Health Care and the 1%

Some years ago I went to work for PROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION then run by Leslie D. Michelson, a tough but fair marketing-oriented guy. Leslie left  in 2007 and founded a company called Private Health to help his clients " ... obtain the best possible health care.  We knew just how dysfunctional the health care 'system' was and have worked hard to develop the expertise, resources, systems and discipline needed to navigate it."

The article below, written by Joe Rago of the Wall Street Journal will be of interest to anyone concerned with the equities and inequities of health care specifically and of American economic life generally. This piece is very troubling to me yet it is on head-on. Like charter schools, Ivy League colleges or anything else that attracts an elite sub-set the argument reduces to one ethical conundrum: if you can't help everyone should you help anyone? A corollary is if you do so does or can society as a whole  ultimately benefit?

Friends - this is a dose of the salts.

http://webreprints.djreprints.com/46034.html

GIVING TUESDAY

Thanksgiving is  my favorite holiday. No presents. Lots of food. Unhappily it's followed  by "Black Friday" - that outpouring of retail frenzy - followed  by "Cyber Monday,"when the computer manufacturers, cell phone makers etc. unload the old  inventory and ring in the new. 

In an ambitious, well intended, possibly naive, but much needed new idea a small group of people (disclosure: I'm one of them) have started Giving Tuesday urging retailers and consumers to recognize the philanthropic  impulse that has always  inspired Americans by giving to the charity of their choice.

Please join us. Visit givingtuesday.org --

On Tuesday November 27, 2012, charities, families, businesses and individuals are coming together to transform the way people think about, talk about and participate in the giving season. It’s a simple idea. Find a way for your family, your community, your company or your organization to join in acts of giving. Tell everyone you can about what you are doing and why it matters. Join a national celebration of our great tradition of generosity.

And together we’ll create ways to give more, give better and give smarter.