Well, maybe not evil, but “highly problematic.”
First, let’s remove what we all *think* Lego is (i.e. our own nostalgic memories, our aspirational beliefs, or $250 robot sets), and instead concentrate on what Lego today is, for the most part: It’s movie-tie-in model sets marketed pretty much…
ACLU: Know Your Rights - Transgender People and the Law
http://www.aclu.org/hiv-aids_lgbt-rights/know-your-rights-transgender-people-and-lawHRC: Finding Insurance for Transgender Related Healthcare
http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/finding-insurance-for-transgender-related-healthcare
(note: read this carefully and you’ll notice the requirements are extremely restrictive and most insurance has a specific exclusion for it)HRC: Transgender People and Marriage
http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/transgender-people-and-marriage-the-importance-of-legal-planningCalifornia Transgender Law 101
http://www.transgenderlawcenter.org/pdf/ca_trans_law_101_overview.pdf
chukwumaonyeije: @CraigJCasey Everyone is NOT entitled to the best car. You get what you can afford. but EVERYONE IS entitled to the best healthcare.
Original Tweet: http://twitter.com/chukwumaonyeije/status/141850400633532416
Sent via TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com)
![collaborativecare:
When will healthcare have its “Occupy Wall Street” moment?
In order to answer this question, let me first define what the occupy wall street movement is about. According to ABC News:
“Their [Occupy Wall Street] causes include everything from global warming to gas prices to corporate greed, and the Occupy Wall Street website says organizers took their inspiration in part from the so-called Arab Spring demonstrations that have tried to bring democracy across the Arab world.
But while their message might be a tad muddled, all are united by their anger over what they say is a broken system, a system that serves the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the rest.
Protester Brendan Burke insists he and the others are fighting for more than 99 percent of the American population.”
Let me highlight one section from above:
“…all are united by their anger over what they say is a broken system…”
Would anyone argue that healthcare is not broken? At the heart of this brokenness lies fragmentation that perpetuates this brokenness.
Those of you who have looked this blog before know that I like to talk a lot about integrating mental health and primary care. No doubt this is a solution to the problem of fragmentation, but I digress.
What I want to know is why the public is not more outraged at the broken healthcare system?
While healthcare costs continue to grow uncontrollably, the public continues to suffer. In the face of this suffering, there does not appear to be much relief. Thankfully, the Affordable Care Act does try to mitigate some of these issues (especially cost), but is this sufficient without adequate community “outrage” over healthcare?
As Gawande has written - “In every industrialized nation, the movement to reform health care has begun with stories about cruelty.”
Not to be overly melodramatic here, but one needs look no further than “mental health” to see how the system has often failed folks who have this as their presenting problem. Not to imply that this is cruelty, but when one starts to cite statistics about mortality in the severely mentally ill, there should be some outrage.
There should be a demand from across the community that healthcare should be high quality, affordable and integrated as to avoid fragmentation. Yet where is the demand?
Maybe healthcare has not had it’s “Wall Street” moment because there is no one place the national community can gather to express their outrage. Yes, we advocate in our own unique ways - write letters to our legislators, visit them and on speak up in town hall meetings, but is this sufficient? Even if we had a special street corner to meet to talk about healthcare, would we?
How can we begin to engage the community so that healthcare can have its “Occupy Wall Street” moment? Or, as the Occupy Wall Street movement has shown, where are the select individuals who will rise up and fight for “the 99%”?
Isn’t it time?
Maybe soon seen we will start to see the beginning of an Occupy Healthcare movement.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsi95kOoqB1qirev6o1_500.jpg)
When will healthcare have its “Occupy Wall Street” moment?
In order to answer this question, let me first define what the occupy wall street movement is about. According to ABC News:
“Their [Occupy Wall Street] causes include everything from global warming to gas prices to corporate greed, and the Occupy Wall Street website says organizers took their inspiration in part from the so-called Arab Spring demonstrations that have tried to bring democracy across the Arab world.
But while their message might be a tad muddled, all are united by their anger over what they say is a broken system, a system that serves the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the rest.
Protester Brendan Burke insists he and the others are fighting for more than 99 percent of the American population.”
Let me highlight one section from above:
“…all are united by their anger over what they say is a broken system…”
Would anyone argue that healthcare is not broken? At the heart of this brokenness lies fragmentation that perpetuates this brokenness.
Those of you who have looked this blog before know that I like to talk a lot about integrating mental health and primary care. No doubt this is a solution to the problem of fragmentation, but I digress.
What I want to know is why the public is not more outraged at the broken healthcare system?
While healthcare costs continue to grow uncontrollably, the public continues to suffer. In the face of this suffering, there does not appear to be much relief. Thankfully, the Affordable Care Act does try to mitigate some of these issues (especially cost), but is this sufficient without adequate community “outrage” over healthcare?
As Gawande has written - “In every industrialized nation, the movement to reform health care has begun with stories about cruelty.”
