health problems of welfare moms

Amanda refused to have an abortion when she fell pregnant at the age of 16, and opted instead to become a welfare mom – trapped in a never ending cycle of poverty and casual jobs, giving all of her energy to raising her daughter.

"I've developed a lot of problems with my teeth and gums since having my baby," sighs Amanda, "and because I can't afford proper dental care I'll probably lose all of my teeth by the time I'm thirty.”

“It's nothing to do with hygiene - I'm fussy about brushing - and it's nothing to do with diet, either, because I don't eat junk,” says Amanda. “It's just constant stress and worries about work and debt that's robbing my body of the nutrients it needs."

“Even if I could afford to visit oral professionals I doubt whether it would help me,” explains Amanda. “You can’t buy a stress-free life, can you?”

“It’s dealing with stress that’s my main problem,” explains Amanda. “If I had a regular job with decent pay, and had no debts, I would be so much happier and healthier and would be able to raise my daughter in a nicer place than the one we have now.”

“More than anything else I need to be a strong healthy mom for my daughter,” says Amanda, “and I just wish the community could do more to make life for single moms less stressful – fast tracking us into regular jobs would be good, but with so many other people out of work these days, I guess we don’t count.”

Read more about Amanda’s story:

bleak future on welfare

a wasted education?

burdens and blessings

a child raising a child

I didn't know I was pregnant!

Cancerians, motherly types?

abortion or welfare?

High health risk women

Trixie, 34, is hale and hearty yet appreciates that she’s considered a high health risk because she drinks, smokes, eats junk food, sleeps around, has a stressful job involving a lot of time spent on the road and in the air and generally burns the candle at both ends. She is horrified by the incredible costs of both the private and public health systems and is particularly scathing of the public system which encourages whiners to complain about having to ‘pay’ for the healthcare of people like her who choose to indulge in risky lifestyles and suggests a risk penalty funded healthcare system to solve the problem.

“When the public healthcare countries are turning to the American system of private health insurance as a way to deflate their huge health costs, it is ironic that America is now considering a universal health system for the same reason,” sighs Trixie. “Let’s face it, both systems are stuffed and abused and what we need to do is to place responsibility for health right back on to the individual where it belongs and keep insurance companies, BigPharma, religious zealots, lawyers and the government bureaucrats as far away from the doctor-patient relationship as we can.”

“To start with, I am in favor of universal healthcare but as the rich will always want their own doctors and hospitals there will inevitably be a two-tier system in any society, and that should not be a barrier,” says Trixie. “Let them take out private insurance and let them have whatever operations they want for however long they live or their money lasts, but don’t give them any tax breaks for doing so because the public health system is there for them, whether they choose to use it or not, just like every other public amenity (art galleries, libraries, museums, opera houses, etc) is there for all of us, and paid for by all of us, whether or not we use it.”

“By placing responsibility for health right back on the individual where it belongs I am all in favor of paying a penalty for my lifestyle choices,” says Trixie. “If we were all required to pay a healthcare risk penalty then that would put a stop to all those whiners who complain about having to ‘pay’ for the healthcare of risky people like me and put out of work all those nannies in government who ‘earn’ their living telling us how we should live our lives.”

“Once the penalties are in place, there will be no need for the nannies to remind us of how naughty we are,” laughs Trixie. “We’d just look at the penalties we’re paying – there would need to be a label on every risky product and a special charge on every bill – and we’d either put up and shut up or change our ways. In my case, I’d be paying a fortune in healthcare penalties, but at least I know that if and when I need to go to hospital I have paid in spades for the care I get.”

“The penalties would have to be fair, though,” says Trixie. “You can’t penalize smokers and drinkers and let everyone else off the hook, like they do now. And you can’t allow for no-claim bonuses either because that will deter people from seeing a doctor; and besides which the most expensive to treat killer diseases take years to develop.”

“There’s always the risk that people will lie about their lifestyles to avoid the penalties so a taxation system is fairer than private health insurance. By paying a health ‘penalty’ at the point of sale – for alcohol, tobacco, junk food, extreme sports, guns, sexual services, motor vehicles (and gas), air travel, overseas holidays (where the risk of picking up a disease is high), and the list is endless – the consumer is reminded of the risk in a far more appropriate way than the current system of nannying.”

