The Hindu supports free, universal healthcare access

The Hindu carried a leader on April 6, calling upon people to press for comprehensive free, universal access to healthcare. Read it in full here.

At a time when the strong winds of neo-liberal policies is sweeping the health care sector along with others, such a call helps the public focus its attention on an area of great importance.

There were two letters published on April 7 in The Hindu. One of them said, “The editorial “Financing health (April 6)” should serve as an eye-opener to both the Congress and the BJP, which are duping the electorate by promising vote-catching sops…” (although the writer was poorly informed and therefore critical of free rice and wheat to BPL families).  Such comments only demonstrate the failure of the public to make the connection between food access, adequate nutrition and health.

On April 3, The Hindu carried an editorial highlighting the potential of using free and open source software in creating electronic health records, which would help map disease burdens accurately, and help share data across vast spaces and areas of expertise.

Ethics dilemmas at Harvard Medical School

The Hindu recently carried an article on ethics issues involving faculty at Harvard Medical School.  The question of keeping clear distance from the pharmaceutical lobby is discussed.

Dr. Binayak Sen’s New Year Message from Jail

My warmest greetings to all friends in the MFC, and best wishes for 2009.

As an Indian child of parents from the territory that is now Bangladesh, displacement was a lived reality for me  from my childhood, as it was  for millions of other children of my generation. But then, in so many ways, the history of the last 500 years (1492 is a useful reference date), is the history of successive waves of displacement- either as displacement from as in the case of the native Americans, or displacement to, as in the case of slave labour from Africa or India.  A particularly gruesome episode is being played out before our eyes in Palestine. The NBA brought the issue of displacement into the mainstream of Indian public discourse. In Chhattisgarh, seasonal migration provides an example of large scale displacement, and a particularly iconic experience was watching a young migrant mother lying on the floor of a train while her  baby slowly dehydrated  from gastroenteritis. The Salwa Judum in Bastar has displaced huge numbers of people at gunpoint, and over 100,000 people have been pushed over the border into Andhra Pradesh.

In China today, 100 million people are in the process of being displaced by the Three gorges dam and other projects. As usual, in India, we go one better. The redoubtable Prof Swaminathan has chaired a committee that has concluded that Indian agriculture can accommodate at most a third of its population in agriculture, as opposed to half as at present.. The difference is a small matter of 200 million people.

Displacement is about the sequestration of privileged access to resources and need not always involve a geographical reference. Thus, the chronic nutritional deprivation from which half our children and a third of our adults suffer can be regarded as a special form of displacement. What displacement invariably does entail is the ruthless cutting  short of the micro evolutionary process involved in any instance of  eco adaptation, involving chemical or physical factors as in Bhopal, or the social environment as in south Bastar.

That’s enough. Too bad I can’t take part. All the best for your deliberations. Choose your politics before your politics chooses you.

Paul Krugman on Sanjay Gupta

Those who saw America’s far right collectively gasp and panic when Michael Moore unleashed “Sicko” on the profiteering Health Management Organisations, corporate hospitals and pharmaceutical companies will no doubt remember CNN’s attempt to rubbish the documentary. Leading that charge on behalf of the network was Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Here is economist Paul Krugman, a keen analyst of America’s health crisis, on the appointment of Sanjay Gupta as the US Surgeon-General. Krugman makes clear that he deplores the way Gupta went about that particular assignment.

Meanwhile, those who have not watched “Sicko” should do so at the earliest. Please arrange screenings for family and friends. It will serve as a kind of weather warning for Indians who are rushing into a health insurance storm, which is bound to be far worse than what has struck America.

US health insurance weaknesses unravel further

It is now also revealed that the US health insurance industry has been charging women taking out individual policies several hundred dollars more than men annually, for the same age and cover. This report in the New York Times makes the situation clear.

Earlier, NYT ran an editorial analysing the proposals of both John McCain and Barack Obama, and found the Democratic nominee’s ideas to hold greater potential.

One of the key points emerging from the debate is that individuals who must transact privately with insurers (as against being covered by employer-paid policies) are at a serious disadvantage. This must be considered against the background of a declining economy at least in the short term, which means more people will be out of jobs and forced to protect themselves and their families with individual policies — if they can afford them.

India is also embracing private health insurance thoughtlessly, and choking off funds that should go to expand state-funded tertiary care, and health-building activities at a fundamental level. The Tamil Nadu Government recently entered into an agreement with a private insurer for its employees. There are no media reports on the outcome of this arrangement. Union Minister A. Ramadoss told a group of journalists recently that private insurance was working well in Andhra Pradesh.

There seems to be poor focus on the state of the general population in the country. Most employees in India are either in the unorganised or private sectors, and hence dependent on the state or ESI system. The channeling of funds to for-profit private insurers by Governments will further erode investment in expansion of the state and labour-oriented systems.

/ga

Health insurance: Socialistic influences in US

Although international issues appeared to be paramount in the early phase of the US Presidential race, the collapse of the American financial greats has turned attention to bread and butter issues, including healthcare.

