Art Basel-Miami Beach -- what happened Thursday night?

I heard on the radio the feds raided some gallery exhibit and confiscated artworks because of a court judgment. But, hey, I wasn't there, though I see in the Miami Herald the marshals got some big-name artists. I managed to hit four widely separated independent events and made video snips of three of them. The fourth, the Sculpt Miami show in two open spaces on West 36th Street in Miami, needed more light to run my Flip camcorder, and I hope to be back there again to talk to Dimitri the sculptor/promoter about his display of huge works.

Meanwhile, here are clips from the NADA show in the Deauville Hotel on Collins Avenue at 67th Street. This was the first encroachment of Art Basel into North Beach, of which we locals are exceedingly proud. Look it up at this site.



I'll be adding more as soon as the lab finishes souping the film.

UPDATE: If you want to meet well-mannered pleasant young artists of the street variety, check out the show at Mamushka Gallery in Miami, 31 NW 36th Street, and quite a few other venues, too. I'm told there's a big show on 2nd Avenue Friday evening at 8 pm. Hope the weather permits.

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Yet more to come. Hey, lab! Get moving.

UPDATE II: Dashed to South Beach and hit the National Hotel just as Laurence Gartel was finishing his speech introducing his new work called Auto Motion. I swear he said it was the biggest thing happening at this Art Basel-Miami Beach -- the world's first computer-generated sculpture. Well, there it is in this video -- after some comprehensible art work in progress, thanks to Robert D. Harris of San Francisco and his easel and a painting in the throes of composition. Mr. Gartel's red plastic-looking work showed three, I think, automobiles in a pile with a ribbon all around. A knowledgeable organizer of the event said it had been composed on a computer-driven printer of some sort that put one thin layer upon another thin layer to build up the work of art over a long period of time.



And then to bed.

Part One: Health Care forum report for Obama-Biden Transition Team

Community Health Care Discussion, Miami Florida
December 15, 2008

[Most of the dozen participants were members of the North Beach for Progress group, which came together during the Obama presidential campaign. The group is continuing on an ad hoc basis. Its first major action was to call a forum on health care and report its conclusions to the Obama-Biden Transition Team. In three parts, this is the complete report.]

By Dava Michelson

Our meeting represented a diverse group of providers and consumers of health care; the professions represented were Medical Doctor, Ophthalmology, Acupuncture, Medical Qigong & Chinese Medicine, Homeopathy, Massage Therapy & Chiropractic. Among us were a retired journalist, computer specialist, lawyer, student, independent medical and health care practitioners and owner of complementary and integrative multi specialty clinic. Comments here represent everyone’s ideas, but not necessarily consensus; they also include those from people who were unable to attend the meeting but wrote in their ideas.

In discussing the problems with our current system and the changes we would like to see, certain themes emerged. We found ourselves coming back again and again to the question of: What is health care? What is the difference between promoting medicine as opposed to promoting health? What are our choices, and what are our responsibilities in regard to developing and maintaining our own health? How can the priorities of providing the service of caring for and responding to the needs of another human being be reconciled with the bottom line of the finance departments and stock holders? What is preventive medicine and the importance of expanding choice.

In outline form below is a synopsis of our concerns, observations, experiences and suggestions, followed by some of our personal stories.