“And, for the same reason, no rewards should be allowed for doing ‘healthy’ things like eating vegetables, exercising or sleeping 8 hours a night,” laughs Trixie. “How on earth can the taxman or the health professionals police that sort of thing?”

“The junk food penalties won’t put McDonalds and places like it out of business,” says Trixie, “they’ll learn to serve us healthier foods, as they are already doing.”

“As for stressful jobs, I think employers should be required to pay a very heavy health penalty for every employee who does risky work as well as paying an extra health penalty for anyone working more than the statutory hours (on top of paying overtime to the employee).”

“This penalty system may even bring about the legalization of hard drugs and ensure that addicts receive better healthcare than they do now.”

“What about unemployed people? Well, I think there will always be a case for free healthcare for needy people, but because whatever welfare money they receive will incur health penalties for every risky thing they consume there is really no such thing as ‘free’ healthcare. They will be paying for healthcare just like everyone else (but from public money, of course).”

“Will these penalties mean that only the rich can lead risky lives? Yes, I suppose that’s a possibility,” laughs Trixie, “but considering that they are more likely to have private health insurance and don’t use public hospitals then good luck to them.”

“Will high risk people be paying for the healthcare of low risk people? Yes, that’s another possibility, and we probably do that already,” laughs Trixie, “but how delicious it will be to tell them that and prove it!”

“Anyway, most important of all, I want to see exactly where my health penalty dollars are going,” says Trixie. “I don’t want this money going into general revenue and getting spent on making bombs to kill people on the other side of the world, or paying for the luxury retirements of politicians and public servants.”

“I want a label on every risky item I consume telling me exactly what percentage of the money I am paying for it is going into healthcare,” says Trixie. “I am fed up hearing about run-down hospitals, overstretched health budgets and waiting lists, and when we all start paying directly into healthcare through the penalty system the government cannot cry poor any more.”

cervical cancer, sex and stress

There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that cancer is related to stress, and Shelby is convinced not only that her development of cervical cancer was stress related but also that it was related to unwanted sex with an abusive husband.

"I'm sure that it was the stress of dealing with an abusive husband that gave me cervical cancer -- which, when diagnosed, caused him to wipe me off as 'dead meat' and thankfully get his sex elsewhere," says Shelby, "but when I recovered, refused him sex and dared to divorce him the resultant abominable stress he put me through afterwards brought the cancer out of remission and I needed four more years of treatment to regain my health."

"Even when we were legally separated -- and I was in hospital preparing for an operation -- that man pushed past everyone and hassled me. How diabolical is that?"

"I survived all the abuse and the endless hate mail and telephone calls after the separation because the best treatment for all diseases is to maintain a positive attitude," says Shelby. "Being a 'free' woman allowed me to do happy things for myself that I had never been able to do before - so, for every insult I received I built up my immune system by doing lots of little, inexpensive things that made me calm and happy - taking long walks, meditating, swimming, reading uplifting library books and being with people who made me smile and feel glad to be alive."

"Nobody forgets, but the best way to push bad incidents out of a troubled mind is to fill it with lots of good incidents," says Shelby, "and that's how I not only survived but thrived through a terrible time that might otherwise have killed me."

"As far as everyone else could see, I suppose I was having a good time after the divorce," laughs Shelby, "and that must have made my abuser more determined than ever to destroy me - but the more he tried to hurt me the more I determined to ensure that I kept happy and disease free."

"Thankfully, at the time, I had no other stresses in my life besides him and dealing with cancer," says Shelby. "Back then I had a job - it didn't pay much but it paid the bills - I was fired with enthusiasm to get back into life after a miserable marriage and, most importantly, I was fifteen years younger than I am now and doors just opened for me. At my age now, doors just shut in my face and there's nothing much to feel enthusiastic about."

"With no job, no money, endless accommodation problem and nothing but war and misery in the news, I get very stressed when people start hassling me or telling me about their problems," sighs Shelby. "My head is barely above water. I need all the strength I can muster to maintain a positive attitude. I am in no position to cope with more stresses, and that's why I avoid socializing these days. Everyone has problems, most have worse problems than mine, and being a bit of a psychic-soaker-upper I don't want to risk my health by exposing myself to other people's negative vibes."

