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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1998)
Page A6 APRIL 15, 1998 (Che Jlorthuth (Ohsernrr Cl //= Express your love for Dad on Fathers Day .....by placing a personal announcement in the Portland Observer. Call Tony or Mary at 288-0033. (Deadline: June 6) J D a n o y o n a y o u r u ie o ill l o n g a d i s t a n c e f r a l e s ONE PLUS I k r c a lk ( ALL DIRECT CALLING CARD FREE DIGITAL MOTOROL A PAGER li v e r y o i l i e r O n e P lu s L « U iro n » k o in e , (i (. cn/A • M in u ie . 9, P rn M in u te s o r w i ll lo s t A H o lker rails w ill cost /( J (fc U ti * M in u te . ’,7 .A \ A t 2 4 H ou rs a D ay, 7 Hays a W eek A n y w h ere in the U S A ! A sk me how ? Eartha Kitt, Dr. Billy Taylor A n d Andrew Young Are Profiled In “Ageless Heroes, ” Joe Paterno, Helen Thom as, M erce C unningham , Among Those Spotlighted Ageless Heroes, a one-hour speeial capturing the spirit, vi tality and potential o f men and w om en who have achieved success and continue to do so beyond the age o f 65, will be telecast on I’BS, W ednesday. April 29, 1998 (9 :0 0 -1 ():()() PM, E l ) (cheek local listings). Among the "h ero es” to he sa luted are singer/dancer/actress Eartha Kitt; jazz m usician l)r. Billy Taylor; and civil rights ac tivist and form er ll.N . A m bassa dor Andrew Young. Ageless Heroes was directed, produced and w ritten by Bud G reenspan, Emmy and Peabody A w ard-w inning film maker rec ognized internationally for his in spirational film s and books about the Olym pics and its ath letes. KCE l/llo lly wood is the presenting station. The film is fully funded by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and the independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield com panies. Campaign Helps Reduce SIDS Deaths Call 1-800-683-4238 for JeUil. “A SA V IN G S YOU C A N SEE"! Ageless Heroes. Award-winning jazz musician and educator Dr. Billy Taylor (left), legendary entertainer Eartha Kitt (Center), and Andrew Young (right) former Mayor o f Atlanta and civil rights activist, are three of the men and women profiled in "Ageless Heroes," a one-hour special challenging the myths and misconceptions of life after 65. Photo credits: left: Carol Weinberg: center: Jesse Frohman n.iSN <Mruwi« This month Oregon joins other states across the nation in the annual "Back to Sleep" public awareness campaign aimed at preventing Sud den Infant Syndrome. •SOME BOO-BOOS, A KISS CAN'T FIX. Over the past four years. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) rates have been cut nearly in half. In Oregon the number o f SIDS eases fell from 91 in 1993 to 52 in 1996. The reduction is attributed, in part, to the "Back to Sleep” campaign. “ Back to Sleep" encourages parents and caregivers to place infants on their back when put- ting them to sleep. The impact o f this sim ple intervention in re d u cin g SID S death has been d o cu m en ted in n u m erous re search studies. Regence BlueShield Introduces a New Managed Care Plan Regence BlueShield plans to launch a new managed care plan this April, a move the company says delivers on its pledge to respond to marketplace needs with innovative ideas. Bryan Heinrich, the company’s executive director, said the man aged care plan, called RegeneeCare, will be available in most of Western Washington this April. The new plan, a wholly-owned subsidiary < Regence BlueShield, replaces tl company’s “HMO Washington.’ The plan will feature: * Dedicated member service teams; * A 24-hour nurse line; * Strong, traditional HMO ben efits; * No deductibles; * Coverage while traveling When King County Medical Blue Shield and Pierce County Medical Bureau, Inc. merged last year, the new company promised it would be gin immediately to find ways to bet ter serve customers with new and innovative products. "When we looked at the different plans we were able to offer our cus tomers, we knew we needed to go back to the drawing board on HMO Washington,” Heinrich said. “So, we wen, directly to our customers and asked them what they wanted in a managed care plan and that’s how we built RegeneeCare.” Heinrich also emphasized that RegeneeCare now gives his com pany a second managed care plan that can be offered alongside Selec tions, Regence BlueShield’s fast growing point-of-service plan. More than 350,000 Washington residents are now covered under Regence BlueShield Selections. “Employers want choices and they need to be quality choices that are cost efficient and still offer the benefits their employees need to keep themselves and their families healthy,” Heinrich said. “With RegeneeCare, we have the perfect product companion for Selections. So, when an employer is looking