligent an individual is and the more resources he has, therefore, the more likely that he will successfully address the issue of his personal health care through a successfully organized plan.
   Likewise, the more organized a nation is in providing an plan for it's citizens to address the issue health care, the more successful the nation or other political entity will be with regard to addressing the issue of national health care.
   The U.S.A. has NOT addressed the issue of national health care through an organized efficacious plan.
   Other nations have with the result that health statistics for these nations are much better. Often, these statistics reveal better health care outcomes with significantly lower costs than are present in the laissez faire health care system in the U.S.A. which has, inherently no organization and no plan on a national scale.
   That is why I, personally, favor a single payer form of national health care for all American citizens.

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3. 3. lamorpa 08:47 AM 12/15/11

   Hold it. You're not saying I myself am responsible for my own health, are you? Hah. The next thing you will be saying is I'm responsible for my financial situation!

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4. 4. sunnystrobe 06:30 AM 12/21/11

   Species-specific nutrition is the number ONE health care priority for us, nothing else is as significant for national health.
   Professor T. Colin Campbell's 'The China Study' should be in every public library, despite the opposition from Big corporations with vested interests .

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5. 5. Raghuvanshi1 10:41 AM 12/21/11

   Good health depend on physical and mental exercises,positive out look to life and most important is life long motive for living.If there is life long motive, man can live in any condition even in worse condition joyfully

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