Nature-Deficit Disorder
Timothy Egan, who writes "on American politics and life, as seen from the West," has a great Opinionator piece in The New York Times this week. Here's an excerpt: Something’s amiss. A third of all American adults — check, it just went up to 35.7 percent — are obese....
Primer for Supreme Court Oral Arguments
For those who want to understand the different and varied legal questions argued before the Supreme Court this week, the NY Times put together a pretty good primer for taking a closer look at the constitutional questions that will be decided. It is complicated and...
Health care on pace to grab half of typical family income
In The Oregonian, Joe Rojas-Burke reports: Health insurance for a family could cost more than the annual earnings of half of U.S. households by 2033, if premiums and wages continue at the current pace. As a result, the health system is headed toward a meltdown unless...
Study Indicates Low Health Literacy Can Increase Mortality Risk
The results of a longitudinal study published this week in the British Medical Journal reports that a third of older adults in England have difficulties reading and understanding basic health related written information and this poorer understanding is associated with...
Thinking About Cost Requires Knowing What Things Cost…
In the March 15th New York Times, Pauline Chen, MD wrote about the challenge of getting doctors to begin thinking about what health care costs. She mentions a nonprofit that focuses on teaching medical students and doctors in training about the cost of care -...
Call for Applications: OR Essential Health Benefit Workgroup
The governor's office issued a press release this week, calling for nominations to be appointed to serve on the Oregon Essential health Benefits Workgroup. This group will be jointly chartered by the Oregon Health Insurance Exchange Board and the Oregon Health Policy...
Upcoming Supreme Court Arguments re: Affordable Care Act
Do you wish you had a good context for the oral arguments that are coming up this month about the individual mandate and the health reform law passed by Congress in 2010? A lot of articles will appear in the coming weeks, but this one from the Kaiser Family...
Lund Report: Legislators Tap Tobacco Prevention Account to Fill Budget Gaps
Our colleagues at the Lund Report published an article about Oregon Legislators using funds from the Tobacco Use Reduction Account to offset a portion of Oregon's budget deficit. This Account funds the state's Tobacco Prevention and Education Program, which can count...
Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs) update
This is just in from the Oregon Health Authority: On March 2, 2012, Governor Kitzhaber signed SB 1580, which will launch Coordinated Care Organizations to better serve Oregon Health Plan members with a focus on improved health. New information is now available that...
Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France
Ezra Klein, in his WONKBLOG at The Washington Post, writes: There is a simple reason health care in the United States costs more than it does anywhere else: The prices are higher. That may sound obvious. But it is, in fact, key to understanding one of the most...
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