http://www.subtlebraininjury.com/blog Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:47:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 http://www.subtlebraininjury.com/blog/2009/03/health-debate-could-spur-malpractice-changes.html http://www.subtlebraininjury.com/blog/2009/03/health-debate-could-spur-malpractice-changes.html#comments Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:23:00 +0000 gjohnson http://www.subtlebraininjury.com/blog/2009/03/health-debate-could-spur-malpractice-changes.html
By ERICA WERNER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration and key congressional Democrats are taking a hard look at the nation’s medical malpractice system as part of a broader health care overhaul.

“It’s an essential piece for there to be enduring reform, reform that will stick and will get a significant bipartisan vote in the United States Senate,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who has a bipartisan health bill that includes incentives to get states to enact malpractice reforms.

Reviving the issue could provoke a fierce fight from trial lawyers, who, along with doctors, have the most at stake.

Already the trial lawyers’ lobby is preparing to distribute a brief on Capitol Hill casting medical malpractice as a small cost in the overall health system. The brief cites an Institute of Medicine finding that as many as 98,000 deaths in the U.S. each year result from medical error.

Trial lawyers and their Democratic Senate allies helped kill attempts under the Bush administration to cap punitive and pain and suffering payouts in malpractice lawsuits. The Congressional Budget Office says such caps could have saved the federal government $4.3 billion from 2010-2019.

Capping judgments likely remains a nonstarter.

John McDonough, a top health adviser to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., told a conference of urologists this week that doctors must improve quality of care.

“The solution in terms of medical malpractice is not putting arbitrary caps on pain and suffering that discriminate against lower-income folks,” McDonough said.

The urologists responded with a chorus of “boos.”

But many top Democrats and administration officials say something must be done to curb medical malpractice costs to help pay for revamping the nation’s $2.4 trillion health system.

Obama himself told business leaders last week that ideas to save money like “medical liability issues — I think all those things have to be on the table.”

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., cites costs including fast-rising medical malpractice insurance premiums and so-called “defensive medicine” whereby doctors prescribe treatments that may be unnecessary to guard against getting sued if they fail to do so.

There’s agreement from some in the House including Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., who chairs an Education and Labor health subcommittee.

“It’s hard for me to imagine a result that gets to the president’s desk that doesn’t deal with the medical malpractice issue in some way,” Andrews said in an interview Tuesday.

Proposed solutions include alternative dispute resolution, some similar to legislation that Obama co-sponsored with Hillary Rodham Clinton when both were in the Senate in 2005. Their bill would have created a program to allow patients to learn of medical errors and establish negotiated compensation with the offer of an apology.

Baucus has proposed giving states grants to develop alternate litigation, such as “health courts” whose judges have health care expertise.

Both lawyers and doctors say they’re open to alternative dispute ideas.

But “changing the legal system will not make anyone healthier or save one life,” said Linda Lipsen, senior vice president of public affairs at the American Association for Justice.

Meanwhile doctors are calling malpractice reform a top issue in the health reform debate.

“We need meaningful tort reform,” Nancy H. Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association, told Obama health adviser Ezekiel Emanuel at a recent conference.

“Stay tuned,” Emanuel told her.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.]]> http://www.subtlebraininjury.com/blog/2009/03/health-debate-could-spur-malpractice-changes.html/feed 0 http://www.subtlebraininjury.com/blog/2009/01/worldwide-hopes-soar-for-obama-inauguration.html http://www.subtlebraininjury.com/blog/2009/01/worldwide-hopes-soar-for-obama-inauguration.html#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:56:00 +0000 gjohnson http://www.subtlebraininjury.com/blog/2009/01/worldwide-hopes-soar-for-obama-inauguration.html
By GREGORY KATZ
Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP) — The arrival of a new American president triggered joy and jubilation Tuesday in a world made weary by warfare, recession and fear. Bulls and goats were slaughtered for feasts in Kenya, toasts were offered at black-tie balls in Europe and shamans in Latin America chanted Barack Obama’s name with reverence.

From Kenya and Indonesia, where Barack Obama has family ties, to Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, Obama’s inauguration sparked a volcanic explosion of hope for better days ahead.

The ascendance of the first African-American to the presidency of the United States was heralded as marking a new era of tolerance and possibility.

Nelson Mandela, the former South African president who also inspired millions, sent a letter to Obama shortly before his inauguration.

“Your election to this high office has inspired people as few other events in recent times have done,” Mandela wrote. “Amongst many around the world a sense of hopelessness had set in as so many problems remain unresolved and seemingly incapable of being resolved. You, Mister President, have brought a new voice of hope that these problems can be addressed and that we can in fact change the world and make of it a better place.”

