I am a clinician currently in the so-called health care system in the USA, and I am asking for some advice-pathways to assist a family in considerable crisis. I realise this could be seen as a very small 'p' reformist-politics issue, and may not be of interest to this list in general. Therefore: To avoid over-burdening the list - replies may certainly be sent to me personally. Let me explain my request for advice:
In my US clinical life I have found myself going to bat for families against insurance companies. That is something I have accepted as necessary in this situation. But my wife and I were approached by a secretary with a terrible personal saga of abuse from insurance agencies against her sister. The sister had a severely retarded child - now woman - of 25. THe sister is a nurse who has effectively been unable to work as she is denied insurance for her child (worsened by the provisions of Obama are). She therefore has to stay at home to look after this child. The child-woman suffers from Oculo-Cerbral-Cutaneous syndrome and as i understand it, is totally incapable - and totally incommunicable. We have advised this family, that in the long term - only effective publicity around the situation is likely to change things for the better for society. THe young woman is close to death, and it is not any longer necessarily this family's wish to further benefit tangibly the insurance situation for that retarded young woman. They - to their enormous credit - wish to do something to *prevent* other families going thru this sort of awful humilation and denial and crisis. They are poor income people. We have advised and will help as needed, approaches to: i) Anderson Cooper CNN; ii) New Y Times and their occasional 'Families in Crisis" pages I also wondered about things like the Southern law Reform agency (forget the exact name). Are there other progressive-legal or activist agencies that we might discuss with this sad family? With thanks for your considerations. Hari Kumar. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
