Back to comment about health Insurance and employer based benefits.
Do you realize that the exact reason we do not have a national plan or universal to access to a universal plan is the employer based system which
1- is discriminatory ( try getting a group plan for small biz with some chronically ill employees)
2 segments the market for the benefit of , well, guess who, the insurance companies
3- reduces wages paid to employees ( everyone knows wages have not risen under bush but did you know that employer costs ( employee comepensation which counts heath insurance) has? This could have been wage increases.
4- keeps out small business and the self employed- work for the man ??? or else!
5- promotes wage slavery those who work in undesirable positions merely to obtain insurance.
6- Watch how fast a national plan or universal access would emerge if the work force was not indentured servants ( see health insurance hostages) .
The Doctor Factor
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Dr. Lois Ramondetta, a gynecologic oncologist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, met that challenge with Deborah Rose Sills, who had stage III ovarian cancer. Ramondetta was not Sills's primary doctor; she had a team of caregivers. But the two women became so close they wrote a book together, "The Light Within: The Extraordinary Friendship of a Doctor and Patient Brought Together by Cancer." The book, published last month, is a poignant account, filled with stories about children and romance, the women's views on spirituality and medicine, and tales of their travels abroad together. Ramondetta was captivated by Sills's luminous spirit and her bellowing "Good morning, Lois!" even when she had tubes coming out of her body. Sills, a professor of religion, relied on Ramondetta's straight talk, especially when her cancer recurred. When Sills asked what would happen when her body finally gave out, Ramondetta talked honestly about bowels and bloating and nausea. Toward the end, she visited Sills at home, then wrote her a letter acknowledging her dying: "I wish you peace of mind and an end to pain and suffering." Sills died in May 2006.
In cancer, the sword of Damocles hangs ever present, and compassionate doctors must learn to cope. Columbia's Fine cries during car rides home after his patients die. He goes to their funerals and gives eulogies, too. All this relieves the sadness, helps him recenter himself so he can be fully present for his patients and motivates him to work harder at finding a cure. Being engaged with patients doesn't cause burnout, says Fine. It helps prevent it. What matters most, he says, is that his work gives meaning to his mother's life: she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease when Fine was 10 and died eight years later. "The day she died, I made her a promise that I would devote my life to cancer therapy and cancer research," he says. "It's very personal for me."
Cancer is a cluster of cells run amok. Its effect on doctors and their patients is big and small all at once. One of Ramondetta's treasured gifts was a persimmon in a silver bag, given to her by a Thai patient. She has a plant named Florence—after a favorite patient who died. Dr. Judah Folkman, the groundbreaking cancer researcher who died in January, was so beloved by Tonya Kalesnik, 26, that she asked him to dance the father-daughter dance at her wedding. Kalesnik has pictures of Folkman up in her apartment and cries when she says, "He was so much more than a doctor."
Abby Gunn, 23, wants to be so much more, too. Now a clinic assistant at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Gunn plans to go to med school. Out of tragedy comes renewal: Gunn is Deborah Rose Sills's daughter. "My mom outlived all the statistics," she says. "I think the care she received had everything to do with it." It will be years before Gunn earns her white coat, but she talks about treating cancer patients like an M.D. with a soul. "It doesn't get much bigger," she says. Or more important.
© 2008
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