HEALTH DISPARITIES BLOG

March 25, 2009

links for 2009-03-25

• Patient Money - Going Abroad to Find Affordable Health Care
• Report sees 'sobering statistics' on racial inequality
  Social and economic gaps between whites and blacks persist in the United States despite an atmosphere that led to the election of President Obama, an Urban League report said.
• U.S. signs UN LGBT statement
  The Obama administration has signed onto a United Nations official statement of support for “Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity.”
• The Health Care Blog: Two Birds With One Stone: Covering the Uninsured by Fixing Medicare
  The factors that feed our obese medical system are manifold. But three are especially troublesome. First, there is an unfortunate ethos within American medicine and society at large called “heroic positivism.” Essentially, it is the idea that the more we do to and for our patients, the more they gain.
• Local, State Health Departments Forced To Cut Services For Undocumented Immigrants Amid Economic Recession
  Reductions to public health and nonemergency services by state and county health departments in response to the economic recession have resulted in limited access to care for undocumented immigrants
• More Public Plan Bashing from the Insurance Industry
  Forget about single-payer, which would be the easiest, fastest and most efficient way to cover everyone so the necessary national dialogue over how to control costs can begin. Many liberals, most Democrats in Congress, and President Obama chose a milder approach -- creating a government plan to serve as a default option for anyone or any employer who can't find an affordable option in the private marketplace.