Get Active to Save Medicaid!
April 22, 2008
April 23 UPDATE:
Thanks to your support the bill passed! The final count was 349 in support and 62 against (20 didn’t vote). See how your Representative voted.
Also, read this Congressional report to see what was at stake: THE ADMINISTRATION’S MEDICAID REGULATIONS: State-By-State Impacts
Today, Tuesday, the House will vote on a bipartisan bill that would suspend harmful Medicaid regulations from being implemented – regulations that cut billions from Medicaid. Passing this bill would be a significant victory in our struggle to protect health care for our most vulnerable citizens.
The President has already threatened to veto.
“Is Inequality Making Us Sick?”
April 4, 2008
As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer in America, the gap between the healthy and the unwell also widens. Several weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released data showing that life expectancy for the most affluent group of Americans exceeds that for the poorest Americans by nearly 4.5 years or 6% on average.
- Health gains for the poor are decades behind those for the wealthiest Americans, whose life expectancy in 1980 was higher than that of the most impoverished in 2000.
“Freedom and Unity” and Excellent Health
February 28, 2008
If you’ve ever wondered which of our 50 states has the healthiest populace, wonder no longer – someone’s keeping track. For the first time in its 18 years of rankings, the United Health Foundation has placed Vermont at number 1. The Green Mountain State has been steadily climbing in the rankings since taking 8th in 2001, up from an initial position of 16th in 1990.
- Second place went to Minnesota, down from its 1st place finish the last 4 years and in 7 other years since 1990.
- Third place went to Hawaii, followed by New Hampshire, Connecticut and Utah.
Kids Get Worse Care
February 19, 2008
A study of children in a dozen metropolitan areas found that they got the recommended medical care from their doctors less than half of the time. This means that kids are doing worse than adults in this country when it comes to getting good doctor care. “Doctors did best with acute problems, such as upper-respiratory-tract infections, treating them correctly about two-thirds of the time. But with chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes, they gave the right care 53% of the time. The worst showing was in preventive care: 41%.”
The Return of the Cavity Creeps
February 1, 2008
Dental care seems to be experiencing the same cost increases that medical care is. Which may be why one in four children and adults - who aren’t necessarily low-income - have untreated cavities. At least twice in 2007, a child died from an infection caused by decayed teeth.
Unlike medical doctors, however, dentists’ salaries are actually rising, in part because their numbers aren’t increasing while the nation’s population is. Limited supply leads to high demand leads to the ability of dentists to charge higher prices, which they’re doing.
Mother at Age 8
November 13, 2007
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and there may be no better example of this than when a parent falls ill. As of 2005, nearly one and a half million U.S. children ages 8 to 18 care for a chronically ill or disabled relative. Their duties range from keeping the sick person company to taking on household responsibilities and medical care like changing feeding tubes or adult diapers. The effects of caregiving on our nation’s youth are seen in this story of a teenager helping her mother deal with Multiple Sclerosis. This family painfully demonstrates a gaping hole in US health care.
Election Results: RJ Reynolds Defeats Children’s Health
November 7, 2007
With the country’s election day 2007 now behind us, voters in Oregon have been defeated in their fight to expand public health coverage for needy children. Big Tobacco spent $100 million last year alone to fight cigarette tax increases and smoking bans on ballots in several states, winning in two states and losing in two others. Their recent campaign in Oregon against Measure 50, which would have allowed an 84.5-cent-per-pack cigarette tax increase, has broken that state’s spending record for ballots. Though the tax hike backers had raised over $1 million for their cause, mainly from hospitals and insurance companies, Big Tobacco spent almost ten times that, making a huge dent in the majority support that the measure initially had. Measure 50 was rejected by 60% of the state’s voters.
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