HEALTH DISPARITIES BLOG

January 22, 2009

links for 2009-01-22

• Experts hope Obama will address health disparities
  Panelists who took part in a December 2008 webcast hosted by the Kaiser Family Foundation voiced optimism that as president, Barack Obama will work to eliminate ethnic and racial disparities in health care.
• Health Reform Passes! (In China)
  Under a plan passed Wednesday by the State Council, China is set to spend more than $120 billion in the next few years to build hospitals and clinics as part of an effort to provide basic, universal health care. The government will also subsidize insurance to extend coverage to more of its citizens.
• Cleaner air equals longer lives
  Dramatic improvements in U.S. air quality over the last two decades have added 21 weeks to the life of the average American, researchers reported on Wednesday.
• Obama pledged rural health care improvements
  Obama said he would address the disparity in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, in which rural providers often get paid less than their urban counterparts when they perform the same procedure.
• Blacks Less Likely Than Whites to Have Lung Cancer Surgery
  Among patients with lung cancer, black patients are less likely than white patients to undergo recommended lung resection, but the disparity in treatment does not appear to have an impact on outcomes, according to research published in the January issue of the Archives of Surgery.
• Black men hardest hit by joblessness in U.S.
  The recession has squeezed virtually all sectors and demographic groups. But black men, who have always faced higher unemployment rates than the national average, are taking a harder hit, data show.
• Access to healthy foods worse in poor areas
  People who live in poorer neighborhoods in the U.S. are less likely to have easy access to supermarkets carrying a wide variety of fresh produce and other healthy food, an analysis of 54 studies confirms.
• Health Blog : Will Obama Build on Bush Legacy in Community Health?
  As President Obama gets down to the business of increasing patients’ access to health coverage, some liberals in Congress are suggesting he take a page from the Bush administration’s playbook: expand community health centers.