Health Care

Will The Pandemic Treaty Deliver Global Health Equity?

April 30, 2024 People's Dispatch. Educate! COVID-19, Health Care, Pandemic, World Health Organization (WHO)

The next round of Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) negotiations for the Pandemic Treaty began on April 29, following two years of discussions. With the treaty text set to be finalized at the World Health Assembly at the end of May, uncertainties persist regarding the current state of negotiations, marked by numerous unresolved issues. The main question remains: will the Treaty genuinely fulfill its promise of equity and justice, or will it merely pay lip service to these ideals? In an effort to delve deeper into these concerns, Jyotsna Singh of People’s Health Dispatch interviewed Dr. Alexandra Phelan, a global health lawyer and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Half Of Rural Hospitals Are Operating At A Loss

April 16, 2024 Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez, In These Times. Educate! Health Care, Hospitals, Medicaid, Medicare, Montana, North Carolina, Report, rural communities

In a little more than two years as CEO of a small hospital in Wyoming, Dave Ryerse has witnessed firsthand the worsening financial problems eroding rural hospitals nationwide. In 2022, Ryerse’s South Lincoln Medical Center was forced to shutter its operating room because it didn’t have the staff to run it 24 hours a day. Soon after, the obstetrics unit closed. Ryerse said the publicly owned facility’s revenue from providing care has fallen short of operating expenses for at least the past eight years, driving tough decisions to cut services in hopes of keeping the facility open in Kemmerer, a town of about 2,400 in southwestern Wyoming.

People’s Health Assembly Calls For Transformation Of Health Systems

April 16, 2024 People's Dispatch. Create! Argentina, Health Care

The 5th People’s Health Assembly (PHA 5), held in Argentina from April 7 to 11, deepened discussions on the much-needed transformation of health systems. Since the adoption of the Alma Ata Declaration in 1978, health systems have increasingly strayed from the goals of Comprehensive Primary Health Care and Universal Health Care, becoming victims of financialization and corporatization, the activists warned. “Health goals have been subjugated to shareholder values, market fluctuations, and financial failures,” commented Nicoletta Dentico of the Society for International Development (SID) during the Assembly.

Stop Attacks On Harm Reduction In Idaho

April 13, 2024 Princess Harmony, Workers World. Educate! Drug War, Harm Reduction, Health Care, Idaho

Harm reduction is exactly that: a reduction of the harm that can potentially be caused by drug use. For some, harm reduction includes trip sitting — having a sober friend watch over them, either in person or through emergency hotlines such as Never Use Alone, while they use drugs. For others, it can include distribution of information on how to identify fentanyl and xylazine with test strips. Providing clean and safe works — called “drug paraphernalia” by the government — is another key piece of the harm reduction puzzle.

In Palestine, Healthcare Is Also A Form Of Resistance

April 1, 2024 Sophia Assis, People's Dispatch. Strategize! Gaza, Genocide, Health Care, Israel, Palestine, Solidarity

When we talk about the strength of the health system, we are talking about these highly educated and dedicated professionals who are also a sort of resistance. If you need to exterminate a population because you want to take its lands, healthcare workers are the first ones to be attacked. We see that not only in the case of health care, but also in the case of cultural and intellectual figures, journalists, professors, and scientists, who have been murdered. They represent part of people’s needs; if you have a tactic of extermination, they are the first targets. That’s what we have seen during all Israel’s attacks on Gaza. It’s not new.

The UAW’s 2028 National Strike Should Center Medicare For All

April 1, 2024 Jonathan Michels and Will Cox, Jacobin. Strategize! Auto Workers, General Strike 2028, Health Care, Medicare, Unions, United Auto Workers (UAW), Worker Rights and Jobs

The United Auto Workers (UAW) are laying the groundwork for workers across multiple sectors to join them in a general strike on International Workers Day, May 1, 2028. UAW president Shawn Fain’s call to utilize labor power — four hundred thousand working members and six hundred thousand retirees make up the UAW alone — for the “good of the entire working class” is a major departure from business-as-usual unionism and represents a potential game changer for social movements to secure public goods, including Medicare for All, that extend beyond the shop floor.

A New Coalition Demands Healthcare And Justice For East Palestine

March 21, 2024 Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network. Organize! East Palestine, Emergency, Health Care, Joe Biden, Ohio

This Saturday, March 23, unionists and labor leaders, environmental justice groups, community organizers, community members from other “sacrifice zones,” and supporters from around the country are coming to East Palestine to join residents as part of the newly formed Justice for East Palestine Residents and Workers coalition. The coalition has come together in recent months and mobilized around the core objective of pressuring President Biden to invoke the Stafford Act and issue a major disaster declaration for East Palestine.

The Case For Universal Basic Food

March 16, 2024 Emily Settlecowski, Next City. Create! Food and Agriculture, food justice, Food Security, Health Care, Human Rights

Food is many things in our lives. It’s a cultural connector, bridging relationships with people, places, and our heritage. Food is medicine, providing us with nutrients integral to our well-being. It’s also a renewable resource; the way we grow, transport and consume food directly impacts our climate and local environment. Above all, food is a human right. Yet our food system only values food for one thing: profit. It’s become an industrialized machine that prioritizes cheap production and corporate gains over the well-being of people, local economies, and the environment. In this pursuit of maximum financial gain, food has been reduced to a mere commodity.

