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Ilene Tannenbaum responds to Times article

Ilene Tannenbaum is the director of the Brooklyn College Health Clinic, and an ally to young people in the fight for our right to live healthily. She responded to the recent NY Times article on uninsured young adults, and how the unnecessary denial of their health rights is leading them into dire circumstances.
Response Below:

‘For Uninsured Young Adults, Do-It-Yourself Health Care,’ (NY Times, 2/18/09) provides yet another example demonstrating the dire need for our country to implement a national health insurance plan.
 
Unlike the young adults described in the article, the students at Brooklyn College do not have to rely on the internet or their friends for either self-diagnosis or medical treatment. The system developed and maintained since 1993 for students may in fact serve as a model for our nation, and not merely as an alternative to neglect, self-management, and too often, misguided care. Through a small contribution of only $10 per student per semester, each individual attending Brooklyn College has access to unlimited visits to a skilled practitioner in which preventive care is emphasized, and early diagnosis and intervention help avoid disease complications. While there remain some generally negligible costs for certain medications, laboratory tests and diagnostic procedures, the clinic attempts to assure that these services are available to its patients at substantially reduced rates.
 
Although the Brooklyn College Health Clinic falls far from the ideal - it cannot offer patients with alternative choices for free outpatient care, it cannot provide in-patient treatment, and budgetary limitations hamper provider availability - this imperfect model nonetheless offers evidence that a population can be served well by garnering fairly small regular and equitable assessments regardless of need or intended use. Clearly any national proposal would have to include a contribution greater than Brooklyn College students are paying, but there is no reason not to be hopeful that much can be accomplished with a modest tax-like share to help ensure this goal.

No one should have to go without access to high-quality, affordable healthcare. At Brooklyn College we have shown how it can be done.
 
Ilene Tannenbaum, NP
Director, Brooklyn College Health Clinic

Someone's listening

The Kaiser Family Foundation has created an essay contest for college students about the current economic crisis and what ought to be prioritized in amending it.  There's a pretty sweet cash prize too.
It's very nice to see a sudden interest in our opinions especially since we are constantly combating the ideology that works to dismiss our thoughts as young people, i.e. that young people are too naive, idealistic, unwise, immature, yada yada, you know the "when you get older you'll see..." bullshit.

From the website:
President Obama has stated that reforming the health care system is one of his top priorities, and there is broad interest from policymakers and the public in making a change. During the campaign, he outlined a framework for reforming health care. The essay should cover: what elements of his plan should be prioritized given the current economic crisis, what elements are most likely to garner support and which ones will be most challenging and why?
Undergraduate and graduate students will be judged separately and the winners will receive $1,000.  All essays must be submitted by March 2, 2009.



Well, health majors, science majors, political science majors, anyone with a functioning mind attending college, flex your brain muscles and get to it.

"Young Invincibles" not quite Supermen

NY Times put out an article on uninsured young adults whose physical health the State is neglecting, all the while exploiting them for their irregular work. In turn, these young people, 775,000 according to the Times, are forced to "borrow leftover prescription drugs from friends, attempt to self-diagnose ailments online, stretch their diabetes and asthma medicines for as long as possible and set their own broken bones. When emergencies strike, they rarely can afford the bills that follow."
Thank you for sharing, NY Times, but I have to point out that this isn't news to us. Us being young people. We know many of our friends are unemployed, can't find work and, as a result, either have to pay hundreds of dollars a month for a health service that gives them so much less than their money's worth, or just go without it entirely. The Times tries their best to personalize the politics. They tell the story of Alanna Boyd who spent 46 hours in an emergency room due to diverticulitis and was billed $17,398. But I ALREADY know young people who have gone to the emergency room uninsured and were billed thousands of dollars.
I do need to emphasize what a grand waste of money this is. The thought that people should pay thousands of dollars for a few hours of services is beyond exploitation.
Patterson wants to extend the age at which young people can be covered under their parent's plan to 29 years old, but that's only IF their parents are covered. What happens to young people who don't have rich parents?
Yeah, Patterson doesn't really care.

Thanks Ilene.

Minority students and Medical events and opportunities

Minority student? Thinking of going into the medical field? Check it out:

The 4th Annual Conference on the Health of the African Diaspora:
Challenges and Solutions from Medical School to Practice and Leadership
Saturday February 28, 2009
9:00AM-6:00PM

NYU Langone Medical Center
550 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Keynote Speakers:
Sidney A. McNairy Jr., Ph.D., D.Sc.
Division Director, National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health
Carolyn Barley Britton, M.D., M.S.
President, National Medical Association

Conference Themes:
Professional Advancement
Academic Leadership
Addressing Health Disparities
Transition from Residency
Choosing Specialities
Success in Medical School
Effective Mentoring

Also:

Minority Affairs Summer Research Program at Downstate Applications can now be submitted for the Office of Minority Affairs Summer Research Program at Downstate. The program is open to students who have completed the sophomore year of college or the junior year. The stipend is $3000. Applications can be obtained by going to: http://sls.downstate.edu/minority_affairs. When you open this website, type in "summer research program" in the  search box.

Abstinence-only education = denying young people information

Just in case you were wondering whether or not abstinence-only education is efficient- it isn't. Denying young people information about their bodies leads to a map that looks like this:

Yes, that does look like Bush's Texas. Red is so appropriate.

Compensation, much?

Governor of New York David Paterson unveils a plan to expand health insurance to the largest uninsured age group: young adults 19-29. Times Union breaks the story.  The expansion emerges in the wake of a proposal by the unelected governor for large scale cuts in welfare programs. He has pretty much cut through these programs like butter: nearly a billion dollars will be taken from medicaid services and over a 100 million will be denied to the City University of New York, which spends nearly all of its money on financing the education of underprivileged youth, by 2010.  Thanks? Meanwhile, most of the mainstream media is focusing on Paterson's "bald move" to cut government spending on lifestyle drugs, such as propecia, curently subsidized by NY State for elderly health care programs. Um...yeah, you show them David! Wait a second, I didn't know my EDUCATION was a lifestyle drug. Also, I didn't know propecia cost the state a billion dollars.
Nevertheless, any recognition of the right of young adults to have healthcare works for me. Especially when finding a job today is increasingly becoming impossible and many young adults are coming out of high school and college without livelihood. With this plan we very well may live to see the inside of a cubicle. How exciting.
However, knowing that he is proposing to drastically cut state spending on insurance I did have to ask: Where is this money coming from exactly? Oh yeah, our parents.
"Under Paterson's plan, insurers and employers who provide health insurance would be required to offer continued coverage to the older children of employees. For parents, providing the insurance would be optional."
Yeah, he sucks. But I'm still going to support this thing.
You can contact the assemblymen and women in NY Legislature here.