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| Entreparéntesis |
| Gaining health coverage without losing our freedom |
For Israel Ortega
The Heritage Foundation
The people Americano is anxious about the future of our system of health – and with good reason. The experts in coverage on health insurances are in the search of a plan that covers million Americans who lack an insurance of medical plan. But many are offering the wrong recipe.
Taking councils of the ends of the politics, some in the Congress they are supporting measurements to leave that bureaucrats in Washington, A.D. handle every detail of the system of health. They promise us to arrange everything what the current system lacks in measured only one, because they are sure that the government is better qualified to do our decisions of health.
But before we transfer more control for the government let's consider for what the people Americano is looking.
Surveys keep on demonstrating that the people wants a reform and that he does not want to lose what it has. It is more; according to the surveys, the people prefer that the private sector arranges the current problem as which many do not have medical insurance.
For many it is not a surprise that the Congress has not done anything to the respect. Because? The politics undoubtedly has had something to do, but the argument also has to do with an important ingredient of the American spirit: liberate.
After leaking all the proposals to come to the grain, the differences that several groups have about all the freedom we would be ready to deliver to him the government.
And since it usually happens, the freedom is translated in money. High taxes increases tend to accompany the attempts of the left in enlarging the authority of the government. Moreover, the model Europeo with whom many are in favor out of necessity, would have to take similar taxes levels.
But for those that are in favor of transferring more control for the government, the model Europeo contains valuable lessons.
The biggest problems in the system are: 1) to Leave that the government decides everything on this matter to the system of health and 2) The competition absence. With the government deciding everything, the patients lose many of his freedoms. And with the government in control, there are few incentives to provide quality. The only way that the government can control the expense is on having rationed the health care: the result? Long waiting lines for almost any doctor's treatment.
But there is a better way to reform the health system and it is where the patient is in control and allows we to look for better quality for less.
This alternative vision would be headed in a private universal solution where the patients can choose the coverage of health that let's want, including when we change employment. Nevertheless so that this is a reality, the Congress has to correct a current discrimination in the taxes system with regard to the medical insurance.
Acting under this idea, the Congress would be giving to every American the option to choose its own plan of private medical insurance, which also they might take to another employment. Specially this might be a reality ofreciéndo to individuals and families the same taxes reduction in the form of a credit of taxes.
To correct the way as the taxes they are applied towards the health system it is of supreme importance for our Hispanic community – because we will lose or win depending in what he decides. According to a study of the Hispanic Center Pew and the Foundation Robert Word Jonson, the population Hispana will grow 30 per cent of everything the American population for a year 2050.
Also we know that the Hispanics lack medical insurance and somehow it is due to the fact that many Hispanics work for small business or in sectors of the economy where employers do not offer insurance.
But leaving that the government handles our health system it is not the answer either. The truth is that a government that heads this will imply less personal freedom. The health topic is very important and we must not do that the politics prevents us from looking for a solution.
| He interviews the executive director of New Life, Larisa Caicedo: |
| “All the cancer experiences need support” |
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| “I invite the people to come to our center of information of cancer, says Larisa Caicedo. Felipe Lagos/WH. |
For Felipe Lagos
Washington Hispanic
“The Latin community is not used to resorting to psiquíatras, psychologists or to being present at therapies of emotional help when they are patient of cancer”
When one speaks about cancer, the ignorance is one of the enemies to fight more excellent.
It stems from the ignorance that the persons feel fear. Non-knowing the valuations of incidence of cancer, the numbers of mortality or the types of treatment often causes that the patients have a fatalistic approach: "I am going to die”.
For it, to attack the root of the fear, a series of organizations as the American Society of the Cancer and New Life realized a symposium in Spanish last Monday, the 29th of September to communicate out-standing Hispanic oncologists with the community, with the last end of answering the questions of many persons who sometimes do not have access to this type of conomiento.
Larisa Caicedo, executive director of New Life, tells that the fear was exactly the central topic of many of the questions that there rose more than 60 persons who were present at the event.
