(no subject)

[electricland]

A few weeks back bitch_phd was righteously irate on the whole pharmacists-refusing-to-fill-prescriptions-for-birth-control business. Someone commented thus:

The Hippocratic Oath is an anachronism. Healthcare is a business like any other. If the practice has maintained the trappings of humanitarianism, it is because a majority of the individuals who go into that field do so out of a desire to help others (and because it makes good PR sense to perpetuate the myth).

This moved me sufficiently to comment back, but because I was furious I didn't manage anything like a coherent or comprehensive argument in response. I'm happy to report, therefore, that No More Shall I Roam, who is new to me and also better informed, has posted Why the Free Market Doesn't Work for Health Care: Part I and Part II. Via Majikthise, who is hosting Carnival of the Un-Capitalists this week (subject: healthcare). Definitely worth checking out.

Ever get the feeling that there are great beasts out there in the currents that you're not aware of until a tentacle or three whips across your path? The great beast I've recently taken notice of is called The Market Rules All. Which, OK, isn't an especially well-hidden beastie, but things I've read lately have snapped a few tentacles into focus.

...I think it's time to abandon that metaphor. Anyway, the following have contributed to this recent awareness, and I do recommend them most highly:

The Corporation, by Joel Bakan (money quote: "Michael Walker, an economist who heads the Fraser Institute, Cato's Canadian partner, responded with an enthusiastic 'Absolutely!' when asked whether he believed every square inch of the planet should be under private control." But really that's just because that's where my photocopy of Chapter 5 fell open last week. Every sentence is a money quote.)
Dark Age Ahead, by Jane Jacobs, civic treasure

I find it interesting that really, it's a very recent notion that everything on earth can and should be bought and sold. When did that become so acceptable?

bitch_phd also has things to say about Naomi Wolf, or at least about an article that she supposedly wrote recently that supposedly called for a ban against abortion after the first trimester. (This is all at third or fourth hand now, so I'm reserving judgement.) The things she has to say are well worth reading, but I have issues with this bit:

When pro-choice feminists like Wolf, or liberal men, or a lot of women, even, say things like, "I'm pro-choice, but I am uncomfortable with... [third-trimester abortion / sex-selection / women who have multiple abortions / women who have abortions for "convenience" / etc.]" then what you are saying is that your discomfort matters more than an individual woman's ability to assess her own circumstances.

Really? Because I am very uncomfortable with several of those things, but the point about being pro-choice -- I think -- is that you support a woman's right to make her own decisions. I am very grateful that I've never had to make that choice. I also know that I don't have all the information about why any woman is seeking an abortion, and frankly it's none of my business. If she's decided -- based on her own circumstances -- that she wants an abortion, then she should be able to get one.

That isn't going to stop me from being squicked out by sex selection.

(To be fair to Professor B., she's talking about all this in the context of legislation against certain types of abortion, so I suspect we're on the same side here.)

I recently read Wolf's Misconceptions (borrowed from crankygrrl). While I thought it was painfully upper-middle-class-white-woman in its emphasis, it had some interesting things to say (and some things that shocked me -- USians, are you seriously telling me that maternity leave is unpaid? sheesh). Ultimately it succeeds well at what it really is -- a personal story about her own pregnancy journey.

Ramble, ramble. As always, apologies for the amorphous thoughts. I wish I could think in well-rounded paragraphs when I care about something, but what you get here is pretty close to the rough notes.

Comments

[texaslawchick.livejournal.com]

I read an interesting critique of the Hippocratic Oath recently, and I think it may have been at Alas, A blog, though it could have been in one of the bioethics blogs from Grand Rounds.

At any rate, the gist was that the Hippocratic Oath, at best, serves as a general guideline, since a lot of it is inapplicable. Stuff about Apollo, etc. Since we have to pick and choose what applies to us from the Hippocratic Oath, it's not as effective as a standard for ethical behavior in healthcare. It simply serves as a useful guide.

[texaslawchick.livejournal.com]

Oh, and is the book "The Corporation" at all related to the documentary of the same name? Because I saw it last year and thought it was one of the better documentaries I'd seen.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Yes it is -- the documentary was based on the book, or the book on the documentary, or something. I really need to check it out now it's on DVD.

[elissa-carey.livejournal.com]

USians, are you seriously telling me that maternity leave is unpaid?
Yup, some places just don't provide for it. They will "hold your job" for you until you come back, but that just tends to make women paranoid about the (imho, unfortunately real) possibility that it won't be there and go back to work all the sooner. (Which of course creates more stress at home and in regard to the baby, exacerbating all kinds of potential problems.)

There are more businesses that do provide for it, however, and will even give a kind of maternity leave to the mother's spouse (or even partner, possibly; I know Citigroup uses "partner" in regard to insurance coverage, at least) for even a short period of time. AFAIK, it's part of the Family Wellness and Leave Act. (I may be misremembering the name of the act, but it's very very close at least -- may have "Reform" as part of the name, and word order may be jumbled.)

[texaslawchick.livejournal.com]

It is quite excellent, and you'll find yourself wanting to buy carpeting.

Oh, and it depends on the company for maternity leave. It's only been since the early 90s that we were guaranteed to have our jobs when we got back from maternity leave. For me, if I were to get pregnant this month, I'd have to use up all of my accrued vacation (I think I'm at a little less than four weeks accrued right now), so it'd be about five weeks assuming I didn't take time off for stuff like doctor's appointments, and then my 6 or seven weeks of accrued sick leave. That'd almost take me to the 12 weeks off that I'm entitled to under the Family and Medical Leave Act, though I'd probably be entirely out of time off to, say, take care of my kid if he/she got sick.

Someone who hasn't been here as long as I have (just over 3 yeas) or gets sick more often or takes more vacations than I do wouldn't have as much paid time off, though they'd get the 12 weeks off unpaid.

