Health care « Anne Michaud

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We need better involuntary commitment rules for mentally ill

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

Tomorrow will mark three weeks since the Newtown, Conn., school massacre. The wretchedness of that day has touched off a national debate about preventing mass murders — as it should. But lately the conversation has narrowed to gun control.

In a year-end interview, responding to a question about the political fights ahead, President Barack Obama voiced his support for banning assault rifles and high-capacity clips, and for better background checks for gun buyers. What I didn’t hear from the president was a vow to strengthen our mental health system to treat people like Adam Lanza before they descend into madness. Whatever Lanza’s technical diagnosis — schizophrenia? — executing two classrooms of first-graders is by definition mad.

Gun control is easier to discuss, because there is an identifiable, organized opposition in the National Rifle Association. But mental illness is harder to recognize, reach and heal. (more…)

Tags: Barack Obama, Family, Mental illness, Middle Class, parenting, Youth
Posted in Children, Domestic violence, Family, Health care, Mental illness, President, Social problems, Youth | Comments Off

Time for a ‘living wage’ for the middle class?

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

First published in Newsday.

With millions out of work, complaints about the decline in middle-class wages may seem misplaced. But without some shoring up, the middle class will remain dispirited — and our economy, which is 70 percent dependent on consumer spending, will remain in the dumper.

It may be that there’s a role for government to play in buttressing these eroding wages, which result not only in a declining standard of living, but also in a family life so pressure-filled that it leads to its own problems: angry homes, fast-food diets, dependence on alcohol and drugs.

Calling for any sort of government role during these tea party times can raise charges of socialism. But the idea of a wage that supports some minimum standard of living — shelter, clothing, food — has been broached on and off for more than a century. (more…)

Tags: consumerism, Family, foreclosure, job loss, Layoff culture, Middle Class, Panic, parenting, social effects, Unemployment, Work-life balance
Posted in 401(k), Budget, Children, College savings, Consumer Confidence, Culture, Economy, Education, Family, Health care, Housing, Layoff culture, Long Island life, Middle Class, Panic, Public Health, Social problems, Unemployment, job churn | Comments Off

Health bill threatens to bankrupt man

Monday, June 20th, 2011

First published in Newsday
A year ago, Tom Carlo’s back was killing him. And now it’s simply threatening to send him into bankruptcy.

Carlo, 63, has struggled for more than 40 years with back pain, since falling out of the second floor of an Air Force barracks in 1968, when his unit was under attack in Vietnam. Last spring, he was unable to sit for very long because of the pain, and he was taking drugs that were wrecking his stomach. He opted for a spinal surgery — his third — recommended by a doctor.

The surgery was supposed to lead to a cure from pain, and Carlo has found some relief. But his financial problems were just beginning. In June, his insurance carrier, CareAllies, OK’d the operation. In July, Carlo checked into Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola. In August, CareAllies reversed its decision and denied payment to the two surgeons who operated.

“When the insurance company gives you the OK, you figure, let’s do it,” Carlo said. “Two months later they told me I should have tried physical therapy or shots — well, it’s too late now.”

This is an unpredictable moment in the business of medicine, with costs soaring, the federal government rewriting rules, and insurance companies and doctors vying for some control over the inevitable changes. But people like Tom Carlo, a retired U.S. Postal Service letter carrier who drives a school bus in Garden City, shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of these tectonic shifts. He appears to be caught by an insurance carrier balking at astronomical fees from an out-of-network doctor. (more…)

Tags: Middle Class, New York, Retirees
Posted in Health care, Long Island life, Middle Class, New York, Retirees, Retirement | No Comments »