“ The persons focused very much in his fears, what they can do so that it does not turn the cancer, in what they are right or badly, or the best way of taking complements vitamínicos so that the body returns to the normality after the treatment. The people really asked on his fears, the pains that bother them and the things that they believe can make to resort to the cancer. New Life tries to pacify these topics, and the persons must understand that during his cancer experience it is important to accompany them on psychological therapy, because these fears in the end can hurt more”, says Caicedo.
— The fear comes from the ignorance, and his event was thinking about how to go precisely to the root of the fear with education.
“ Exact, and that's why the educational part was so important. Often the persons go nervous to the medical consultation and forget his questions, then this event turns into an opportunity to see the basic things and to allow to do a rational analysis based on numbers and information. In some cases the experts presented photos of how there is seen the cancer, the devices that are used to do procedures, the treatment options in cervical cancer. Often the persons go to the doctor and happen for procedures but they have no idea to what they are surrendering”.
— When one speaks about cancer, it is common to listen to that of bosom, colon, lung and cervical, but many exist others that there is no a lot of easily accessible information.
“ What happens is that as there is no many incidence, there is no many investigation and they are not so common. For example, the cancer of endometrio, which is not so usual does not present any symptom. Many of them do not have necessary a declaration. These are silent cancers, like the lymphatic one, of thyroid gland. There are organs that the persons do not have their conscience. But all the cancer experiences need support and the Latin community is not used to appealing psychiatrists, psychologists or to being present at therapies of emotional help. The people do not have to be alone, the mental calmness does that there is less fear and more empoderamiento to ask the doctor. Also, the education is very important, and the persons must know that they can call the American Society of the Cancer (1 (800) 227 2345), ó to New Vida (202) 223 9100 where we have all the resources to be able to connect them, or can come to our center of information. Little by little there will be understood the concept of cancer and the importance of the detection and prevention”.
| To his health |
| I support for Victims of Domestic Violence |
For Maria Gómez
The president of Mary's Center
To go out of a relation that has had components of domestic violence is not easy at all but yes it is possible and advisable when there is in danger the integrity of the smart person and that of his children.
From no point of view it is healthy to continue with a relation of abuse that only brings insecurity, low self-esteem and physical and emotional pain.
The reports show that the biggest number of victims of domestic violence presents before himself in the women; nevertheless, it is presumed that there is a good number of men who are smart for his couple but who for shame, machismo or fear, are afraid to denounce.
Be who will be the smart person, man or woman, the important thing is to take conscience of which it cannot continue in this relation. Just as the anonymous alcoholics or the smokers, the first step is to accept that one is in a relation of domestic violence and to look for help. In many cases, this help can change the attitude of the bully and make him understand the damages that it causes to the family. In others, the best solution is to leave the bully.
This period in which the person decides to leave really the bully is the most critical but the most definitive.
Critic for the reaction of the bully to the abandonment and the rash threats and definitive because once the victim decides to go out of this relation, he begins to look for the help that earlier was refused to accept.
Most of the persons who are victims of domestic violence do not manage to go out of this circle until they do not find an emotional support, because his self-esteem is so damaged that they are afraid to face the world.
There are great the fears that a victim of domestic violence faces and that prevent him from leaving the bully.
Some of these fears between our community are the problems of immigration, good is because the victim has no documents and the bully threatens him to denounce it or because the victim is in process of obtaining his roles across his couple – the bully - and is afraid that the process is paralyzed.
It is important that we know that at the time of denouncing a relation of domestic violence, there is no problem with which the victim is undocumented since in this moment it is a question of helping him for his situation without importing his migratory status.
Also those persons who are in process of obtaining his residence can continue his case any time it is demonstrated that it is moving away from the person for violence reasons and not for fraud. Do not allow that to be threatened he by this topic since you are under protection. There is inclusive a program of visas that is granted only for victims of domestic violence.
Another fear of leaving the bully is on the economic part since in many cases the victim does not work, has no income, it knows neither the system nor the language and feels that the circle closes where to resort.