Paul Krugman’s concise and clear analysis of the positions taken by the nominees, Barack Obama and John McCain points to the enfeebling health effects of private sector health insurance. Read it here. It has now become clear that US Health Insurance companies will refuse cover to those with pre-existing illnesses, and the McCain camp wants to strengthen their hands by slashing protections available under employer-funded insurance. Obama is clearly on the side of a stronger state-supported system, and very importantly, against weakening the already weak system in America.

Predictably, the Wall Street Journal came out on the side of the insurance companies in this Op-Ed. A glance at the public discussion on the WSJ position (at the end of the same article), shows that the public is fiercely against McCain and his debilitating proposals. The sleight of hand of the Republican camp is exposed by the nominee’s proposal to provide tax credits (that won’t pay in full for a family’s private insurance, requiring out-of-pocket expense) but removing incentives for employer-funded health insurance. Even worse, it will shrink the scope of state-insured medical care which is available for emergencies and those over 65. When this is achieved, the insurance companies can set even stricter terms for individuals (who cannot get insurance from their employers) or simply refuse insurance! 

The message from all this should come through clearly for the myopic Indian middle classes, who are clamouring for corporatised healthcare and private health insurance, as if that will solve all the problems of our admittedly poor health care delivery system. It should also lead to a review of the working of the entire health insurance industry in India by the UPA, if it aspires for another term.  Of course, the supreme tragedy is that the UPA Government of Manmohan Singh has a Health Minister who is a votary of private health insurance and for-profit health care. 

/ga

Barrio Adentro As Seen from the Perspective of a U.S. Health Professional

August 7th 2008, by Dr. B. Padma

[http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3701]

The process of change that is being brought about in Venezuela and its positive results in the social area, supported by international organizations is becoming a constant motive for study in academic circles in the United States. The health mission Barrio Adentro (Inside the Barrio) is one of the areas of greatest interest.

This interest brought Dr. B. Padma, a doctor from Boston, specialized in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism, University Professor, and member of the American Association of Endocrinology to travel to Caracas last month to gain firsthand knowledge of Mission Barrio Adentro.

Right to Healthcare in India

A Fund-starved healthcare system is the result of a lack of will on the government’s part. This despite the UPA government’s promise to provide two to three percent of GDP to public healthcare. Ravi Duggal reminds the powers-that-be of broken promises. Excerpts from a study:

To establish right to healthcare certain first essential steps will be compulsory:

• Equating directive principles with fundamental rights through a constitutional amendment
• Incorporating a National Health Act (similar to Canada Health Act for example) which will organise the present healthcare system under a common umbrella organisation as a public-private mix governed by an autonomous national health authority which will also be responsible for bringing together all resources under a single-payer mechanism
• Generating a political commitment through consensus building on right to healthcare in civil society
• Development of a strategy for pooling all financial resources deployed in the health sector
• Redistribution of existing health resources, public and private, on the basis of standard norms (these would have to be specified) to assure physical (location) equity.

Ilina Sen speech for Binayak Sen’s award highlights India’s food, nutrition inequities

“In India, nutrition surveys of the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau have shown that over 33 % of the population have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of less than 18.5, considered to be the minimum level for less than starvation standards. Translated to demography, this means that over 400 million people are exposed to near starvation conditions. To add to this catastrophic situation, we are confronted now with a new set of crises. Between 1990 and 2005, the daily per capita availability of foodgrains has fallen from 510 grams to 438. World food prices have risen, and the concentration of land ownership in a few hands has intensified.”

– Acceptance Speech for Jonathan Mann Award: Ilina Sen, Awards Banquet of the Global Health Council,
Washington, DC, May 29, 2008.

Campaign to free Binayak Sen: Chennai events on May 29

 

Through
ATTAM, PATTAM and KUTHU,
Artist for Human Rights,

voice against
THE UNJUST DETENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

When: 29th may, 2008, 6 pm
Where: Chandralekha Center (junction of 5th avenue and 6th avenue)
No. 1, Elliots Beach road, Besant Nagar, ch-90
 
Performances by:
Chennai Kalai Kuzhu, Kanchi Makkal Mandram, Pudhiya Thor.
Dr. Binayak Sen is being conferred the prestigious Johnathan Mann award on the 29th of May for his dedicated service in providing medical care to indigenous people of chattisgarh and his committed struggle against Human Rights violations. But Dr. Sen would not be personally receiving the award because the STATE has IMPRISONED HIM.
The government of Chattisgarh has imprisoned human rights defenders like Binayak Sen and Ajay T.G and others for voicing against the government sponsored armed militias and the serious violations of human rights in the state. Human Rights defenders across the country have been targets of the STATE and are being imprisoned under draconian laws that allow for detention without trial. It is imperative that we raise our voices against the state of human rights in our country.
 Let us on the 29th of may join together
·        To celebrate the conferring of the award on Dr. Binayak Sen
·        Voice against the violation of human rights by the STATE.
·  Demand the immediate release of Dr. Binayak Sen and other Human rights activist who are unjustly incarcerated.
 For further information contact Rakhal 9940246089, Venkat: 9884706531
CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE FOR THE RELEASE OF Dr. BINAYAK SEN