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Health Care

Doctors Emerge As Political Force In Battle Over Abortion Laws

August 1, 2023 Cassandra Jaramillo, Pro Publica. , , ,
In her eight years as a pediatrician, Dr. Lauren Beene had always stayed out of politics. What happened at the Statehouse had little to do with the children she treated in her Cleveland practice. But after the Supreme Court struck down abortion protections, that all changed. The first Monday after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling was emotional. Beene fielded a call from the mother of a 13-year-old patient. The mother was worried her child might need birth control in case she was the victim of a sexual assault. Beene also talked to a 16-year-old patient unsure about whether to continue her pregnancy. Time wasn’t on her side, Beene told the girl.

Shock Treatment In The Emergency Room

July 30, 2023 Maureen Tkacik, The American Prospect. , , ,
One of the nation’s biggest employers of emergency physicians is liquidating, in one of the more unruly sagas American medicine has experienced since the first wave of the pandemic. The collapsing entity is American Physician Partners, a private equity–owned operator of about 135 hospital emergency rooms and hospital-owned “freestanding” ERs in 18 states, which was co-founded by a sitting Republican congressman. Until two weeks ago, the company was by all appearances relatively indistinguishable from the other deeply indebted, private equity–backed mega-practices that staff ERs with round-the-clock physicians and “midlevels” (physician assistants and nurse practitioners).

Resisting Abortion Bans A Year After Dobbs

July 29, 2023 Justin A. Davis, Waging Nonviolence. , ,
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The culmination of a years-long political struggle between health care providers and right-wing politicians in Mississippi, the Dobbs decision overturned 50 years of legal precedent that guaranteed the federal right to abortion. Now that abortion’s legal status is left up to individual states, 20 have moved to restrict or ban abortion so far, especially in the South and Midwest. Many of these states have used so-called “trigger laws” that were already set to take effect if Roe v. Wade were ever reversed.

The Journey To Medicare’s 58th Anniversary

July 28, 2023 F. Douglas Stephenson, Informed Comment. , , , ,
The most successful U. S. health insurance program, Medicare, was enacted ln July,1965, to provide health insurance for people ages 65 and older and the disabled regardless of income or medical history. In the 58 years since, Medicare has become living proof that public, universal health insurance is superior to private insurance in every way. Medicare is more efficient than private health insurance and is administered at a cost of 3 percent to 4 percent, as opposed to private, for-profit health insurance, which has for-profit/administrative costs above 15 percent. Medicare’s costs have risen more slowly than those of the private health insurance industry.

Biden Says There’s No Blockade; Tell That To Yemenis Who Need Medical Care

July 27, 2023 Shuaib Almosawa and Sarah Lazare, The Nation Magazine. , , , ,
Sana’a, Yemen - Raneem Isa Muhammad Jaber dreams of swinging in a playground or participating in a popular pastime called sahlilah, in which children use cut plastic containers to skate down a hill. “I want to play all the games, but I can’t,” said the 11-year-old, who has suffered since birth from a skin condition that leaves black spots all over her body and an itchy and painful black tumor-like growth that covers her backside. “I can’t sit down, I can’t walk, and I can’t sleep.” She lives in the Yemeni port city of Al Hudaydah, which opens to the Red Sea. Her family is poor, but used to scrape together funds—often provided by local donors—to travel to India, the most affordable nearby option for medical care after years of war decimated Yemen’s health system.

Why Hundreds Of Decades-Old Yet Vital Drugs Are Nearly Impossible To Find

July 25, 2023 Geoffrey Joyce, The Conversation. , , ,
Past public ire over high drug prices has recently taken a back seat to a more insidious problem – no drugs at any price. Patients and their providers increasingly face limited or nonexistent supplies of drugs, many of which treat essential conditions such as cancer, heart disease and bacterial infections. The American Society of Health System Pharmacists now lists over 300 active shortages, primarily of decades-old generic drugs no longer protected by patents. While this is not a new problem, the number of drugs in short supply has increased in recent years, and the average shortage is lasting longer, with more than 15 critical drug products in short supply for over a decade.

Activists Rally For East Palestine Residents To Get Free Health Care

July 23, 2023 Mike Valente, WTAE. , , ,
Joy Marie Mann was not expecting a large crowd Friday night, but she was heartened that some of her close friends and fellow activists traveled from across the country to meet ahead of a health care rally in Ohio. "They're just very passionate people who are just very caring and support nationally improved 'Medicare for All' and believe in human rights," said Marie Mann, a health care activist from Harrisburg. In between interviews, speeches and a short candlelight vigil, Mann and the other activists at Schenley Park spoke to each other about their plans to attend a "Medicare for All" rally in Lisbon, Ohio.

Rural Healthcare Disparities Are Greatest In United States

July 23, 2023 Ken Terry, Medscape. , , ,
There are more healthcare disparities between rural and urban residents of the United States than between rural and urban residents of 10 other developed countries, according to a new study published July 7 in JAMA Network Open. Using data collected by the Commonwealth Fund for its 2020 survey of 11 advanced nations, the researchers analyzed the information for differences between the rural and urban participants in each country, looking at 10 indicators in three domains: health status and socioeconomic risk factors, affordability of care, and access to care. According to the paper, "The US had statistically significant geographic health disparities in 5 of the 10 indicators, the most of any country, followed by Switzerland (4), the UK and Australia (3 each), and France and Germany (2 each).

