Thank You, Patrick Kennedy

For the entire article, please follow the link to:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/28/AR2009042800059.html


Here is just a SMALL portion of the article...

Personal Low, Career Peak
After Drug-Fueled Crash, Patrick Kennedy Turned Focus to Mental Health-Care Reform
By Vincent Bzdek
Washington Post Staff Writer

Political aides counseled Rep. Patrick Kennedy not to mention the incident when he was campaigning for reelection in 2006. "Don't bring it up," they insisted, as Kennedy recounts their reaction. "Everybody already knows about it." Talking about it only reminded Rhode Island voters of other Kennedy family misdeeds and misfortunes, they said.

The incident was the pre-dawn drive the congressman took straight into a security barrier outside of the Capitol on May 4, 2006. At about 2:45 a.m., the bleary-eyed scion of America's royal family staggered out of his green 1997 Ford Mustang convertible and informed police he was late for a vote.

....

Fighting for Parity

After holding a nationwide series of field hearings on mental health coverage, Ramstad and Kennedy fashioned a new bill and presented it to the House.

And then they called in the secret weapon: Dad.

In the Senate, Ted Kennedy took up his son's cause, teaming with Domenici and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) to quietly forge a broad bipartisan coalition after gathering input from mental-health advocates, health-insurance industry representatives and private businesses. With Ted Kennedy pulling the levers, the parity bill cleared the Senate with no dissent in September 2007.

"There aren't any coincidences when it comes to the Senate with my dad around," Patrick Kennedy said. The House's more expansive bill passed six months later.

House and Senate negotiators were hammering out compromises between the two versions when the legislation stalled over differences on unrelated budget procedures. Kennedy began to worry that the bill wouldn't get finished in time for his father to see it happen. The 77-year-old veteran lawmaker is battling a cancerous brain tumor that required surgery last summer.

In Hyannis Port, Mass., recovering from his chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Ted got on the phone. According to Patrick, his father talked nonstop to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and others, wheedling and cajoling his way toward passage, asking them to find a way to bring it up for a vote on the floor during a crowded schedule.

As Congress rushed to adjourn last fall, the bill was attached to the first emergency bailout of the financial industry steaming its way toward passage in late September -- and passed both the House and Senate. The only senator who wasn't there to vote was Patrick's father, who has made only a handful of visits to the Hill since his tumor was diagnosed.

Federal officials say the law, which President Bush signed Oct. 3, will improve coverage for 113 million people, including 82 million in employer-sponsored plans. Beginning in 2010, insurance companies will be required to charge the same co-pays, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses for addiction and mental health treatments as those for all other illnesses. The legislation is expected to raise health-care premiums 0.2 percent to 0.4 percent on average and cost taxpayers about $3.4 billion over 10 years.

Ted Kennedy counts the bill among his greatest achievements as a senator. "I am enormously proud of Patrick's unwavering commitment to fairness and justice for all Americans struggling with mental illness," he said in an e-mail. "He is a true champion for the cause and a voice for the voiceless."

Patrick sent a note to his father the night after the bill became law. He wanted his thanks to be written down, something his father could forever hold and keep.

"Because in a sense," he explained, "in his fighting for it, he was fighting for something that was not only important to me, personally, as a son, but he was fighting against the stigma and shame that I've always felt at being 'lesser than' because I've had this illness. And that meant the world to me."

Vincent Bzdek is the author of "The Kennedy Legacy: Jack, Bobby and Ted and a Family Dream Fulfilled" (Palgrave Macmillan 2009), which is published today.

good media coverage of ED... warning: numbers/pictures...

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/30384936#30384936

Thank you!! GOOD COVERAGE to these deadly disorders...
LOVE that you spoke about Beauty and Health --redefining those labels. THANK YOU!

UPDATED POST! Miss Universe contestant "malnourished"??? How about ANOREXIC?!

***edit to this...The Today Show had another show on this topic today (Friday, April 24th) and did a really good job of highlighting the dangers of "too thin"... Thanks, Today, for not letting this fade into the background... Peace! ~K


I am not surprised, I suppose...but really, really disappointed in the comments regarding Miss Universe's contestant from Australia. Folks, at 5'11" and 108 pounds we're WONDERING IF SHE IS TOO SKINNY?? And doctors are calling her "malnourished"??? When I was 5'7" (and 1/2 if we're going to be talking about numbers here) and DYING from my eating disorders, I WEIGHED MORE THAN 108!!!! My doctor, my friends, my family ---EVERYONE thought I looked grossly thin (except for people like the one woman who I worked with who said, "I don't think you're too thin; you're model-like thin...it looks good." ...and for the random men and women whose image of "hot" was as mixed up as they were.) What in the world is this QUESTION of "too thin??"


Anyone interested in a (polite) letter-writing campaign to The Today Show? What I wouldn't give to go on air to educate them and their audience (especially Deborah Miller, pageant director) about the DEADLY SERIOUSNESS of "malnourishment"! If it's not OK for babies to be malnourished, then why in the world would ANYONE in their mind (Ms. Miller!!) think that it is OK to be malnourished as an adult woman (ok, teenage 'woman' --19)?? Who in the world ever thought that a woman who is emaciated is SEXY or HOT!?! Side note: Has anyone who thought that (super thin = sexy) ever been in a long-term relationship with a woman who starves herself to be this "hot"?? ---if they have, I'm guessing after a few romps they ran as fast as they could to find someone who was healthy...because starvation is ugly --mentally, physically, emotionally, and especially relationally.