Here in DC several centers of help exist to support those victims of domestic violence who can offer to him the necessary resources so that the person could redo his life. These centers are a part of the Coalition Against the Domestic Violence of the District. These centers are composed for: Mary's Center, My Sister's Place, Clinic of the People, House of Ruth, Helps, between others.
Once the person has taken the decision to denounce and to leave the bully, we begin the whole support work at any level to offer to the victim the necessary therapy and commission to face this situation and the existing resources in the area, which although they are not sufficient, yes are crucial. This includes temporary refuge, legal consultancy, options of employment, inscription to public benefits, medical insurance, etc.
I know that it is not easy, but yes it is possible to go out forward and you deserve a better future. Say NOT to the domestic violence!
| Thoroughly |
| A new Binational Week of Health begins |
Writing / agency
Washington Hispanic
From October 5 up to 15 of the same month, there will be carried out a new version of the Binational Week of Health, event that joins more than 30 agencies of health of the whole Metropolitan Area with the target to offer medical, social services and of information to persons who without this initiative would not have access to they.
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| It is the perfect opportunity so that the Latin Americans who have problems to obtain care to his health could receive professional attention. |
From 5 until October 15, the Binational Week of Health (SBS) will be celebrated in the metropolitan area.
The event, which is realized on a global scale involving the participation of Mexico, the United States and Canada. It is the perfect opportunity so that the Latin Americans who have problems to obtain care to his health could receive professional attention.
Last year, they attended to more than 300 thousand persons, at national level, making use of almost four thousand activities that were realized.
This year, the expectations are not minor, as tells the Consul of Mexico in Washington, Enrique Escorza, who points out that this year the involved ones in the achievement of gentle hope to be able to reach event to more people and offer better services. “On one hand, we are thrilled by the fact of seeing how this initiative is consolidated. For me, this is the assertion of that the efforts are yielding the corresponding fruits. There are many organizations that show interest and we know that the community will have access to a good scale of services that will be offered to them, each and everyone of them inspired to create conditions so that his health is taken into consideration”, he says.
The SBS was born in 2001, in California, to give the possibility to the immigrants, who most of the times do not have opportunities to gain access to health services for the different barriers of access that the system of health of the country presents, to medical checkups be able to be realized and evaluate his condition in general.
With the years, and to a great extent due to the enormous need of the persons who want to obtain health services, this event has been gaining volume and today it is one of the mobilizations bigger than institutions, agencies of health and consular services in the country.
Often, the Latin Americans of the area only worry about being able to obtain work, without giving him a minute to wonder how his health is. Consul Escorza emphasizes that this approach can bring more damages than benefits.
“ Although the aspiration of all is to have a well stipendiary work that allows us to support our family: what happens if after a lot of time this work comes, but the health is precarious? It does not serve the first thing to us without the second thing. In the health topic the message is clear: we have to change the vision that dominates in many of our countries when one thinks about the health only when this decrease, and not when one is well. We want to work more the preventive part and it does not reactivate it. We are interested in more that the people think that although the SBS is an only one week of October, there are seven days that a modality will turn for the community and to say to them that the work can be realized and the goals reach, yes and only yes we are healthy. Exactly, what we want is to give them advices, which approach the organizations that will allow them to show this in his lives daily”.
Daniel Garduño, coordinator of the SBS in the metropolitan DC area, points out that this year there are several programmed events, in order to give each of the persons what he needs.
Between the most out-standing there is the opening of the SBS, which will be realized on October 5 in the church of the Sacred Heart of DC. “This day finished medical checkups will be realized, from vision, glucose, pressure and information about medical insurances will be delivered”.
Sneak thief says that in the case that someone should have results that there deserve a pursuit or other analyses, the involved institutions will be in charge of deriving the patient. “If someone has a condition of health that needs pursuit, he is canalized to the clinic of community health, like the Clinic of the People, that supports us for the attention, pursuit or canalization of each of the cases that this way deserve it”.
The coordinator establishes that the community must make use of this type of initiatives because “it is one week in which the persons can come and be attended in an integral way as for his health.
