Comments: 03-29-2007 Media Madness
I think the points made about homelessness on that "Apesma's Lament" website are also true of the problems with the U.S. healthcare system. It says: "Homelessness has three related causes: The profit structure of housing, the distribution of income, and government policy."
The same three causes help explain why the healthcare system is such a failure for so many in this country - providing damaging treatments for some, while providing almost no treatment at all for many others. Treating medical care as a commodity causes both the damaging quackery (such as psych drugs whose dangerous side effects are kept secret) as well the withholding of even the most basic preventative care for millions.
There is no profit in providing any kind of medical attention to those who don't have the resources to pay for it and lack insurance, even if the need may be painfully obvious and the treatment relatively simple. But there's plenty of profit to be made by pushing unwanted or controversial treatments on people who may ultimately suffer serious damaging effects as a result.
Posted by Kent at March 30, 2007 06:40 PM
Halle Berry spoke candidly about suicide years ago on Oprah. I don't know if she has ever spoken about having any mental illness, or being treated for depression etc. It would be interesting to know if she is addressing her suicide attempts this way.
Posted by Stephany at March 31, 2007 08:15 AM
Re: RU-486 ; It would be interesting to know if the drug was used for psychotic depression as I read somewhere--would the docs warn women that this is the original abortion-inducing med that made a contoversial FDA approval in the US? The drug is used for other purposes as well; I find it actually freaky that it could be considered for mainstream anti-depressant use at all. Glad it failed. [talk about a black box warning]
Posted by Stephany at March 31, 2007 08:21 AM
I just wanted to add a comment that I have been enjoying reading Apesma's Lament as well as the other blogs that link to it.
Posted by Stephany at April 7, 2007 11:09 AM