Healthcare
The Pump Handle
Category archives for Healthcare
Immigration reform and the healthcare safety net
Posted by Liz Borkowski on January 30, 2013 Denying undocumented immigrants access to the ACA’s main avenues for the uninsured has implications for the hospitals and health centers that serve uninsured people.
Report: Americans dying earlier, getting sicker than those in other high-income nations
Posted by The Pump Handle on January 25, 2013 When it comes to good health, America is far from top dog. A new report finds that although the nation has experienced improvements in life expectancy and survival in the last century, we’re falling behind our counterparts in other high-income countries.
Clinical trial of fecal transplant gets impressive results; synthetic poop is in the works
Posted by Liz Borkowski on January 17, 2013 A study just published in NEJM finds fecal infusions more effective than antibiotics for curing recurring Clostridium difficile infections. A new synthetic stool with a clever name might make future clinical trials easier.
New, first-of-its-kind Canadian study to chronicle the impact of occupational cancers
Posted by The Pump Handle on January 14, 2013 Dr. Paul Demers says he frequently finds himself having to make the case for why studying workplace exposures to carcinogens is important. Oftentimes, he says, people believe such occupational dangers are a thing of the past. But a new four-year study he’s leading could change all that.
New study explores the healthy immigrant effect, casting doubt on the current school of thought
Posted by The Pump Handle on January 7, 2013 It’s often noted that immigrants to the United States experience a decline in health after adopting American lifestyle habits. However, a recent study has found that new immigrants might not be arriving in such good health after all.
Fair pay for home healthcare workers
Posted by The Pump Handle on January 2, 2013 In December 2011, the Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division published a proposed rule that would extend minimum-wage and overtime pay protections to the home care workers who assist elderly and disabled patients with their daily needs. (Re-post)
Important 2012 events: Supreme Court’s ACA ruling
Posted by The Pump Handle on December 28, 2012 In looking back at the year 2012, one of the most momentous occasions was the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act. Here are a few of our posts on the topic.
Medicaid should stay off the “fiscal cliff” bargaining table
Posted by Liz Borkowski on December 11, 2012 Medicaid is an important program that would suffer if the federal government cut its contributions.
First-of-its-kind survey compiles the experience of domestic workers, highlights the grim nature of an unregulated industry
Posted by The Pump Handle on December 7, 2012 The collective experience of domestic workers — house cleaners, nannies and caregivers — often remains hidden from view. But a new survey has pulled back the curtain on the conditions and experiences domestic workers face, documenting issues such as wage exploitation, preventable on-the-job injuries and the little — if any — power domestic workers have in improving their work environments.
Can chronic pain treatment benefit from a public health perspective?
Posted by The Pump Handle on December 5, 2012 “If you really look at how pain affects people and what it means to have pain…you start to view it more as a social phenomenon.” These are words from Dr. Daniel Carr, who says the time for a population-based approach doesn’t begin with misuse and abuse of prescription painkillers; it begins, in fact, with how we interpret the contributors to pain in the first place.