This morning on National Public Radio, I listened as a broadcaster recited a 40 second news blurb on sexual abuse by humanitarian aid workers against CHILDREN. This is part of it:
U.N. Vows To Intensify Investigation Of Alleged Abuse
U.N. officials said Tuesday will take steps to ensure the safety of children after a new report revealed youngsters are frequently sexually abused by peacekeepers and international aid workers...
(cross-posted at Cure This, a community blog centered around health justice)
On Memorial Day, Helen Benedict writes about the challenges facing our women warriors as they return home from duty. She follows up with a strong call to action. From "For Women Warriors, Deep Wounds, Little Care":
Women make up some 15 percent of the United States active duty forces, and 11 percent of the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly a third of female veterans say they were sexually assaulted or raped while in the military, and 71 percent to 90 percent say they were sexually harassed by the men with whom they served.
A good friend of mine went to vote today in Cleveland, Ohio, which is in Cuyahoga County -- we all remember what happened there in 2004. AND some of us would expect hypervigilance by the county officials to prevent a rehash of 2004. Well, this is what my friend experienced (she doesn't have a dkos account yet, and asked me to post this):
"I went to two separate precincts today to vote - I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go, since I've moved since I last voted, and I was admittedly bad in that I didn't submit my updated address form in the requisite 28 days before the election. I couldn't reach anyone at the Board of Elections hotline today to find out where to go, so just finally went to my old precinct voting location to see if they had a better idea of what I had to do...
This year, the final stops will be pulled, and NAFTA will be the great train derailing everything in sight. On 90.7FM (KPFK) in Los Angeles, I heard a wonderful interview (can't remember who it was with) but essentially, this is what's happening -- we're pulling the final stops on any restrictions (tarriffs, etc) on our huge corporate agribusiness companies' exports of corn and beans to Mexico, this year.
What does this mean?
In simple terms, we're putting the rural campesino, the rural farmer who grows and sustains his family on corn or beans, two of Mexico's staple crops since Aztec and mayan times, IN DIRECT COMPETITION with ConAgra and other huuuuuuuge multimillion dollar multimillion acre American companies.
A recent study by Fidelity Investments found that while 61 percent of employees considered their understanding of health insurance terminology to be very good, only 15 percent of workers had a very strong understanding of key terms. For instance, 56 percent did not know what an HSA is; a startling 13 percent did not know what a co-payment is.
Ok this is SCARY. If more than 1/2 of Americans don't know what a Health Savings Account is, and 13% don't know what a co-payment is, how are Americans equipped to shop around for their healthcare? (more after the jump...)
World AIDS Day was yesterday, Saturday December 1st, 2007. Much thanks to the hundreds of organizations and the thousands of people who work day in and day out to garner funds, break down stereotypes, treat medically, and help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS around the world. And thoughts and empathy to the many many people living with HIV/AIDS.
The Republican Presidential CNN/YouTube debate is just around the corner (November 28th). As with the Democratic Presidential debate hosted by CNN/YouTube, Americans are submitting videos of questions they have for the candidates.
Above, the national leaders of the American Medical Student Association framed the healthcare debate with a well-crafted question for the candidates. Friends, these are the future leaders of American organized medicine, and there are thousands of them, and thankfully, they're progressive, patient-centered, and dedicated to the public health of America.
Hope comes in many forms, and this is just one of them...
A friend wrote the following post at Cure This, an online health justice community. I absolutely must share an excerpt from it here because she provides a perspective on the psyche of the poor patient in the US healthcare system (she writes about her experience with the healthcare system after getting health insurance):
lawdy lawdy, it was like i was in heaven or something. the doctor even told me, well, instead of getting you all drugged up with pain medications, let's see what we can do to make sure that this doesn't happen again. it was like angels came from the heavens and shared with me a piece of what the lord must promise to those who have clean souls...
if you have ever wondered, what's so wrong with being poor--this is it: if somebody is gentle with you, if somebody takes time to talk to you, if somebody wants to help you heal instead of drugging you until the pain goes away, if somebody believes you when you say it hurts--there must be a mistake. there must be something wrong, somebody must be tricking you or must've filed the wrong paper work or fucked something up some where.
