Category: Public Health Issues - Part 31

Opinion: Colorado’s Health Care “Affordability Act” should be repealed

By Dr. Linda Gorman This year’s budget hearing documents show that officials at the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing rate a piece of legislation, the 2009 Colorado Health Care Affordability Act, as their most effective program. Official response to HB11-1025, a bill introduced to repeal the tax levied by the act, will make it clear whether state officials seek to serve Colorado citizens or special interests seeking to prey upon them. If truth in advertising applied to legislation, the act’s title would have landed someone in jail. In its first year, it raised health care costs by levying $340.9…

New law would require child-only health plans

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Major national health insurance carriers that have dropped child-only health plans in Colorado and throughout the country may be forced back into the childrens market if they wish to continue selling lucrative individual health insurance policies in Colorado. Childrens advocates, industry representatives and state officials have been meeting with lawmakers to draft a new law that likely will move forward in the coming weeks in the Colorado legislature. The measure has not been introduced yet. Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, will be sponsoring the measure in the Senate while Rep. Beth McCann, D-Denver and Rep. Ken Summers,…

Opinion: Colorado’s Health Care “Affordability Act” should be repealed

By Dr. Linda Gorman This years budget hearing documents show that officials at the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing rate a piece of legislation, the 2009 Colorado Health Care Affordability Act, as their most effective program. Official response to HB11-1025, a bill introduced to repeal the tax levied by the act, will make it clear whether state officials seek to serve Colorado citizens or special interests seeking to prey upon them. If truth in advertising applied to legislation, the acts title would have landed someone in jail. In its first year, it raised health care costs by…

For Milwaukee’s children, an early grave

Lakisha Stinson and her daughter, Rashyia, who was born last month and is healthy, live in a Milwaukee neighborhood where the rate at which African-American babies die is worse than Botswana. Read Report on JSOnline.

Traceability rule represents big adjustment for food industry

In response to a new federal food safety law and growing consumer interest, vast amounts of new data are being generated about the complicated path that food takes from field to supermarket shelf. Read Report on The Washington Post

Why a Gruesome Pennsylvania Abortion Clinic Had Not Been Inspected for 17 Years

While this weeks indictment involving a grisly abortion mill in Philadelphia has shocked many, the grand jurys nearly 300-page report also contains a surprising and little-noted revelation: In the mid-1990s, the administration of Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, a pro-choice Republican, ended regular inspections of abortion clinicsa policy that continued until just last year. Read Report from ProPublica.

Can Wal-Mart make us healthier?

What is the significance of Wal-Marts initiative to require producers to meet certain nutritional standards? What do we know about what works and what doesnt in changing peoples eating habits? Follow the discussion on the New York Times blog.

Posh Aspen provides dismal health coverage

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon ASPEN The mountain man drives up the aptly named Castle Creek Canyon in a beat up 1981 rust-colored Chevy pickup. He winds past massive multimillion dollar estates owned by California wine billionaires and Texas oil barons. Hollywood stars Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith own a home nearby, and tennis great Martina Navratilova lives up the road. Wearing a gas-stained Aspen Ski Co. parka from decades ago when he worked on World Cup courses, A. Paul Disnard drives as far as he can. Then, the jeep road becomes impassable, buried in several feet of snow. The 64-year-old…

CU docs may have to refund pharmaceutical cash, reveal tax information

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The University of Colorado’s medical school failed to police potentially unethical financial relationships between its doctors and drug companies, allowing faculty members to scoop up hundreds of thousands of dollars to give thinly-veiled marketing talks, often using the pharmaceutical companies’ own promotional materials. An internal review at CU found 46 full-time medical school faculty members had received money either to give drug talks or to consult for pharmaceutical companies. The university may force several of the faculty members to pay back cash they received or reveal tax information in the future to ensure they are not…

Record suicide toll rocks Colorado. Could altitude be to blame?

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The iconic Western cowboy has long enchanted artists and pioneers alike. Who could be more carefree than a man alone on his horse, herding cattle as jagged peaks tower overhead? The romance with the Rocky Mountain West is fundamental to our American DNA. Yet, there is a hidden peril for these mavericks and stoic ranchers, as poisonous as cigarettes were to the rugged Marlboro man. Depression and suicide rates are alarmingly high among ranchers and rural residents in Colorado. Throughout the state, Colorado has set an unfortunate record with the highest number of suicides ever recorded…