My interest in the U.S. healthcare debate wanes by the day.  And because I no longer have skin [literally] in the game, I am not angry and desperate as are many of my friends who sign petition after petition, post links and videos of hope on social networking sites, and travel to see their senators and representatives in Congress.  I am just incredulous at the absurdity of the debate and the vilification of other systems that manage to cover ALL their citizens.

I would let this issue go without comment, except that I received the following message this morning from San Francisco via email: “You have received a bill from Anthem Blue Cross for $1014.00 – ouch!” And that number – US$ 1014 – triggered  momentary outrage.

My first reaction was:  how are they trying to screw me now?  Then I realized that the number looked like 2 months of my former insurance premium.  Was there some kind of penalty for cancellation?  As it turned out, it was a false alarm – a technical error from a not-very-sophisticated bureaucracy – when I canceled my policy, thereby discontinuing monthly deductions from my credit card, the Blue Cross system automatically sent out a paper bill (but why for 2 months?).

I canceled my health insurance coverage in the U.S. on 12 October 2009.  I should have done it in August (when I qualified for the Medical Service Plan (MSP) in British Columbia and received my Care Card), but as a victim of the American healthcare system for so many years, I was scared.  Irrational thoughts of: “I’ll never get coverage again in the U.S.;” or,” I’ll have to pay an enormous amount of money to get covered” crossed my mind.  But after using the MSP for a full physical examination, blood tests, and an EKG, I developed confidence in my new coverage and severed the old.

At the time I canceled my Blue Cross coverage, I was paying US$ 507 a month in premiums (the premiums went up in March, from US$ 378 – a 34% increase!).  I believe I had a US$200 deductible, 30% co-payment for medical services and US$10 co-pay for prescription drugs.  Just before I left California this year, I took care of some basics.  I got an annual checkup (which included a pap smear), for which I paid US$ 42.50.  The labs for the pap smear cost me US$31.90.  Blood tests cost me US$66.90.  And a mammogram cost me US$ 121.98.  I also paid US$ 18.21 out of pocket for three months of prescription vitamin D because it was cheaper to buy them without applying insurance coverage.  So, my medical costs from the beginning of the year until 12 October totaled US$ 5,093.49.

In comparison, I pay C$ 48 month (based on coverage for a couple) for medical care in British Columbia.  (BC provides premium assistance for those who cannot afford the C$ 48 – if your income is less than C$ 20,000, you receive 100% subsidy.) To be fair, this does not include prescription drug coverage.  So, if you add an enhanced drug coverage plan (covering both name brand and generic drugs, including birth control and fertility drugs), which pays for 90% of your first C$ 2,220 and 100% of your next C$6,000, you would add C$ 57.90, for a total of C$ 105.90.  (Fair PharmaCare is an income-based plan that helps with prescription drugs.)  However, for C$ 114.40, not only can you get the prescription drug coverage outlined above, but excellent dental, basic vision, and a host of other coverage including Chiropractor, Osteopath, Podiatrist, Naturopath, Registered Massage Therapist, Acupuncturist, Psychologist, Speech Pathologist, Physiotherapist, Homecare and Nursing, Ambulance, Hearing Aid, Emergency Travel Health Coverage, Accidental Death and Dismemberment… and more…  So a complete package (did I mention massage therapy?) would cost you C$ 162.40 (C$ 48 plus C$ 114.40).

As I indicated earlier, I got another complete physical examination, including a pap smear, full panel of blood tests and an EKG done recently to establish health records in Canada.  Co-pay?  None.  Paperwork?  None.  All you do is present your Care Card at the beginning of your visit, and walk out at the end.

What about the difficulty in finding a family practitioner?  (There is a structural shortage of doctors in Canada – with an estimated 4 million “orphan” patients.  However, there are numerous clinics, at least in urban areas, that will serve on a walk-in basis.)  After asking for recommendations from friends, I found a doctor to take me on as a new patient in two phone calls.  (Friends impressed upon me to make sure that my family practitioner was younger than I was so that you are not left as an “orphan” when s/he retires.  By sheer luck, I chose a woman who is substantially younger than I am.  How much younger?  Let’s put it this way… she’s a size 2.) How long did it take to get an appointment?  Around 2 weeks for the initial consultation and 2 weeks for the physical.  (In the U.S., it would take me about a month to get an appointment with my primary health care provider, who is a nurse practitioner – my doctor retired to spend more time with her kids.)  And in the interest of full disclosure (or does this fall in the too-much-information category?), it will take me two months and three weeks to get a consult for a colonoscopy.  Since this is an age-based procedure in my case and not based on need, time is not an issue.  In the U.S., I would have had to wait about a month and a half to two months.