COSTS
• Huge administrative costs and legal issues siphon off funds from health care
• As we tax cigarettes, tax certain foods that are now known to present health risks and use those revenues for health care
• Do not allow patents to be issued on naturally occurring substances, or products in common use for years, such as ayuvedic herbs.
• Apply UCR: usual, customary & reasonable pricing standard
• Insurance companies have created a system, not based on UCR, that forces practitioners to inflate charges… in one example, doctors having to charge $900 to get paid $72
• Control pharmaceutical advertisements and charges.
• Disallow price fixing by the drug & insurance companies. Disparity of pharmaceutical costs in the US vs. other countries. One participant paid $50 in Israel for a prescription that cost $300 here in Florida. Many people trying to go to other countries for their meds.
• Exaggerated costs of dental care need to be brought under control.
• One participant paid $12,000 in Colombia for medical procedures that would have cost $1,500,000 in the U.S. IF someone would agree to do it, but couldn’t get the surgery approved. She would have died if she had been limited to care in the U.S. (see Linda’s story below)
• Drs. and providers put in a position by insurance reimbursement policies to work to build up their billings rather than making decisions solely on what is best or necessary for the patient.
• Concerns with insurance greed in lobbying: good for insurance companies for medical costs to be high: more money, more lobbying power.
• A hugely excessive amount of time is required for providers to fight with insurance companies for payment. Even on pre-approved cases, it can take over a year to get paid, or be denied. One participant in private practice spent 3 days of her week working on insurance billing until having to hire someone to do this. Obviously her costs now must cover this extra time and salary.

CHOICE & EQUAL ACCESS
• We need Health Care Freedom of Choice, and for it to include alternative and complementary providers and modalities and other natural remedies.
• Independent research is necessary, rather than by pharmaceutical companies who have motive to skew research results and minimize or deny side effects.
• We are stating strong opposition to the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Provider Conscience Regulation, which allows providers to deny health services without disclosure based on personal moral beliefs. It simply must be repealed.
• People’s health care choices are severely limited by the lobbying of the AMA and pharmaceutical companies, which have prevented the availability and education of many forms of care.
• Make pharmaceutical televisions ads illegal (companies spend $10,000 per year per doctor, use of sorority girls to sell pharmaceuticals: put money towards doctor education

EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE & INTEGRATIVE CARE
• The emerging information technologies provide much promise and benefit, yet great care must be taken to make sure that we not become limited to information and research that makes it through only a certain filter of review. An outrageous example of this is my daughter’s pediatrician who was chastised and warned by those in charge of her group practice for prescribing alternative unproven medicine. Chamomile tea for mild stomach upset apparently is dangerous until it goes through scientific double blind studies, so the drugs that have a list of side effect disclosures are what must be prescribed. We MUST remain open minded knowing that tomorrow’s wisdom will prove things we are as of yet unaware. (See My mother’s 15 years of pain story below) Some wisdom has yet to pass scientific scrutiny; years of experience should not be reduced to “heresy”. There must be respect for empirical evidence.
• Many forms of complementary medicine, such as Homeopathy, Acupuncture and Chiropractic, are constitutional based medicines, treating issues in the context of the whole person; body mind & spirit. As such, treatments are individual; what works for one person’s headache will not be the right approach as for another. The efficacy of these protocols cannot therefore be evaluated through the current statistical model which requires the same treatment be repeatable.
• The training programs for MDs to be certified as acupuncturists are between 100 and 300 hours. While they may do some good with their training, it should not be considered equal or comparable to professionals who study 4 years in the current entry level Masters degree programs in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. One cannot understand or master an entire medical system in such a short time, the best they can do is use some of the tools of Oriental medicine in a western allopathic way.
• As such, it is imperative that as acupuncture and Oriental medicine is embraced and included in integrative practices, it’s design and regulation must not come from MDs, but from people FULLY trained in the field.