Barbara Ehrenreich has a piece in today's Huffington Post ("Health Care vs the Profit Principle") on the debate over expansion of health insurance for children (S-CHIP or the State Health Insurance Program). In the midst of the movie SiCKO's popularity, and in the midst of Americans building ever more energy around health care issues, the Bush administration has boldy gone where no administration has gone before, to make this yet again an ideological battle. Barbara Ehrenreich on the matter:
It's always nice to see the President take a principled stand on something. The man formerly known as "43," and now perhaps better named "29" for his record-breaking approval rating, is promising to battle any expansion of government health insurance for children -- and not because he hates children or refuses to cough up the funds. No, this is a battle over principle: private health care vs. government-provided health care...
We are adaptable creatures, and while that is generally good, sometimes it’s a problem. We have no difficulty taking prompt action when faced with a sudden calamity, like a bleeding head wound, say, or a terrorist attack. But we are not good at moving against the creeping, more insidious threats — whether a slow-growing tumor, waistline or debt.
It’s as true of societies as of individuals. We did not muster the will to reform our long-broken banking system, for example, until it actually collapsed in the Great Depression.
This is, in a nutshell, the trouble with our health care crisis. Our health care system has eroded badly, but it has not collapsed. So we do nothing...
...from medical professionals, patients, and policywonks! Every week, a blogger collects these thoughts and hosts a "grand rounds" (term for weekly medical conferences at medical centers), similar in format to the many other carnivals and amusement parts out there :>
Some dKos folks may be interested in checking out the fascinating variety of opinions on health and healthcare, so this week it's hosted at Azygos, and the previous 32 weeks of content can be found from this link at Blogborygmi, who conceptualized this weekly roundup.
On a trip to New Mexico, I attended a town meeting that the Coalition for Community Health Access (CCHA) organized, at which uninsured people in the albuquerque community gave testimonials on their personal stories regarding medical bills and debt to the hospital.
One testimonial stood out in my mind: A woman working two minimum-wage jobs stood up and told her story -- she delivered her first baby at the hospital, complications ensued and an emergency c-section was performed. She qualified for public assistance for the cost of the delivery but was not told about it by the hospital. She later received a bill for $30,000. ($30,000?!?!?!) She had to file for bankruptcy, mortgage her home, etc. She will now be paying back this money for the next few years.
"People have such simple needs, yet we have such a complex system that benefits the insurance companies, the docs, the drug companies and HMOs. Our health care in this country is irrational. We need a rational system that offers affordable access for primary care."
That's a quote by Dr. Andru Ziwasimon, from an article in The Alibi (weekly Abq paper) called Albuquerque All Stars 2004. Dr. Ziwasimon was featured for creating a fair & just clinic for the uninsured. Dkos diarist Plutonium Page posted on this story, and the numerous comments to the post included personal struggles with the health care system and many folks offering to help Andru.
I was excited to see the post, both because Andru is a dear friend of mine, and because the number and diversity of comments on the story gives a human face to the health care reform that's much needed in our country.
For those interested in reading more about Andru's work and possibly donating to the clinic, he's been blogging on the development of this revolutionary clinic and some local health justice efforts at a blog that we co-host -- To the Teeth (more below the fold)...
Yet another reason GWBush and his cronies need to get OUT:
The U.S. has put up a $7 billion bid for providing health care infrastructure for the storage and supply of HIV drugs, and defense industry companies want a piece of it. NPR has the complete story, some excerpts here:
"What does it mean for us to be investing this level of resources in the defense industry entities to achieve our international AIDS efforts, and how close are we moving to have this become the Halliburton of AIDS relief?"
Maguire says the president's plan shows the price of going it alone -- and not working with multilateral groups already present in these countries. Groups like the World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The fear, she says, is that there will be parallel systems with duplication and waste.