It is important to have more than 30 agencies that could take advantage to be checked, to obtain information and to be able to use it when this deserves it, without cost. For what we look is that hundredth only one does not recover. It is a wide cooperation of agencies, institutions of health and sponsors who support to the Binational Week of Health”.
| Simple recommendations can be identified what patients must be taken to the hospitals when the emergency efforts for revivirlos do not give turned out |
| When to lead a patient to emergency |
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| A defibrillator, like that appears in the photo, can re-live through a person who has suffered a cardiac arrest. Photos.com |
Writing / agency
Washington Hispanic
When the heart of a person suddenly stops beating, the persons who are around and the emergency personnel would have very much for doing to revive it.
But if the victim does not answer to these attempts: when must such efforts stop?
Namely: when must the emergency personnel transport quickly a patient to the hospital?, especially if it is possible to give the same attention as in the room of urgency of a hospital.
In fact, there is no "correct" answer to these questions that arise in most cases from cardiac arrest that every year they affect 166 thousand persons in the United States, and that conclude in the death of 93 per cent of them.
As result, the teams of medical services of emergency (EMS for his acronym in English) and of the emergency rooms (ER for his acronym in English) in the hospitals spends countless hours and assistance resources in patients who do not have possibilities of surviving, at the cost of other patients who need an ambulance or who have spent hours of waiting in the emergency room.
A new study that there publishes the magazine “Journal Medical Association” shows that a standard set of recommendations might help to that the teams of EMS and of ER determine that victims of cardiac arrest can benefit from a transfer to the hospital, reducing at the same time useless efforts in patients who do not have probabilities of surviving a cardiac arrest.
New guides
The study shows that the teams of EMS can use a simple rule of five parts or one of three parts to determine when they must suspend the efforts to re-live through patients of cardiac arrest.
The same rule also indicates when there must continue the efforts to resuscitate the patient while they transport him to the most nearby emergency room.
The rule of three parts can be sufficient to identify 99.8 per cent of the patients who need to be moved to the hospital to receive more attention, point out the investigators.
Quotation mark Sasson, she is the principal authoress of the study and Clinical Academician Robert Wood Johnson in the School of Medicine of the university of Michigan says that “many patients of cardiac arrest are resuscitated successfully in the place, with the help of automatic external defibrillators and resuscitation cardiopulmonar, and the hospital is the correct destination for them”, he said.
“ The question is what to do with the patients who do not answer in spite of the best efforts of the team of emergency. And it shows that a standard rule might assure that the correct patients should come to the hospital and at the same time there is allowed us the prudent use of the scarce resources”.
The rules
The rule of three parts, called “Basic Support of Life”, (BLS, for his acronym in English), indicates that the teams EMS should suspend his resuscitation efforts if the cardiac arrest happened before the team EMS was coming, if there was not used a defibrillator (for example, because there was no person who was using it, the team EMS did not have one, or the automatic external defibrillator did not detect a capable rhythm to the electrical shock) and if the team cannot achieve that the blood of the patient begins to circulate again.
On the other hand, the called rule of five steps “Advanced Support of Life”, (ALS, along his acronym in English), adds another two criteria to the list: that there have not been witnesses of the cardiac arrest, and that no person in the place had tried the cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.
Then, the investigators observed what happened really later that the patients came to the hospital and compared it with what it might have happened if two rules had been applied.
“ In our study and in others, the rule BLS has been applied now to more than 10 thousand patients in the United States and Canada with a valuation of erroneous classification of less than 0,1 per cent”, said Sasson. “At present the systems of medical services of emergency change extensively in the attention that they give to the patients of cardiac arrest. The widest application of the rule BLS would make standard the attention and transport of these patients so that we could reduce the risks of wounds or deaths of the personnel of EMS and of the public in the transfers at high speed, diminish the pressure in our so full emergency rooms patients', and it would be allowed that the personnel in the emergency room focuses the attention in the patients who can receive treatment, and it would leave more available beds in the units of intensive care”.
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