BEST TO BE YOUNG AND HEALTHY IN THE USA

WHY ISN'T IT OKAY TO INSURE EVERYONE IN THE USA?

T.R. Reid presents a lowkey study of health care in five countries other than the USA. And he has a book coming out as well. But if you missed it on Frontline on TV and you are reading this, most likely you have at your fingertips the possibility to see a great hour...

PBS' Frontline had a wonderful hour on TV this week, Sick Around the World. You can watch the entire show and gain even more knowledge by clicking Sick Around the World.

Japan, England, Germany, Switzerland and Taiwan's health care systems for ALL people in their countries is explored. If you didn't see Sicko, or did see it and need some more information to think about changing the USA health care or where you live, this is a website worth some exploration. There are many resources including interviews from a representative from each of the five countries named.

At Sick Around the World Countries you can learn such things as

in England the Percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) spent on health care is 8.3 % and the average family premium is $0. It is funded by taxation. Co-payments: None for most services; some co-pays for dental care, eyeglasses and 5 percent of prescriptions. Young people and the elderly are exempt from all drug co-pays.

In Japan you can learn that Percentage of GDP spent on health care is 8% and the average family premium is $280 per month, with employers paying more than half. Co-payments: 30 percent of the cost of a procedure, but the total amount paid in a month is capped according to income. In Japan a hospital bed is nightly $10 for a 4 patient room and $90 for a private room.

In Germany, the Percentage of GDP spent on health care is 10.7% and the average family premium is $750 per month; premiums are pegged to patients' income.
Co-payments: 10 euros ($15) every three months; some patients, like pregnant women, are exempt.

What is it? Germany, like Japan, uses a social insurance model. In fact, Germany is the birthplace of social insurance, which dates back to Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. But unlike the Japanese, who get insurance from work or are assigned to a community fund, Germans are free to buy their insurance from one of more than 200 private, nonprofit "sickness funds." As in Japan, the poor receive public assistance to pay their premiums.

In Taiwan, the Percentage GDP spent on health care is 6.3% and the average family premium is $650 per year for a family for four.
Co-payments: 20 percent of the cost of drugs, up to $6.50; up to $7 for outpatient care; $1.80 for dental and traditional Chinese medicine. There are exemptions for major diseases, childbirth, preventive services, and for the poor, veterans, and children.

What is it? Taiwan adopted a "National Health Insurance" model in 1995 after studying other countries' systems. Like Japan and Germany, all citizens must have insurance, but there is only one, government-run insurer. Working people pay premiums split with their employers; others pay flat rates with government help; and some groups, like the poor and veterans, are fully subsidized. The resulting system is similar to Canada's -- and the U.S. Medicare program.

In Switzerland, the Percentage of GDP spent on health care is 11.6% and the average family premium is $750, paid entirely by consumers; there are government subsidies for low-income citizens.
Co-payments: 10 percent of the cost of services, up to $420 per year.

What is it? The Swiss system is social insurance like in Japan and Germany, voted in by a national referendum in 1994. Switzerland didn't have far to go to achieve universal coverage; 95 percent of the population already had voluntary insurance when the law was passed. All citizens are required to have coverage; those not covered were automatically assigned to a company. The government provides assistance to those who can't afford the premiums.

How does it work for Doctors in these five countries?

T. R. Reid
Reid is a former chief of The Washington Post's London, Tokyo and Rocky Mountain bureaus, and also had stints covering Congress, national politics and four presidential elections for the paper. He is the author of eight books -- three in Japanese -- most recently "The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy." Source

Questions and Answers with T.R. Reid

MOMENTS THAT DEFINE YOUR LIFE

Manet and his Daughter

When I listen to music, there is always a favorite place in the music that I love. Take Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, I especially like the 3rd movement, Adagio molto e cantabile and the 4th movements "other worldly" climax where the chorus comes in with the Ode to Joy. On any CD I have one or two favorite songs, that I play so many times that I think I'll ruin that part of the CD. I love certain scenes in movies or plays that only last a minute or two. And I am willing to sit through it all, if I need to just to get to those parts that I so adore and connect with. Or I buy the DVD and go right to that part.

And certain times and experiences in my life have the same loving hold on me. And my time in Avignon, France many years ago is such a stand-out in my life ~ that it will forever hold a special place in my heart and will share in the short list of the top best experiences of my life.

By chance or kismet, I got off the train in Avignon, France one day in the summer of 1974. And there I was in the middle of the Festival D'Avignon. And that night a stranger walked by me and asked me if I wanted to see something fantastic and I followed him inside to an outside performance of the Cuban National Ballet Company jazz dancing. It was a night that transcended limits of joy and gratitude to be a member of the human race. And that is special.

