resolution of prostate problems+Chernobyl story

Dear Friends, Sorry again for long absence. I know that I always come up with fancy excuses for not posting on RubyJewsday but this one is legit. Last Tuesday,I had a prostate operation known as a Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) from a superb urologist named Dr. Simon Hall at Mt. Sinai Hospital, and now after several days in bed can report success in the art of peeing after more than a month of being able to do so only with the help of a catheter. Yes, I know there are probably readers out there shouting "Too much information!" and "uujay khvatit, ya eto nye hachoo znat" but hey, I feel like sharing, this is my soapbox and I'm feeling decent for the first time since February 27, when I had the prostate bioposy which unfortunately got infected and set off this whoile painful process. Anyway, I can pee again, and with an impressive stream that I haven't seen in several decades. More to the point, I'm alive, well and ready for the next challenge. I didn't totally collapse during the month I was sick, I actually wrote an article or two.

Here is one that appeared in this issue of the Jewish Week, about the unlikely alliance of Dr. Igor Branovan, Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny, with an important assist from power broker Gene Borsch, convincing the New York State Legislature and Gov. Spitzer to give $540,000 to allow members of the Russian community who mayy have been exposed to radiation during the 1986 Chernobyl incident to be screened for thyroid cancer.

Here is the article

The story is at once a noble humane gesture that is above reproach and an example of the community's new political power in the wake of B-K's election to the State Assembly--the first time New York State has funded a program aimed primarily at the Russian-speaking community. As Brook-Krasny points out in my article, the program will certainly save lives of people who might otherwise die of thyroid cancer if their cancer was not found in time, and, on that basis, it is almost impossible to criticize, which also makes the Russian communal establishment's pushing this as their first legislative priority as brilliant PR, brilliant politics, as well as an important humanitarian initiative. It is also undeniable that while not one penny of the $540,000 in state money will go to the mainly-Russian doctors who offer the screening, those doctors will enjoy a significant new revenue stream from the many people coming in for the screeing, or actually from their insurance companies, Medicaid and Medicare.

So some may ask whether this is something state government should be funding. Let me share here the response I received from Jeff Gordon, head of Gov. Spitzer's Budget Office when I raised that very question:

"The initiative you are referring to is an item that is for a legitimate public purpose that was negotiated with the legislature and will be paid for with resources they identified during negotiations. In his budget proposal, Governor Spitzer proposed reducing the growth of Medicaid spending in order to finance both expanded access to health care coverage for children and investments in primary and preventive health initiatives...A program like this is consistent with those objectives."

And this from the very same Spitzer who just a couple of months was insisting upon huge cuts in health care spending. And then the Russian community goes up to Albany, bends the very tough Spitzer and comes home with half a million dollars in NEW health care funding, and that is only for the first year--they will almost certainly ask for funding of this program for several years to come. A compelling blend of humanitarianism and VERY smart politics.