The anti-apartheid icon’s sentiment was echoed in much of the world.

Alex Andrade, a 24-year-old unemployed black Brazilian, said Obama’s rise has inspired Brazil’s poor.

“Blacks face so much discrimination here,” he said, standing outside the Cantagalo slum, where ramshackle shacks line steep hills in Rio de Janeiro. “Now with a black man in charge of such an important country, it might help decrease the racism in Brazil.”

It was a reflection of Obama’s sprawling, complex family tree that villages in places as diverse as Ireland and Kenya held special parties to celebrate their link to the new president.

In Kenya, traditional dancers performed, feasts were held and movie screens were erected so neighbors could join together for the moment, only a year after their own elections were marred by horrific ethnic violence.

“Our election in Kenya really had problems with ethnicity … America has shown that this doesn’t have to be that big a problem,” said Dr. Joseph Osoo, who runs a clinic in one of Kenya’s biggest slums and last year at this time was stitching up people wounded in election riots.

“Kenyans are very happy because their son is going to be the leader of America,” he said.

In the village of Kogelo in western Kenya, where many of Obama’s Kenyan relatives live, women dressed in colorful printed cloths performed traditional dances to the rhythms of cowhide drums.

At the biggest hospital in nearby Kisumu, Christine Aoko named her newborn daughter Michelle, after Obama’s wife.

“I hope my girl will grow as tough as Michelle,” Aoko told The Associated Press.

An Irish village called Moneygall covered itself in red, white and blue bunting Tuesday in honor of Obama’s connections, via a great-great-great grandfather named Fulmouth Kearney who emigrated to the United States in 1850.

They also baked a special round fruitcake, locally called a “brack,” to sell for the occasion — with Obama’s picture on the wrapping.

In the South American country of Guyana, dozens of work sites closed at noon to let employees watch the inauguration.

“As far as I am concerned, today is a holiday,” said Patrick Hazelwood, an insurance agent in Georgetown. “I have also told my staff they are free to do what they want and take in the ceremony. Today is a serious day for everybody, a historic day.”

There was also jubilation in the often-violent Colombian town of Puerto Tejada, where sugarcane-cutting descendants of African slaves had the day off to celebrate and watched the Washington proceedings on a giant screen.

“The people here see themselves represented in Obama,” Mayor Elver Montano told the AP.

In Peru’s capital of Lima, a dozen faith healers from Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Bolivia danced during the inauguration. Stomping their feet, shaking rattles and blowing smoke, they chanted Obama’s name while throwing flower petals and coca leaves at his photograph.

The ancient Andean ritual is known as Jatun Sonjo, or ‘Big Heart’ in the Quechua language, explained shaman Juan Osco.

“In ancient times, it was one of the rituals dedicated to Inca and pre-Inca rulers,” Osco said. ” Today we dedicate it from Peru to Obama, because he is the first black president and his heart is big for the whole world.”

In Sweden, African-American singer Cyndee Peters was hosting a show named “A Gala for Obama,” featuring dozens of Swedish soul, jazz, hip-hop, gospel, folk and blues artists.

“Obama fever is all over the whole world, ” said Peters, 62, who grew up in North Carolina and New York. “What he stands for needs to be celebrated.”

In London, Americans could get free admission to Madame Tussaud’s waxworks to see the new figure of Obama, and parties were scheduled in dozens of venues, from ritzy hotels to local sports bars.

Louise Darko from Atlanta, standing on line to be photographed with the Obama waxwork, was thrilled with Obama’s inauguration because of the difficulties her great-grandfather faced when he was one of the first blacks to attend university in the American south.

“Now when I tell my children you can grow up to be anything, I really mean it,” said Darko, 44. “

In the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, where Obama spent four years as a young boy, students from his former school swayed and spun in bright, traditional costumes representing Indonesia’s ethnically diverse tropical islands.

Old classmates gathered at the Menteng 1 elementary school to watch a speech on television by the once-chubby kid they remember as Barry.

“I’m proud that the next president is someone who I have shared time with,” said Rully Dasaad, a fellow Boy Scout with Obama. “It was a crucial time for children our age, it is when we learned tolerance, sharing, pluralism, acceptance and respect of difference in cultures and religions.”

___

AP writers Min Lee in Hong Kong, Anthony Deutsch and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin, Dean Carson in London, Bert Wilkinson in Guyana, Vivian Sequera in Colombia, Bradley Brooks in Brazil and Andrew Whalen in Peru.

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By FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) _ Where’s the funny in Barack Obama?

That question, which dogged TV humorists throughout the presidential race, has gained new urgency now that Obama is headed for the White House.

