Dan Crowell represents the changing face of health and healthcare in America.  Dan is the street superintendent for the city of Lafayette, Indiana.  Now I don't know Dan but I read about him JConline.com, the online edition of the Journal Courier Newspapers of Lafayette and West Lafayette Indiana.

Both cities, faced with ever rising healthcare costs have joined together to save money on health insurance and to promote healthier employees.  One of the keys to their strategy is through employee engagement.  This goes beyond the health risk assessments that most city employees participated in this year, and  includes the formation of a joint city committee comprised of city employees to analyze the data from the risk assessments and then collaboratively determine which health issues to focus on through to promote more healthy lifestyles.

The city managers are looking at other ways to reduce costs and improve overall employee health, and have added HDHPs with HSAs as an insurance option for their employees in 2009.

This brings us back to Dan Crowell.  You see, Dan Crowell, Lafayette's Street Superintendent, is one step ahead of the game and is the city poster boy for what can be.  Dan, over the past couple of years dropped 100 pounds through regular exercise (and I would guess a more healthy diet, but the article didn't say) which he maintains to this day. 

Some folks can get motivated on their own, and others need a little help.  But in order for us to drive our healthcare costs down and our health up, it will take collaborative efforts between employees and employers, between insurance companies and individuals, between the Government and all of us.  Dan and the cities of Lafayette and West Lafayette, get it and are doing their part to become part of the healthcare solution.  A tip of the hat to them.

So if you are reading this article there's a decent chance you are actually interested in learning about Health Savings Accounts or maybe taking control of your healthcare, or maybe taking control of your health.  Or then again, maybe you are looking for some information on the Haiku Society of America or perhaps the Handicap Scuba Association.  If the latter two, sorry, but you are hopelessly lost.

If you are an HSA wonk or someone just wanting to learn more, there is all kinds of good information on this site, HSAeducator.com, but if you want even more, the folks at HSAeducator.com have added a new link on their site that will pull up the latest and greatest news, videos and blogs related to Health Savings Accounts, High Deductible Health Plans, and CDH.  It actually is pretty cool, although, at the moment a little challenging to find.  If you look up to the right of the first article on this page, up under the "search hsaeducator.com" box, you will see the words, "  Health Care In The News" .  If you are looking for the latest in HSAs just click on that link and it will bring up a window and you can see what others are saying about HSAs out there.     Check it out and let us know what you think.

The American media community recently alighted on "Joe the Plumber" like a fly on poop and I couldn't help but wonder if he was truly represented the face of the America or if, perhaps there was something else going on there.  This has been nagging at me for weeks until today, when I was bobbing up and down on the basement treadmill, trying to read an article in this week's edition of Business Week.

It suddenly hit me, with the force of a diarrhea bomb the morning after a dinner of Kung Pao chicken.  The U.S. media is obsessed with the toilet and all things related to it.  Joe the Plumber was merely the media's toilet obsession, personified.

The article of "inspiration" entitled, "Toxic Assets: Still No Takers," was flush with toilet related imagery.   In a mere eight paragraph article, covering just one page that included an illustration, a big headline and a chart, I counted 28 throne-related images. Key among them were:

• Bailout
• Plumbing job
• Toxic
• "Ass"ets
• Flowing again
• Passed
• S"crapped"
• "Sit where they are"
• Impasse
• Unload
• Dumps
• Pumping
• Lack of pressure
• No pressure
• Sitting on

My favorite, and the final sentence was, "You could have it back up on you in an ugly way."

Whether we agreed with the message of Joe the Plumber or not was irrelevant.  For me he was merely the allegory for American media.  Toilet obsessed. 

You may be asking, "what does this have to do with Health Savings Accounts, High Deductible Health Plans, Consumer Driven Health, HSA education, health or wellness?"   I suppose the only advice we can offer is, stay away from the Kung Pao chicken, and if you can't, remember, you can pay for Pepto Bismol from you HSA.  Can anyone "spare a square?"

A classic.