There are some companies that do give paid maternity leave, but it's entirely at the discretion of the company to do so.

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

USians, are you seriously telling me that maternity leave is unpaid? sheesh

My company generally treats us well. But for maternity I get two months unpaid leave. (Although the law mandates I have to be given at least three months unpaid leave -- so I could leave for three months if I had to.) After the first 10 days, my company paid disability insurance should kick in at 60%, so it's not all that bad.

But yeah. Actually my husband, who works for a major finance company, has paid time off for this baby while I don't.

[monkeycommando.livejournal.com]

To confuse or clear up the US/Canadian maternity leave thing ...

In Ontario, the amount of leave _paid by your employer_ is quite variable--I have no idea if there's any standard. S will get 6 weeks of salary paid by her employer, after which she can take the remainder of the 50 weeks of Employment insurance-paid leave, where your gov't e.i. pays 55% of your salary up to a max of around $425 per week.

Were S self-employed (and not eligible for EI), she would get none of that, I think.

So is there something similar to the EI system in the US that pays family some money for maternity leave?

[raithen.livejournal.com]

OK, i LOVE the idea that you are considered "disabled" for having a child. My. God.

*Gasp*

[raithen.livejournal.com]

and I DO hope the sarcasm is evident in my earlier comment....

you know...

[raithen.livejournal.com]

While I thought it was painfully upper-middle-class-white-woman in its emphasis,

In the world of feminist criticism especially, though it also runs elsewhere (PoCo theory is one area that comes to mind), there is this idea that being privileged and writing ideas from the perspective of that privilege is always necessarily wrong. I am sorry, but Naomi Wolf *IS* an upper middle class white woman. For her to write a book with that emphasis offends me FAR less than it seems to you. I DO understand, of course, that marginalized groups do not always have the same access to a voice as more privileged groups within feminism, and that this can lead to an imbalance if their issues are not also addressed, and that as a result there is some onus on the part of those of us who are privileged to be aware of the issues of others and to write about them. But, I am sorry, criticizing a book for taking the perspective of the socio-economic class to which the author belongs seems fatuous at best. And far too common and easy a solution.

And whoo. Apparently you hit a button there :D.

Thanks for a thought provoking post!!

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

Well, on one hand it's accurate. I mean, you are not perfectly able to return to work the next day. I'm just glad that I count for disability. (I wonder if my supplementary disability insurance also covers me... I should check on that. That would get me up to nearly 100%, except I've gotten raises since I applied for the coverage.)

[electricland.livejournal.com]

So is there something similar to the EI system in the US that pays family some money for maternity leave?

As far as I'm aware, no.

The self-employed do get kinda shafted under our system, but ain't that the case everywhere?

I'm glad that EI went up to the full 50 weeks. I wasn't sure about that. I think it's a good change -- that first year is SO important.

Re: you know...

[electricland.livejournal.com]

And whoo. Apparently you hit a button there :D.

Apparently so!

You're right, I'm not being altogether fair to Wolf, and she even points out herself that her problems are not exactly ordinary and that lots of women have it much worse. It's certainly striking, though -- if women with (supposedly) every advantage have this much trouble with child care, whether to stay at home or go back to work, etc., how much worse is it for women who don't have a choice?

I did think it was a good book, honestly. Disturbing. I wonder if a Canadian has written anything similar? -- the models of care and the problems encountered would probably be quite different.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

So out of curiosity, how are you planning to use your time? Will you work right up until the birth, or take some time off beforehand?

And if you wanted to take more than 3 months off, I take it you wouldn't necessarily have a job afterwards?

and yay for your husband's company!

[electricland.livejournal.com]

That's what I've kind of picked up from various friends and acquaintances -- the decision whether or not to go back to work has to be made quite early on, and it has to be a painful choice either way.

I'm not totally familiar with all the ins and outs here, but I know the parents can get up to a year off in total (i.e., the mother can take 9 months and the father 3 months, or whatever combination) that's covered by EI, and the mother's employer has to hold her job (or provide a similar job in the same place at the same salary) for a year. Some employers will also give paid leave for some portion of that time.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Oy. That *cough* doesn't seem tremendously family-friendly.

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

I'm planning on being gone from my birthday (September 23 and my due date) until after Thanksgiving. I'll probably do some work -- check my email and keep up on a few things -- in that time, but out of my choice and my desire to succeed in the company. My company wouldn't screw me over, and I may have to leave or work from home earlier than that.

And yes. After 3 months my job would not *have* to be held for me. Since I provide my family with health care, that would be bad. Although we could elect Skarps' coverage.

Actually, Skarps and I are in about the best possible situation you could be in. We both work for companies that offer health coverage. We're covered by disability. We're well enough off that I could afford to have three months of no income. My company will not punish me for taking maternity time (I'm sure my sister's firing from her company 2-3 months after she gave birth was entirely coincidental...), and will probably be flexible about phasing me back in gradually. It doesn't get much better than this in the States.

[monkeycommando.livejournal.com]

I don't really have any particular complaints about the self-employed thing. Its a bit of a pain, but we don't have to pay EI premiums, and we all have the option of getting a straight job.

I have heard that in Quebec the combined maternity/parental leave is closer to TWO years. The downside is that our beloved headwaiter to the provinces has agreed that the federal government will contribute funds for the extra year, which seems like a huge rip off of non-Quebecers.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that leave in Quebec is paid for the whole time. And it may be that the mother and father are entitled to a year each -- not quite the same.

It's all very confusing. You'd think there would be rational straightforward information out there, but it's actually incredibly hard to tease out.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Yay for your company too, then!

I'm sure my sister's firing from her company 2-3 months after she gave birth was entirely coincidental...

Hissss. Oh, I'm sure it was!