Health Reform Quotes

With a host of proposals on the table and a President examining new ideas for health reform, we have an obligation to give real reform our best shot. ~ Ron Wyden

Many of the received models of modern architecture and planning owe their ultimate origin to the building code and public health reform movements of the second half of the 19th century. ~ Kenneth Frampton

I basically believe the medical insurance industry should be nonprofit, not profit-making. There is no way a health reform plan will work when it is implemented by an industry that seeks to return money to shareholders instead of using that money to provide health care. ~ Dianne Feinstein

But you say, does it represent change? The change is that we are fighting an insurance industry that has killed health reform for generations. They're spending tens of millions of dollars right now to defeat this bill, and we're on the doorstep of winning a great victory for the American people. ~ David Axelrod

Ours is not the first generation to understand the dire need for health reform. And I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last. ~ Barack Obama

It's not just the right-wing crazies who oppose health reform. In addition, there are many sane Americans who worry about committing a trillion dollars to it. ~ Marcia Angell

Health reform is an essential part of restoring America's economy and maintaining our competitiveness. ~ Max Baucus

To speak or do anything that shall concern mankind, one must speak and act as if well, or from that grain of health which he has left. ~ Henry David Thoreau

When it comes to the health of our families, Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president. He didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically - that's not how he was raised - he cared that it was the right thing to do. ~ Michelle Obama

It's correct that I wanted health reform to do more to create choices and promote competition. ~ Ron Wyden

[Health reform] will destroy the country [because] in the next year or so [America will have to] dramatically cut the military because we can't pay for it. ~ Rick Santorum

It is hard to miss the irony in the fact that the very same week that Republicans were publicly heralding Congressman Paul Ryan's plan to inject market forces into the American health care system, they were crafting a budget deal to strip them from the health reform law. ~ Ron Wyden

Liberals are wrong to think that opposition to health reform is a rejection of big government. If health reform consisted of extending Medicare to everyone, people would be delighted. There are millions of 64-year-olds out there who can hardly wait to be 65. ~ Marcia Angell

Thanks to health reform, women across the country with private insurance can get birth control without paying out of pocket. This lets women make the health care decisions that are right for them and puts every one of us in charge of our own reproductive health. ~ Ann McLane Kuster

Cost is the spectre haunting health reform. For many decades, the great flaw in the American health-care system was its unconscionable gaps in coverage. ~ Atul Gawande

The AMA puts the lives and well being of the American citizens well below it's own special interest ... It deserves to be ignored, rejected, and forgotten. No amount of historical gymnastics can hide the public record of AMA opposition to virtually every major health reform in the past 50 years ... The AMA has turned into a propaganda organ purveying 'medical politics' for deceiving the Congress, the people, and the doctors of America themselves. ~ Edward Kennedy

I admit it: I had fun watching right-wingers go wild as health reform finally became law. ~ Paul Krugman

There are few tribes more loathsome than the American Right, and their vicious use of the shortcomings in the NHS to attack Barack Obama's attempts at health reform are a useful reminder. ~ Simon Hoggart

So, very early reports are that Obamacare exchanges are, as expected, having some technical glitches on the first day - maybe even a bit worse than expected, because it appears that volume has been much bigger than predicted. Here's what you need to know: this is good, not bad, news for the program. Lots of people logging on and signing up on the very first day is an early indication that it's going to be fine, that plenty of people will sign up for the first year of health reform. ~ Paul Krugman

I'd never have guessed that, six years after Medicare introduced a drug benefit, it would still be forbidden to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies. Health reform might fix that, but it probably won't. ~ Timothy Noah

When you have a 12-minute debate over whether lipstick on a pig refers to a demeaning comment about the vice presidential candidate, you know we're not talking about health reform, we're not talking about energy policy, we're not talking about balancing the budget. And you know, it's fairly stupid. ~ Newt Gingrich

Every new computer program is basically doing some task that a person used to do. But the computer usually does it faster, more accurately, for less money, and without any health insurance costs. ~ Douglas Rushkoff