for health plan offerings, we become the perfect one-stop shoppi ng expe rience for managed care plans like RegeneeCare and Selections, in addition to our preferred or tradi tional plans and our dental cover- age. Regence BlueShield is the lead ing health plan in Washington, pro viding health care coverage to more than 1.1 million subscribers in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap, Clallam, Cowlitz, Columbia, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, Thurston, Wahkiakum, Walla Walla and Yakima counties. Tobacco’s threats carry less weight in Senate Polio. Measles. D ip h th e ria . W hooping Cough. The fact is, once a child contracts a scary disease like this, there's not much a parent can do. It's up to the doctors. And fate. Which makes it inconceivable that 33% o f Oregon children still aren’t fully immunized by the age o f two. Yes, School law requires they be immunized by kindergarten. But unfortunately, that law also creates the perception that it's okay to wait until then People don't realize that waiting puts their infants at risk lln im m unized infants are not protected Therefore, they are more likely to get diseases and to have severe side effects from them. Truth is, 80% o f all vaccines can be given by age two Safely. All it takes is four quick visits to the doctor Meaning you must follow through with all the shots. They don't have to cost a lot either. Most important, don't be afraid to ask your doctor, nurse practitioner or health department questions. And keep track o f your child's im m unization schedule. After all, the one who can best take care o f your baby is you. FREE IMMUNIZATIONS AVAILABLE APRIL 19-25. lo r more inform ation about free clinics in your area call 1-800-SAFENET ( 1-8OO-723-3638) or in the Portland Metro area call 306-5858. Bring your child's im m unization record to the free clinic. Call your local health department to see i f chickenpox vaccine w ill be available. N S O R The tobacco industry is huffing and puffing and threatening to blow down tough anti-smoking legislation, buttheonce-malleableCongress does not seem very frightened. President Bill Clinton, upon his return from Africa, on Friday morn ing predicted the cigarette compa nies will ultimately realize they are better off accepting a legislative so lution, even one not to their liking. “With each new revelation of the strategies which have been vigor ously pursued to market cigarettes to children, I think they have an enor mous interest in trying to reverse the record of the past, to try to put this unforgivablechapter behind them and to start off on a new path,” Clinton said. The industry made another bid to keep part of that past under wraps on Friday, again petitioning the Supreme Court to block the release of 39,000 highly sensitive documents that Min nesota wants to use in its tobacco lawsuit, now under way. The tobacco industry is still push ing for the deal it negotiated last June with state attorneys general suing them. In exchange for $368.5 billion in payments over 25 years and adver tising and marketing concessions, the industry would have gotten immu nity from class actions and other po tent lawsuits. Ironically, the attorneys general — who took on the gigantic industry against the odds when Congress would not — are also still lobbying for a deal close to what the tobacco companies want. They fear that if Congress pushes too hard, legisla tion will collapse, health concessions will not get made, kids will keep smoking. And although they do not talk about it very much, states would not get billions in settlement funds. But the more Congress looked at the deal the states struck, the less they liked it. In fact, many Demo crats and Republicans ended up dis gusted not just with the June 20 deal, but with the tobacco industry itself. “They just don’t deserve any im munity,” said Sen. Judd Gregg, a conservative New Hampshire Repub lican who sponsored a nonbinding but politically significant resolution opposingeivil legal immunity forthe industry. It carried 79-19. Now, the Congress that has his torically accepted enormous cam paign contributions from cigarette makers, that just last year was whit tlin g down tobacco taxes for children’s health and refusing to al locate money to enforce new teen smoking rules, is considering anti smoking legislation so sweeping that the industry claims it will run them out of business. The Senate Commerce Commit tee this week by a startling 19 -1 vote approved a bill drafted by Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., that would raise tobacco prices $ 1. 10 a pack in five years and expand government regulation of tobacco and nicotine. Its 25-year price tag is more than $500 billion.