Saturday, April 21, 2007
And another can of worms
In a era of information overload, it is the media's judgment of just how important an issue is that makes the critical difference to how seriously average Americans will take it and what action they will be willing to support - especially if the action involves inconvenience, discomfort, or pain in the pocketbook. - Daniel Yankelovich
Television this week has used the Virginia Tech tragedy to launch a round-the-clock drive for ratings, while unseen Americans suffer and die each day from inadequate health care.
Someone should light candles in their memory, too.
[...]
We live in the only industrialized nation in the world that allows insurance companies to treat mental health as less "real" than so-called physical disorders and therefore restrict or deny coverage for mental health treatment.
Insurers are able to take advantage of our society's Puritanical belief that mental illness is a 'failure of will,' or that it's 'all in your imagination.' That's a false duality.
Labels: Cho, mental health
