Posted on 11/10/2007 1:53:41 PM PST by TheBethsterNH
Huckabee Tells DHMC to Emphasize Preventive Care By Mark Davis Valley News Staff Writer
Lebanon -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee yesterday told employees at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center that the health care industry needs to emphasize preventive care and abandon its reactionary approach.
Huckabee's talk, part of DHMC's Health Policy Grand Rounds, was the latest stop on the campaign trail for a candidate whose stock has been on the rise in recent weeks.
The former Arkansas governor told the crowd that simple steps he took in his home-state, such as mandating all public school students have their body mass index measured and allowing state employees time to exercise during work hours, will lead to long-term savings.
“We don't have a health care crisis, we have a health crisis in America,” Huckabee about 100 DHMC employees in attendance. “The problem is we are spending 80 percent (of health costs) on chronic disease. Out entire system is upside down. We wait until people are catastrophically ill and then we intervene, which is incredibly expensive.
“Are we going to continue to treat snake bites, or are we going to decide that killing a few snakes is a better use of our efforts?”
Not only is the nation's system producing increasingly unhealthy generations, he said, but it is weighing down businesses with ballooning costs.
“You're not really paying for coffee at Starbucks, you're paying for the insurance of the person giving it to you,” Huckabee said. “They just give you the coffee as a thank you.”
Huckabee's late-afternoon stop at DHMC came as his campaign is starting to capture momentum, particularly in Iowa, after months of languishing in the second tier. In Iowa, Huckabee is a strong second to Gov. Mitt Romney, ahead of better known and better financed Rudy Guiliani, John McCain and Fred Thompson, according to recent polls from American Research Group Inc. and Zogby International.
A strong showing in Iowa, which holds its first-in-the-nation caucus on Jan. 3, could propel Huckabee to a better-than-expected showing in the Granite State, where social conservatives traditionally struggle, according to University of New Hampshire associate professor of political science Dante Scala. (That's assuming, of course, the still unscheduled New Hampshire primary occurs after Iowa's Jan. 3 caucus.)
“He's the only one, I'd say, who has some momentum behind him right now,” Scala said. “If he's the big surprise of the night in Iowa, I don't think he can win New Hampshire, but he can have a better-than-expected showing, maybe top three. Sometimes, it’s better to get hot late than early.”
In an interview after the event, Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, said that while religious leaders have been slow to embrace his candidacy, he has made inroads with regular churchgoers
“I'm winning on the ground,” Huckabee said. “There seems to be some (distance) between the leaders and the followers. The followers have gone my way.”
But as Scala noted, social conservatives can struggle in New Hampshire, and Huckabee is anti-abortion, supports gun rights and pushed a range of tax cuts in Arkansas, which he governed from 1996 to 2007. The same polls that show him surging in Iowa have Huckabee far behind the frontrunners in New Hampshire.
Huckabee said he plans to woo Granite State voters by stressing what he says is a resume of responsible government.
“I think voters here are looking for good government, and I bring a record of that,” Huckabee said.
Sunapee resident and DHMC employee Mark Herder said he was impressed by Huckabee's strategies and is considering voting for him.
“I liked what I heard,” Herder said. “He recognized incentives work better than hitting people over the head.”
Huckabee's speech yesterday was light on policy specifics, instead stressing a personal biography. After he was diagnosed with diabetes five years ago, Huckabee lost 110 pounds and became a marathon runner. (He is scheduled to run a 5K in Durham, N.H. this morning.)
“My personal experience is reflective of the issue in America,” Huckabee said.
Huckabee elicited several belly laughs from the crowd with one-liners that he used to break up his policy talk.
The “Q and A” session after his talk really stood for “question and avoidance,” Huckabee told the crowd.
“You say what you want, and I say whatever I feel I need that won't get me on Youtube tonight,” he said, referring to the popular video Web site.
Mark Davis can be reached at mcdavis@vnews.com or (603) 727-3304
Published 11/10/07
Huckabee Tells DHMC to Emphasize Preventive Care By Mark Davis Valley News Staff Writer
Lebanon -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee yesterday told employees at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center that the health care industry needs to emphasize preventive care and abandon its reactionary approach.
Huckabee's talk, part of DHMC's Health Policy Grand Rounds, was the latest stop on the campaign trail for a candidate whose stock has been on the rise in recent weeks.
The former Arkansas governor told the crowd that simple steps he took in his home-state, such as mandating all public school students have their body mass index measured and allowing state employees time to exercise during work hours, will lead to long-term savings.
“We don't have a health care crisis, we have a health crisis in America,” Huckabee about 100 DHMC employees in attendance. “The problem is we are spending 80 percent (of health costs) on chronic disease. Out entire system is upside down. We wait until people are catastrophically ill and then we intervene, which is incredibly expensive.
“Are we going to continue to treat snake bites, or are we going to decide that killing a few snakes is a better use of our efforts?”
Not only is the nation's system producing increasingly unhealthy generations, he said, but it is weighing down businesses with ballooning costs.
“You're not really paying for coffee at Starbucks, you're paying for the insurance of the person giving it to you,” Huckabee said. “They just give you the coffee as a thank you.”
Huckabee's late-afternoon stop at DHMC came as his campaign is starting to capture momentum, particularly in Iowa, after months of languishing in the second tier. In Iowa, Huckabee is a strong second to Gov. Mitt Romney, ahead of better known and better financed Rudy Guiliani, John McCain and Fred Thompson, according to recent polls from American Research Group Inc. and Zogby International.
A strong showing in Iowa, which holds its first-in-the-nation caucus on Jan. 3, could propel Huckabee to a better-than-expected showing in the Granite State, where social conservatives traditionally struggle, according to University of New Hampshire associate professor of political science Dante Scala. (That's assuming, of course, the still unscheduled New Hampshire primary occurs after Iowa's Jan. 3 caucus.)
“He's the only one, I'd say, who has some momentum behind him right now,” Scala said. “If he's the big surprise of the night in Iowa, I don't think he can win New Hampshire, but he can have a better-than-expected showing, maybe top three. Sometimes, it’s better to get hot late than early.”
In an interview after the event, Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, said that while religious leaders have been slow to embrace his candidacy, he has made inroads with regular churchgoers
“I'm winning on the ground,” Huckabee said. “There seems to be some (distance) between the leaders and the followers. The followers have gone my way.”
But as Scala noted, social conservatives can struggle in New Hampshire, and Huckabee is anti-abortion, supports gun rights and pushed a range of tax cuts in Arkansas, which he governed from 1996 to 2007. The same polls that show him surging in Iowa have Huckabee far behind the frontrunners in New Hampshire.
Huckabee said he plans to woo Granite State voters by stressing what he says is a resume of responsible government.
“I think voters here are looking for good government, and I bring a record of that,” Huckabee said.
Sunapee resident and DHMC employee Mark Herder said he was impressed by Huckabee's strategies and is considering voting for him.
“I liked what I heard,” Herder said. “He recognized incentives work better than hitting people over the head.”
Huckabee's speech yesterday was light on policy specifics, instead stressing a personal biography. After he was diagnosed with diabetes five years ago, Huckabee lost 110 pounds and became a marathon runner. (He is scheduled to run a 5K in Durham, N.H. this morning.)
“My personal experience is reflective of the issue in America,” Huckabee said.
Huckabee elicited several belly laughs from the crowd with one-liners that he used to break up his policy talk.
The “Q and A” session after his talk really stood for “question and avoidance,” Huckabee told the crowd.
“You say what you want, and I say whatever I feel I need that won't get me on Youtube tonight,” he said, referring to the popular video Web site.
Mark Davis can be reached at mcdavis@vnews.com or (603) 727-3304.
There he goes talking out of the sides of his mouth. Learned his lessons well from the Clintons; didn’t he.
“Preventive Care”
I guess to him that means, Banning smoking, junk food, mandatory exercise session, mandated doctor checkups, and general health nazi type stuff.. ugh no thanks.
This is a Bush-type nanny-state big-government "Republican."
That was my guess as well.
Mike Huckabee a conservative? Hahahahaha!
Mike Huckabee. The Socialist From Arkansas. http://www.cofcc.org/?p=811
Mike Huckabee disses Americans, Mexicans, promotes illegal immigration
http://lonewacko.com/blog/archives/005609.html
Christians Need To Beware Of Mike Huckabee
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2007/cbarchive_20071102.html
While Gov. of Arkansas, Huckabee was AGAINST proving citizenship in order to register to vote. He called those who were in favor of this “racists”...
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050218/news_lz1e18perkins.html
Huckabee fought hard to kill an Arkansas bill which would have cut off social services for illegal aliens. Huckabee called the bill, “anti-Christian” and “un-American”...
http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2005/01/28/News/316347.html
Huckabee supported in-state tuition for illegal aliens...
http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2005/03/11/News/318458.html
Huck’s opposition to the illegal aliens bill:
http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/000718.html
What’s your point as to how this relates to Mike Huckabee?
Probably the first time in quite a while that a Republican has been seen on the DHMC campus.
A president who believes correctly that smoking causes health problems might express his disdain for that malodorous addiction without supporting legislation that forbids the populous from engaging in it. One similarly might expect Huckabee to encourage healthy eating publicly, but he can do so honestly without incurring a moral obligation to unleash the food police upon us. I recognize that foreign regimes and the other party do tend toward authoritarian demands on these issues, but stupidity in America never alone resulted in criminal punishment, and we shouldn’t start now. I really don’t know if Huckabee merely expressed his views and dispensed advice or the extent to which such draconian and authoritarian policies might follow, but this article gives no indications of the latter notwithstanding your insinuations thereof.
"Are we going to continue to treat snake bites, or are we going to decide that killing a few snakes is a better use of our efforts?"
There he goes, off preachin to the sheeple, pretending his own family doesn't still have major weight problems. What a hypocrite..
So...You just kill your own snakes, Mike, and I'll kill mine..
sw
It has been a few years since I set foot in the place. But I suspect there have been others since.
Keep your body mass calipers off my kids! This is not the role of government.
Although he may be anti-abortion he's a Big Brother government guy all the way.
Governor Huckabee is right.
I have been practicing preventive care for a long time. And thanks be to God all is well. We need to take care of the temple. Education, education, education.
I’m so thrilled to hear the Huckabee’s vast knowledge of the medical industry. Amazing what you can learn by being a pastor on a diet.
There aren't a heck of a lot of Republicans in 'East Vermont'. :-)
Besides, health care is not a Presidential or Federal responsibility under the Constitution. I don't want a President telling me or the medical community what to do.
Amen to that. Huckabee sounds like a decent man with SOME good ideas, but his ideal of a nanny state will keep me from voting for him. He wants the Feds to get WAAAAY too involved in personal matters. And this trumps all of his good ideas. Sorry, Michael H. — you’re too busybody for me...SSZ
I don't think serious injuries and illnesses care what party you belong to. When I see the DHART helicopter I wonder what horrible thing has befallen someone. In any case, I am well aware that the Hanover area has one of the greatest concentrations of libs in the state. I'm on the other side of the county. We have few, too, but not like over there on the Left Coast of NH.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.