Poor Americans Are Drowning: Where Are the Lifeboats? | | AlterNet
source: http://www.alternet.org/story/147109/poor_americans_are_drowning%3A_where_are_the_lifeboats
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June 4, 2010 |
Last week in New York authorities announced that at Harlem Hospital Center, the largest health facility in that historic neighborhood, doctors had failed to read 4,000 heart tests -- for three years -- and that 200 of these patients died. These were not simply routine tests, but echocardiograms, ordered when patients showed severe symptoms. That does not happen in affluent neighborhoods.
Among other reasons, heart sickness is elsewhere an enormous profit opportunity -- heart valve and bypass surgeries are a go-go business. But not for sick, poor people. Their Medicaid coverage fails to fully incentivize America's insatiable medical industrial appetite.
According to a cardiologist brought in on an emergency basis to start reading the long backlog of tests in Harlem, approximately half were abnormal and 20 to 30 percent needed immediate medical care. "This is very, very appalling," he told the New York Times.
And it's not just in Harlem.
Across the U.S., poor communities are grossly under-served: education, nutrition, housing and health care. To a large extent, this explains the chasm in life expectancy between white people and so-called minorities.
How much worse does it get? A Brandeis University study recently underscored the growing wealth divide. According to the Federal Reserve, for every dollar of wealth owned by a white family, a black or Latino family owns just 16 cents.
And as this -- the great marginalization of America marches on -- Democrats, including the president, wrestle with Republicans for smidgeon of reform. Is it anywhere close to enough?
For all the talk of Wall Street reform, and new consumer protections, and talk of alternative energy policy, the fact remains that for most people, America is a sinking ship. And minority communities are the first to be thrown over the side.
Where are the lifeboats?
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nursediesel
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The lifeboats are sitting in politicians private marinas and in warehouses the administration that is in control, at any given time, will pull out and show the voters to stroke their party...
The wealthy will still get insurance that will continue to pay for procedures...the for-free health care will never pay for what is considered risky to spend on a group of people they(the government) feel are high risk for poor health follow up anyway. - 1 year ago
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nursediesel
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nursediesel
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Doesn't surprise me because the Government run Medicaid (yes, it's government run healthcare) is very poorly run by the very government that is going to run the 'new' PelosiReidObama program....and yes, it stinks!
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nursediesel
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acontradiction [removed]
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acontradiction [removed]
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Monkey_Films
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acontradiction:
Your picture clearly shows a woman with gout. A painful, debilitating, awful disease. She should be dealt with compassion, not judgement. Your sheltered, white, middle-class life has destroyed your sensitivity to those less fortunate and you should be ashamed of what has become of your psyche.
- 1 year ago
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Monkey_Films
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acontradiction [removed]
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acontradiction [removed]
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Monkey_Films
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acontradiction:
Illegal immigrants, yes, they are a problem. But, many people, blacks, whites and others are poor through circumstances beyond their control. Yes, some abuse the welfare system and get away with it. However, most can't get the free stuff you speak of and most would like to be out of their situation and get past the indignation of accepting handouts.
Your attitude shows that racism is alive and well in this country.
- 1 year ago
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Monkey_Films