In life you have a choice between two roads. The positive road and the negative road. The positive road will lead to enhanced health, happiness, and success and the negative road will lead to misery, anger, and failure. ~ Jon Gordon

The true index of a man's character is the health of his wife. ~ Cyril Connolly

Hmmm, very severe... Poor condition, heavy infection... Disarticulation... Oh no, no... Clearly broken... Mm-hmmm... All right, then, all's well, perfect health, clear to go. ~ Ari Bach

I do good in the world - at least I try to. I speak on behalf of women, and I know I have made the lives of women happier as a result of teaching them what I have learned relative to true health rather than disease care. ~ Suzanne Somers

Mysticism keeps mankind sane. As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Follow the truth and you will never get lost. ~ Renae A. Sauter

We usually need to have pain, trial or challenge to be motivated to learn or change. Learning in the midst of ease and prosperity comes from the pure inner soul's inspired desire for improvement. ~ Rand Olson

Psychological and spiritual components are as important or more important for you . Thoughts and feelings can change neurochemistry , just as chemistry can change feeling and behavior . ~ Talitha Day Fair

I damaged my health during 'Les Mis,' which I didn't want to mention in case it seemed like I was courting sympathy. ~ Anne Hathaway

I try to focus on eating seasonally and organic whenever possible. It can be a challenge, but it has a huge effect on my weight, my health, and the environment. ~ Elle Macpherson

The best advice is to avoid foods with health claims on the label, or better yet avoid foods with labels in the first place. ~ Mark Hyman

But the fact of the matter is that all scientific evidence would show, based upon what we know about this disease, that muscle cuts - that is, the meat of the animal itself - should not cause any risk to human health. ~ Ann Veneman

In contemporary Western society, death is like white noise to a man in good health; it fills his mind when his dreams and plans fade. With age, the noise becomes increasingly insistent, like a dull roar with the occasional screech. In another age the sound meant waiting for the kingdom of God; it is now an anticipation of death. Such is life. ~ Michel Houellebecq

Enhancement not only allows the possibilities of a healthy fullness and exuberance, but of a rather ominous extravagance, aberration, monstrosity ... This danger is built into the very nature of growth and life. Growth can become over-growth, life 'hyper-life' ... The paradox of an illness which can present as wellness - as a wonderful feeling of health and well-being, and only later reveal its malignant potentials - is one of the chimaeras, tricks and ironies of nature. ~ Oliver Sacks

Whatever your issue is, whether it's racism or homophobia or policy issues or taxes or urban decay or health care, you're not going to go anywhere with it if we don't focus on the concentration of power. ~ Ralph Nader

It is believed by experienced doctors that the heat which oozes out of the hand, on being applied to the sick, is highly salutary. It has often appeared, while I have been soothing my patients, as if there was a singular property in my hands to pull and draw away from the affected parts aches and diverse impurities, by laying my hand upon the place, and extending my fingers toward it. Thus it is known to some of the learned that health may be implanted in the sick by certain gestures, and by contact, as some diseases may be communicated from one to another. ~ Hippocrates

I feel now, in my impending old age, very lucky. I just can't tell you how lucky I feel, that I've managed to first of all, stay alive this long, in reasonably good health, and that I've been able to do what I want to do. ~ Paul Auster

Toxic relationships are dangerous to your health; they will literally kill you. Stress shortens your lifespan. Even a broken heart can kill you. There is an undeniable mind-body connection. Your arguments and hateful talk can land you in the emergency room or in the morgue. You were not meant to live in a fever of anxiety; screaming yourself hoarse in a frenzy of dreadful, panicked fight-or-flight that leaves you exhausted and numb with grief. You were not meant to live like animals tearing one another to shreds. Don't turn your hair gray. Don't carve a roadmap of pain into the sweet wrinkles on your face. Don't lay in the quiet with your heart pounding like a trapped, frightened creature. For your own precious and beautiful life, and for those around you - seek help or get out before it is too late. This is your wake-up call! ~ Bryant McGill

Despite its protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly the religion of the state and the economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into Heaven, it has been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for the most part, stood silently by while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. ~ Wendell Berry

