In his last State of the Union address, President Bush stood before Congress and delivered a message telling America to hang tough amidst its recession woes and protracted Iraq war, and addressed healthcare issues saying, “To build a future of quality health care, we must trust patients and doctors to make medical decisions and empower them with better information and better options,” Bush declared. “We share a common goal: making health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans. The best way to achieve that goal is by expanding customer choice, not government control.”
This week on On Call, Dr. Edney analyzes the President’s remarks and offers his insight and commentary on the State of the Union.
As I write this commentary, we are ending the first month of 2007 and so far so good at the Edney home. I have enjoyed wishing my patients a happy New Year and happy to declare that we indeed have made another year by the grace of God. As I reflect on the many life and health issues in my life and that of my many patients, I truly understand how it is only by the grace of God that any of us were able to survive another year in this fallen world. When I review the various diseases and conditions, which affect my patients, it also becomes evident how little most of us do to try and be alive for another year. 
The millennium may still be young, but its first decade is more than half complete. 2006 is bursting on the scene with all of the hope and excitement of every New Year. For some, there is hope for a better year and a better life as 2005 was filled with grief or sickness. For others, 2006 brings with it fear and apprehension due to the strain and worries of life. Such is the way of human existence. So, how can we thrive in the face of challenges brought on by a new year? This commentary will examine these issues and how we can be positive at the onset of a brand new year. 
In my opinion, the best time of year for giving thanks is actually Christmas. I certainly have no beef (no pun intended) with Thanksgiving and heartily endorse its celebration, but if we focus on the true meaning of Christmas, then we should be convicted into giving thanks to God for everything He continues to do for us. We must not lose focus on the reason we celebrate Christmas being our recognition that God gave the world its greatest gift. That being the incarnation of God as the flesh of Jesus for the purpose of providing the way by which we can restore fellowship with God. In essence, Jesus was born so that He would die to redeem us from our sins and consequent death. Jesus is the ultimate kinsman redeemer as described in the Old Testament. 
How much devastation can one world endure? This has certainly been a year for the history books when it comes to natural disasters. In addition to the run of the mill tornadoes, floods and earthquakes, we have witnessed two historic natural events, which rained death and destruction to those who lived in their paths. Those two events were the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.
Yes, the majority of Americas citizens agree that universal access to quality healthcare should be made available to all of our citizens. The 43 million Americans who are either uninsured or underinsured have difficulty due to the cost of healthcare technology and overhead for doctors and hospitals in receiving comprehensive healthcare.Many citizens actually feel healthcare should be an American right. 
This was the recent question asked as a show topic when we reviewed and discussed the issues impacting families as children mature and leave the home. I recommend for our readers and listeners to download this recent show as we dealt with the struggles for parents of teenagers and for teenagers themselves as they grow up in a world with fewer and fewer controlling influences. I was especially impressed by the discussion we had with Margie Morgan who approached these issues from a mental health perspective as well as a parent of a graduating student.
A self-made success, Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers Restaurants, has been asked to speak to students at numerous universities including Duke, Ohio State and Clemson. Over the years, he has shared his advice and “can-do” attitude with hundreds of thousands of new grads. Here, he shares his top 10 tips for this year’s graduating seniors:
Hypertension remains a major force of producing morbidity and mortality in the United States even in the year 2005. Despite this fact, many Americans seem to have become complacent regarding hypertension and its complications. The good news is that we have made tremendous strides in medical science in the area of the treatment of hypertension. This would seem to be good reason for us to learn as much about this problem as possible and how it could impact our families and friends.
Regular listeners to the On Call radio program are familiar with my going to Banda Aceh, Indonesia this past February to work on a disaster relief team from Mississippi. We are all aware of the horrible tragedy caused by the tsunami of December 26, 2004, but I thought I would share with you in this commentary my feelings after meditating and praying over this event since I returned February 18, 2005. I have shared many of my experiences from the trip both through the show we produced dealing with this issue and the Medical Minute I actually produced while in Banda Aceh. Now I want to share with you my most powerful feeling, it is that of being overwhelmed. I was not surprised by this feeling and in fact had spent much of my time prior to going in trying to prepare myself spiritually and emotionally realizing I would encounter this. What I found so surprising was the things, attitudes, and situations that caused me to feel overwhelmed. Permit me to share these issues with you and indulge me just a bit.
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The American Right to Healthcare
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