As long as the U.S. system has employers bearing the brunt of soaring health insurance costs (or avoiding them by not offering coverage at all), workers, companies, and even charities will be trying out different approaches to affording healthcare. Here are a few approaches that have made the news recently:
There were a few stories in the news this week related to items from previous Occupational Health News Roundups:
Kentucky legislators have inched forward on two bills highlighted in last weekâs news roundup: A bill designed to make social workers safer on the job, which initially provided no additional funding for staffing, now provides $2.3 million; a mine safety bill has progressed from committee to the House, but its original sponsor insists it has been âhijacked.â
Employees of Monsanto Chemical Co.’s Dayton Project, who were unknowingly were exposed to radiation as the worked on the atomic bomb in the 1940s, have received special status that will allow them to be compensated under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. Check this roundup for more on that program.
And on a related note: Based on a pattern of nuclear safety violations at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab, federal nuclear-safety regulators have fined the University of California $1.1 million.
Here are a few other news stories related to occupational health: