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.

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

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

Deprived of own freedom Binayak Sen wins global rights award

PRESS RELEASE 23 APRIL 2008

COMMITTEE FOR THE RELEASE OF DR BINAYAK SEN, NEW DELHI

Jailed pediatrician, humanitarian worker and civil rights activist Dr Binayak Sen  has become the first South Asian ever to win the prestigious 2008 Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights.

The Global Health Council  (www.globalhealth.org) is the world’s largest membership alliance of public health organizations and professionals working to improve health and save lives among the poor. The Council serves and represents public health organizations and professionals working in more than 140 countries on six continents.

Keeping in view Dr Sen’s current status as a prisoner of conscience, the Global Health Council, along with other international health organisations has  requested Indian authorities to find the means to allow Dr Sen to receive his award in person in Washington, DC on May 29th, 2008, at the 35th Annual International Conference on Global Health.
In a letter to the President of India, the Prime Minister of India, and the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Dr. Nils Dulaire, President of the Global Health Council, has written:
“ We wish to be clear: it is not our intent to interfere with the judicial process. We simply request that this doctor’s good works and highly regarded reputation as a man of science and service, and his international following, serve as guarantee of his obligation to return to India to participate in a just and fair judicial process after the awards ceremony, if his case is not resolved sooner.

The world is watching this case. Some have expressed concern that it might represent a dwindling respect for civil liberties in India. We believe, however, that allowing Dr. Sen to attend the award’s ceremony would send a strong signal internationally that would help to restore faith that India and its states are indeed committed to fairly addressing this and other cases related to civil conflicts and civil liberties.  Dr. Binayak Sen’s travel to the United States for this purpose would pose no threat to the security of Chhattisgarh or the integrity of the Indian judicial system.

Please consider finding the means to allow him to receive his award in person.”

FREE BINAYAK SEN MEDICAL CAMP IN DELHI

PRESS RELEASE, 16 March 2008

Over 125 men, women and children attended the first Free Binayak Sen Medical Camp held in the Jai Hind basti, a colony of ragpickers and domestic workers in New Delhi.

They were treated for ailments ranging from anemia and urinary tract infections among women to respiratory infections and vitamin deficiencies among children. Free medicines were handed out to patients and there are plans to train local youth in paramedical work and take up regular community health activities in the colony.

The camp was organized by the Sajha Manch and Bal Vikas Dhara as part of a nationwide initiative for the release of popular health and human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen. Dr Sen was controversially arrested in May last year on false grounds of having links with Maoists in Chattisgarh and is currently lodged in Raipur jail.

“Most of the problems among the people treated are related to poor nutrition and low quality of water” said Dr Amod, one of the doctors volunteering his services for the camp.

The menfolk in the Jai Hind colony, which has over 1500 families mostly migrants from Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, work as ragpickers bring the garbage from nearby residential areas for sorting back to their homes. This contributes to the lack of unhygienic conditions in the area.

While local organizations, like Bal Vikas Dhara, have over the years organized the community and wrested major concessions from the local municipality such as free provision of drinking water, health check ups and vaccination for children there are many problems that remain. For example there are no toilets for this large community of over 10,000 people, no electricity connections and also no supply of rations from the public distribution system.

“We are taking up these issues one by one with the authorities but still there is a lot of discrimination against rag pickers” says Subal, an organizer with Bal Vikas Dhara.

The entire colony is located on private land, controlled by some kind of land mafia that rents it out to waste contractors who are the ones who own all the houses in which the ragpickers live. Each ragpicker gets a house and a bicycle free from different contractors in return for which they have to sell (at low prices) the waste they collect every day.

The initiative, of holding monthly Free Binayak Sen Medical Camps for the urban and rural poor, in cities and towns around the country – is meant to raise public awareness about Dr Sen’s detention under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and call for his unconditional release.

The camps are also part of an effort to take forward Dr Sen’s innovative public health work to new areas and highlight the issues of nutrition, child health and the link between socio-economic rights and health. India has one of the worst health indicators in the world, even lower than that of sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in the areas of infant and maternal mortality.

Other camps are planned for March in Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore and Kolkata.

For further information contact:
Dunu Roy, New Delhi qadeeroy@vsnl.com Ph: 9910687627
Satya Sivaraman, New Delhi satyasagar@gmail.com Ph: 9818514952
Dr Rakhal Gaitonde, Chennai subharakhal@gmail.com Ph: 9940246089
Dr Punyabrata Gun, Kolkata shramajibiswasthya@yahoo.co.in Ph: 9830922194
Dr N.Devadasan, Bangalore mail@phindia.org Ph: 080-26645232

TAKE DR BINAYAK SEN’S MISSION FORWARD!

