Letter to the Editor, The American Prospect

Ezra Klein’s article “Wealth-Care Reform” (June 09) puts forward some positions that need to be questioned. Citing Michael McGinnis’s article in Health Affairs, Klein concludes that genetic predisposition accounts for 30% of a person’s health; social circumstances, 15%; environmental exposures, 5%; behavioral patterns, 40%; and shortfalls in medical care, 10%. In summary, if the genes you inherit from your parents are good, and if you eat properly, drink in moderation, do physical exercise, and do all the other things that health behavorists tell you to do, you are already in control of 70% of your health and longevity. The type of work you do, the type of place where you live, and the income you earn – among other economic and social circumstances – and the medical care you receive (or don’t receive) account for the remaining 30%. Continue reading »

Published by Global Health Promotion, March 2009

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Original article by Antonio Daponte Codina, Julia Bolívar Muñoz, Silvia Toro Cárdena, Ricardo Ocaña Riola, Joan Benach Rovira and Vicente Navarro López

Published in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2008

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Published by International Journal of Health Services, Volume 38, Number 4, Pages 597-606, 2008. December 2008

This article analyzes why people in the United States have major problems in accessing medical care that are due to financial constraints. The author suggests that the cause of these problems is the way in which medical care and elections are funded in the United States, with private sources being the largest component in the funding of both activities. The article includes a comparison of funding of the electoral process in the United States with similar electoral processes in the countries of the European Union, and postulates that privatization of the funding of U.S. elections (primary and general) is responsible for privatization of the funding of medical care—the root of people’s problem in paying for their medical care. Privatization of election funding gives undue power to the economic, financial, and professional groups that dominate medicine in the United States. Continue reading »

Published by Counterpunch on December 16th 2008

A social movement has been growing in Spain, breaking the 30-year pact of silence on the enormous atrocities and genocide carried out during and after the fascist coup led by General Franco. Continue reading »