May 22, 2012

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“Unsafe” raw milk linked to illnesses (AUDIO)

April 17, 2012 By

The state health department has confirmed 13 cases of E-coli illness in central Missouri’s Boone, Howard, and Cooper Counties. 

Raw (unpasteurized) milk sold at a Howard County farm in central Missouri farm is being blamed for illnesses suffered by six people..  The state health department says it has confirmed seven other E-coli illnesses in central Missouri but does not think they are linked to the raw milk at that farm.

State health director Margaret Donnelly says most raw milk is unsafe.

She says most raw milk is purchased directly from the farmer, not from a retail establishment. 

 AUDIO: interview with Donnelly

 

 

Filed Under: Agriculture, Featured, Health & Medicine, Human Interest, News

House proposal would bar enactment of the Affordable Care Act (AUDIO)

April 17, 2012 By

The House has given first round approval to a proposal that would bar enforcement of the federal Affordable Care Act, and makes it a crime to try to enact any portion of it in Missouri. House Democrats found a number of reasons to oppose the bill.

Representative Kurt Bahr (picture courtesy, Missouri House Communications)

Its sponsor, Representative Kurt Bahr (R-St. Charles) said while introducing the legislation that the federal healthcare law is unconstutitional. “It is our duty as state legislators, as the sovereign State of Missouri to uphold our end of the Constitution … of this interstate compact of the Constitution, and when the federal government oversteps its bounds it’s our duty, our obligation, to stand up and say, ‘That is not what the Constitution allows the federal government to do. We will not allow you to implement that piece of legislation on our citizens.’”

Representative Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis) asks Bahr if the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling on the constitutionality of the Act, and she somehow missed it. “My understanding is that is still open to interpretation. We probably disagree on the constitutionality of that but you kind of assert that with some authority.

Bahr concedes, “We are still waiting on the Supreme Court to make their final decision on the constitutionality of the Accordable Care Act.”

Representative Margo McNeil (D-Florissant) says the state should allow the ACA to stand, for all the ways it will benefit Missourians. When Bahr restates his assessment that the Act is unconstitutional, she questions how he comes to that conclusion. “According to the representative from the 19th District (Bahr)?”

Bahr answers succinctly, “Yes.”

See the proposal, HB 1534

House Democrats also say Missouri has no power to resist the Act if it becomes law. Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) says the bill oversteps the legislature’s authority. “Just because you don’t like the federal law, and it’s somebody else’s job to find whether it’s constitutional or not, does not give us the power to leap way, way out of our obligations. This is the antithesis of limited government.”

Kelly summed up his feelings about Bahr’s proposal, “This is breathtaking in its contempt for the Constitution of the United States.”

The bill was perfected 109-41 on a roll call vote. Another positive vote would send it to the Senate.

AUDIO:  Representative Genise Montecillo inquires Representative Kurt Bahr, 2:56

AUDIO:  Representative Margo McNeil inquires Representative Kurt Bahr, 9:24

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Insurance, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Healthiest, least healthy counties listed

April 9, 2012 By

A new study by the Population Health Institute lists the healthiest and the least healthy counties in each state.

The Institute says the healthiest counties in Missouri are St. Charles, Platte, Christian, Atchison, and Scotland.  The least healthy counties are Butler, Dunklin, Washington, New Madrid, Ripley, and Pemiscot.  

The study says 17 percent of St. Charles County residents smoke–the state average is 24 percent and the national average is 14.  The county is a little below the state’s obesity rate of 31 percent; its residents are slightly more physically active; the teen birth rate is less than half the state average. So is its rate of sexually transmitted disease infections.  It has about 60 percent more primary care doctors than the state average. Its premature death rate is about one-third less than the state average.

Pemiscot County’s premature death rate is about double the state average; its smoking rate is above average. so is its obesity rate; Its motor vehicle crash death rate is double the state average and its sexually transmitted disease rate is about half-again the state average.

The institute is at the University of Wisconsin.  The study was financed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

 

You can check you county’s ranking:

 (http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/rankings/ranking-methods/download-rankings-data/MO

 

Filed Under: Featured, Health & Medicine, Human Interest, News

Proposed tanning bed restriction pits Republican vs. Republican UPDATE

April 3, 2012 By
Discussion of a House proposal to restrict the use of tanning beds by minors has turned into an impassioned floor debate between Republicans over whether the idea protects children, or is meddling by the government.
 

Representatives Jay Barnes (left) and Gary Cross. (photos courtesy, Missouri House Communications)

Lee’s Summit Republican Gary Cross’s bill requires a parent or guardian of those under 17 go to a solon in person annually to give permission for that teenager to use them, and was amended on the floor to prevent children under 15 from using tanning devices altogether.

Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City), a skin cancer survivor, offered that amendment. He said of Cross’ bill, “It’s a simple measure designed to protect kids. Kids are different than adults for the same reason we went through last year with concussion legislation. Kids are not old enough to make decisions on their own and they deserve our protection.”

Cross likens the plan to the purchase of tobacco products or alcohol or getting tattoos or piercings. “This is much more fatal. Young people are much more vulnerable than with tattoos or even the use of tobacco. Here we are dealing with something we have absolutely no legislation regarding.”

The bill drew opposition from some other GOP members. Representative Rick Brattin (R-Harrisonville) says it interferes in parents’ ability to raise their children. “Cancer is a horrible thing to happen to anybody and I would never wish that on anyone, but … I just don’t think this is the role of our government … to play big brother and tell you what you are and you are not going to do.”

Brattin said the issue is not like buying cigarettes or pornography, which is not legal for those under 18.

Barnes disagreed. “You know why they’re illegal under the age of 18? Because our predecessors in this body made it illegal! They said this is an activity that 11-year-olds shouldn’t participate in … because somebody had the guts to stand up for kids! That’s why!”

The bill has been laid aside without a vote.

UPDATE:  The House has approve a motion to send the bill back to the Rules Committee to remove Representative Jay Barnes’ amendment, prohibiting the use of tanning beds for those under 15.  Barnes says he supports removing the amendment, and he plans to pursue the idea next year.  He says he and other lawmakers hope to get the original bill back to the floor for debate next week.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Sponsor: bill restricting vasectomies is a conversation starter

April 3, 2012 By

The sponsor of a bill to restrict how and when a man can have a vasectomy says her goal is to get people talking. 

Representative Stacey Newman (photo courtesy, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Stacey Newman’s (D-St. Louis) bill is based on one that has been filed elsewhere in the U.S., but she says it is the first of those to receive a committee hearing. She has told the Committee on Governmental Affairs she filed it in response to other legislation dealing with religious objections to women’s reproductive health issues.

“We are seeing … some pretty invasive legislation dealing only with those decisions and those procedures that happen to women, basically removing those private decisions between a woman and her partner and her doctor and inserting the legislature.”

Newman’s proposal would keep a man from getting a vasectomy except to prevent death or to avoid physical impairment.

She says she wants to inspire a fresh perspective.  “We never stop to think about these same restrictions as they apply to men making their own reproductive decisions.”

See the legislation, HB 1853

The Committee has taken no action on the legislation. Majority Floor Leader Tim Jones (R-Eureka) says if it makes it to the House Floor Calendar, he will give it the same consideration for time that he would any bill.

“I have not made it a practice to automatically just flat out not give bills floor time when I don’t agree with them … I largely believe that the will of the majority should prevail and should not be halted by one or two people.”

AUDIO: Mike Lear reports, :57

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Human Interest, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,
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