Millions Condemned to Die as Health Policies Fail

[Karmadillo]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=571&ncid=751&e=1&u=/nm/20030918/hl_nm/environment_deaths_dc

LONDON (Reuters) - More than 80 million mothers and children will die unnecessarily over little more than a decade through misguided policies and lack of cash, aid agencies said on Thursday.

The Millennium Development Goals -- a series of objectives agreed by international bodies -- aim to cut child mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015 and maternal mortality by three-quarters over the same period.

But a report from the Grow Up Free coalition, which groups catholic aid agency CAFOD, Save the Children, Tearfund, EveryChild and HelpAge International, said misguided health policies proposed by the World Bank (news - web sites) and a lack of investment by national governments meant there was no chance of meeting the targets.

"Over the next 12 years, more than 80 million children and mothers will die if we fail to meet these goals. The Grow Up coalition challenges all those with the responsibility and power to prevent these unnecessary deaths," said CAFOD's head of public policy George Gelber.

more...

[PennyLane]

1. How Depressing!

It's been predicted for years. Now it is becoming a reality!

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. Population Reduction Strategies Really Work!

This is just one successful program, targeted food distribution control is showing some really impressive results in Africa!

[moof]

3. 200 million / 87 billion

The US has given 200 million to this effort at the same time it is asking for 87 billion more to supposedly help 24 million people in Iraq.

Interesting that while the $ 87 billion will probably only add to the ultimate death toll of Iraq which is still likely to be only a million or two at worst, the same 87 billion could well save tens of millions of lives world wide by the eradication of TB & malaria and possibly save tens of thousands of American lives by stopping the more virulent drug resistant types of TB before they are spread to the U.S. in numbers to large to stop.

FYI there are approximately 2 million TB deaths a year & 1 million deaths a year from malaria world wide. The fund hopes to cut this rate in half in ten years.

[Tansy_Gold]

8. and 140 million

just to one man -- Richard Grasso, now the EX-head of NYSE.

There has to be something wrong with a human being's mind if he/she can sleep at night on a mattress figuratively stuffed with 140 million dollars while tens of millions of women and children (you notice how it isn't MEN who are mentioned in this statistic?) die for lack of basic necessities.

(edit: correct numbers)

[RandomKoolzip]

4. SDIA: Social Darwinism In Action!

Hope you're happy, World Bank.

[Karmadillo]

5. Kick

n/t

[Mandate My Ass]

6. Should read: Millions condemned to die so a few can profit.

The report accused the World Bank's health development model, Investing in Health, of having diverted scarce resources away from broad-based and co-ordinated primary healthcare programs to far narrower projects focusing on cost reduction and with the responsibility shifted to the private sector.

They're just women and children, and poor ones at that. :puke:

[TahitiNut]

7. So many are totally unaware of basic economics.

It's almost axiomatic that, in a (hypothetical) free market, some number will be priced out of that market (backlogged). Thus, when basic human needs are left to unhindered market forces, some significant number of needs will not be met. When those needs are essential to life itself (e.g. food, health care), that leads to those people dying and being removed from the market backlog. The market then adjusts and finds more whose needs will not be met -- and so on. This is a market-driven death march -- and calls for market intervention when such needs are left to private, for-profit suppliers. This is the legitimate principle underlying such (potentially abused) programs as food stamps and agricultural subsidies. Sadly, the health care industry has nowhere near enough intervention -- and both the profits and costs continue to rise exponentially, along with the number of people priced out of that market. The 'march' is becoming a stampede.

A comprehension of these forces leads to probably the most significant argument for 'socialization' of health care.