Hardly a peep about the real truth
When I wrote about the new Harvard medical School study that found 45,000 people die each year because they don’t have health insurance, I thought I would find it in all the papers this morning.
There was nothing in my hometown paper, not even a word in the New York Times as far as I could find. And nothing in the Washington Post.
Just Reuters — a British company — had the story. You can read it here :
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE58G6W520090918
As a longtime journalist, I can tell you it wasn’t hard to find the story. I had it from a source two days before it was published. That gived any competent reporter plenty of time to read it, talk to people who can analyze it and get reaction from people on both sides of the health care reform issue.
I think the reason you don’t see it is that editors are afraid of being accused of being political in the middle of the health care debate by the very people who are putting lies out there about the health care bills now under consideration.
But the truth is that a person dies every 10 minutes because he or she doesn’t have health insurance. Just like Mike did. It rips at my heart to think about all those people dying with loved ones left to grieve a life cut short.
If these were the casualties of war or a terrorist attack, we would insist on something being done. Instead, the deaths are hidden from public view so the free market can go on making a killing — once every 10 minutes, every hour of every day of every week of every month …
Patient Pals & Family Friends
Life o' Mike has a new peer support program for people newly diagnosed with chronic or serious illness or with a new disability and their caregivers.
Patient Pals are people who have experience with various illnesses and disabilities, who can help someone newly diagnosed or with a new disability work through the fear, frustration, confusion and grief often experienced in the first few months.
Family Friends are there to help caregivers and other family members grow into their new role.
People with new illness or disability fare better when they have a role model -- someone who can help them negotiate their new path in life.
We need volunteers, who are asked to donate a minimum of one hour a week. Training is free and includes information on active listening, ways to help and when to know more help is needed.
And of course, we need funding.
To learn more, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712 or e-mail lifeomike@gmail.com.
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