"At my age I can cope with my own problems, but I can't cope with other people's as well -- especially when their problems bring back too many of my own bad memories," explains Shelby. "I'm lucky I was younger when I got out of that marriage because I don't have the strength to deal with all that stress now."

risking health insurance

As New Year's Eve approached, Regine, 29, faced a massive credit debt, along with mortgage interest rate increases and rising oil prices. Stressed, she resolved that the time had come when she had to cut all non-essential spending -- or lose her apartment -- and like millions of other people around the world she put quitting cigarettes on the top of her list of New Year resolutions.

"I couldn't bear to lose my apartment, not after I'd worked so hard to raise a deposit and keep up the monthly repayments," says Regine, "and if push came to shove I would rather starve than find myself back in a rented room."

"I'd tried to quit smoking many times before, what smoker hasn't?" sighs Regine, "and because it was so important for me to get out of debt I really needed to succeed this time -- there was absolutely no way I could justify wasting any more money on cigarettes, especially since my smoking habit yellows the ceiling of my living room so quickly that I have to pay to get a professional cleaner in every year."

"Having tried nicotine patches and gum before without any luck -- and having no willpower whatsoever -- I resolved to see my doctor and get fixed up with the latest quit smoking drug," says Regine, "but before I got that far I came across an article warning smokers about the suicidal side effects of the most popular new drug, Champix, and I freaked out."

"Apparently, there were 5,157 complaints about Champix in just one week in the USA where it is taken by four million people), and seven deaths and more than 1,300 complaints in the UK (where it is taken by a quarter of a million people)."

"I suppose if you divide the number of people taking the drug with the reported deaths and complaints the figure doesn't look too bad," says Regine, "but the thought of the slightest risk of ending up with a psychiatric problem and slashing my wrists was just too much for me to deal with."

"Even if the side effect was headaches, nausea and vomiting I still didn't think it was a good trade-off," says Regine. "If the whole purpose of taking the drug is to prevent withdrawal symptoms then why on earth would I take something that may cause equal if not worse problems?"

"If the drug cannot guarantee to make me feel good while relieving cravings and withdrawal symptoms, then it is utterly useless."

"Also, if the drug cannot guarantee to stop you smoking for at least a year it is also utterly useless," adds Regine, "and that seems to be the case with Champix, too. Only 22.5% of smokers on the drug had successfully quit in the trials. That is not a huge number and it probably consisted of strong will-power people who would have quit successfully with or without the drug."

"Pfizer, the drug company associated with Champix, has now been forced to add a suicidal warning on the product, but why was the drug allowed on the market in the first place if it is so dangerous?" asks Regine. "For God's sake, seven people have already died on this drug. It looks like the drug company, with a nod from the government, is just experimenting on us."

"We're just smokers, aren't we?" sighs Regine. "We're expendable human scum as far as the drug companies, the government and our health care systems are concerned. They don't care. It's as simple as that."

"Well, that put an end to my New Year resolution to quit smoking," says Regine. "If there are no guarantees to stop me smoking safely, then I'm doomed to remain a smoker. And, that being the case, the government is also a thief and a thug for increasing tobacco tax to the point where some people may have to lose their home."

"Crossing cigarettes off my list, that left health insurance, my automobile and my beauty salon expenses."

"Like cigarettes, driving and receiving beauty therapy make me feel good -- health insurance, on the other hand, is merely an insurance policy and is by far the most expensive bill I have to pay (because, ha ha, I disclosed I smoked and then I had to pay more)."

"It's a total care private health insurance -- I took it out over and above normal health care because I wanted first class care should I ever fall ill, here or overseas," explains Regine. "I have never used it in the seven years I've had it, and probably never will. It's an insurance policy, that's all."

"In the current climate of 'bash a smoker' -- and my trust in drug companies, governments and health care now being a big fat zero -- I had a sinking feeling that should I ever end up needing healthcare, the PC health insurance company could very well find a sneaky way to deny me what I needed on the basis of continued smoking."

"On that basis, I'd be a mug to keep on paying for something I'm never going to get."

"Once I deducted that huge expense from my salary I felt positively rich," laughs Regine. "I figure that I should be able to pay off my credit debt within the year, if I'm careful, and I don't have to stress myself unnecessarily by trying to stop smoking again."

"And stress is what it's all about."

