| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| 2005 January 12 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 8 Number 21 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| State of the World 2005 |
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Adapted from a piece by Mikhail S. Gorbachev, now the chairman of Green Cross International:
Five years ago, all 191 United Nations member states pledged to meet eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015, including eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and ensuring environmental sustainability. These critical challenges were reaffirmed by health officials from across the globe in October 2004 at the tenth anniversary of the landmark International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo. The overarching conclusion from this 2004 meeting was that while considerable, albeit erratic, progress was indeed being made in many areas, any optimism must be tempered with the realization that gains in overall global socioeconomic development, security, and sustainability do not reflect the reality on the ground in many parts of the world. Poverty continues to undermine progress in many areas. Diseases such as HIV/AIDS are on the rise, creating public health time bombs in numerous countries. In the last five years, some 20 million children have died of preventable waterborne diseases, and hundreds of millions of people continue to live with the daily misery and squalor associated with the lack of clean drinking water and adequate sanitation. Humankind has a unique opportunity to make the 21st century one of peace and security. Yet the many possibilities opened up to us by the end of the cold war appear to have been partially squandered already. I believe that today the world faces three interrelated challenges:
Source: State of the World 2005 |
| For Psychotherapy, Choose a Charity and Volunteer |
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In Connecticut you can barter four hours of volunteer work in a soup kitchen for a private hour of therapy with a psychologist, courtesy of a group known as Volunteers in Psychotherapy or VIP. Or you could help out in a hospital,
a museum, a shelter, a library or any charity you choose so long as it is recognized as a legitimate, nonprofit organization. The going rate for psychotherapy in the Hartford area is around $100 an hour.
VIP was founded in 1999 by four psychologists and two nonprofit specialists to make psychotherapy truly private and available to anyone who needs it, according to Dr. Richard Shulman, one of the founders and the current director of VIP. Dr. Shulman notes also that "giving something as a volunteer is a form of therapy in itself." The founders were motivated by the conviction that the treatment offered by their profession and the rules of health insurers are a bad mix. After a decade at a Hartford clinic, Dr. Shulman had become increasingly concerned that managed care and its financial pressures were severely cutting into the private therapy the clinic was providing. "People were shifted into short-term group therapies, and pills were overemphasized," said Dr. Shulman, who has a private practice but devotes more than 30 hours a week to VIP. He was especially troubled by the rejection of two young women who said they had been sexually abused as children and were seeking therapy. "Managed care wouldn't pay for such 'unfocused' or 'exploratory' therapy discussions," Dr. Shulman said. When therapy is approved, "insurers require doctors to send detailed reports about the therapy and the private life of the client every three to six sessions," Dr. Shulman said. This doesn't happen to patients with physical ailments, and Dr. Shulman said he sees it as a way for insurers to discourage payments for therapy. Some VIP clients need many hours of therapy. Others require only two or three sessions, which is the number usually sanctioned by insurers before the therapist is, according to Dr. Shulman, "pressed to provide pills and not therapy." "We shrinks are ultimately responsible for this," he said. "Years ago, we fought for health insurance coverage to include the problems for which people sought psychotherapy. Many therapists and clients were happy at the prospect of a free lunch, of therapy sessions paid for by someone else. But these third-party payers -- employers, governments and insurance companies -- eventually realized he who pays the piper calls the tune." Source: New York Times |
| Vaccine Near for Diarrheal Killer |
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By this time next year, Fred Clark and Paul Offit hope to see two decades of work finally go from vision to vaccine. The two doctors -- Clark is a veterinarian and Offit is chief of infectious disease at Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania -- started working on a rotavirus vaccine in 1980.
The disease affects mostly infants, causing nonstop vomiting and diarrhea. It kills more than 600,000 children, mostly in developing countries, due to dehydration. The vaccine is given by mouth at two months, four months and six months. It just finished the final phase of trials, which were paid for by Merck & Co., involving more than 70,000 infants. The new vaccine will be different from the one sold by Wyeth in 1998, which was recalled because it was linked to a sometimes-fatal intestinal disorder. The Wyeth vaccine included a strain of the monkey rotavirus, Offit said, while the new vaccine is based on human and cow strains, which do not produce similar reactions. Clark and Offit will apply for approval this year with the Food and Drug Administration. The duo co-own the patent for the vaccine but said much of the money will go to Children's Hospital and Merck. "When we see a vaccine being given to a child, that'll really be the great moment," Offit said. Source: Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Grinch of the Year 2004 |
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More than 2,300 votes came in to Jobs for Justice's nationwide "Grinch of the Year" contest. J4J plans to deliver the award to the winner sometime this year. They hope this "honor" will draw more attention to the abuses of the "winning" mega-corporation.
