On November 9, 2016 I was in my office, getting ready to see patients. It was the morning after Donald Trump had been elected President of the United States of America.
His election sent shock waves through the country and the world.
A dark cloud seemed to hang over my patients. Most expressed disbelief that this person—one who ran a campaign of misogyny, racism and Islamophobia, who lied with impunity and who picked as his vice presidential running mate a hard core homophobe and creationist—could possibly win. Yet he had.
The election of Donald Trump has no parallel in modern (or perhaps in all of) United States history. I have been trying to understand it. One way I have found is to think of Trump’s ascendance as an exotic virus that has entered our national bloodstream, infecting the body politic. I call it “Trump Induced Stress Disorder,” or TISD.Read the rest of this entry »
“Digital natives” are those young women and men who have been raised from childhood on computers. We see them everywhere: Toddlers in strollers playing with iPhones, pre-teens on iPads in restaurants, strategically distracted to allow their parents to eat in peace; Junior High and High School kids doing schoolwork on laptops in the classroom or at home, sitting or lying in bed.
For the digital native, the computer is an extension of his or her body. By the time they enter pre-school, many can navigate apps. Ten-year olds can program software. Adolescents live their social lives on tiny screens. Most of the digital native’s life runs through this digital medium.
The recent announcement that Aetna would be pulling out of a large number of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) exchanges, affirms a fundamental truth about health care and insurance in our country. Business and health care do not mix.
The ultimate goal of health care is to heal patients. The goal of private industry, based upon shareholder mandate, is to generate profits.Read the rest of this entry »
Here is a radio interview I did with Michael Finney, KGO TV (Channel 7) consumer news reporter, on the direction I see health care moving in this country. We talked, among other things, about the differences, and similarities, between Bernie and Hillary on how we get to universal coverage. I explained to Michael how the changes in the health care system over the last several years have deeply impacted providers; about how most people have no idea about the reimbursement cuts most doctors have had to take; and more. So check it out and feel free to let me know your thoughts on this subject.
In our highly medicated society, Americans consume more mind and mood altering drugs—legal, illegal and prescribed–than any other people in the world. Cocaine, heroin, marijuana, Xanax, Ambien, Atavan, alcohol and many more: a full spectrum of pain, anti-anxiety, anti-depressant and stimulating medications.
We all know people affected by the overuse of these substances. Some of us know people who have died from them.
As a health care provider, I have followed his year’s democratic presidential race with great interest. One major policy difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton is that Bernie is pushing for a single payer model and Hillary wants to “build” on the Affordable Care Act that was passed under President Obama.
Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport is typical of many airports in the “developing” world—one terminal and one carousel for our bags (AND the bags of another two flights coming in right after us). After an hour of chaos, we found our last piece of luggage and boarded our bus into Havana.
The first thing I noticed were the old American cars. I recalled these from my previous trip to Cuba, in 1989. Surely, I thought, they could not still be on the road–at least not in the same numbers.
Photo by Cheryl Lucanegro
But there they were, by the dozens, clogging the traffic flow, held together with spare parts and Cuban ingenuity: Chevys, Cadillacs and Buicks, spewing diesel smoke in all of their boxy, 1950’s glory.
And there was something else striking about the cityscape: it was completely devoid of billboards. No public promotion of soft drinks, beauty products and/or the services of personal injury lawyers.
Instead, I saw large political signs proclaiming “Socialism O Muerte” (Socialism or Death) or “Con Cuba Siempre” (With Cuba Always); most with images of Fidel Castro and/or Che Guevara, along with an assortment of other revolutionary “heroes.”Read the rest of this entry »
Instead, I saw large political signs proclaiming “Socialism O Muerte” (Socialism or Death) or “Con Cuba Siempre” (With Cuba Always); most with images of Fidel Castro and/or Che Guevara, along with an assortment of other revolutionary “heroes.”