"I know it sounds bad that people have to go without health insurance in order to keep their homes -- or choose cigarettes over health insurance," says Regine, "but when you factor in the incredible stress of daily life and trying to make ends meet you really are way ahead in health and happiness once you cut out a huge expense you really don't need."

"It's going to be happy new year for me after all," says Regine, "but my heart goes out to those four and a quarter million Champix guinea-pigs who are now back where they started, most of them a lot worse off for the experience, too."

Regine's story first appeared as suicidal quit smoking drug

unfair criticism of smoking mothers

Azure, 28, gave up smoking when she became pregnant, succeeded in staying a non-smoker for a year but the stresses of returning to work, dealing with childcare, increasing weight gain and a marital breakup caused her to take up the habit again.

"It was so easy to give up smoking when I was pregnant and then breastfeeding," says Azure. "I also gave up alcohol, coffee and just about every other food or drink that might harm my baby."

"My whole life revolved my baby and that's what nature intended me to do," laughs Azure, "but nature was no help when it came to ensuring my own survival."

"My husband complained that I'd put on too much weight and was neglecting him, my employer complained that I'd taken too much time off work and my childcare provider complained that I expected too much from her."

"Is it any wonder -- with all of these pressures -- that women are smoking more, or drinking more or just going crazy?" asks Azure. "And now I have the additional burden of being criticized for smoking in front of my child."

"Oh, give me a break everyone!" sighs Azure. "I grew up with two smoking parents and none of us kids was harmed. The only reason I quit when pregnant was to give my baby the very best start to life. It probably wasn't necessary to quit smoking completely, but I wanted to be a perfect mom."

"Why aren't these people criticizing my ex-husband for deserting me, my employer for pressuring me back to work with the threat of terminating me if I didn't and my childcare provider for not taking care of my baby properly?"

"Sure, it was my decision to start smoking again but the alternative would have been far worse for me, my baby and you, the taxpayers," confides Azure. "I would have gone crazy, and I mean it. My baby would have been put into foster care at state expense and I would have been put into a mental health hospital also at state expense."

"Right now, with the help of a pack of cigarettes daily, I'm holding down a responsible job, paying far more in taxes than a non-smoker and my baby and I are happy and well," says Azure. "Thankfully, I'm also back to my pre-pregnancy weight and now that my husband has gone there's no more alcohol in my life."

"A success story? Well, not according to the anti-smoking activists who want to paint me as a loser and a lousy mother because I smoke."

"Possibly I could have achieved the same calming result with Prozac or some other drug," muses Azure, "but with a baby to take care of I wasn't going to risk becoming a drug addict, legally prescribed or otherwise."

"Sure, cigarettes are a drug, what the hell isn't?" sighs Azure. "Bottom line is that they don't mess with my mind like alcohol and other stuff does."

"When I take my baby out for a stroll I hate it when I have to walk by traffic caught in a jam, each vehicle emitting toxic fumes right at the level of my baby's nose," says Azure. "What is the government doing about this? Don't tell me that my smoking well above the level of my baby's head and mostly in the open air is worse than vehicle pollution?"

"And don't tell me that having a cigarette is more harmful to me and my baby than having a drink," says Azure. "Look at Britney Spears to see what harm can befall a baby when a mom drinks."

"Binge drinking is almost encouraged in our society and I think a drinking mom is far more harmful to her children than a smoking mom," says Azure. "I've never heard of a baby being born with fetal nicotine syndrome -- and my mom smoked heavily when she was pregnant with me -- but fetal alcohol syndrome is really nasty and it's on the rise."

"I am dreading the day when my baby starts school," grimaces Azure. "I know that children are being taught -- by teachers presumably with no vices whatsoever, not -- that parents who smoke are guilty of child abuse, death and destruction and every evil imaginable and that they should report their smoking parents to the authorities."

"Get off my case all you nasty people who criticize me for smoking," cries Azure. "And as for the government, I want to know how much the alcohol, oil and fast-food industries are paying it to keep up the pressure on smokers and well away from them."

"I tried to be a perfect mom and look where it got me," adds Azure. "Perfect moms only exist in a perfect society."

"Don't anyone dare tell me they care about my baby's health because if they did they'd stop men criticizing wives for putting on weight, they'd stop forcing moms to put babies into childcare and go to work, and they'd slap men into prison for deserting their wives and children."

walk don't drive!