Third Place: Comcast (emp. 68,000), the nation's largest cable TV and broadband Internet company, which has adopted a low road approach to its employees. Earlier this year, J4J's National Workers' Rights Board released a report documenting Comcast's widespread pattern of abuse of workers' rights and illustrating why the United States' 75 year-old labor laws need to be modernized. More: Comcast Watch Second Place: Cintas (emp. 28,000), the largest uniform provider and industrial launderer in the nation. Its workers have been injured and killed on the job as a result of illegal and unsafe working conditions -- over 100 violations. Workers have routinely been disciplined or fired after reporting their injuries or filing workers compensation claims -- a serious violation of workers' rights. Despite lucrative profits, Cintas has shifted so much of the health-insurance cost burden onto its employees that many of the employees -- who often report being paid below the poverty line -- get pushed out from under health coverage altogether. More: Uniform Justice First Place: Wal-Mart (emp. 1,300,000), the largest retailer and largest employer in the US. Wal-Mart is a driving force in setting wage standards wherever its stores are located. Despite nearly $9 billion in profits, its wages are so low that many of its workers are eligible for food stamps. Wal-Mart has erected such high barriers to qualify for its health care benefits, that many workers are left dependent on publicly financed medical services -- a largely hidden taxpayer subsidy. A study found the state of California doling out $86 million a year in assistance just to meet Wal-Mart workers' unmet basic needs. Earlier this year, Wal-Mart admitted that it routinely locked overnight workers in its stores. Wal-Mart was also sued this year in the largest sex-discrimination case ever, filed on behalf of about 1.6 million current and former employees. More: Wal-Mart Watch Source: Grinch of the Year 2004 |
| Clearinghouse To Help Poor Get Deep Drug Discounts |
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Doctors, industry representatives, and patient advocates gathered at a Newark hospital on January 4 to mark the launch of a program to help New Jersey residents with limited incomes and without health insurance get their
prescription medicines for free or at substantial discounts. The program, called Rx4NJ, was organized by the HealthCare Institute of NJ, a trade group that represents 21 pharmaceutical and medical device companies in the state.
In 2003, the major pharmaceutical companies gave away medicines valued at $3.2 billion to more than 6 million patients nationwide, including about 29,000 in NJ. But each company has its own program and application process, and many doctors and consumers find the system confusing. The idea behind Rx4NJ is to provide, for the first time in NJ, one toll-free telephone clearinghouse where operators take calls and help patients enroll in these programs. (The number is 888-RXFORNJ.) It is designed chiefly for the working poor -- those earning no more than double the federal poverty level. Some critics have their doubts. "This industry initiative has more to do with enhancing their public image than improving public health," said Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester), who has sponsored legislation that would require drug companies to offer bigger discounts. Still, if the recent experiences of other states are any guide, this NJ initiative could be a dramatic success. In Ohio, for example, a similar program that began in April 2003 has handled more than 1.2 million phone calls, and more than 600,000 have qualified for some assistance, either from a drug company or from a government program, according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which also says that in Illinois, a similar program has prompted 200,000 calls and helped more than 10,000 consumers since it was launched in November. Source: |
| Microcredit a Heavy Lifter of the Poor |
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While Americans daily deflect offers of credit, people in the developing world crave it. Even the smallest loans can make a huge difference in places where people struggle to get by on a few dollars a day. A loan of as little as $100
can help a woman start a business that will radically improve her family's living standards. More than 50 million so-called microcredit (or microfinance, the broader
term) clients around the world have taken such loans, typically from enterprises that have stepped in where traditional banks have stayed out -- until recently, that is.
Astounded by poor borrowers' high repayment rates in many countries, even the likes of Citibank and Deutsche Bank are getting involved. Many nations of South Asia so devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami have been models for microfinance's promise. Secretary of State Colin Powell recently promoted the notion that microfinance programs could stimulate development across the Middle East as well. The UN has proclaimed 2005 the year of microcredit. Doing well by doing good -- and packaging it in capitalist-friendly terms -- has never seemed more attractive. But trendiness shouldn't be allowed to subvert this proven development strategy. The danger is that well-meaning donors and opportunistic governments will hijack market-based microfinance programs and turn them into charitable handout schemes, thereby destroying their credibility. Nancy Barry, president of the Women's World Banking network, wonders whether the UN's designation for 2005 can make a difference: "Only if the powerbrokers get with the program and stay with it." The world's poor don't need to be feted by the UN. Far into the foreseeable future, they need access to credit. Source: LA Times |
| # LNN # Small # Hauls # |
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| Life-Net News Extras |
| Tiny State Rushes to Help Wave-Stricken |
When disaster strikes anywhere in the world, Israelis can be counted on to help. Within hours of the devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the following humanitarian missions all departed from the tiny Jewish state:
Source: HonestReporting.com |
| Urge US Senators to Keep Safety Net Intact! |
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Faced with huge budget deficits, the Bush administration is expected to send Congress a 2006 budget request that includes caps on entitlement programs for low-income Americans and cuts to funding of annually funded anti-poverty programs. The president will send his budget proposal to Congress on February 4 or 7.
Programs that provide family health care, nutrition, and early education should be enlarged and improved, not cut. Unfortunately, many advocates expect cuts, in the form of "reconciliation instructions" to various House and Senate committees, to be included in the final FY2006 budget resolution, but they hope to limit the size of cuts to various programs through work with moderate Republican senators. It is especially important that Senate moderates hear loudly from constituents who oppose any cuts to Medicaid or other programs. Take action! Contact your US senators, urge them to insist that the 2006 Senate Budget Resolution preserve programs for low-income families, and especially for the children of those families. Source: RESULTS January Action Sheet More Info: Diagram of the Budget Process |
| Most material here is adapted, not quoted. Views expressed do not |
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