And this would never have happened if I lived my life safely and inside the "box" that I was raised to live inside. This happened to me the very first trip to Europe that I took because I was encouraged by a stranger I met on a train on Long Island who said he was a butterfly catcher. When in fact, he was a medical student at the time at Brown University. For six weeks, there I was on the best trip of my lifetime ~ by myself. When I got off the plane in Luxembourg, Luxembourg, I didn't even know where I was going next. Soon, I figured I wanted to go to Switzerland. Then every few days I decided what direction to take the train in next. In the end, I included Italy, Greece and Spain, back to Italy then headed back to the airport in Luxembourg, Luxembourg. I loved that fantastic 6 weeks of my life. The best experience! So grateful I followed Peter's advice.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik_75C1P_Ik
The Festival of Avignon, France 2007

I love my life.

Rodin

Michelangelo's David I saw in Florence or Firenze

Danaid I saw in Paris

BOYFRIENDS AND LIFE

"...Our loves are only symbols of an unknown immortality...and what is supposed to be gone and past is often more real than ever..." Cedric Wright

For the most part I find it pleasant thinking about my life. I have taken the road less traveled in terms of the family I came from. Even though my most impressionable years were in the 60's and 70's, I never inhaled. Meaning I never did any drugs of any sort. I never have been the daughter my mother wanted me to be. But it's not clear to me what it is she wants.

One of my unlived dreams is to sing in public. I have been practicing to try to overcome this. And I know my biggest obstacle is the fear that I have. Tonight just before sitting down to feed my need to write, I was playing the piano and singing and thinking about my dad. My father passed away May 10. 2007. But he always came in and sat down to listen to me sing and play the piano. Then when my mother put him in an institution the last couple years of his life, I would sing and sing for him in his room. The last thing I did was sing to him on the phone and he took his last breath at the end of that phone call. He lived in Indiana and I, in Rhode Island. So it felt like dad was there tonight enjoying the music.

In my early twenties, I moved from northern Indiana to Sturbridge, Massachusetts for my first year of teaching. My next two moves were chosen by taking out the map and finding towns along the New England coast. Leaving that one year of teaching behind and going through one personal time of transition, I connected with an old boyfriend.

Old boyfriends are fun to think about. Having kept a lot of the memorabilia, once in awhile I immerse myself in reading through old journals and letters. Nothing wrong with retouching the lessons and feelings of the past.

My second college boyfriend was a political science major and was reading Eldridge Cleaver’s book Soul on Ice back then. All people who have touched my life have left their mark. There is a part in the book where Mr. Cleaver, who is in Folsom Prison, and attorney, Beverly Axelrod, exchange letters. Deep letters. But I love deep. The letters began September 5, 1965.

E.C. writes: “I feel impelled to express myself to you extravagantly, and words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs leap in my mind. But I beat them down, refuse to write them, because it all seems so predictable and trite...What right have you to summon my soul from its slumber?......You have tossed me a lifeline. If you only knew how I’d been drowning, how I’d considered that I’d gone down for the third time long ago, how I kept thrashing around in the water simply because I still felt the impulse to fight back and the tug of a distant shore...”

B.A writes back: “...Believe this: I accept you. I know you little and I know you much, but whichever way it goes, I accept you. Your manhood comes through in a thousand ways, rare and wonderful...I have no measuring stick. I accept you...What an awesome thing it is to feel oneself on the verge of the possibility of really knowing another person. Can it ever happen? I’m not sure. I don’t know that any two people can really strip themselves that naked in front of each other. We’re so filled with fears of rejection and pretenses that we scarcely know whether we’re being fraudulent or real ourselves...”

E.C. answers back: “Your letters to me are living pieces – chunks! – of you, and are the most important things in my life...It only happens in books – or...Do you know what shameless thought just bullied its way into my consciousness? That, I deserve you, that I deserve to know you and to communicate with you...I seek a lasting relationship, something permanent in a world of change, in which all is transitory, ephemeral, and full of pain. We humans, we are too frail creatures to handle such titanic emotions and deep magnetic yearnings, strivings and impulses…

…The reason two people are reluctant to really strip themselves naked in front of each other is because in doing so they make themselves vulnerable and give enormous power over themselves one to the other. How awful, how deadly, how catastrophically they can hurt each other, wreck and ruin each other forever!...Better to maintain shallow, superficial affairs; that way the scars are not too deep, no blood is hacked from the soul. You beautifully – O, how beautifully!! – spoke...of ‘What an awesome thing it is to feel oneself on the verge of the possibility of really knowing another person...’ and...I do not believe that a beautiful relationship has to always end in carnage. I do not believe that we have to be fraudulent and pretentious,...I know that sometimes people fake on each other out of genuine motives to hold onto the object of their tenderest feelings. They see themselves as so inadequate that they feel forced to wear a mask in order to continuously impress the other. I do not want to ‘hold you’, I want you to ‘stay’ out of your own need for me. ...It takes time and deeds, and this involves trust, it involves making ourselves vulnerable to each other, to strip ourselves naked, to become sitting ducks for each other...I am vulnerable and defenseless and I make myself a duck for you. ...And it is not a fraud, forced out of desperation...”

