Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

Why All Immigrant Children Should Have Access to Health Care

May 24, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
pediatrician-health-care

A group representing U.S. pediatricians said last week that its members should pay special attention to the health care needs of immigrant children and support health insurance for all—regardless of legal status. "It doesn't make sense to have a policy that cares for kids but doesn't care for other kids. They are kids. They don't choose where to be born," said Dr. Gilbert Handal, who co-authored the new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Approximately 18.4 million—or one in every four—U.S. children are foreign-born or have foreign-born parents, ... Read More

More like this: Health
Tags: , , , ,

Now That the ‘DSM-5′ Is Out Can We Start Talking About the Effect It Will Have?

May 23, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
substance-use-problems

Editor's Note: The post originally appeared on The Fix, a Pacific Standard partner site. The newest edition of psychiatry's "bible" of diagnosis, the DSM-5, made its long-awaited appearance on May 18 at the opening of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) national conference in San Francisco. This revision of the DSM-IV took the APA more than a decade to produce, and unprecedented criticism dogged it most of the way. Because of the unique role the DSM-5 plays in the diagnosis of addiction—and, as a result, its influence on the allocation of billions of dollars for research, ... Read More

More like this: Health
Tags: , , , , ,

What Are New Retirees Most Concerned About?

May 13, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
health-costs

Health problems and the cost of health care are the biggest concerns for those entering retirement, according to a study released on Monday from Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch. The findings, part of a larger study focused on how people are feeling about and preparing for retirement, were based on a survey of more than 6,300 individuals aged 45 and older across the United States. Other concerns: outliving money, lack of personal savings, social security, and company pension. When asked what their biggest worry was about living a long life, 72 percent of retirees surveyed said serious ... Read More

More like this: Health
Tags: , , , , ,

The Big One

May 10, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
the-big-one-cow

One percent of all U.S. dairy farms produce 35 percent of America's milk. One American milk cow produces an average of 22,000 pounds of milk per year—up from 8,000 pounds per year in 1965. One percent of patients account for 22 percent of all health care spending in the U.S., costing more than $90,000 per person. One percent of all drivers on weekend nights have blood alcohol levels above 0.15, nearly twice the limit; such drivers are involved in over 20 percent of all fatal crashes. One percent of U.S. electricity consumption—the output of seven large electric power ... Read More

More like this: May-June 2013
Tags: , , , , , ,

The Other Health-Care Reform

January 7, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
dentist

Nothing rattles the mind quite like a toothache; anybody who’s suffered one can attest to that. What’s less appreciated is that poor oral health can throw the rest of the body into disarray as well. Research has linked gum disease with diabetes, heart and lung ailments, strokes, and premature births. Children who don’t see a dentist are more likely to miss school because of infected teeth and gums, and to grow into adults with serious dental problems. And missing teeth make it all but impossible to secure a middle-class job. Dentistry, it turns out, is destiny. It’s also a scarcely ... Read More

More like this: Health, January-February 2013
Tags: , ,

Is Sugar the Next Tobacco?

December 27, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Robert Lustig

Among the least likely viral megahits on YouTube is a 90-minute lecture by the food scold and pediatric endocrinologist Robert Lustig entitled “Sugar: The Bitter Truth.” He delivers it in a windowless room at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The talk is simultaneously boring and powerful, combining the gravitas of a national health crisis, the thrill of conspiracy theory, and the tedium of PowerPoint slides. Midway through the talk he scans the hall for approval. “Am I debunking?” The UCSF extension students mutter ... Read More

More like this: Health
Tags: , , , ,

Prescription for an Ailing Care System: Combat Health Illiteracy

December 6, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Dr. Walter Bortz

Dr. Walter Bortz, a clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University, vividly recalls a meeting in which officials of the medical school outlined plans for a new hospital. “The director regaled us of all its glories, telling us, ‘We’re going to have this and this and this,’” he said. “I put my hand up and asked, ‘But what are you doing to keep people out of the hospital?’” He got no answer, of course. But the question sums up Bortz’s mission in a nutshell: He wants to change the basic relationship between the public and the medical establishment. He argues that ... Read More

More like this: Health
Tags: , ,

Giving Teen Girls a Plan B

November 29, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
(PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK)

There’s no culture war like the contraception war. And whether you’re a Catholic churchgoer, a Planned Parenthood donor, a House Republican, or a Code Pink activist, there are few better ways to spoil holidays with the in-laws than to bring up birth control at the dinner table. It was considerate of the American Academy of Pediatrics, then, to wait until after the Thanksgiving weekend to release a policy brief recommending that physicians pre-prescribe emergency contraception—known as Plan B or Next Choice—to teenage patients, in order to ensure their ability to obtain it when ... Read More

More like this: Health
Tags: , ,

How Well Do You Understand the Affordable Care Act? Take Our Quiz!

November 2, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
President Obama signs the Affordable Care Act into law on March 22, 2010. (PHOTO: THE OFFICE OF HARRY REID)

It is one of the Obama administration's biggest accomplishments, one of Republicans' biggest targets, and the first thing that Mitt Romney says he'll undo if he becomes president. Given the emotions around the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, then, you'd think that people must have really picked it apart and made up their minds about it, right? Not the case. According to a new survey by Stanford University (pdf), hardly any Americans really understand what's in the contentious, 900-page law, which was passed by Congress in 2010 with a single Republican vote. For ... Read More

More like this: Politics, Quiz
Tags: ,

Why Patients Leave Hospitals With a Bad Taste In Their Mouths

October 16, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
(PHOTO: PRYZMAT/SHUTTERSTOCK)

Disrespect, Lucian Leape believes, is the elephant in the hospital. According to the adjunct professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, disrespect is the reason why so many patients leave the E.R. feeling belittled or ignored. It's why medical workers feel so "demoralized." And it's why—despite attempts at change in the last decade—we still see medical errors that cause needless suffering and even cost lives. Thirteen years ago, the Institute of Medicine released a groundbreaking report titled "To Err is Human" that called for a new paradigm in the medical ... Read More

More like this: Health
Tags: ,