Let's get active!! Letter-writing campaign here I come!

peace all...and make no mistake: Miss Australia is an anorexic weight --not simply 'malnourished'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously.

Miss Universe Australia model too skinny?

At 5 feet 11 inches tall and 108 pounds, model is malnourished, doctors say

Reuters

updated 8:59 a.m. ET, Thurs., April 23, 2009

Australia's Miss Universe contest was thrown into controversy on Thursday with doctors and dieticians complaining a leading finalist was "skin and bones" and dangerously malnourished.

Sydney model Stephanie Naumoska, 19, was one of 32 contestants from more than 7,000 hopefuls to make the glittering final at an event promoting "healthy, proportioned, bodies."

"Bony or beautiful?" newspaper headlines said over photographs of a gaunt Naumoska posing in a red string bikini.

Health professionals said Naumoska, who is 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) tall and weighs just 49 kg (108 lbs), had a body mass index of just 15.1, well under the official 18 benchmark for malnutrition.

"She would be categorized as underweight and I would certainly want to be doing an assessment of her diet to make sure she doesn't have some type of eating disorder," dietician Melanie McGrice told local newspapers.

"She needs blood tests, diet analysis and an overall assessment."

Pageant director Deborah Miller said brunette Naumoska, who was defeated in the final by 20-year-old television presenter and model Rachael Finch, had Macedonian heritage, which accounted for her extreme thinness.

"They have long, lithe bodies and small bones. It is their body type, just like Asian girls tend to be small," Miller said.

But Australian Medical Association president Rosanna Capolingua, whose organization represents Australian doctors, said the contest should impose a minimum BMI cut-off of 20.

"The most unhealthy part about it, though, is the image it is showing other young women who may view this as normal, when clearly it s not," Capolingua said.

While Naumoska refused to speak to media, nutritionist Susie Burrell told the Herald Sun newspaper there was no such thing as a Macedonian body type.

Eventual winner Finch will compete in the Miss Universe world finals in the Bahamas in August.

Copyright 2009 Reuters. Click for restrictions.

URL: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30364743/?GT1=43001

MSN Privacy . Legal

© 2009 MSNBC.com

Horizon to cover eating-disorder patients

New Jersey's largest health insurer forced to pay $1.2M settlement

Thursday, April 23, 2009

BY JOE RYAN

Star-Ledger Staff

A federal judge has approved a class-action settlement requiring New Jersey's largest health-insurance provider to cover claims for treatment of eating disorders.

The settlement calls for Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey to pay $1.2 million to about 500 patients whose payments for anorexia and bulimia treatments were denied, said Bruce Nagel, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The agreement was approved Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge Faith Hochberg. It requires Horizon Blue Cross to classify eating disorders as a biologically based mental illness, compelling the company to cover eating disorders in the same way it covers physical illnesses.

"It's huge," said Harriet Brown, a member of the Academy for Eating Disorders and an assistant professor at Syracuse University. "This is closing one of the loopholes that prevent people from getting treatment."

A spokesman for Horizon Blue Cross declined to comment.

The suit was filed in 2006 by parents of children with eating disorders. Ronald Drazin, of Fair Haven, was among the original plaintiffs and heralded the settlement yesterday.

"For parents, it means their kids can get treated and not be thrown out of hospitals or resident treatment facilities," said Drazin, whose daughter, now 18, was denied converge for treatment of anorexia.

Horizon also agreed to pay $2.45 million in legal fees, Nagel said.

In 2006, a woman from Wayne sued Horizon after her daughter was denied coverage for anorexia, drawing widespread support from eating disorder experts. The women, Dawn Beye, has since joined the class-action suit settled this week.

Last year, Hochberg approved a settlement in a similar case against Aetna.

Joe Ryan may be reached at jryan@starledger.com or (973) 622-3405.

©2009 Star Ledger© 2009 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.

Katherine Sebelius --HHS nomination

The F.R.E.E.D. Foundation is thrilled at President Obama's nomination and of the Senate's recent confirmation of Katherine Sebelius for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Despite some of the controversies discussed during her nomination period and confimation hearings, her history of serving well the public in many areas, but especially health, make her a wonderful choice for the job.

Here's a link to some articles at CNN...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/31/sebelius.hearing/

...waiting to blog

Hello everyone --I've been waiting to breathe/waiting to blog. This year has been full of so many beautiful opportunities and challenges...including my blog being "locked" :)
I will be traveling in the next week for a little down time to visit a dear friend...a fellow writer...so I hope my days will be calm enough so that I find time enough to write here.
Looking forward to keeping the blog more consistent in 2009! ~ Peace be with you, Kathleen

STUDY ON Bulimia --participants needed

Hi all,

Researchers at Columbia Medical Center in NYC are looking for girls (13-19 years) with BN symptoms to participate in a very important study. We are trying to figure out what causes this disorder in order to prevent it from developing - so please help!! Compensation for participation is $100, and we also have options for treatment (free of charge). Please call Laura at 212-543-5316.