What do I think about the Canadian health care system?  It gives me peace of mind.

I almost feel as though I am in Pondicherry.  The vicarious excitement and stress of trying to keep up with the sudden barrage of media stories and activities initiated by NDTV’s coverage of “The Death of India’s Beaches” has my adrenelin pumping as I try and support our colleagues at PondyCAN.

On 28 May, 2009, Probir Banerjee, PondyCAN’s President, was interviewed by Prannoy Roy of NDTV, fulfilling a promise Roy made months before to take up the issue of coastal erosion.  Realizing the magnitude of the problem, Roy initiated a state-by-state coverage of the issue in a series called “India’s Dying Beaches.”

The first report in the series, called “Coastal Chennai Losing Homes to Sea” featured the growth of Marina Beach, south of the Port of Chennai, at the expense of the beaches north of the port – a story all too familiar to us in Pondicherry -  destruction of homes, loss of livelihoods for the coastal communities, salination of ground water and former agricultural land…

The second report, “Sea Claims Orissa Villages,” is also familiar – more villages  “gobbled up” by the sea north of the Paradeep Port, the proposed development of 11 more ports, and government officials saying there is no reason for worry:

“Wherever there is little effect, for the progress of the State, we are also taking steps and measures to  protect the people and and protect the sea-shore by plantations, by rehabilitation.” Bhagirathi Behera, Director, Environment, Orissa.

The third report, “Concrete Killing Kovalam Beach,” was new information.  Kovalam Beach is one of Kerala’s most famous beaches.  It is heart-breaking to see that in three years, illegal sand mining and construction right on the beach has caused such massive damage.  Over 65% of Kerala’s coastline (386 kilometres out of 591) is now covered with rocks instead of sand.

The fourth report, “Gujarat’s Mangroves Under Threat,” got my blood boiling all over again.  I should be used to this – the government “selling” 60 kilometres of coastline at Mundra to the Adani Group for the largest private port and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in India, effectively putting 10,000 fisherfolk out of work; the Coastal Regulation Zone, adopted in 1989, weakened by 21 ammendments; the environmental clearance authority for ports transfered from the Ministry of Environment and Forests to the Ministry of Surface Transport and Shipping…  WHAT?!?  This I can’t believe!

NDTV has also started an online petition to Save India’s Beaches.  If you haven’t  already signed, please do.  And if you are in India, you can SMS “Beach.Your Name.Your Town.” to 56388.  Please sign or SMS before this Sunday, when NDTV will conclude their series and present the signatures to government officials.

I wonder what the reports from Goa and Maharashtra will reveal…

[Note:  To see all the shows to date, please check the PondyCAN site on YouTube.]

June 7, 2009

Update:  Goonj is one of three winners in the Designing for Better Health category of the Changemakers Innovation Awards, getting US$ 5,000.  Congratulations Goonj!

***

What started out as a small initiative (“…a voice, an effort”) of a group of friends going door-to-door in their apartment complexes to collect pieces of clothing to give to the needy in the streets of New Delhi has become a social movement involving hundreds of volunteers and the distribution of over 20,000 kilograms of material in 20 states in India.  (Last year, Goonj celebrated its 10 year anniversary.)

During his visits to impoverished rural areas throughout India, Anshu Gupta, the founder and director of Goonj, came across a hidden problem facing women five days a month.  Many women did not have enough cloth in their homes to use during their menstrual cycles.  Some had to resort to using ash, straw, or sand, living with the livestock for that period of time.  Others shared the same piece of cloth which never saw the light of day to get properly cleaned and sanitized.

In 2005, Anshu started an initiative:  Not Just a Piece of Cloth, to provide sanitary napkins for women.  This initiative is up for a Changemakers Award in the Designing for Better Health category.  Please vote for Goonj.  (You will have to register in order to vote.) I have posted Anshu’s message below.

Dear friends,

GOONJ ‘s  “Cloth Sanitary Napkin” initiative is a finalist for the prestigious Changemakers Innovation Award on ‘Better Design for Health’.

Please take out two minutes & vote for GOONJ on

http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/designingforbetterhealth

Your vote will not only bring recognition for our work but GOONJ will also receive an award of $ 5000, which by all means is a big amount for us to move on…In turn it will highlight a most neglected basic need of a woman, to the global community.

Last date for voting is May 27th. Please forward this mail to all your friends, colleagues & family to spread the word further. Write back in case you face any problem in voting.

With best,

Anshu
www.goonj.info
Tel.- (m) 98681-46978, (o) 011-26972351
E-mail- anshu_goonj1@yahoo.co.in,anshugoonj24@gmail.com

I have “Low Vitamin D” (that’s what physicians call it).  Who knew?  So low that I have to take a prescription pill (more on that later) for 12 weeks – one capsule a week – before getting re-tested and perhaps going on over-the-counter supplements.  My reading was “10″ (nanograms per milliliter) and I’m told that the level should be over 32.