Prospects For Canadian Pharmacare

March 14, 2024 Ken Collier, Canadian Dimension. Educate! Canada, Health Care, Justin Trudeau, Pharmaceutical Drugs

Until February 2024, Canada did not have a pharmacare program. Even then, proposals for a universal pharmacare program were remarkably vague in political parties, media reports, and campaigning groups. Earlier federal interest in a universal drug program seemed to be fading, ostensibly on cost grounds. Just in time, the Trudeau government announced a rather weak and diluted pharmacare proposal a few days before the March 1, 2024 deadline to save the supply-and-confidence agreement between the Liberals and New Democrats, averting a possible election neither party wanted.

Demand Medical Care For Political Prisoner, Leonard Peltier

March 13, 2024 Workers' World. Resist! Congress, Health Care, Leonard Peltier, political prisoners

Leonard Peltier is still in need of urgent medical care. Your efforts, along with the strong advocacy of Leonard’s legal team and the Ad Hoc Committee, got the attention of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). However, BOP personnel informed Leonard that he will need to wait at least 8-10 months to see an eye specialist. This is unacceptable. The BOP has deprived Leonard of necessary medical care for decades and in doing so has sentenced Leonard to Death By Incarceration. Locked down for 22 hours a day in high security prison USP Coleman I, Leonard, who is almost 80 years old, suffers from multiple severe health conditions.

How Medicare Advantage Care Denials Affect Patients

March 7, 2024 Matthew Cunningham-Cook , Portside. Educate! Health Care, Medicare, Profiteers, UnitedHealthcare

In 2023, insurance behemoth UnitedHealth spent $8 billion buying back its stock to juice its stock price—and its executive compensation, which is tied to the company’s stock price. It spent 39% more on stock buybacks in 2023 than in 2022. In 2023, it also spent $6.7 billion on dividend payments—a 10% jump from the prior year. The company’s CEO, Sir Andrew Witty, pulled in nearly $21 million in 2022—a 13% hike from 2021. (His compensation for 2023 hasn’t been disclosed yet.) Also in 2023, UnitedHealth spent $10.76 million lobbying Congress.

Has The Global Healthcare Workforce Crisis Finally Reached A Tipping Point?

March 3, 2024 Veronica Nilsson, Equal Times. Organize! Health Care, Healthcare workers, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

There is a global healthcare workforce crisis. That healthcare workers are underpaid, overworked and physically and emotionally stressed is widely recognised in many countries. The wider crisis across many nations is well-documented by unions and international organisations. This week, a decision was made which promises concerted action to end the crisis. Health ministers and ministries from almost 50 countries signed up to a commitment to “address health workforce shortages by concerted action to train, retain, and improve the working conditions of health and care workers”.

How To Resist The Deliberate Medical Neglect Of Our Political Prisoners

February 29, 2024 Julia Wright, Black Agenda Report. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Health Care, Human Rights, Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoners

Dr Joy James asked a crucial question on a Guerilla University podcast which she co-hosted with Kalonji Changa on February 13th, 2024: " How does one organize a resistance against the medical assassination of our elders behind bars?" As abolitionists, we believe that there is no resistance without testimony and in this case without first person singular testimony about the reality of the hidden and daily torture of death by incarceration that Mumia Abu-Jamal calls slow death row. The common denominator that links all our political prisoners is slow death row.

World Health Organization Endorses Global Health And Peace Initiative

February 21, 2024 Chiamo Seraphine, People's Dispatch. Create! Health Care, Peace, World Health Assembly (WHA), World Health Organization (WHO)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has always included in its mandate the imperative to connect health and peace, as stated in the preamble to its Constitution. This commitment has been demonstrated through previous international interventions it has championed, such as the ‘Health as a Bridge for Peace’ concept in the 1990s and 2000s. Building upon this historical foundation, the Global Health and Peace Initiative (GHPI) was launched in 2019 with the support of Switzerland and Oman. The initiative aims to reinforce WHO’s mandate in this critical area. The GHPI aims to integrate the health sector into peace-building efforts, strengthening social cohesion and emphasizing an understanding of peace and conflict dynamics.

Public Pharma For Europe, A Game-Changer For Access To Medicines

February 11, 2024 People's Health Dispatch, People's Dispatch. Create! Big Pharma, Europe, Health Care, Patents, Public ownership

“It’s time to step up, promote health justice, and meet the real needs of people,” says Alan Silva from the European chapter of the People’s Health Movement (PHM), addressing the need for revolutionizing pharma policies in Europe. A long-time advocate for access to medicines, Silva understands how important it is for Europe to change the way it thinks about research and development, but also production and distribution of health technologies. If the region were able to de-link itself from the interests of transnational pharmaceutical companies, it would be a true game changer, he says. “We need public pharma in Europe so we can stop relying on health solutions driven by profit,” he says.

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