Increase Medicaid Funds & Reauthorize SCHIP
While urging the Obama administration and the new Congress to immediately begin action to achieve comprehensive health reform, there are two key steps that can get the process rolling early in 2009. First, as part of an economic stimulus package, Congress and the White House can increase the amount of federal matching funds that go to states for use in the Medicaid program. Second, Congress can again pass a State Children’s Health Insurance reauthorization bill, with the expectation that President Obama will finally sign what President George W. Bush has vetoed twice.
Get started by telling the Obama transition team, www.change.gov , and the incoming Congress, https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml, to take these first two steps toward health reform in 2009!
Are Health Disparities Back on the National Agenda?
Speakers include:
-Cara James, Ph.D., Senior Policy Analyst, Race/Ethnicity & Health Care of Kaiser Family Foundation, Moderator
-Peter Bach, M.D., MAPP, Former Senior Adivsor, Office of the Administrator, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Associate Attending Physician, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
-Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), Member, House of Committee on Energy and Commerce, Chair, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Health and Environmental Task Force
-Brian Smedley, Ph.D., Vice President, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Director, Joint Center Health Policy Institute
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=3080
UPCOMING EVENTS: DETROIT, ST LOUIS, MICHIGAN
If you’re in the area, check out these healthcare events coming up in the next few months!
-Detroit, MI: Public Forum on Racial Disparities in Health Care
Monday, December 15th, 2008 5:00p.m.
Wayne State University
Law School Auditorium
471 West Palmer Street, Detroit, MI
Open to the Public
Sponsored by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission
For more information, please visit http://www.michigan.gov/mdcr
- St Louis, MO: Labor for Single-Payer Healthcare Meeting
January 10-11, 2009
The Crowne-Plaza
200 North 4th Street St. Louis.MO
Open to Labor Organizations
For more information and to register go to www.laborforsinglepayer.org.
- Michigan: Great Lakes Health Care Conference
Save the date and plan on joining MichIHCAN and Michigan Legal Services for a unique health care conference. For more information contact Gary Benjamin at gbenjamin@michiganlegal.org.
March 27-29, 2009
Call for Abstracts on Gender & Health
For AcademyHealth’s Annual Research Meeting
The Gender and Health Interest Group of AcademyHealth is soliciting abstracts describing cutting-edge research on Gender and Health for presentation at the 2009 Academy Health Annual Research Meeting on June 28-30 and the Gender and Health Interest Group Meeting to be held on June 27th, both in Chicago. Colleagues or students who are conducting health services or health policy research on women’s health or gender-based issues are encouraged to apply. Abstracts are due on January 15, 2009.
For more information go to www.academyhealth.org.
Time to Raise Women’s Voices!
President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team invites you to hold community forums about health care later in December to help finalize its recommendations for the incoming administration.
The “Health Care Community Discussions” are modeled on the platform committee meetings held by Obama during the presidential campaign and are designed to give the transition’s health policy team a chance to further develop ideas about how to achieve quality, affordable health care for all.
Former Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle — Obama’s designee to design health reform — outlined three problems that he sees with the health care system-high cost, limited access and uneven quality. But he invited suggestions on how to define the most pressing problems in health care.
“We want your views on what we need to do to build a better system,” he said. ” We want your exact ideas. What do you think we need to emphasize? What specifically should we be incorporating in this new reform effort?”
Go to www.change.gov to “sign up for a discussion in your home, sometime between the 15th and the 31st,” Daschle said. The health care policy team then will assemble all of the information and present it to Obama, and will also post it to the Web “for everyone to see as part of this transparent process.”
We encourage you to visit www.raisingwomensvoices.net for some ideas on what to say at these forums.
WEBINAR: NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON EQUITY & HEALTH
Save this Date!!!
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2008, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PST
The National Dialogue on Equity and Health will bring together health, civil rights, housing, environmental, economic development, mental health, women’s rights, transportation and immigration advocates along with unions and other key opinion leaders to begin a forum. The purpose of the forum is to create a cross sector dialogue to examine the intersections and objectives our organizations share as we work for the revitalization, health and human rights of underserved communities across the country. Sponsored by the National REACH Campaign to Interject Health Disparities into the National Policy Agenda
Moderator: Brian D. Smedley, PhD, Vice President and Director of the Health Policy Institute, Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies
Speakers:
Joseph Betancourt, MD, MPH, Director, The Disparities Solution Center, Massachusetts General Hospital
Maya Rockeymoore, MA, PhD, Director, Leadership for Healthy Communities
Judith Bell, President, PolicyLink
Nicole Lurie, MD, MSPH, Director, RAND Center for Population Health & Health Disparities
Register by visiting: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/181075099
Women less likely to get proper care for heart attacks
A recent study from Baylor College of Medicine shows a visible gender gap in the treatment of heart attacks, in terms of “Women are less likely than men to receive appropriate and timely treatment after being hospitalized for a heart attack and more likely to die if it’s severe.” As a result, women are twice more likely to die from massive heart attacks than men are. One of the reasons why men receive better healthcare services than women for heart attacks could be related to the stereotypical belief of heart attack as exclusively a man’s issue. In addition, women’s heart attack symptoms are different from men’s in a less obvious heart related way, for example nausea and vomiting. Encouraging further studies on the causes for this gender inequality, Dr. Hani Jneid, a Baylor professor of cardiovascular medicine and the study’s lead author, demands “I would have expected the gap to have closed by now. We need to do better.”
To read the full article, please visit:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6154484.html
A Report Finds Fault with US Healthcare Services for Teens
A recent report from National Research Council and the U.S. Institute of Medicine, shows how adolescents are usually forgotten in terms of healthcare, reinforcing the idea of “Adolescents have unique health care needs, and our health system should approach their care the same way it does children or adults.” Some important healthcare issues for adolescents are mental health, sexual health, oral health and substance abuse treatment, which are usually left out in healthcare reforms. In addition, some adolescents are either uninsured or underinsured, leaving them unable to receive mainstream primary care services. The reason why it is important to provide proper healthcare to adolescents is “…adolescence is a critical period for developing habits that build a strong foundation for health throughout one’s entire life, services need to focus on promoting healthy behaviors, preventing disease, and managing health conditions.”
For the full article, please visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/09/AR2008120901421.html
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