Well, it turns out that I’m not the only one.  You too, could have Low Vitamin D.  One recent article reports that “low vitamin D levels among adults are fast becoming a growing epidemic and could spell trouble for the future health of the nation…“  If you think that statement a bit dramatic, try this title on for size:  “Low Vitamin D Levels Pose Large Threat to Health; Overall 26 Percent Increased Risk of Death”.  Yikes!

Low Vitamin D seems to be the cause de jour for everything from osteomalacia and osteoporosis to cancer, heart disease, chronic, diffuse pain, depression and other health problems.  Given the dire predictions in the articles referenced above, and the anecdotal evidence of my physician, who tells me that only 5 out of 100 patients in her practice have “normal” levels of vitamin D, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more about this in the so-called mainstream media.  Or have I missed it.

p.s. I can’t end this post without relaying my insurance story for the prescribed vitamin D.  My prescription was for 12 weeks (12 pills), called in to my pharmacy of choice – Pharmaca. (I highly recommend the pharmacists at the Oakland branch.)  When I go to pick up the pills, I am told that my insurance only covers one month at a time – I will have to go back each month to refill the prescription.  No can do.  I’m leaving in two days for Canada for the summer.  My co-pay for the one-month’s worth of pills (4) is $10.  If I used my insurance to pay for the 12 pills a month at a time, it would cost me $30.  Instead, I paid $18.21 for the 12 pills without applying my insurance to the purchase.  For this I pay $507 per month?

Until about two weeks ago, I was attending meetings with members of the administration of the Union Territory of Puducherry, including the Lieutenant Governor, the Chief Secretary, the Chief Minister, the Tourism Secretary, the Commissioner of the Local Administration Department, and the Secretary of Town and Country Planning; networking with other NGOs on environmental and regional planning issues; working on an upcoming newsletter for Pondy Citizens Action Network…

Today, I spent an hour as one of three volunteers in Mr. Nagatani’s kinder garden class at the Chabot Elementary School in Oakland, California, supervising a project for the Red Hot Power Ranger Roses Small Group. (Okay, on Tuesday, I attended a talk by Germaine Greer, co-sponsored by Berkeley Arts & Letters and the Hillside Club Book Lust Salon, discussing her new book Shakespeare’s Wife, and yesterday, I considered attending a CITRIS lecture at UC Berkeley on the Climate Navigator: A New Tool for Policy Leaders to Address Environmental Challenges.)

Did Mr. Nagatani have it in for me, or did he believe Betsy (for whom I was subbing) when she told him I was “highly competent”.  (And why did she do that, exactly?)  Here are the assignments as he described them to his class:

Yoo-Mi gets the Red Hot Power Ranger Roses group at the tables with the green tub. They will be working on the life-cycle of the frog, Griffin’s favorite subject. Yoo-Mi – you might want to start reading the instructions in the tub – you will:

1. Have the kids paint their paper plates with water colors, then let them dry.
2. While the paper plates are drying, read the book on Frogs.
3. Have the kids color in the 4 triangles depicting the life-cycle of the frogs.
4. Have them cut out the 4 triangles.
5. Have the kids fill out the rectangle with one fact about frogs.
6. Have them cut out the rectangle.
7. Have the kids paste the 4 triangles onto the middle of the plate.
8. Then have them paste the rectangle to the bottom of the plate.

[Are you getting all this?  I should have taken a photo... Maybe I'll add it later when Zing brings his home.]

The Chocolate Chip Cookies Small Group is with Gigi at the tables with the yellow tub.  She’ll be showing you how to make a flower with a piece of folded paper to resemble a tulip, my favorite flower.  The stem will be a green pipe cleaner, and the leaves will be sparkly pipe cleaners.

Sharon will be with the Ice Cream Cones at the tables with the red tub.  She will be working on metamorphosis.

I’ll be with the Light Sabers at the tables with the purple tub.  I’ll work with my group on lady bugs.

Umm. Does anyone else see an injustice here?  I get to deal with water, paint, scissors, and glue and Gigi is working with a piece of paper and pipe cleaners?  And god knows what Mr. Nagatani did with his ladybugs, because his group was done in about 15 minutes and all his kids got to play with toys – Power Rangers, helicoptors, fishing rods – all the things that distract other little boys (Red Hot Power Ranger Roses) who are told to color and paste.

And who thinks it is a good idea to give five and six year olds scissors?  I spent a lot of my time taking scissors away from noses and fingers and breaking up a clash of scissor blades, as well as preventing one little boy from cutting through the bow on his lace-up shoes.