His victory last week signaled imminent hardship for comics who lampoon political leaders for a living. The laugh-a-minute 2008 campaign is history, and soon there’ll be no President Bush to kick around in comedy sketches or talk-show monologues.

Adding to the jesters’ plight: Obama will soon be sworn in as the next Punch-Line-In-Chief.

Here is a man who inspires admiration, excitement or, maybe, suspicion. What he doesn’t inspire (in any measurable quantity, so far) are cheap laughs.

“A dignified, thoughtful, charismatic, smart man who doesn’t run at the mouth,” summed up Craig Ferguson, host of CBS’ “Late Late Show,” in the aftermath of eight go-go Bush years for comics. “Is it a challenge to our creative juices to find something funny about Obama? God, yes!”

Right after the election, some TV wags were even waxing nostalgic on the air, however tongue-in-cheek.

On Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart said he was already missing the Bush administration — and his own George W. Bush impression, which had served him so well at the anchor desk.

“As a comedian,” NBC’s Jay Leno echoed to his “Tonight Show” audience, “I’m going to miss President Bush. Barack Obama is not easy to do jokes about. He doesn’t give you a lot to go on. See, this is why God gave us (Vice President-elect) Joe Biden.

“When one door closes, another one opens up.”

True, as a six-term U.S. Senator and lately as Obama’s running mate, Biden has cemented his reputation for blurting out remarks before they’re vetted by his brain. (Item: Biden declared that “Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television” to address the nation when the stock market crashed in October 1929 — even though Herbert Hoover was president then and TV was barely invented.)

“He’s a little more gregarious, runs around and slaps people on the back, he’s cheery-looking,” said Ferguson, who agreed that Biden is the comics’ consolation prize. “You can at least put him in a sketch.”

The host of HBO’s “Real Time,” comic Bill Maher describes himself as “a policy guy who tries to stick more to what politicians do than who they are.” But that doesn’t mean he’s immune to the problem Obama represents.

“It’s always better if the president is stupid, or fat, or cheating on his wife, or angry, or a phony. This guy is none of those things. And that,” said Maher with a laugh, “is really unfair.

“But, c’mon, on balance, aren’t we all happier that we have somebody who isn’t such an easy target? I mean, comedians have had it really easy for the last eight years.”

Humor often relies on stereotypes and caricature, but comics haven’t yet sussed out how to caricature Obama, and so far he has defied any categorical stereotypes — even that of a black man.

Magician-comedian Penn Jillette recalled how “there have been jokes about Bush that had nothing to do with him being stupid or wrong — just about his being from Texas, since he has a slight Texas accent.

“But if you wanted to do black jokes about Obama, none of them are applicable: It’s as if he were from Texas, but without the Texas accent.”

Jillette ventured an idea for putting Obama in the comic cross-hairs: Crack wise about his notion “that government can solve a lot of the problems that were previously left to the individual. I would be talking about the audacity of government giving people that kind of hope.”

Ferguson proposed poking fun at Obama’s “deification” by his more fervent supporters. It’s no long-term solution for comedians, but it might buy them some time.

Obama’s do-no-wrong aura is sure to be short-lived, as Americans observe him no longer full-tilt on the campaign trail but instead slogging through each presidential workday.

And humor springs from increased familiarity with the target of the jokes.

“In time, that will happen,” said “Saturday Night Live” cast member Fred Armisen, who last February scored the show’s plum role impersonating Obama — “in time, not just with me, as we see more and more of him.”

And as comedians search for Obama’s laughs-generating sweet spot, they should fight the urge to go easy on him out of misconceived racial sensitivity, said D.L. Hughley.

“If you call yourself a comic, you can’t excuse the most powerful man in the world,” said Hughley, who is black and host of “D.L. Hughley Breaks the News” on CNN. “He is the most powerful man on the face of the planet. He is The Man!”

And many changes await in an Obama presidency that will serve the cause of humor. Meanwhile, much about the comedy landscape will be the same, as Hughley was reminded as he headed home on election night.

“I had watched it in Harlem,” he said. “I was elated, smiling from ear-to-ear, excited that the country I love now decided that they love people like me back, and in a major way. And I flagged a cab. And that cab drove right by me. Then I tried to flag another one, and it drove right by.”

Recalling the experience, he couldn’t help laughing that a black man couldn’t get a cab to stop in Obama’s America. Until comics find the key to the funny in Obama, they’ll have plenty else to make jokes about.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle contributed to this report.

___

CBS is owned by CBS Corp; CNN and HBO are owned by Time Warner; Comedy Central is owned by Viacom; NBC is owned by General Electric.


EDITOR’S NOTE — Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org

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