"There is an absence of where are our partners in this," she says. "Are we potentially going it alone because of our own interest, not just in the projects and contracts that we already have in the various countries, but because of the interest in the suppliers and pharmaceuticals based here."
The Nation has an interesting article on how many progressives unfairly run away from religion, and how Democrats and religious progressives have actually been working together on several issues that they both passionately care about. However, conservatives often frame the issue as one of religious folk vs. progressive agendas, especially when talking about abortion and gay rights. This article rightly points out the strong link in the issues that people of various faiths are moved by, and the ones that Dems are working on -- poverty, health care, social justice issues. Check out the whole story but here's the last paragraph:
"For Kerry, as for most Democrats, the more effective way to close the religion gap isn't by pandering to churchgoers with quotes from the Bible; it's by addressing issues--poverty, social justice, the environment--that many people of faith care about, while pointing out that Republicans do not, in fact, have a monopoly on values. In this respect, Kerry might take a page from Senator Dick Durbin, a Catholic Democrat from Illinois who, like Kerry, came under criticism from a priest for being prochoice. Durbin examined the voting records of his colleagues on an array of moral issues of concern to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops--not only abortion but the death penalty, the minimum wage, the concentration of media ownership. On the whole, he discovered, Democrats in the Senate ranked better than Republicans. The highest ranking of all went to the candidate some conservatives have been tarring as antireligious: John Kerry."
Yesterday marked the 59th anniversary of the gruesome bombing of Hiroshima by the United States. Sadly, the mainstream media and even some of the more progressive media are lacking in their coverage of this day that should never leave our memories.
I came across a wonderful interview with Gar Alperovitz, author of Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam, at Sojourner's magazine. In the interview, Alperovitz discusses the real reasons behind bombing Japan, the crafted manipulation of public opinion to gain support for the bombing, how Hiroshima has parallels to today's inclination and public support to go to war, and citizen empowerment on the issue of nuclear weapons.
Unfortunately, our country is not looking for nuclear disarmament or a means to prevent this from happening again. This week, Democracy Now! reported that on this anniversary, a top secret summit was held in Omaha, Nebraska to discuss expanding our country's nuclear arsenel.
And an Iraqi doctor visited Hiroshima to better understand the long-term effects of radiation on populations. Iraq is going to be dealing with these effects for years to come as a result of our use of depleted uranium in warfare there.
This is an issue in which the patient's perspective needs some attention, and unfortunately organized medicine (the American Medical Association) is more concerned with the medical malpractice issue than with serious health care reform. It's nice to know that the American Medical Student Association, an independent student-run organization, has supported major healthcare reforms, including single-payer national health insurance, people-based incremental reforms in health insurance, eliminatng health disparities, getting corporate influence out of medicine (pharm-free campaign to stop accepting bribes from drug companies, etc) and health care workforce issues, among others, for a long time.
An excerpt from the article that describes Moore's possible next project:
The director and author will attempt to save as many lives as he can by simply intervening with his camera crew during the course of 90 minutes of filming. He hopes to embarrass health insurance companies and hospitals into continuing to care for patients with no cover - highlighting holes in the American system...
Moore said he had the idea when making his TV show, The Awful Truth, shown in Britain on Channel 4. 'We had this guy who was going to die because his HMO [insurers] wouldn't pay for his transplant so we went with him and conducted a funeral rehearsal,' said Moore. 'The HMO was ashamed and paid for the transplant and he lives to this day.'
Since health care reform is something that's on peoples' minds (and not only the most marginalized populations' minds), and the dems and republicans aren't speaking up enough about it, and the media isn't talking at all about solutions, I'm glad to know that Moore's looking to expose another corrupt profiteering situation.
(this is my first dailykos diary entry, and as a 4th year medical student, healthcare reform fanatic, i'll probably be posting more on this topic, as well as others. More of my posts can be found on to the teeth, a group blog with other idealism and action based students and docs.
