The Ethics Observer » Equality

Is ‘Chemo Parity’ a Good Idea?

Site Staff — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:48:05 +0000

WSJ.com: Health Blog
April 27, 2010 8:47 AM
by Katherine Hobson

Under reimbursement rules, IV chemo counts as a medical benefit, but oral treatments fall under the (usually less comprehensive) drug benefit.

Is ‘Chemo Parity’ a Good Idea?

Wellpoint fraud

Site Staff — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:40:36 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Shortly after they were diagnosed with breast cancer, each of the women learned that her health insurance had been canceled. There was Yenny Hsu, who lived and worked in Los Angeles. And there was Patricia Reilling, a successful art gallery owner and interior designer from Louisville, Kentucky.

Neither of these women knew about the other. But besides their similar narratives, they had something else in common: Their health insurance carriers were subsidiaries of WellPoint, which has 33.7 million policyholders — more than any other health insurance company in the United States.

The women paid their premiums on time. Before they fell ill, neither had any problems with their insurance. Initially, they believed their policies had been canceled by mistake.

They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators…

http://fluentnews.com/s/24129979

Little Rock 50 Years Later

Site Staff — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:05:49 +0000

The image is among the most iconic in civil-rights history: a dignified black girl in a prim, white-and-black dress marches through a hostile mob intent on keeping her from school. Fifty years after it first flashed around the world, that image retains its power—evoking sorrow, even anger, that one so young would face such cruelty. Now a 65-year-old woman, Elizabeth Eckford still bears scars from that long, lonely walk as one of the Little Rock Nine: teenagers charged with integrating that city’s finest high school in 1957. “I’m the only one who says I wouldn’t do it again,” said Eckford in an interview at the Little Rock courthouse where she works as a probation officer. more…

“Killing Affirmative Action”

Site Staff — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 16:54:25 +0000

Affirmative action seems to have very little middle ground and nowhere else than Michigan the battle arrays seem to be drawn with more fervor.

Michigan holds this dubious distinction that is not without a historical precedent. In 1974 a Supreme Court decision struck down a plan to bus Detroit school children to the suburbs. The battle’s latest fighting venue has been university admissions.Much has been written for and against affirmative action. The proponents say that it levels the paying field – somewhat for the minorities and the underprivileged. This comes at a price though. You are always looked down upon as a product of some sort of charity. The argument against affirmative action cuts right into the ethics of the problem involved. At first site it just does not make sense. It is like turning justice upside down – according to Killing Affirmative Action – a report on the topic. (1) You treat some people unequally in the name of equality!The real debate is much deeper than this though as an article in Newsweek rightly points out. (2) Perhaps we have assigned too much hope and expectations to affirmative action. Perhaps it was never meant to carry the burden it carries right now. Perhaps affirmative action is only part of the solution to racial and socioeconomic disparities and not the whole solution. If that is the case then society needs to shift its focus from affirmative action battle to a bigger war on disparities and devise yet more and far reaching ways to address the issue.

Notes(1) The website is http://justicejournalism.org/cose/ The report can be accessed at http://justicejournalism.org/images/cose/Affirm_Final_PDF.pdf For some interesting exchange on this topic at this website’s forum see http://justicejournalism.org/cose/forum_submit.asp(2) The Color of Change. Newsweek November 13, 2006.