ci·Ci _) Gherkins! Get yer gherkins!... p. 8 · 31 January 1990 What's shak 1n': Vol. I Fire awayl No.13 Dr. Sex fields your ques­ tions... p. 5 MSU's alternative •What's Op ... p.3 •Scratch Dog Boy... p. 7 and •Review... p. 7 truly independent • Let us Entertainment you._.. p. 6-8 • Biting Provoc returns ... p.8 voice Poor service? Medical care for underprivileged lags An article published in the New Eng ­ · chances that the treatment wiU cure the by J. DOUGLAS WARREN land journal of Medicine titled. "Social patient against the cost of the treatment uR-1 Special Correspondent and Economic Factors in the Choice of both to the patient and the hospital. Lung Cancer Treatment" indicated pa­ This pressure to save money foJJows the Does society's upper class receive tients were treated more extensively if doctor to the bedside and puts them in an better medical treatment than the middle they · had private medical insurance uncomfortable position. Tomlinson said. class? rather than Medicare. This non-medical "On the one hand. they are obligated by Even if you have insurance. does your variable seemed to affect the amount and , their traditional ethics to be concerned economic standing in general make a type of treatment a patient would receive, only with the welfare of the patient.· . he difference in what kind of medical treat­ the study stated. said. "But. on the other hand. (they are) ment you will receive? E. R. Greenberg, author of the study. under pressure to control costs ... becom ­ Possibly yes. according to some re­ said cancer patients with private medical ing agents of the hospital or social policy searchers and medical · experts. that is trying to Having medical contain health care insurance does not cost. always insure that "The physician person wiH receive - who regularly pro­ the best and most duces lots of costs is ·extensive medical going to come under treatment available scrutiny by the for a major iHness. hospital." he said. such as cancer. But Denny Lar­ Sometimes. because son. a publfc rela­ of a patient's ·1ack tions coordinator of financial ability for Blue Cross and to make long-term Blue Shield of medical payments. Michigan. said he a doctor wiJl alter thinks "the two­ treatment. leve l health care ) "We (the United system probably States) have always went on somewhat had a two-JeveJ uR-1 illustration/BUNKY CORRIGAN .with the (insur­ health care system, ance) programs in insurance were more likely to be treated the past... but now we have reimburse­ but it's becoming more and more acCJte with possibly curative surgery. Among ment on diagnosis" to make things more than in the past." said Dr. Tom Tomlinson. those who did not have surgery. people · even. an associate professor in the Center for with private insurance were more likely · The question of cost creates an ethi­ Ethics and Humanities in MSU's Life to receive radiation. chemotherapy and cally moral conflict for physicians. Sciences department. other cancer treatments. Tomlinson maintained. The ability to pay - or the perceived Greenberg's study dealt with lung "Unfortunately, sometimes that pres­ ability to pay - does have an impact on cancer because the goal of the treatment sure produces decisions that go against the form of treatment patients receive. generally is just to lengthen the patient's the patient's best interest." he said. Tomlinson · said. In a hospital emergency Jife in absence of a cure. Surgery and While caught in this ethical dilemma. room. fOr example. "it is not uncommon radiation therapy each entail prolonged some doctors try to get aiore money for for patients' who can't show adequate hospital treatment and considerable their patients by reporting false diagno­ insurance to be transported to ... another expense; these factors may discourage ses or by misrepresenting the condition emergency room." he said. their use by patients who lack adequate or treatment. Tomlinson said. However. the time spent traveling to medical insurance. the study indicated. another hospital may be the ·extra time The physician. then. must w:eigh the See POOR· CARE, p. 2 needed to save the ,patient. ·~. 111a1t11t1t11-•~1awr.•1•1-11 That's Skary! Pickled Brown Betty brings their unique sound to EL . · aw9-lnsplring and all-encompassing by BETH CARTER word that skanks through their veins: uR-1 Music Correspondent ska. "Ska, it's what it's all about,• said It's your worst mother-induced Russell. 