Argentina, and the economy

Very early this morning local time, after debating for 14 hours, the Senate in Argentina approved a marriage equality bill. The President has promised to sign the bill, so Argentina now becomes the twelfth country on four continents to have marriage equality. This happened despite the Catholic and Mormon churches publicly opposing equality. Viva Argentina!

Meanwhile, here in the US, our Senate has decided to remove ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, from the calendar of scheduled votes. (ENDA would prevent employers from firing a worker simply because he or she is gay, lesbian or transgendered - yes, that is still legal in most of the US.) With elections in November, the Senate is afraid to vote on anything controversial - like equality.


I got another reminder today of how the bad economy, and the screwed up US health care system, affect my patients. I saw a middle aged diabetic woman today who had her blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes under good control last year. This year her diseases all all a lot worse. It turns out that her hours were cut back at work, so her paycheck is smaller, and her co payments for medications went up. So she can't afford two of her blood pressure medications or her insulin. But if she goes into a coma or has a stroke her hospitalization will be covered. How idiotic is that?