PROMOTING HEALTH
• While Western Medicine can be brilliant at fighting disease, promoting health requires a perspective shift from a disease model to health model.
• What helps people to want to be healthy? What can government do to create incentives for the public to be healthier?
• Start in the schools. As recycling was popularized by kids bringing the ideas and passion for it home from their learning and involvement at school.
• Promote physical fitness with mandatory PE classes in school.
• Expand our understanding and practice of PE (physical education) to include yoga, marshal arts, meditation, and self care)
• Create infrastructure that supports physical health such as: bicycle & walking paths. As we have a public library system, create public exercise facilities, and promote public transportation
• Promote healthy food choices and availability: teach kids better habits in school through nutrition classes, providing healthier food in cafeterias and removing junk food from vending machines. Investigate corporate influence in American Dietetics Association.
• Get McDonalds out of the hospital lobbies. Provide healthy food choices.
• Vegetable gardens in public schools and provide, promote victory gardens in cites and suburbs, plant fruit trees on public lands
• Promote air, water & food quality
• Create incentives at work for healthy life style choices: smoking cessation is an easy one to agree on, but things like food choices and exercise are so individual, trying to come up with a standard to reward people for is difficult but should be explored.
• Expand & support Second Harvest, and other food recovery programs. A blemished tomato, a broken chicken leg render these items unable to be sold and are routinely thrown away along with tons of perfectly good products whose expiration dates really do not render the products inedible at the stroke of midnight. This waste is unconscionable considering how many people are hungry and undernourished in this country.
• Funding of community health clinics that offer holistic and preventive as well as allopathic choices of care. These clinics should be as easily accessible as Starbucks!

[MORE: continued in following post.]

Part Three: Health Care forum report for Obama-Biden Transition Team

[This is Part Three of the report from the Dec. 15 Health Care discussions by the North Beach for Progress report.]

OUR STORIES:

Linda’s story:
In April 2007 I began having trouble defecating. Although I had health
insurance, my deductible was $5,000. I therefore paid cash ($600) for a CT
exam which was inconclusive. The colo-rectal surgeon who ordered the test
told me that I probably had a gynecological problem and to go to a
gynecologist. I then went to a gynecologist who told me I probably had a
hematoma and that I needed to consult a general surgeon.

I had a trip scheduled to Colombia and while there my symptoms worsened. I
visited a bio-energetic M.D. there who ordered a pelvic ultrasound, CT and
colonoscopy. They were all performed that the same day, and I left each exam
with results in hand. The next morning the bio-energetic M.D. reviewed the
results and advised immediate surgery to remove a mass in my colon. A
colo-rectal surgeon was added to the team and surgery was scheduled.

One hour after the surgery began my partner was advised that I had cancer
and that I would be given a colostomy and a 3 month life expectancy. My
partner, to whom I am not married, protested this conclusion and asked the
surgeons to consider another alternative. After discussion, the surgeons
agreed to attempt to remove all of the abnormal cells from my colon and
abdomen, but told my partner that I had about a 10% chance of survival.

The surgery lasted 9 hours and involved removal of a central mass, two 6"
sections of bowel, removal and reconstruction of the bladder, removal of the
cervix and 1/2 of the vagina, and removal of an ovary. During the surgery a
urological surgeon and a gynecological surgeon were called in to consult and
assist in the surgery. The urology surgeon actually found the second mass in
the colon. I received both allopathic and homeopathic medications during
the surgery, in intensive care and post-operatively. I spent two days in
intensive care and ten days in a private room in the hospital. My total cost
for the pre-op exams, 9 hour surgery, all physicians and surgeons, and
medications was about $12,000, paid in cash.

After returning to the States two months later, I was examined by physicians
here who all said that I would not be alive if I had stayed in the States.
Apparently malpractice insurance rules would have prevented the surgery from
being performed here because the chance of survival was so low.