Isn’t this beautiful?

Excerpts from love letters taken from the book SOUL ON ICE, by Eldridge Cleaver, 1965.

"What an awesome thing it is to feel oneself on the verge of the possibility of really knowing another person... and...I do not believe that a beautiful relationship has to always end in carnage. I do not believe that we have to be fraudulent and pretentious" ~ I so love this because I, too, believe pretense shortchanges us out of the life we were born to have.

Above picture of me from my first trip to Europe by myself ~ taken on the encouragement of a boyfriend! Six weeks including Luxemburg, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Spain.

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I organized the
Providence, Rhode Island
October 27, 2007 Torch Relay
as a part of the
Dream for Darfur Campaign
to pressure China to act and end the Darfur geonocide.

The culminating Torch Relay is taking place in Washington, D.C.
on International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2007.

Edwin Mutanguha has passed the torch to his brother Edward Mutanguha who is carrying the torch in the picture.

The t-shirts say I CARRY THE TORCH FOR DARFUR on the front
and STOP GENOCIDE on the back.



Left to right: Samantha Brilhante, Frankie Daponte, Sandra Hammel, Edwin Mutanguha

Call 1-800-GENOCIDE
Tell U.S. Senators to support SADA to help end the Darfur Genocide

www.dreamfordarfur.org
www.savedarfur.org
www.genocideintervention.org

Call President Bush and tell him to actually act on his words
regarding the Darfur genocide: NOT ON MY WATCH.
Talk is useless, President Bush.
His number: 202-456-1111

TENNIS SCORES. LOVE, LOVE TENNIS. NADAL WON MY HEART.

RAFA NADAL

FEDERER and NADAL

Some Great Glory Days of Tennis Are Here

I have a tennis racket and tennis balls, but my love for tennis really has nothing to do with my playing it.

I love to watch Wimbeldon every year. But this year seemed to have some really special talent to watch.

Some of the men

Roger Federer

Rafael Nadal

Marcos Baghdatis

Richard Gasquet

Novak Djokovic

Andy Roddick

Some of the women

Venus Williams

Marion Bartoli

Ana Ivanovic

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Maria Sharapova

Serena Williams

Amelie Mauresmo

Justine Henin

The Nadal and Federer Rivalry Is Extra, Extraordinary to Watch

How special to watch Roger Federer, a hummingbird on the court, and Rafael Nadal who wins my heart with his flare after he wins a point. What better arms’ biceps to pump are there?! And it’s not just in the arms, the whole body works and is in jubilation. Just love it!!

How great to watch the test of their hearts and minds while flexing their whole-game-tennis! Even the external stoicism of Federer gave way to the internal crying out “I WANTED This Win So Much!!!” All with the tears and deep emotion. Okay so Roger Federer won. I was cheering for Rafa Nadal – because of the passion I get to watch pour out of him. And that white sports jacket and the white pants of Roger Federer after the Championship Wimbledon match only needed a stylish white hat to go with it!

In all fairness, the test wasn’t all about the winner of Wimbledon... due to the rain. Federer glided through the week with barely any games when the others were grueling it out. Personally, my insignificant opinion is that Wimbledon did tennis a disservice by forcing players to play under unhealthy conditions. There should be a minimum of hours that a player has to play between matches. Novak Djokovic had to concede to Nadal Saturday which had a little to do with the rain delays jamming the matches too close together for the human body to recover between them.

Power to these terrific athletes who are a joy to watch. The strength illustrated in tennis includes power, mental toughness and heart. I don’t know why history has chosen war to beat opponents when games such as tennis are a far better platform. Killing and maiming just bears sickening spoils. Love tennis. Thanks for the fun!

Even if tennis isn’t your thing, he is fun to look at.

Some pleasure for you below.

Rafael Nadal’s website

It’s worth it for the fan-provided pictures of him alone

http://www.rafaelnadal.com/

Someone has put together some wonderful pictures of Rafa Nadal:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cbkUWF

More beautiful pictures:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yR_NoszHMAs

And more:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=iT74CQqRi7Y

Nadal plays on clay and Federer plays on grass at the same time:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KnBMVRpeKHA

http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/index.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19661409/

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STOP AND PREVENT GENOCIDE

IT'S THE HUMANE THING TO DO

"NEVER AGAIN" ARE MEANINGLESS WORDS
WITHOUT THE POLITICAL WILL

Where there is a will, there is always a way

and where there is no will, there is never a way, Mr. Bush.

www.savedarfur.org

www.genocideintervention.net
www.sudandivestment.com

www.ajws.org
www.aiusa.org

Call Mr. Bush and ask him
to live up to his words, "Not On My Watch"
202-456-1111

Democracy doesn't work without "We the People" speaking out.

Use Your Voice.

Thanks

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