When it comes to health care, I believe we as a society have to start at the beginning. That means promoting a healthy lifestyle and educating our children and young people about what a healthy lifestyle is and why it’s important to them. I have two children and I know it isn’t easy. But it is a medical fact that maintaining good eating and exercise habits reduces health problems. Healthy living reduces the risk for obesity, it lowers medical costs not just to individuals but to everyone, and it prevents the onset of chronic medical problems that can lead to dependence on prescription drugs. After the responsibilities of adulthood set in I know it’s hard to find time to exercise when you’re working full time and raising a family. Thanks to my family’s support (and a decade in the military) I’ve been able to maintain a good exercise routine; I’m doing a five mile run at Pikeville Methodist Hospital on August 18th and a Triathlon at Cave Run on September 9th. I encourage anyone who wants to have a good time and get in some good exercise to come out and join me.
Healthy living, while important, is not the only component to health care. I know from personal experience what its like to try to get coverage. My wife, a military veteran who served oversees, has been denied coverage by private health care due to her chronic back problems which are service related. We’re now working with the Veteran’s Administration to provide her with care, but it’s scary when someone you love doesn’t have health insurance. I think it is immoral for a health care company to offer coverage to a father and children and deny coverage to the mother. Both the private sector and the VA need some serious changes. On the veterans side I have almost 10 years in the military; I know its systems and how to improve health care for our vets. Providing top quality medical care to all Kentuckians is my goal; not most or some, but all. I think Steve Beshear has a good plan to generate revenue for a new health care plan, and I’d like to see his plan matched with federal dollars and make Kentucky a model of health care success.
