PRESS RELEASE
Contact Information: Sheryl Weinstein Public Relations
973-596-3436
National Healthcare Advocate from Harvard Med School To Speak at NJIT
NEWARK, Oct 16 2007
Obtaining adequate health care at reasonable cost is a national issue of great concern for the majority of people in the United States. It is also the issue that David Himmelstein, MD, founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, will address at NJIT’s Technology and Society Forum http://tsf.njit.edu.(ATTENTION REPORTERS: To attend the event, set for Nov. 7, 2007 from 3-4:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom, call Sheryl Weinstein, 973-596-3436.)
Himmelstein will discuss how the lack of insurance and other problems people face paying for care, endangers the health of millions.
More Americans lack health insurance today than at any time since the start of Medicare and Medicaid in the mid-1960s, Himmelstein said. Meanwhile, workers are paying a higher share of premiums (and larger co-payments and deductibles) as firms shift costs onto employees. Many of those with no, or poor, coverage forego care for potentially life-threatening symptoms such as chest pain or a breast lump. Women frequently delay prenatal care because they’re uninsured or unable to pay. HMOs often erect barriers to care, even in emergencies. For terminally ill patients and their families, the burden of illness is often compounded by financial suffering. About half of all bankruptcies involve illness or medical debts, said Himmelstein.
Himmelstein, associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, practices primary care internal medicine and serves as the chief of the Division of Social and Community Medicine at Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge. He received his MD from Columbia University and completed training in internal medicine at Highland Hospital, University of California San Francisco, and a fellowship in general internal medicine at Harvard. In addition to starting this Program, he serves as co-director of the Center for National Health Program Studies at Cambridge Hospital/Harvard Medical School.
The event is co-sponsored by the NJIT Technology and Society Forum Committee, Albert Dorman Honors College and Sigma Xi.
For more information about attending, contact Jay Kappraff, kappraff@adm.njit.edu or 973-596-3490.
New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey's science and technology university, enrolls more than 8,000 students in bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in nearly 100 degree programs offered by six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College, and College of Computing Sciences. NJIT is renowned for expertise in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering, and eLearning. NJIT: The Edge in Knowledge.
