IDP: McCain's "Serious" Plan To Improve Rural Health Care

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 14, 2008
CONTACT:
Brooke Borkenhagen
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MCCAIN VS. IOWA: MCCAIN’S “SERIOUS” PLAN TO IMPROVE RURAL HEALTH CARE – PRO ATHLETES?

Second Segment in www.mccainvsiowa.com Series

Des Moines , IA - Today marks the second segment in the McCain vs. Iowa series, with the focus being rural health care.

Just this week, a study was released from the Iowa Department of Public Health showing that at least 250 more health providers are needed to ensure every Iowan has access to health care. Where are these health care providers needed most? Rural Iowa. Even more alarming, the report estimates that nearly 242,000 Iowans will be without reliable access to health care by 2015.

Senator Barack Obama has a specific plan to improve access to quality health care in rural communities. As president, Obama will work to ensure a more equitable Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement structure for rural providers. He will attract providers to rural America by creating a loan forgiveness program for doctors and nurses who work in underserved rural areas. In addition, Senator Obama supports increasing rural access to care by promoting health information technologies like telemedicine.

Senator John McCain’s plan for rural health care? When asked in Kentucky about “the great disparity between the health care of Appalachia and the rest of the nation,” McCain responded, well, hear it for yourself:

MCCAIN: “I think one of the things we need to do is to emphasize wellness and fitness. . . . I’d like to see—you know, I’ve talked about this a couple of times and it may not sound too serious, but I am serious—who the young people here in an American admire the most and that’s great athletes. I’d like to enlist great athletes to come around the country and take maybe just a few days of their time to talk to students about the need and absolute necessity and benefits of wellness and fitness.”

You can view the clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3JVzb9E0Ms.

“Senator McCain just doesn’t understand the challenges facing Iowa’s rural communities,” said State Senator Amanda Ragan from Mason City, a member of the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. “Bringing Shaq into schools won’t increase reimbursement rates and won’t attract doctors and nurses to work in small towns across Iowa. The rural health care problem is a serious one and needs a serious solution. Senator McCain has voted against increasing reimbursements to rural communities, and now claims Shaq can solve the health care challenges throughout rural America. Senator Obama has spent a great deal of time traveling throughout rural Iowa and has listened directly to Iowans and understands the hurdles we are facing related to health care.”

Where are Senator McCain’s other ideas about rural health care? Tough to say since the issue is nowhere to be found on his website.

For more information on positions Senator McCain has taken against Iowa’s interests, visit www.mccainvsiowa.com.









SUWANEE – Healthy living is an essential element to every life and it's practically a mantra for Connie Jeon.

It's always been her dream to open a fitness center. She just wanted to make sure it was the right one, in the right place, at the right time.

Now, Jeon is hoping her new diet and fitness center franchise, elements, is a haven for women seeking to maintain their health, beauty and even their sanity.

"Life happens. We get busy and don't make time for anything," said Jeon, a licensed physical therapist, registered dietitian, health and fitness instructor, a comprehensive trained Pilates practitioner and a trained yoga therapist. "But taking care of ourselves needs to be a lifestyle decision."

elements will be located in Suwanee, which is a very progressive city with well-represented demographics, according to Jeon.

The decision to open the center formed around her frustration with stagnate lifestyles in which women, particularly, become inactive and forget to follow through with measures to make themselves feel better. As a physical therapist, she sees many people leave rehabilitation and forget what they've learned there.

"The minute they walk out the door it's lost," Jeon said. "I noticed that there was no ongoing care after physical therapy."

The lack of yoga and Pilates outlets locally was especially exasperating to Jeon. She sought to bring some of the progressive fitness ideas from her home state of California to local residents by opening an all-inclusive type fitness center, including nutritionists who will work with ethnic food inclinations and out-of-the-box exercise routines.

And out of the women-centered health clubs available to the public, none of them incorporate the all aspects of wellness at a competitive price quite like elements, according to Jeon's research.

"They were all missing something," she said. "elements had it all: diet and exercise regimes in a spa-like atmosphere."

The center was fashioned to be an upscale boutique-style health club. It offers clients an avenue to balance their lives through three components: "body, beauty and mind."

Programs include various yoga classes, Pilates instruction and apparatus, as well as the Smart Card Workout, which recognizes each client individually and adjust to personal settings, as well as tracks their progress.

"It is like having an invisible personal coach at each exercise," Jeon said.

No detail is left unattended, according to Jeon. The center will feel less austere than a traditional gym and be more suited to a women's desire to feel pampered and relaxed. They even offer hydro-massage and a sauna.

"You'll feel it the moment you walk in," she said.

The Suwanee elements, located at 1300 Peachtree Industrial Blvd, Suite 2203 in Suwanee, will open Sept. 1.

For more information about elements, visit www.elementsforwomen.com. Or to sign up for e-mail, conniej@elementsforwomen.com.