On 14th May 2007 when the Chattisgarh police arrested reputed public
health and civil rights activist Dr Binayak Sen they threw into prison
along with him all of Indian Democracy itself.
Detained under the draconian ‘Unlawful Activities Prevention Act’ on
false charges of being a ‘Naxal’, slandered in the media, denied bail
by the Supreme Court, Dr Sen’s case stands as a challenge to every
Indian who aspires for a humane, democratic and civilized India. If
this is the treatment meted out to the Vice-President of a national
civil rights organization and a doctor of international reputation,
who has dedicated three decades of his life to work among the rural
poor and tribals, it can very well be imagined what more ordinary
citizens are undergoing all over the country.
Right now as we write Dr Sen continues to be in jail and hearings of
the case against him in the Chattisgarh High Court have commenced.
While the future course of the trial cannot be fully predicted, going
by past experience, it could be several years before even a judgment
of sorts will be delivered. In the meanwhile Dr Sen, who has already
lost 15 kilos in just ten months of imprisonment and is in poor
health, will continue to languish in jail- robbed of his freedom for
the sole crime of working with the poor and defending democratic
rights.
However, given the vague provisions of the law under which Dr Sen has
been arrested as also the deliberate delays in the legal process it is
difficult to envisage how his release can be achieved without a
national level social and political movement.
There is an urgent need now to carry forward the mission that Dr Sen
has dedicated his life to – namely public health work among the poor
and civil liberties activism on behalf of the powerless. The message
that we, the people of India, need to send to those who are willfully
throttling Indian democracy must be – ‘if you arrest one Dr Sen we
will make sure there are many more like him to take his mission
forward’.
It is with this objective it is proposed to hold regular medical camps
and public health campaigns across India, starting modestly with one
camp in the last week of every month in six or seven cities and towns.
The camps will be organized by groups working with urban poor
communities in various parts of India together with concerned medical
professionals who are interested in both Dr Sen’s release as well as
the cause of public health in general.
These camps and campaigns will over course of time highlight the work
done by Dr Sen, particularly in the area of nutrition and the link
between socio-economic rights and health.
We appeal to all who wish to work for a more democratic, just and
healthier India to come forward and contribute to these campaigns in
whatever way they can.

JNUSU organises Dr Binayak Sen medical camp

Tribune News Service
Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) held a free medical camp for the daily contract workers on the university campus on Friday.

More than 250 workers and their families were treated at the medical camp, which was put up with the help of doctors and research scholars from the Center for Social Medicine and Community Health. Four workers were referred to AIIMS.

“Through this camp JNUSU is striving to ensure rights and facilities, so far denied to large number of daily wage workers,” said Sandeep, president, JNUSU. According to the doctors, most of the diseases were work related skin problems. Chest and breathing problems were also noticed.

“The medical camp was held as part of countrywide efforts to ensure the release of people’s doctor and PUCL vice-president Binayak Sen’s release,” said Sandeep, president, JNUSU. “Binayak Sen is presently incarcerated and was earlier a part of the faculty of the CSMCH.”

Binayak was arrested from Chhattisgarh on May14, 2007 under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

“JNUSU plans to continue with the efforts and do follow up camps in next week, once the medicines are organised,” said Sandeep.

Health insurance: What co-payments do to care seekers

There is considerable literature on the effects on health-seeking behaviour, of the lack of health insurance, insufficient cover and co-payments.

Here is another piece of evidence on the effects of co-payments on care seekers.

Health insurance co-payments deter mammography use

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — When faced with even a modest health insurance co-payment for a mammogram, significantly fewer women receive these potentially life-saving breast cancer screenings, according to a new study by Brown University and Harvard Medical School researchers.

In this large-scale investigation of the relationship between health insurance co-payments and mammography rates, researchers found that screening rates were 8 per cent lower among women with a co-payment than among women with full insurance coverage. Researchers at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, with a colleague from Harvard Medical School, publish their results in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

“The message is simple and it’s startling – a small co-payment for a mammogram can lead to a sharp decrease in breast cancer screening rates,” said Amal Trivedi, M.D., lead author of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Community Health at Alpert Medical School. “Co-payments as low as $12 deter women from getting mammograms. Because mammograms are critical in the fight against breast cancer, the most common cancer among American women, our findings have important health policy implications.”

“Eliminating co-payments for mammograms in the Medicare program has the potential to save lives, because screening detects breast cancers at an earlier, more curable stage,” said John Ayanian, M.D., study co-author and professor of medicine and health care policy at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. 

In my opinion, the impact of current policies on Indians, who are increasingly being cast into uncharted waters under the guise of giving them better healthcare through for-profit insurance companies, could be grave. Even hospital facilities created out of taxes are being converted into “pay wards” making a mockery of the principle of universal health care.

Recently, the Union Health Minister, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss praised the performance of a private sector-led effort at health insurance in Andhra Pradesh (in a private but recorded talk at The Hindu in Chennai). I wonder what the evidence is to show that things are working fine in AP, that it is better than tax-funded care and that it is something that is good for everyone. One can only shudder at the profit-seeking neo-liberal winds that are blowing relentlessly across the country.

GA

Vigil calls for universal health care

By Ellen Catalinotto

Washington, D.C.

Published Oct 4, 2007 1:14 AM

A vigil in memory of those who have died due to denial of health care was held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at sunset on Sept. 28. Vigils were also held in Chicago, Kansas City, Mo., and Louisville, Ky.

SiCKO cast members carry health care banner Sept. 29. WW photo: Deirdre Griswold

Members of the cast of Michael Moore’s movie “SiCKO” organized the vigils as part of a campaign for universal, single-payer health care. Donna Smith opened the one in D.C., calling for just and compassionate health care for all as part of the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke from the same steps to denounce racism many years ago.