Health Care Reform Articles - June 22, 2011

Families USA pushes for health care exchanges

Posted By Anne Galloway

A national advocacy group, Families USA, has given the Vermont Public Interest Research Group $25,000 for its health care “education” efforts in Vermont. VPIRG is the largest nonprofit consumer and environmental advocacy organization in Vermont.

http://vtdigger.org/2011/06/15/families-usa-pushes-for-health-care-exchanges/print/

Medicaid for middle class? Yes, for now

Health law detail has US analysts, officials worried

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/06/22/medicaid_for_middle_class_yes_for_now/ 

 

 

Steven Pearlstein: Pundit protest 2.0

By Steven Pearlstein, Published: June 21

David Brooks of the New York Times had a wonderful column the other day indicating that while he would be opining regularly about the upcoming presidential campaign, he would do so under protest. The reason: From his Hamiltonian perspective, the “two parties contesting this election are unusually pathetic. Their programs are unusually unimaginative. Their policies are unusually incommensurate to the problems at hand.”
I’ve never been quite sure what it means to be a Hamiltonian, but I don’t think you need to be one to agree with Brooks’s assessment. This is a particularly dispiriting time to be both citizen and pundit, particularly if you care about public policy and think it matters. The intellectual dishonesty, the political posturing, the absence of a sense of stewardship on the part of those who claim to be leading — it’s appalling, really.
Just take health care, which lies at the heart of the debates over the budget and the role and size of government.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/steven-pearlstein-pundit-protest-20/2011/06/21/AGfUi6eH_print.html

Washington County men have lowest life expectancy in Maine

By Meg Haskell, BDN Staff

Posted June 21, 2011, at 8:36 p.m.

Washington County, which historically has garnered poor health standings among Maine counties, has the lowest life expectancy in Maine for men, and one of the lowest for women, according to a new national report from the University of Washington.
One Bangor physician said Tuesday that all rural Mainers face significant challenges to their health as they age, including habitual inactivity, poverty, geographic isolation and the quality of the health care they receive. And the state’s new public health director said the administration of Gov. Paul LePage is committed to improving the health of all Maine people.
http://bangordailynews.com/2011/06/21/health/washington-county-men-have-lowest-life-expectancy-in-maine/print/