Interesting, yet sad, article on US HIV policies

I tried looking for new stats, but can't find them. The first article is 2005. Australian Bureau of Stats didn't help sorry...

 Written by :Pele


And with the Native's here, alcoholism and their diabetes tend to play into making things worse.

Is 'Natives' PC in the US?
I know Australia's gone through a lot of changes. I don't think Aborginals can be used... you can describe someone as as Aboriginal, but 'Aboriginals' or 'Aborigines' isn't...
Indigenous Australians is what I have to say in all my case reports.

So, how about the US?

The PC term in the U.S. is Native American. But then again, I've had a few tell me that they prefer to be called "Indians."

Where does 'Red Indians' come from then?

(I know nothing about American history so this is interesting)

Columbus and his possie were trying to get around the world to India, when they landed on the eastern shore of America they thought they'd found it. Thus when they met the red-skinned natives they called them the Red Indians, and the name stuck even after they realised the mistake.

Actually, they thought they were in India, they called them Indians.

It wasn't until after the Spanish and French joined in that they called them "Red Indians".

I wouldn't be holding Australia up as a bastion of greatness when it comes to refusing to admit people with various disease; I don't know whether it's a blanket ban or discretionary, but anything that might cost Medicare will exclude you from immigration here too.

You have X rays when you apply, any sign of TB, tough luck until you get it sorted. I read an article about an English doctor who was about to emigrate here - until they found out he had a disabled daughter who required extensive hospitalisation - his visa was revoked. I have a friend whose husband has quite serious Crohns disease, although she's in a high demand industry and can easily find corporate sponsorship, she is being put on the "we'll call you if a vacancy comes up" list, in other words she's excluded.

Check out Form 1071i "Health Requirements For Permanant Entry to Australia" from the immigration website. "only TB is mentioned in migration legislation as precluding the issue of a visa", however, the list of other things which can also be used are Hepatitus, HIV/AIDS and obesity-related problems. They're very upfront about saying that you will not gain entry if you are going to cost us anything, prove a risk to public health or prevent an Australian resident from accessing the health system that you are going to tie up.

"Obesity-related problems" ???

Wow.
Yup..I think that trumps the U.S. AIDS ban

"Basically if someone is obese (in a doctors eyes), they also have/will get, diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis, heart disease, sleep apnoea, hormone and fertility problems, fungal skin problems, mobility problems..." - that's harsh. "can get"/"may get" etc would be ok, but saying that all obese people have or will get all of these is really going a step too far. I know you're a medic and you have seen all of these, I for one have yet to see how all obese people have or will get fungal skin problems for example

I guess I'd be happier if they said "you can immigrate if you can prove you can provide for private health insurance" - keeping out people with hearing impairments for example seems pretty harsh to me. They probably cost less than a lot of the people they don't exclude, and you don't need a new hearing aid prescribed every 2 weeks anyway.

No, not everyone who is obese will get all these complications... it was and/or. the ellipse was meant to signify it was a list, sorry

It was my way of saying, people with obesity are a ticking time-bomb. And it is HIGHLY likely that they will cost the health system a lot of money.

This isn't the obesity discussion thread, so I won't talk about it here anymore...

I don't think you can force people to get health insurance... excluding people because of inability to buy insurance is then letting in the rich and ignoring the poor...

And the hearing impairments are for under 21s. So I'm guessing this is because children with hearing impairments need to go to special schools and have community health nurses and speech pathologists and other specialists to help them, not just the hearing aid.

Like the visual impairments... I have worse than 6/36 vision, but it is correctable. If it wasn't, I'd have to have modifications for my home, which the government subsidises. I'd get special schooling, and respite camps, and braille computer keyboards etc etc.

I think that keeping people out of countries for reasons other than protecting the current population from infection is morally suss. But then I support global communities, not national ones.

Is letting in the rich and shutting out the poor worse than letting in the healthy and shutting out the sick? Especially if that policy is based on "will they cost the state money" - surely it'd be better to have someone who can pay lots of taxes and their own insurance... and yeah, you can force people to be insured, happens in a lot of countries for running a car, happens when people want to study in the US, etc (my MALE friend even had to bring proof that he'd be insured if he got pregnant. No kidding.)

Generally, the same countries want people to immigrate who are highly qualified and therefore not exactly poor. So it would be much easier for them to increase their financial (or insurance) status or pay for their own medication than it would be to get rid of their poor hearing/eyesight/etc, and "if you don't fit the health requirements we'll still let you in if you prove you're not a risk" might work well.

Anyway. Do NZ test for Hepatitis etc?

"Do NZ test for Hepatitis etc? "
Well, above it says that they don't allow residency for those with hepatitis so I'm guessing they test for it.

I would really like to know about it.. like, do they do physical exams then only specific blood tests for some? or do they o full blood count, liver function tests etc for everyone??

I'm really not sure.

And I haven't 100% decided on the sick v poor thing. In terms of a country, I guess the worst thing is infectious, because that affects their current population. Then sick vs poor may be comparable, though sick AND poor people would come first...

I don't know... I'm guessing most people move to improve their situation, and not to improve and contribute to the new country.

And with forcing insurance.. thats forcing everyone with a car... or everyone who goes to uni. Not a specific subset of the population...
Especially since people in Australia kinda already pay for health via taxes... so if they had to but Health insurance then they wouldn't pay Medicare fees I guess....