Somehow, most of the kids finished on time, except for the boy who tried to cut his shoe laces. I was going to let him slide when he insisted that he wanted to color the life-cycle triangles at home, but Mr. Nagatani demanded that he finish right there and then.  He was only 2 minutes late.

Switch off your lights for one hour, and join the world for Earth Hour on Saturday, March 28, 8:30-9:30pm.

VOTE EARTH
YOUR LIGHT SWITCH IS YOUR VOTE

This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming.

For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.

We all have a vote, and every single vote counts. Together we can take control of the future of our planet, for future generations.

Log on to:

http://www.earthhour.org/action/ and sign up to be part of Earth Hour.

It’s been a while… a long while… five months and counting…

It’s not like I haven’t had anything to say, but the four other blogs that I maintain always seem to take precedence… and what I have to say in my own blog takes more time to compose than what I post on ProPoor or write on Beautiful Pondicherry, Save Our Beach, and Shuddham… not that the issues covered in Beautiful Pondicherry and Save Our Beach are not complicated and delicate… but I’ve been busy, OK?

Am now back in the San Francisco Bay Area, with an always-on (and fast) Internet connection.  I’m looking forward to catching up on all the video links that I’ve deferred viewing and doing more than just maintenance on all my blogs.

More later…

Ayudha puja at Renaissance Workshop

The people of Pondicherry celebrated Ayudha Puja on 8 October 2008, the 9th day of Navaratri (30 September to 9 October this year).  Durga puja is called Ayudha puja in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Ayudha puja is “worship of the weapons” – which in common terms is translated into implements and tools.

Father and daughter washing a scooter

People clean their houses and wash all the implements and tools of their trade, including their vehicles.

Doorway decorated with palm and banana fronds

People decorate their homes, offices and other places of work as well as their vehicles with palm and banana leaves.  The youngest palm fronds are cut and shaped into decorations. Unfortunately, most people now also use “modern” decorations, including colored crepe paper.

Mark and I were invited to two puja celebrations – one at the carpentry and furniture refinishing workshop of a friend (where we had the best food we have had to date in Pondicherry – the carpenters/cooks were from Bihar) and the other at the Shuddham office.

Bapoorau and Snigda in full regalia

On the morning of 3 October 2008, Snigda married Bapoorau at the Sivakami Amman temple, off the Sivaganga tank, of the famous Nataraja temple in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu.

Snigda, pre ceremony

Getting changed at the Sivakami Amman temple

During the ceremony; Bapoorau shows off his well-inked arms

Non-traditional mauling of the bride

By the temple tank

Toe-ringed - it's official now!

C.H. Balamohan

On 30 September 2008, C.H. Balamohan retired as an Assistant in the Education Department of the Government of Puducherry (GOP). After 40 years in government service, Balamohan should have been an officer – a Director or at least a Deputy Director of the department.  However, his promotions were suppressed by the GOP because of Balamohan’s work on behalf of the government employees – he only had 2 promotions in 40 years.

Balamohan is a quiet, unprepossessing person.  He suffers from diabetes, at times bed-ridden and unable to walk.  He wears khadi and carries a cloth sachel.  He gets around town on a scooter. Yet when he sees any kind of injustice, he becomes a changed man.  Put a bullhorn in front of him and he can inspire and rally thousands of people.

In 1979, Balamohan began his fight for the rights of the government employees, forming and acting as President of the Ministerial Staff Association (he was part of the Ministerial cadre in the Education Department).  From there, he went on to help form other government employee associations in the Education Department, Health Department, etc.  At his retirement, he was Honorary President of the Confederation of Pondicherry State Government Employees’ Association, consisting of 100 employee associations.

From 1991, Balamohan began to tackle other issues, such as rising prices of basic commodities and water delivery problems.  Ten years ago, he turned to the environment.  In October 2005, Balamohan filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the High Court in Madras (Chennai) against the various departments of the GOP, Subash Projects and Marketing Limited, Om Metals Limited, and relevant Ministries of the Union of India for the illegal and corrupt procedures in selecting a developer for a new port in Pondicherry.  The case is now set to be heard in the Supreme Court in New Delhi on 4 November 2008.

In an effort to intimidate Balamohan and force him to withdraw the PIL, the GOP “charge-sheeted” Balamohan a month before his retirement, in effect, taking away his retirement benefits.  Balamohan was unmoved:  “My wife earns a salary and I live very simply.”  On 25 September 4,000 people protested on his behalf and on his retirement day (also his birthday), over 600 government employees took mass “casual leave” and courted arrest until Balamohan’s retirement benefits were restored.  At 5pm on the 30th, the goverment capitulated.