Eideard

Under mounting pressure, the City University of New York board of trustees moved…to reverse its decision…to withhold an honorary degree from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner because of one trustee’s concerns about Mr. Kushner’s views regarding Israel.

Benno C. Schmidt Jr., chairman of the CUNY board since 2003, said in a statement that he believed the board had “made a mistake of principle, and not merely of policy,” in failing to approve the degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at its meeting on Monday. Mr. Schmidt scheduled a meeting for this coming Monday of the board’s seven-member executive committee, which has the power to reconsider any board decision that is detrimental to the university.

“Freedom of thought and expression is the bedrock of any university worthy of the name,” Mr. Schmidt, a former president of Yale, said in a statement. “But it is not right for the board to consider politics in connection with the award of honorary degrees except in extreme cases not presented by the facts here.”

CUNY’s reconsideration comes amid a spiraling uproar in the literary and arts community — where Mr. Kushner, the author of “Angels in America,” has many friends and supporters — as well as among the university’s professors and among civil libertarians and political activists. In letters posted on Facebook on Friday, the writers Barbara Ehrenreich and Michael Cunningham promised to return their own honorary degrees from CUNY in protest — though Ms. Ehrenreich added the cutting caveat, “if I can find it.”

Mr. Kushner…was removed from a list of 40 honorary degree candidates from all of CUNY’s campuses after one trustee, Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld, made an impassioned speech denouncing Mr. Kushner’s past statements about Israel and Palestinians, including a reference to “ethnic cleansing” during the formation of the state in 1948. Mr. Kushner, who was not present, has disputed Mr. Wiesenfeld’s characterization of his views, and said he is a strong supporter of Israel’s right to exist…

CUNY is the nation’s largest urban university, with 262,000 degree-seeking students at 23 schools and programs.

One of the trustees referred to the incident as “a rare pimple on the face of CUNY.”

I’d probably add that Mr. Wiesenfeld’s dedication to Israel’s politics and policies of Lebensraum are much more of a conflict of interest than anything from the rest of the trustees. More of a pimple on the ass of CUNY.

UPDATE: Kushner’s honorary degree ceremony is back on the schedule.

Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently underperforms on most dimensions of performance, relative to other countries. This report—an update to three earlier editions—includes data from seven countries and incorporates patients’ and physicians’ survey results on care experiences and ratings on dimensions of care. Compared with six other nations—Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—the U.S. health care system ranks last or next-to-last on five dimensions of a high performance health system: quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives. Newly enacted health reform legislation in the U.S. will start to address these problems by extending coverage to those without and helping to close gaps in coverage—leading to improved disease management, care coordination, and better outcomes over time…

We hope.

The most notable way the U.S. differs from other countries is the absence of universal health insurance coverage. Health reform legislation recently signed into law by President Barack Obama should begin to improve the affordability of insurance and access to care when fully implemented in 2014. Other nations ensure the accessibility of care through universal health insurance systems and through better ties between patients and the physician practices that serve as their long-term “medical homes.” Without reform, it is not surprising that the U.S. currently underperforms relative to other countries on measures of access to care and equity in health care between populations with above-average and below-average incomes.

But even when access and equity measures are not considered, the U.S. ranks behind most of the other countries on most measures. With the inclusion of primary care physician survey data in the analysis, it is apparent that the U.S. is lagging in adoption of national policies that promote primary care, quality improvement, and information technology…

For all countries, responses indicate room for improvement. Yet, the other six countries spend considerably less on health care per person and as a percent of gross domestic product than does the United States. These findings indicate that, from the perspectives of both physicians and patients, the U.S. health care system could do much better in achieving value for the nation’s substantial investment in health.

No surprise to anyone who cares enough about healthcare to spend time working at improvements.

Absent understanding, they have no realization of the fact that making better healthcare for all – also improves the likelihood of individual existing care improving as well.

Braly is head of the real Death Panels
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has called on health insurer WellPoint to stop dropping coverage for patients recently diagnosed with breast cancer, calling the practice “deplorable.”

In a letter dated April 22 to Angela Braly, WellPoint’s chief executive, Sebelius said she was “surprised and disappointed” to learn from a Reuters report that the company has specifically targeted women with breast cancer for aggressive investigation with intent to cancel their policies.

“As you know, the practice described in this article will soon be illegal,” Sebelius wrote. “The Affordable Care Act specifically prohibits insurance companies from rescinding policies, except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material fact…”

“WellPoint should not wait to end the unconscionable practice of deliberately working to deny health insurance coverage to women diagnosed with breast cancer,” Sebelius wrote in her letter. “I urge you to immediately cease these practices and abandon your efforts to rescind health insurance coverage from patients who need it most.”

Breast cancer is the second-leading type of cancer among women, has touched millions of families, and will affect one in eight American women during their lifetime, Sebelius wrote.

These are the “leaders” Republicans and their Teabagger flunkies relied on for guidance in their opposition to health care reform.

The crap politicians who support their policies should be assigned to cleaning the toilets in their cells.

If you’ve ever seen a Mafia movie, you know that playing nice with the mob is like having the tiger by the tail. It is no different for companies who do business in China, whether on their own or through partnerships. The latest one to experience the downside of this is eBay’s Skype, which has been taking some flack for privacy breaches in the region.

Citizen Lab, an Internet research group at the University of Toronto, released a report that shows text messages of Chinese Skype users were monitored and their messages blocked if they included political words such as the Chinese Communist Party, the Falun Gong, Tibet, and the great milk scandal. As a quick background, Skype and TOM teamed up in 2004 and in 2005 released a special software version, TOM-Skype. Since then Chinese users — some 69 million of them — have become a major part, roughly 20 percent, of Skype’s total install base of 338 million.

The report got so much attention that last evening Skype decided to respond. In a blog post, Josh Silverman (Check out my interview with Josh) tries to defend Skype and downplay its role in the China fracas:

Read the details of Om’s analysis. It ain’t long. It is cogent.

Seriously guys, these compromises are routine and will likely be commonplace. For for-profit entities (despite their slogans), China is a big, growth market and the promise of millions in future profits keeps them from making the right decisions for their shareholders. Sad, but true!

As political as I am, commerce is part of a whole equation involving nations and governments. History is another factor that I’m certain is automatic on Om’s part – as it is mine. Some cultures, many individuals, grow and learn to account for every reason why policies are what they are – and will change.

Whining isn’t good enough.