Cindy is 32, single and childless and holds an executive position. After moving from a city apartment to a magnificent house in the suburbs and buying a SUV she started piling on the pounds and felt lousy.

"At the time I wanted to show off my wealth and announce to the world that I had made it," says Cindy. "But most of all I wanted to own an automobile - a big SUV just like the one in the sexy ads."

Cindy soon found that one of the drawbacks of suburban living is that the further we live from our workplaces in the city, the more reliant we become on transport.

"Train and bus commuters are regularly held to ransom by strikes and breakdowns in the service," says Cindy, "but automobile owners have far more problems with traffic jams and when my SUV broke down or needed servicing -- which it did regularly -- I became distraught."

"I never really knew what stress was until I became an auto owner," sighs Cindy, "and I guess the more stressed I became the more I ate. To make matters worse, I started using the vehicle for short trips that I once was happy to walk. I became fat and lazy."

"Sure, it’s great to have an automobile to jump into for weekend jaunts," says Cindy, "but after the novelty wore off I just didn’t have time or energy to go weekend driving. I soon discovered that apart from driving to and from work, I used my automobile for little purpose other than driving a couple of blocks to buy a newspaper. I did this more to justify owning a car than because I was too lazy to walk."

Her suburb, like most suburbs, has good, cheap and frequent public transport - and she didn’t live more than a couple of blocks away from shops - so she really started feeling guilty about her extravagance and stupidity and thickening waistline.

She also found that owning an automobile is very expensive. More expensive for her than anyone else, perhaps, because she had to pay parking fees in the city on top of regular vehicle expenses.

"Most people living in city apartments just don't have a need for a car," says Cindy, "and they're richer and slimmer because of it!"

"Nobody can deny the joy of getting into a brand new automobile, smelling that brand new leather smell, taking to the open road and attracting the envy of everyone who catches a glimpse of you passing by in your SUV," sighs Cindy. "I was more thrilled to show off my new SUV than my new home. It was a novelty for me. It was my first vehicle!"

Not everyone is going to be envious, though. Plenty of people have escaped from the drudgery of car ownership and are walking or using public transport. When a large chunk of your income goes into paying for automobile expenses -- and especially when your income doesn't quite cover the costs of automobile expenses and you need to take out a second or a third personal loan to cover them -- you start to do some thinking.

"It wasn’t just the astronomical cost of owning and running the vehicle -- and the personal cost in terms of extra fat and general unfitness that I thought about," says Cindy. "I thought about the environment -- acres and acres of dead cars and acrid air to breathe. The road toll -- thousands of people getting killed or maimed on the roads every year, and road rage -- stressed out drivers abusing the hell out of each other."

"After much soul-searching I decided to get rid of the SUV," says Cindy. "I needed to put myself into a position where I had no alternative but to walk everywhere."

"I started a get fit routine by regularly walking around my suburb in the evenings after work," says Cindy, "and I also joined a grass roots movement to get into cleaner and healthier living."

"I advise anyone working to pay for a car, or paying for a car in order to work, or considering moving to the suburbs in order to own a car, to think very hard about SUV ownership," says Cindy. "These gas guzzling monsters not only break your bank but they have a negative impact on neighborhoods and the world at large and they also make you fat and lazy!

"If you own a SUV," explains Cindy, "it ends up ruling your life and ruining it, too. SUV ownership, for me, meant a stack of fat around my butt and a stack of bills in my desk drawer - both of which I’m still working hard to get rid of!"

When Cindy got rid of her car and the expenses it generated it was the best thing she ever did. She's now leading a happier and healthier lifestyle.

"I walk to the railway station every morning and I commute by train to the city and I'm feeling skinnier already," laughs Cindy. "I just wish that everyone who lived in the suburbs did the same thing, but sooner or later everyone will be forced to walk due to gas becoming either a scarce commodity or a banned substance due to air pollution."

"Honestly," says Cindy, "I just bought the house to go with the SUV and now that I no longer have it I feel a bit silly stuck out in the suburbs in a big house all by myself."

"There's really not much life in the suburbs as far as walking goes," says Cindy, "and in that respect I do miss living in the city where everyone walks and cars just drive by."

"I guess I’ll be moving back to a city apartment one day soon," she laughs, "and it will be great to be trim, taut and terrific again."