Accessibility Lawsuits Bring Slow But Steady Wins For Disabled City Residents

July 13, 2023 Bianca Gonzalez, Next City. , , ,
In 2019, just months after New York City opened the new, eye-catching Queens library to much fanfare from the design world, local library patron Tanya Jackson filed a lawsuit against the library and the city. As architecturally interesting as the library was, her lawsuit claimed, it was inaccessible to her and other patrons who use mobility devices. In May 2023, city officials filed another lawsuit—this time against the architectural firm, for “professional malpractice” in developing inaccessible designs. “It’s really a shame,” says Sharon McLennon-Wier, the executive director of the Center for Independence of the Disabled of New York and a blind Black woman, in an interview with The New York Times.

Doctors Walk Out In The NHS’s Biggest Strike To Date

July 13, 2023 Afroze Fatima Zaidi, The Canary. , , , ,
Hospital doctors in England staged the biggest walkout in the history of the NHS on Thursday 13 July. The strike action over pay and staff retention involves an unprecedented five-day stoppage. Moreover, this is the latest in eight months of industrial action across the NHS, which has been reeling from over a decade of Tory cuts. On a picket line outside London’s University College Hospital, junior doctor Arjan Singh said: The NHS has been running on goodwill and now this is the last chance to change that. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Singh described the demand of £20 per hour for junior doctors’ pay as “very reasonable.”

Nurses In Texas And Kansas Strike For First Contract

July 12, 2023 Seth Uzman, Labor Notes. , , , , , ,
Through wet weather in Wichita, Kansas, and scorching heat in Austin, Texas, hundreds of nurses walked picket lines June 27 in a one-day strike for safe staffing and patient safety. Nearly 2,000 nurses represented by National Nurses United (NNU) walked out. They’re trying to get the company to bargain in good faith after winning union elections in the last year at the three struck locations: Ascension’s two campuses in Wichita and Austin’s huge Ascension Seton Medical Center, where 900 nurses work. “Our patients are being shortchanged by management, because they are short staffing our units,” said Monica Gonzalez, a medical-surgical nurse and 19-year veteran of ASMC.

Health Workers In South Korea Prepare For Nationwide Strike

July 12, 2023 People's Health Dispatch, People's Dispatch. , , ,
The Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union (KHMU) has announced a nationwide strike starting Thursday, July 13, unless the government responds to their demands. The trade union has been concerned about staff shortages and low wages for years and is now prepared to escalate action as President Yoon Seok-yeol’s administration continues to ignore the issues faced by health workers. In a recent press release, the KHMU emphasized that the strike aims to defend the lives and health of the people, in collaboration with citizens. Trade union officials also stated that during the strike, they would address the existing problems in the healthcare system, emphasizing the danger of a collapse in essential and public healthcare due to a lack of health workers.

Nonprofit Hospitals Reap Big Tax Breaks; States Scrutinize Spending

July 12, 2023 Andy Miller and Markian Hawryluk, KFF Health News. , , ,
Pottstown, Pennsylvania — The public school system here had to scramble in 2018 when the local hospital, newly purchased, was converted to a tax-exempt nonprofit entity. The takeover by Tower Health meant the 219-bed Pottstown Hospital no longer had to pay federal and state taxes. It also no longer had to pay local property taxes, taking away more than $900,000 a year from the already underfunded Pottstown School District, school officials said. The district, about an hour’s drive from Philadelphia, had no choice but to trim expenses. It cut teacher aide positions and eliminated middle school foreign language classes.

Unionized Psychiatrists Say Maryland Provider Violated Labor Law

July 10, 2023 Colleen Grablick, DCist. , , , ,
Unionized psychiatrists and nurse practitioners at Cornerstone Montgomery, an independent behavioral health care provider with dozens of locations across the D.C. region, are accusing management of unfair labor practices, arguing that recent policy proposals would sacrifice their ability to care for patients. Represented by the healthcare worker union 1199SEIU, psychiatrists and nurse practitioners say that Cornerstone Montgomery has tried to “drastically” increase the number of appointments on the providers’ calendars, which would decrease the amount of time each practitioner can spend with their patients, and how frequently they meet.

The People Are The Builders Of The Brazil’s Unified Health System

July 8, 2023 Gabriel Brito, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Brazil’s 17th National Health Conference brought a significant portion of the social mobilizations that led to President Lula’s electoral victory to the federal capital Brasilia. It was a rare opportunity to see all, or almost all, the social struggles from different corners of the country in one place. The National Health Conference represented an important gathering point for different activists and generations, highlighting the long-standing challenges in the pursuit of social justice. The National Health Conferences are spaces for activists and the population at large to conduct dialogue with the government and influence the priorities and working of the Brazil’s famous Unified Health System (SUS).
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