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HEALTH INSURANCE Our Health Insurance Schemes and Long-Term Care For several years, AAFI-AFICS has insisted that the coverage of long-term care by the health insurance funds of our Organizations must be the subject of a complete revision. These demands have so far met with only partial success. The coverage offered by some of our funds for nursing care and associated needs (such as getting up and going to bed, toilet, eating, etc) in retirement homes and specialised medical establishments, is quite inadequate. This is either because ceilings for benefits are far too low or because benefits are degressive, or both. AAFI-AFICS notes that in certain schemes, ceilings for reimbursements are still degressive, and decline after six or twelve months. For long-term care, especially for aged persons, this is totally illogical and incoherent. Moreover, in Switzerland, although our health insurance schemes have insisted that their cover conforms to federal laws (Law on Sickness Insurance, “LaMal”), the restrictions on reimbursements sometimes do not conform to legal requirements. For home care, while treatment by nursing staff is covered by our funds, there is often no provision for help in matters like getting up and going to bed, toilet, eating, etc. AAFI-AFICS insists that health funds to which retired persons have contributed throughout their careers, and to which they continue to contribute, do have the obligation to provide adequate cover for expenses made necessary by their state of health. In 2004, AAFI-AFICS will focus its efforts on finding urgent and satisfactory solutions concerning - the total suppression of degressivity in benefits for long-term care; - the fixing of ceilings for expenses which are in line with actual costs in specialised establishments; - the acceptance of responsibility, in ways to be worked out, for certain non-nursing care at home; - the harmonisation of benefits paid by various health insurance funds for long-term care. December 2003 The AAFI-AFICS Committee 44
OTHER NEWS GENEVA CEREMONY At midday on 24 October 2003, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Mr Sergei Ordzhonikidze, inaugurated a monument 3 created to honour staff members who have given their lives for peace and in defence of the ideals of the United Nations. The monument is made of a large granite stone pointed towards the sky; next to it sands a weeping willow tree. The weather itself was in mourning: a gray and sad sky and a strong, freezing "bise" kept the audience to modest numbers. However, several members of AAFI-AFICS attended, including both the outgoing and the newly elected Chairmen. We all had a special thought for our three Geneva-based colleagues who lost their lives in Baghdad. In our last Bulletin, we paid tribute to Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations Special Representative in Iraq. He had been appointed High Commissioner for Human Rights in September 2002 and his mission to Iraq was only temporary. M. Sergio Vieira de Mello, 55 years old, was of Brazilian nationality. He leaves a widow and two grown-up sons. Nadia Younes, Egyptian, 57 years old, also died in Iraq, where she was the Chief of the Cabinet of Sergio Vieira de Mello. She was well known in Geneva as the spokeswoman for WHO, where she was the Executive Director for External Relations. Jean-Sélim Kanaan was only 33 years old but had already served on numerous missions to Somalia and Sarajevo. He was assigned to Kosovo where he worked for Bernard Kouchner, and in Iraq to work for Sergio Vieira de Mello. Last year he published a book "Ma guerre à l'indifférence" (Editions Robert Laffont, 2002). Of dual Egyptian and French nationality, he leaves a young widow and an infant son. The annual UN Day concert, offered to the staff of Geneva-based UN organizations by the Canton and City of Geneva, took place the same evening. The Lausanne Chamber Orchestra played music by Haydn and Kurt Weill. DIETARY, OR NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS Dr Samy Kossovsky "Health from nature", "Always young thanks to food supplements", "Antioxidants in food" are some titles from a wide range of published material. An intake of vitamins, of oligo-elements (zinc, selenium …), of various biological substances such as Ginkgo biloba, aloe vera, creatine, DHEA, melatonine, etc. etc. We are constantly encouraged to protect our health, to correct dietary or environmental deficiencies, to buy miraculous long forgotten but recently rediscovered products, and others revealed by revolutionary observation ("The vitamin revolution") which are claimed to be new. More generally, natural therapies (which are by definition good) are praised as opposed to "official", i.e. artificial – and therefore suspect – therapies. Why supplement our nutrition? Because, it is hinted, our normal food habits are lacking something which is essential, which the organism needs and which is, for some hidden reason, being withheld from us by unknown powers, 3 See photos on front and back covers. 45
Page 3 and 4: Vol. 62, No. 5 Décembre - December
Page 5 and 6: Mais je le fais d’autant plus vol
Page 7 and 8: NOUVELLES DE NOTRE ASSOCIATION DATE
Page 9 and 10: demandé à mes collègues de me re
Page 11 and 12: fonctions le 1 er janvier 2004. Dip
Page 13 and 14: éunis pour la protection de la pro
Page 15 and 16: etenue de 1,5 pour cent opérée su
Page 17 and 18: CÉRÉMONIES À GENÈVE INFORMATION
Page 19 and 20: contraignantes du droit internation
Page 21 and 22: Charles-Emmanuel I savait que s’i
Page 23 and 24: direction de la Porte Neuve, près
Page 25 and 26: la retraite et se jeta du haut des
Page 27 and 28: arrivaient au fur et à mesure des
Page 29 and 30: PETITS RIENS ET GRANDS MOMENTS Tous
Page 31 and 32: La plupart des étudiants entrés c
Page 33 and 34: foncièrement honnête et bon, inca
Page 35 and 36: for AAFI-AFICS by his exceptional e
Page 37 and 38: We have done this in varying ways.
Page 39 and 40: The Convention of Human Rights Curr
Page 41 and 42: He volunteered for the French army
Page 43 and 44: a U.S. National Commission for UNES
Page 45: een able to adjust itself in a flex
Page 49 and 50: Our Federation (FAFICS), which has
Page 51 and 52: conquest of Geneva was not only a p
Page 53 and 54: utter was a bloody death rattle. Me
Page 55 and 56: A grisly sight but the citizens saw
Page 57 and 58: watch over the car at night, and al
Page 59 and 60: floor; it will land on its edge, it
Page 61 and 62: They have probably never watched "S
Page 63 and 64: CENTENARY CORNER In Bulletin Vol.62
Page 65 and 66: NOUVEAUX MEMBRES NEW MEMBERS Octobr
Page 67 and 68: SUBRAMANIAN Muthu TRICKETT-BREUILS
Page 69: AAFI-AFICS VISIT TO NEW YORK From 9

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