'We want to take it back to nightmare. It's that eyer-familiar its roots, to· just skanking, and have unpopular childhood dessert, with a some fun with that." malignant twist. As the only ska band in East It's Pickle Brown Betty - Lansing (to their knowledge), Pickle dessert gone bad. Brown Betty hopes to bring together 'We're not going to change the the separate band/groupie factions name; said guitarist Bill Zoyes. "It's that seem to have become the rule in supposed to grow on you, sort of like this town. athlete's foot: "Ska is basically about unity; like With three practices and one ·especially black and white unity; said show under their belts, Pickle Brown .Tomsik. "It doesn't matter who you Betty is not yet a household word. are - anybody can like our music: Having been together only two weeks.­ "Race isn't a matter; adds this pickle is really still only a gherkin. Shadomy. ·on the East Coast (at s~ uR-1photo/BETH CARTER Pickle Brown Betty, which con­ mod shows), you've got black skin­ With tastes running from Box car sists of Zoyes, vocalist/mover Scott heads, white skinheads, you've got Wiiiy and George Clinton to the Red Osbourne's "Crazy Train,· sounding . Russell, bassist Sean Shadomy, black mods and white mods, rudies, Hot-.chilll Peppers, Shinehead, like it was meant to be sak all along. '.. brassman Bill "Mr. Horns" Turner, all different types, not beating each AshbOne, and current East Coast They've even gone so far as to dig the percussionist Steve Tomsik and other up but bas'ically skanking and mod/ska bands like the Now, Pickle Skatalites "Freedom Sounds" from drummer Jacques Duskin, has having a good time: Brown Betty puts on a show that's 1963. already stirred-up quite a following, A good time, afterall, is what it's sure to please the whole family. Their Come and s·erve yourself up a after only their first show at Zolton all about. current set indudes some originals piping hot slice of Pickle Brown Betty House Jan. 20. "If it stops being fun,· said Zoyes. and such covers as Clinton's "Get Off this weekend at 418 M.A.C. And they owe it all to the unifying, 'We'll stop.· Your Ass and Jam; and Ozzy But please, be prepared to dance. Week in, week out - I have to shout! skirts••• Reader? Is George Perlas his boss? Speaking of cars - Greek letters Either video games are getting Better yet, brudder, Is George Perlas and symbols on the rear window are, easier, or you genetic defective bozos included in the stats? (One too many as far as I'm concerned, an open playing them are getting more stupid. brewskis in the locker room with invitation that says, "Run me off the In my video heyday, we blew Blake, perhaps). road!" At least, that seems to be the space aliens into cosmic bits and I guess the life expectancy of a loose translation. the squished the green guts out of mechanical fart reader couldn't be Provocateur Frogger on Grand River's electronic much longer than the time MSU IDEA twih. Nowadays, the big thing is to lasted. And how does it read those save the Princess. Silent but Deadly bombs·that over­ Let the slut Princess save herself! whelm you during a lecture? Hasn't Nintendo heard of Women's Inquiring minds want to know. Lib? I expect blood, guts and gore for Greetings, salutations and my hard-earned quarter! And another thing: You know that ·general ill-will to you, ya conform­ Better yet, maybe the Board of corner where you drive into Cedar ist snotrags. If last week's Per/es Trustees can save her. They seem to Village off Bogue Street? Haven't you decision didn't pull your lntensti­ be MSU's resident experts on blood, . wondered how long it'd be till some­ nes into shit-knotting balls, we've guts and gore. one pulling out got hit? You can't see got a few of our own digestive aids. to pull out, or so says my personal So pull out the umbrella and cover According to my idol and rumored chauffer. Not to mention that the line that dandruff-ridden bald head of father George Carlin, there are 15 of sight is always blocked by a gum­ <·>: ·:·:· >: ·:·: -:- :.: -:.: . yours, becauu the Provoc's back million yards of cattle farts yearly (they chewing blonde pulling pebbles out of :>~ <<<:>)< .... ·.·.·.·.·.·.·.· .·.·.·.·.·.·.·.·.· .· . .... ... .· .·.·.·.· .·.·.·.·.· ·.·.· ·.·.<·: to rain on your pa~e•.• know by figuring the amount of feed her ~ shoes, or a phlegm-hawking, they're given). honest-to-God evolutionary throw­ How much is the National Fart . back. Thoughts collected while scour­ Reader getting paid to tabulate the As for me, I can't even see over ing Pinball Pete's floor for stray flim-flam-fllllttts of livestock? Does the damn dashboard. quarters and peeks up passing MSU have its own Lifestock Fart ···:::::::::··· :·m·· ···· · · ·w111··: v·~·a4~:····:i:c 2· university Reporter-Intelligencer 31 January, 1990 From POOR CARE, p. 1 ·And." Tomlinson added. "that's not a good thing." About 37 million people in the U.S.