I submitted receipts to my U.S. insurance company for reimbursement. They
reimbursed $3,800 of the $12,000 and have ignored requests for explanation.
Soon after submitting the receipts, I received a retroactive notice of
termination of my insurance. Three months of premiums were reimbursed with
the notice.
Two deaths:
My story is about how 2 beautiful women in my care died of end stage cancers. One was my mother who died in pain and anguish as the chemo drugs poisoned her body. The other was my dear friend Laurie who refused traditional western medicines and chose healing instead. She used herbs and diet to cleanse and balance her body and build her immune system, acupuncture and medical qigong to cleanse pathogenic qi, balance her body’s energetic pathways, build her immune system and relieve stress, therapy to resolve deep emotional patterns, and spiritual counseling to open to the healing of spirit. As my mother’s disease progressed, her skin became more and more grey and pasty, her eyes duller and duller. Laurie on the other hand, became brighter and clearer, her skin and eyes radiant. Neither wanted to die. My mother’s last days were filled with bitterness and pain. In Laurie’s last days she said she had never before experienced such deep love and peace. My mother was poisoned; Laurie was healed. Yet our doctors’ choices, under standard of care guide lines set by the AMA, the drug company lobby and the insurance companies, are limited to surgery, chemo and radiation. Chemotherapy, the use of poisons first developed in the concentration camps, and radiation whose “success” rates are limited; procedures that in some cases yes save lives, yet are often themselves the cause horrible pain and death; these are the procedures that insurance will pay for. None of the modalities that brought healing and peace to Laurie were covered by insurance. According to the insurance companies, supported by the drug companies and the AMA, these alternatives are considered “too experimental” and there is no “proof” that they provide value.

My healthy daughter’s inability to get health insurance:
While a senior in high school, my daughter was exhausted; typical of a teenager burning the candle at both ends and the middle, yet I took her to our doctor to make sure she was ok. While her blood tests were fine, he put her on a low dose of thyroid medicine as a test to see if she was in the beginning stages of sub-clinical hypothyroidism. In 3 weeks he determined that her thyroid was fine and she stopped the medicine. It was during those 3 weeks however that I applied for health insurance for her. I told the insurance agent about the test of medication, asked if I should wait until the test was over to apply, was told it was not going to be a problem, and a week later was denied coverage for “a pre-existing condition”. I called, I wrote letters, my doctor called and wrote letters all explaining the test of medication and it’s proof she is a normal healthy teenager who, as suspected, was tired because as most teenagers she needed more sleep! After numerous appeals, we gave up. About 6 months later I applied to another insurance company who this time denied her because she was previously denied by another insurance company. Followed more appeals and letters from the doctor, and this time copies of her complete medical records since she was born. Upon evaluation of her records, they now denied her on grounds of chronic depression. What? There is nothing in her experience or her records to indicate that. What was there was that she was frightened and depressed for a short while as her mother went through a mastectomy and began chemotherapy, a normal healthy response for anyone. Now my daughter’s records show that she has been denied by 2 insurance companies for a pre-existing thyroid condition and manic depression, none of which is true, yet I cannot clear her record.

My mother’s 15 years of pain:
When I was 8 years old I watched my father and brothers carry my mother up the stairs to her bedroom, screaming in pain. She was returning from surgery on a slipped disc in her low back, a surgery that is no longer performed because they discovered it caused more pain and damage than the condition it was meant to help. The doctors said there was nothing left but for her to live on painkillers. For years she took their prescription of Darvan Tran, until it was taken off the market when they found it caused irreparable nerve damage. For my entire childhood I barely saw my mother out of bed, and when she did move it was slowly, painfully in a full body brace; she had to crawl up the stairs. I went away to college and during my third year my mother called me one day, sobbing uncontrollably. It was the first day in 15 years that she felt no pain. She was off of her painkillers, out of her body brace, and capable once again of dancing with her husband. Nine months earlier, a friend began to pick her up and twice weekly bring her to a Chinese acupuncturist whose treatments healed her. Procedures unknown and unproven to western science, yet practiced and refined for thousands of years by cultures around the world.



Thank you for your consideration!

[Last of three parts of the report from the Dec. 15 Health Care discussion by the North Beach for Progress group.]

Call for help in Jim Martin's campaign in Georgia

This email just came in from Dan Jonas, head of the North Beach campaign group:

Dear North Beach for Progress:

I received a call today from the Martin campaign, asking that we make more calls.

If you have any time today, before 7PM, please go to ga.nationalfield.org, open an account, and start making calls. Florida is behind in the overall count of calls, so we need help.

PLEASE! This is the last day to do this, and we can win this election.

Daniel