Huckabee discusses health crisis

By Mary Daly
March 14, 2008

Former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee takes questions from the crowd at Columbia College on Thursday. Huckabee addressed the importance of preventing chronic diseases in addition to treating them.

After being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes five years ago, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he realized he only had himself to blame for his health.

Huckabee spoke Thursday night at a lecture titled “Ethics Surrounding the Future of Medical and Health Care” at Columbia College.

The lecture was part of an annual series at the college, aimed at engaging students, faculty and the Columbia community in ethical issues in society.

“Health issues are very serious in America right now,” Columbia College President Gerald Brouder said. “That’s why this year we decided to focus the lecture on health.”

Huckabee was chosen to speak this year because of his dedication to health care when he was governor, Columbia College Ethics Chairman Anthony Alioto said.

“Gov. Huckabee worked to help people stop smoking in Arkansas, he made the workplace a smoke-free environment and he has run four marathons,” Alioto said. “He has had a personal experience as well as a professional one with wellness.”

Huckabee said when his doctor classified him as unhealthy, he tried to place the blame everywhere but on himself.

“I grew up in the deep South where we ate everything battered and fried,” Huckabee said. “I also grew up poor so my family couldn’t afford that healthy quality of food.”

Huckabee said he quickly realized he had to make a change in his lifestyle if he wanted to live past the 10-year expectancy his doctor had set for him.

“I realized I have a lot of things to live for,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee said the U.S. is in serious trouble when it comes to the health of the nation.

“America doesn’t have a health care crisis,” he said. “It has a health crisis.”

He said the single greatest economic threat to the nation is the health crisis. More than 700,000 Americans die every year due to the effects of overeating, under-exercising and smoking, Huckabee said.

About 85 percent of Americans spend the most money on health care in the past 18 months of their lives, Huckabee said.

“At the end of their lives, people are dragged to the finish line by the health care system,” Huckabee said. “The real goal should be to have universal health, not universal health care.”

Huckabee said he is most troubled by a study that says today’s generation of children is the first generation in the history of the country to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

Children need more guidance to live healthily than an allegedly nutritious school lunch provided by the government, Huckabee said.

“This is not something you can turn over to schools and the government and say, ‘Fix it,’” Huckabee said. “It’s the entire culture we have to change if we have any hope to fix these drastic trends.”

Huckabee said the fact that Americans are eating more and exercising less is the greatest disaster in today’s culture. He also said Americans are eating more unhealthful foods than ever before.

“Have you seen muffins today?” Huckabee said. “They’re bigger than my head. Also, as a general rule, if it comes through the car window, it’s not food.”

Huckabee said the change in the unhealthy lifestyle of Americans would not come through government regulations.

“Self governance is where the change starts,” Huckabee said.

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Huckabee discusses health crisis

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