Not to be overly melodramatic here, but one needs look no further than “mental health” to see how the system has often failed folks who have this as their presenting problem. Not to imply that this is cruelty, but when one starts to cite statistics about mortality in the severely mentally ill, there should be some outrage.
There should be a demand from across the community that healthcare should be high quality, affordable and integrated as to avoid fragmentation. Yet where is the demand?
Maybe healthcare has not had it’s “Wall Street” moment because there is no one place the national community can gather to express their outrage. Yes, we advocate in our own unique ways - write letters to our legislators, visit them and on speak up in town hall meetings, but is this sufficient? Even if we had a special street corner to meet to talk about healthcare, would we?
How can we begin to engage the community so that healthcare can have its “Occupy Wall Street” moment? Or, as the Occupy Wall Street movement has shown, where are the select individuals who will rise up and fight for “the 99%”?
Isn’t it time?
Maybe soon seen we will start to see the beginning of an Occupy Healthcare movement.
I am 30 years old.
I am hearing impaired.
I work full time earning a measly hourly wage while I attempt to finish my college degree.
This semester I could not afford to return to school.
My health benefits do not cover hearing aids.
My hearing aid is old and broken.
After rent and utilities this month, I have $20 to last me until my next paycheck in two weeks.
I have no groceries.
I work hard and I am not lazy.
I may never know what it’s like to be financially secure and not have to decide what’s more important: My rent or a new hearing aid??
I am the 99%
occupywallst.org
For one to be a revolutionary doctor or to be a revolutionary at all, there must first be a revolution. Isolated individual endeavour, for all its purity of ideals, is of no use, and the desire to sacrifice an entire lifetime to the noblest of ideals serves no purpose if one works alone, solitarily, in some corner of America, fighting against adverse governments and social conditions which prevent progress.
When we talk about fixing healthcare, it is common to focus on the healthcare system in America. Whether it’s because it is natural to try to solve the problems that are right in front of us, or because the inequalities of the American healthcare system are so great, we tend to think our problems are isolated from the issues facing the rest of the world.
They’re not. To fix the American healthcare system, we have to work together to create a healthcare system that works for all of us. We can’t talk about creating a healthcare system that works for everyone while wars are raging often impacting hospitals, the IMF prevents public health funding, and our drug companies profit from selling expensive drugs while contributing little to prevention efforts. These aren’t characteristics of a country that is ready for a better healthcare system, particularly if it comes at the cost of less wealthy nations.
When we’re ready to take on the problem of creating a better healthcare system for all of us, we face a daunting task. It’s not simply a matter of everyone having access to the necessary medical care and drugs. It is vital that we take into account the social determinants of health, which take include the social aspects of health which are not controlled by an individual. At the recent WHO conference on Social Determinants of Health, a group of public health advocates rejected the proposed statement in favor of a more comprehensive one which addresses the root causes of health inequality. From their response: “Protecting the Right to Health through action on the Social Determinants of Health: A Declaration by Public Interest Civil Society Organisations and Social Movements” (PDF):
1. Implement equity-based social protection systems and maintain and develop effective publicly provided and publicly financed health systems that address the social, economic, environmental and behavioral determinants of health with a particular focus on reducing health inequities.
2. Use progressive taxation, wealth taxes and the elimination of tax evasion to finance action on the social determinants of health.
3. Recognise explicitly the clout of finance capital, its dominance of the global economy, and the origins and consequences of its periodic collapses.
4. Implement appropriate international tax mechanisms to control global speculation and eliminate tax havens.
5. Use health impact assessments to document the ways in which unregulated and unaccountable transnational corporations and financial institutions constitute barriers to Health for All.
6. Recognise explicitly the ways in which the current structures of global trade regulation shape health inequalities and deny the right to health.
7. Reconceptualise aid for health from high income countries as an international obligation and reparation legitimately owed to developing countries under basic human rights principles.
8. Enhance democratic and transparent decision-making and accountability at all levels of governance.
9. Develop and adopt a code of conduct in relation to the management of institutional conflicts of interest in global health decision making.
10. Establish, promote and resource participatory and action oriented monitoring systems that provide disaggregated data on a range of social stratifiers as they relate to health outcomes.
These are the types of radical changes needed to create a healthcare system that works for all of us. We need to bring healthcare, and healthy living, within reach of everyone. In a society as advanced as ours, healthcare should be a human right. Not just for me. Not just for America.
Healthcare should be a human right- for all humanity. Will you work to help create a global health revolution?
I’m glad everyone likes our poster campaign :)
One of the reasons I don’t like Halloween- Racist Costumes
There’s more:
Students Teaching About Racism in Society is a Student Org at Ohio University. I’m the President, any questions… MESSAGE ME! :)
Creepy Concept For Real Skin Human Body Stiletto Heel Implants
Well there’s a new revenue stream for all of my plastic surgeon friends.
Bizarre…
Vintage robocop from 1924 is even more scary than the 1980’s version.
Yikes!
About me
Where technology, health, and justice meet. I fight for the users
