October 19, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Ethiopia: Insurance: State Politics: Times-Standard: Garamendi calls for national disaster insurance fund
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Ethiopia:
Special Report: California State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi:
April 4, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: RPCV John Garamendi (Ethiopia) :
October 19, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Ethiopia: Insurance: State Politics: Times-Standard: Garamendi calls for national disaster insurance fund
Garamendi calls for national disaster insurance fund
Garamendi touted his efforts at tackling disaster preparedness through a summit of state insurance commissioners that will seek to develop a National Catastrophe Insurance Program. The program would more effectively spread insurance risk and help survivors cope with the financial implications of natural disasters and acts of terrorism. John Garamendi is the State Insurance Commissioner for California. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia in the 1960's.
Garamendi calls for national disaster insurance fund
Garamendi calls for national disaster insurance fund
James Faulk
ARCATA -- State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi is speaking out against what he calls an ill-advised bevy of initiatives in November and a state and federal health care system in serious crisis.
Garamendi is seeking to become the state’s next lieutenant governor. He’s served in both the state and federal governments -- he was deputy secretary of the interior under President Bill Clinton -- and now he’s looking to translate that experience into the second most powerful elected position in the state.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Garamendi said, has wasted the most political capital of any governor in recent memory. He came in with a unique opportunity to build a coalition for reform but squandered that chance, Garamendi said in an interview before speaking at a Democratic meeting.
Schwarzenegger’s initiatives are wrong-headed and barely scratch the surface of the vast problems that face the state, Garamendi said, and they show a distinct lack of leadership.
Garamendi touted his efforts at tackling disaster preparedness through a summit of state insurance commissioners that will seek to develop a National Catastrophe Insurance Program. The program would more effectively spread insurance risk and help survivors cope with the financial implications of natural disasters and acts of terrorism.
With hurricanes Katrina and Rita still looming large in the nation’s rear-view mirror, the timing is right, he said.
”The ultimate toll of these hurricanes will be unimaginable in both loss of human life and financial ruin,” said Garamendi. “These tragedies make our work at the summit even more urgent. As insurers begin to sort through a deluge of claims, and as survivors confront the fact that some losses won’t be covered, it will become painfully clear that a single, national policy is the only answer.”
Garamendi said the “Air Force One insurance plan” -- where in times of disaster money falls from the sky, seemingly out of the back of the president’s jet -- is not adequate.
”We can do better,” he said.
In California, where perhaps the biggest risk is from earthquakes, Garamendi pointed out that more than 13 percent of homes are covered with earthquake insurance -- a figure that could be dangerously low with the advent of another temblor.
The national insurance pool -- which he said would effectively spread the risk and cost among a large, national number of clients -- would better serve the country in times of crisis.
Garamendi also spoke on the burgeoning crisis of the state and federal health care systems.
The current system is in a “death spiral,” he said, as the number of uninsured continues to climb and the nation continues to pour enormous sums of money into the system.
He advocated for a national health care system that is “effective and efficient,” protects the quality of care and allows for patient choice.
He said he believes a universal health care system with a single collector of the money, multiple private and public providers, a basic and uniform benefit package and sufficient information on medical provider quality is the only way to cure the ailing system.
His remarks preceded a dinner put on by the Humboldt Democratic Central Committee to honor 2005 Democrat of the Year Mel Kreb.
When this story was posted in October 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| 'Celebration of Service' a major success The Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' on September 29 in New York City was a major success raising approximately $100,000 for third goal activities. In the photo are Maureen Orth (Colombia); John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board. Read the story here. |
| PC apologizes for the "Kasama incident" The District Commissioner for the Kasama District in Zambia issued a statement banning Peace Corps activities for ‘grave’ social misconduct and unruly behavior for an incident that occurred on September 24 involving 13 PCVs. Peace Corps said that some of the information put out about the incident was "inflammatory and false." On October 12, Country Director Davy Morris met with community leaders and apologized for the incident. All PCVs involved have been reprimanded, three are returning home, and a ban in the district has since been lifted. |
| Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. |
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today. |
| Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong 170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Times-Standard
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Ethiopia; Insurance; State Politics
PCOL22652
69