Pollution is a necessary result of the inability of man to reform and transform waste. ~ Patti Smith

Good health is subjective and cumulative depending on individual interpretation. Do not allow someone else's shortcomings to become yours. ~ Gary Hopkins

Friends are great, except, I never know what to do with them. I see other people and it all seems so natural. They laugh and talk and make plans to talk and laugh some more at a later date. I would probably throw a fry at them and hope they were distracted enough not to notice me running away. ~ Airicka Phoenix

My wife is alone in our full bed too. Her husband, the father of her children, never came back from Iraq. When I deployed the first time she asked her grandmother for advice. Her grandfather served in Africa and Europe in World War II. Her grandmother would know what to do.
"How do I live with him being gone? How do I help him when he comes home?" my wife asked.
"He won't come home," her grandmother answered. "The war will kill him one way or the other. I hope for you that he dies while he is there. Otherwise the war will kill him at home. With you."
My wife's grandfather died of a heart attack on the living-room floor, long before she was born. It took a decade or two for World War II to kill him. When would my war kill me? ~ Brian Castner

Nurses are an integral component of the health care system, and it is important that we recognize the over 2.7 million registered nurses for the significant work that they do. ~ Nathan Deal

I'm sure that the standard of public morality we've helped build will force government in Canada to approve complete health insurance. ~ Tommy Douglas

Unfortunately, it hurts all three of my feelings. ~ Carrie Fisher

Science and mindfulness complement each other in helping people to eat well and maintain their health and well-being. ~ Nhat Hanh

The Real World'

The real word doesn't take flight
the way dreams do.
No muffled voice, no doorbell
can dispel it,
no shriek, no crash
can cut it short.

Images in dreams
are hazy and ambiguous,
and can generally be explained
in many different ways.
Reality means reality:
that's tougher nut to crack.

Dreams have keys.
The real world opens on its own
and can't be shut.
Report canrds and stars
pour from it,
butterflies and flatiron warmers
shower down,
headless caps
and shards of clouds.
Together they form a rebus
that can't be solved.

Without us dreams couldn't exist.
The one on whom the real world depends
is still unknown,
and the products of his insomnia
are avaialble to anyone
who wakes up.

Dreams aren't crazy-
it's the real world that's insane,
if only in the stubbornness
with which it sticks
to the current of events.

In dreams our recently deceased
are still alive,
in perfect health, no less,
and restored to the full bloom of youth.
The real world lays the corpse
in front of us.
The real world doesn't blink an eye.

Dreams are featherweights,
and memory can shake them off with ease.
The real world doesn't have to fear forgetfulness.
It's a tough customer.
It sits on our shoulders,
weights on our hearts, ~ Wisława Szymborska

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;
Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,
And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that's known as Lou.
When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the din and the glare,
There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.
He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse,
Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for drinks for the house.
There was none could place the stranger's face, though we searched ourselves for a clue;
But we drank his health, and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrew. ~ Robert W. Service

But as for me, Emperor, nature has not given me stature, age has marred my face, and my strength is impaired by ill health. Therefore, since these advantages fail me, I shall win your approval, as I hope, by the help of my knowledge and my writings. ~ Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Pain is a good cleanser of the mind and therefore of the sight. Matters which seem to mean the world, in health, are found to be of no import when pain is hard upon you. ~ Richard Llewellyn

I nurture daily wellness. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Across the country, red states are poorer and have more teen mothers, more divorce, worse health, more obesity, more trauma-related deaths, more low-birth-weight babies, and lower school enrollment. On average, people in red states die five years earlier than people in blue states. Indeed, the gap in life expectancy between Louisiana (75.7) and Connecticut (80.8) is the same as that between the United States and Nicaragua. Red states suffer more in another highly important but little-known way, one that speaks to the very biological self-interest in health and life: industrial pollution. ~ Arlie Russell Hochschild

She held the book in her hands, feeling a sense of awe, and lightly ran a finger over its cover as if it contained sacred writings. ~ Nikki Rosen

I would support a devolution of power out of Washington for education, health care, transportation. ~ Jim DeMint