Now that it’s 2014, millions more people in the US have health insurance coverage (either Medicaid or private insurance), thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Two different Medicaid efforts in Oregon hold lessons about what it might take to turn expanded insurance coverage into better health outcomes.
Fast-food workers walk off their jobs and demand higher wages; workers from a Niagara Falls Goodyear plant have a bladder cancer rate nearly three times that of the general New York state population; and increased pork-plant production comes with more reports of worker injuries.
Labor Rights
FAMILY Act would reduce pressure on workers to choose between their jobs and their families’ health
New legislation from Senator Gillibrand and Representative DeLauro would establish a national insurance system that would replace a portion of workers’ wages while they take time off to deal with a serious health issue or care for a family member.
A few recent pieces worth a look
A new report finds most states spend a small fraction of their tobacco settlement and tax income on smoking prevention and cessation. Congress keeps cutting the ACA’s Prevention and Public Health Fund. An Institute of Medicine Committee recommends ways to assure we stop making these short-sighted cuts.
The owner of a factory where an explosion killed two workers is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10-20 years in prison; a reporter investigates deaths of young farmworkers since the Obama administration withdrew its proposed rule on child agricultural workers; and retailers have improved their Black Friday crowd control in the five years since Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death at a Long Island Walmart.
What do you say when your relatives bring up Obamacare during Thanksgiving dinner?
Food Safety & Nutrition
Worth reading: Child agriculture deaths, SNAP reductions, and a post-antibiotics future
Links to recent pieces on child agriculture workers killed on the job, imagining a future in which antibiotics no longer work, and various aspects of the inadequate US safety net.
Affordable Care Act
How many people can health centers serve? It depends on federal funds and Medicaid expansions
A new report investigates how many patients community health centers will be able to serve in 2020. The numbers vary substantially under different scenarios of federal funding and the number of states expanding Medicaid eligibility.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposes a rule that would make large companies’ injury and illness reports publicly available; Johns Hopkins Medicine suspends its black lung program after its activities are highlighted in a Center for Public Integrity report on miners denied black lung benefits; and an explosion at a Ciudad Juarez candy factory kills four workers.