Let's go next to Chris from San Antonio. You were on the air.
Chris from San Antonio, you were on the. David, can you hear me? Yes, I can.
Hey, also doing well. Good, good. So I listen to your show a long time. Appreciate it to be on.
I guess I'd consider myself a progressive, but I do take some issues, I guess, with some of.
Just the thought pattern that some progressives have, like in terms of like just for example,
like Medicare for all, like, I do think that's a good idea and I do support that.
But I don't think it's like the. It's going to fix all the problems, I guess I would say
the health care system in the country, it's really health insurance, Medicare for all. And, you know,
coming from a medical background, you know, 80 to 90 percent of the diseases in the country are
preventable. It's mostly related to diet and things like that.
Is it that high? I mean, I know it's significant, but I've never heard 80 to 90 percent.
That's the figure I've heard. I mean, it's really looking at diabetes, hypertension,
heart disease, those type of things where, you know, you know, the American diet is just so
bad. Yep. That it is really causing a lot of those problems. And unfortunately, you know,
if we have Medicare for all, I just feel like it's going to exacerbate people's bad health decisions.
So I don't I don't think Medicare for all will exacerbate people's bad health decisions. I do
agree with you that Medicare for all is neither a panacea nor the only way to go about getting
people universal coverage. I think is one way to do it. I think there's other countries that
have other systems that work quite well. And what I tell people is I don't. For me,
this isn't partizan in any way. I just want the best solution. And one of the best books,
I think, to read about how Medicare for all is one option. But there are others that around the world
work as well. Of Reinhart's last book, which I think was actually published posthumously by
by his widow, is one of the best books for explaining the balance that any health
care system has to find on a triangle between access, quality and cost. Every system is just
picking a point on a triangle between those three axes, so to speak. And there's nothing
magical about Medicare for all in that sense. I agree with you. It's one way to go about it.
And without you know what, I would what I would love to see more focus on
is preventative care in the country. Of course. So like just for example, you know,
why couldn't there be food stamps for all that can only be used for the most scientifically proven
healthy foods in the country? That that that's not the way I would go. No. So that the problem
is when we start saying because then you get into food stamps can't be used for ketchup because it's
processed, that I think that that's that's very that's micro. I think we need a macro strategy of
like, for example, shifting to where health providers are paid for keeping people healthy
rather than being paid for the number of things they do to a patient. That's like a macro change.
It's less about controlling what food stamps can be used for. I disagree
with you there. Respectfully, of course. No, you understand that. Yeah, it's obviously
the politicians are arguably responsible for the people and the people just say, no,
I want to eat this. Right. It's not going to go well for them. So, I mean, I understand that. But
I do wish also progressives would focus a little bit more on the meat dairy egg industry, because I
do think it really correlates to a lot of things, progressive care about, you know, the environment,
health care, just living conditions, you know, both for, you know, the people that are there
working in those fields as well as the animals are just all that's just all swept under the rug. And,
you know, the average person really doesn't understand where their food comes from.
So, yes, certainly progressives would take that that bad along. But, yeah,
I would encourage people to read Michael Pollan's
books on on the food industry and these things. And, you know, things keep pointing to
eating, not eating factory foods, buying ingredients rather than food products
and having a modest amount of of certain types of meats in your diet. You know, over time, all
these diets come in and out of favor. But really, we just continue getting more and more evidence of
the things we suspected 20, 30 years ago, right? Yeah, yeah. And the final point I would love I
would love to see is smoking really dropped down once there were warnings were put on the packages.
You know, I think that that's a route that could go with
meat products, you know, considering they are considered class one carcinogens. So, you know, I
don't know about that. I know that. I know that. I know that bacon has been definitively shown,
if I recall correctly, to maybe be carcinogenic. I want to make sure I'm being careful in what I say.
But some of the healthiest diets around the world contain,
you know, modest amounts, modest amounts of meat. So I think we want to be careful about these these
broad sweeping statements, right? Yeah, I think there was a twenty fifteen the
World Health Organization to classify any deli meat. So that includes hotdogs and sliced meats,
class one carcinogens one day or something like that. So it's like the same category as smoking.
And I would stay away from the processed meats. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, my friend,
thank you so much for the call. Chris from San Antonio, glad to have been able to speak to a
few folks today. Our guest canceled. That's not good. But then I got to speak to a few of you,
which is great. We're going to take a break and we will be back with more right after this.