During my nearly five years as director-general of WHO high-level policymakers have increasingly recognized that health is central to sustainable development.

I want to encourage everyone to be proactive with their health and get checked out.

When I turned 30 due to my father's heart history and my family genetics I vowed to start seeing a cardiologist every year and just really be proactive and take my own heart health into my own hands.

The Patients' Bill of Rights is necessary to guarantee that health care will be available for those who are paying for insurance. It's a part of the overall health care picture.

I think that we have a number of different health care challenges in our country and certainly addressing the uninsured is one and the second is making sure that those with health insurance actually get the care that they assume they'll have available to them if they get sick.

The concern right now is that families are paying for insurance or getting insurance from their employer and trusting that health care will be available for their families. In too many instances now the care they need isn't available.

I understand that in these difficult economic times the potential for any additional expense is not welcomed by American businesses. But in the long run the health insurance reform law promises to cut health-care costs for U.S. businesses not expand them.

We each have a personal myth a vision of who we really are and what we want. Health means that part of what you want is to give to others.

It has pleased and interested me to see how I could get along under difficult circumstances and with so much discomfort but as I say I was not sent out here to improve my temper or my health or to make me more content with my good things in the East.

Because what happens is as the economy suffers tax revenues go down. But unlike businesses where at least your variable costs go down in government your variable costs go up: unemployment insurance workmen's compensation health care benefits welfare you name it.

The best advice is to avoid foods with health claims on the label or better yet avoid foods with labels in the first place.

Nor is it the least advantage to health accruing from such a way of life that it expose those who follow it to fewer temptations to vice than persons who live in crowded society.

As founder and co-chair of the upper Mississippi River Congressional task force I have long sought to preserve the river's health and historical multiple uses including as a natural waterway and a home to wildlife for the benefit of future generations of Americans.

Finally the ecological health of the Mississippi River and its economic importance to the many people that make their living or seek their recreation is based on a healthy river system.

You know there are people making a lot of money in this country who can actually afford their own health care. We are in a situation where we got a safety net in place in this country for people who frankly don't need one. We got to focus on making sure we got a safety net for those who actually need it.

We've had Town Hall meetings we've witnessed election after election in which the American people have taken a position on the President's health care bill. And the bottom line is the people don't like this bill. They don't want it.

I am hopeful for the American people that we can actually improve the outlook for bringing down costs in health care.

Everybody likes Johnny Cash. I think the sad part of it is his health is givin' him problems.

Challenges of historic import threaten America's future. Action on the deficit economy energy health care and much more is imperative yet our legislative institutions fail to act. Congress must be reformed.

Third issue and again I think it is important to note anyone can make a mistake and any administration can make a mistake once in a while but this is just a long train of abuses an unbroken chain of following special interests rather than the health of the American people.

Health care comprises nearly 20 percent of our national economy but outdated bureaucracy and red tape have stifled competition and raised costs. As a result today more than 45 million are without any health coverage.

Neither left nor right has focused adequately on maternal health.

The U.N. Population Fund has a maternal health program in some Cameroon hospitals but it doesn't operate in this region. It's difficult to expand because President Bush has cut funding.

There should not be one new dime in tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires as long as millions of children in America are poor hungry uneducated and without health coverage.