Health Care

I just wrote a post about López Lomong for Awearness blog over at Kenneth Cole's. I am waiting for it to be published. It's a bit of a recap of his life as a Lost Boy from Sudán and now, not only an Olympic athlete, but an American citizen and the flag bearer for the US Olympic team in China.

While writing his Cinderella story I couldn't help but think of Hiu Lui Ng's horror story.

Hiu Lui Ng died in the custody of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs' Enforcement agency. Actually, he was documented : He had a job as a computer programmer. He had a wife and children and a home in Queens.

His crime? His visa had expired.

NOT VANISHED, JUST OVER-LOOKED

"Viewing Native Americans as a people of the past is the most accessible, convenient perception for Americans.  While I believe it is important to create images that are historically, culturally correct and support the preservation of culture, I also believe it is imperative that a modern, contemporary representation of Native culture needs to surface in the mainstream.

Crossposted at Progressive Historians

August 26th  through the 29th  is the SYMPOSIUM ON THE SETTLEMENT OF INDIAN RESERVED WATER RIGHTS CLAIMS

I am speculating, but I think that one reason for the Symposium on the Settlement of Indian Reserved Water Rights Claims is because of this:

Radiation Warning Signs Placed on Cheyenne River

Red Shirt Village -- Residents of Red Shirt village on the northwest corner of the Pine Ridge Reservation have put up signs warning people of the high nuclear radiation levels found in the Cheyenne River.

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I have found that basic health care is more accessible in Brazil than in the United States.

The New York Times reports today that the process in the United States for getting basic vaccines against deadly childhood diseases is becoming more and more expensive and precarious.

Getting a vaccination was not always so difficult. In 1980, it cost only about $23, or $59 adjusted for inflation, for the seven shots and four oral doses needed to immunize a child, according to data provided by Thomas Saari, who is emeritus professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin.

Today, though, a child who receives all the recommended vaccines would receive as many as 37 shots and 3 oral doses by the 18th birthday — at a cost exceeding $1,600. NYT

Before I moved to Brazil in 2004, I contacted public and private clinics in New Jersey, looking for the basic vaccines that were recommended before my travel. It would have cost me $800 dollars or more to receive these vaccinations in the United States. Since I didn't have that much money and I was not covered by any insurance, I decided to go to Brazil without first receiving this basic and easily administered medical care.

When I got to Brazil, I discovered that all of the medications that I needed but could not afford in the United States are available for free at all Brazilian government health clinics, even for visitors from the United States. In fact, there is a hospital a block from my house that provides all medical care for free. So I have more access to health care in Brazil than I did in the United States.

A couple of weeks ago, my Brazilian wife informed me that the government was recommending that everyone in our state receive shots for malaria. The first time we went to the clinic, the supplies had been exhausted. The following week, I, my wife and two children went to the government clinic and we all got our shots for free, with no lines or additional waiting. The government of Brazil cares for my medical health more than my own government does.

I have also discovered that the same anti-depressant drugs that cost $200.00 USD per month in the United States may cost $40.00 USD per month at regular Brazilian pharmacies and only twenty dollars per month at Brazil's government run pharmacies. But at certain Brazilian government pharmacies, many basic medications are available at no charge whatsoever, to anyone who has a prescription, while supplies last.

I hope someday that the United States will have a public health system that is as accessible to the public as Brazil's health care system is now. In the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, I'm absolutely going to vote for a presidential candidate who has a long-standing and proven dedication to seeing that we in the United States have care that is at least as accessible and affordable as the care now available to people in so-called "Third World" countries like my new home, in Brazil.

I am not here to start a campaign. I am here to start a conversation with our country.

She was introduced by Tobias, treasurer to the DNC. Booooring. Then he said her name, the room went ape shit. Seriously.

Clinton has just said that more people went bankrupt last year than graduated from college ... there was a collective, OH! from the audience.

Her message is all about economics, about how people are going bankrupt, that there is no middle class, that jobs being lost to China.

Uh-oh ... people are heckling Clinton over the "non-binding" resolution.

"Had I been the President in 2002, I would not have gone into war".

"If this Congress doesnt end the war, in 2009 as president I will".

She is talking about her experience with the health care bill project and is talking about how she learned from that experience.

She is talking about her "life time of experience" and about "knowing a thing or two about winning campaigns".

She's just given a whole laundry list of her accomplishments ... "We can elect the first woman president ... We can stop global warming ... We can stop the genocide in Darfur ... we can end the war in Iraq ... "

And the crowd goes wild ... to the best song yet (as per Michael) of any of the campaigns. I unfortunately have no idea what the song is, but it's interesting how all these candidates have "a song".

Drum Major Institute has just released a 21-page long analysis (in blog parlance this would be a fisking), of George W. Bush's State of the Union Address. I have no idea if they did this last year but the velocity with which they've put this together is unprecedented.

I am reprinting only the Introduction to the report, which you can read online at DMI on the 2007 State of the Union or download as a PDF here.

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Introduction | DMI’s 2007 State of the Union Analysis
DMI Staff

There was little for current and aspiring middle-class Americans in tonight’s State of the Union Address.

On the domestic front, which is the concern of this report, President Bush wavered between promoting ideologically driven experiments to fix our most pressing problems and offering such detailed proposals that the larger challenges were obscured.

When it came to health care, the President opted to push an aggressive ideological agenda on the backs of middle-class Americans, offering “market-based” proposals that treat health care as if it were any other commodity and fail to address the real reasons behind its ballooning costs. On the economy, the President wants to reduce the deficit while maintaining his tax cuts that favor the very wealthy.