Consumer and safety groups are rightly applauding an agreement by House and Senate lawmakers to move forward a bill which bans lead and most phthalates — plastic chemicals that can cause developmental disorders — in most children’s products. The bill, already approved by the U.S. House, will also increase funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, strengthen testing standards, and enhance public access to product safety information.

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On Friday [February 29, 2008], the Washington State Legislature enacted SB 5261 which will restore state oversight of the individual health insurance market. The law authorizes the Insurance Commissioner to disapprove unreasonable rate increases and establishes a sliding-scale medical loss ratio for insurers.

As Families USA discusses, medical loss ratios require insurers to spend a certain amount of premium revenue on direct medical care. These laws help ensure more of our premiums are used on medical care and less on administrative costs, including profits and bonuses. The Washington bill sets up a tiered loss ratio that is tied to the number of people an insurer denies for coverage. For example, a rate of denial under 6% equals a loss ratio of 74%, meaning 74-cents of every premium dollar must be spent on medical care. Insurance companies that deny coverage to more people, more than 8% for example, face a loss ratio of 77%. Read the rest of this entry »

KaiserEDU.org presents a newly expanded tutorial on women’s health policy by Alina Salganicoff, Ph.D., Kaiser vice president and director of women’s health policy. The narrated slide tutorial provides an overview of women’s health care needs and concerns, discusses issues of importance for women related to their health coverage and access to care, and reviews the central policy challenges in improving women’s access to care.

KaiserEDU.org is an online resource for faculty, students, and the general public presented by the Kaiser Family Foundation.  KaiserEDU.org is designed to provide those interested in learning about health policy easy access to the latest data, research, analysis, and developments in health policy. This site includes narrated slide tutorials, background reference libraries, and issue modules on current topics and policy debates. It is a fascinating and extremely useful resource.  Please take a look at it, poke around, and learn a lot!

Here in America, turning “sweet sixteen” is a coming of age; a rite of passage into a new phase of life and the beginning of what we hope to be great. However, for the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (IHCIA), it has been sixteen years since it was last authorized in 1992. And it is about time that the IHCIA enters its own “sweet sixteen” by being reauthorized. It would be an end to a deteriorating health system, and a new beginning of improved healthcare for the American Indian and Alaska Native people. The Act had expired in the year 2000, and since then, its renewal has met opposition from the Bush administration. Read the rest of this entry »

The Governor’s Health Strategies Planning Council is about to have it’s first, and apparently only public comment period on December 3, 2007. The details are below. There is a prior meeting of the Council in November (noted below) that you can attend, but no comments are allowed from the public. However, the long-awaited online forum is up and running, and waiting for your advice to the Alaskans sitting around the Council table. Have at it! Health care is a terribly important issue and it affects all of us. Tell your story, and don’t be intimidated by jargon, details, and the seeming complexity of the issues. Just tell your story. They need to hear it. Read the rest of this entry »

California is a leader in this area, having enacted Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act as a ballot initiative in November1986. Groups like California’s Center for Environmental Health have used the law to win legal agreements to eliminate lead threats from diaper creams, children’s medicines, home water filters, vinyl lunch boxes, and baby bibs. To emphasize the importance of this state action, even if federal law was being enforced (which it isn’t), the federal CPSC legally allows 350 times more lead in products than are allowed under California law. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is an important message from our colleagues at AARP:

KTUU Channel 2 is developing a story (and possibly a two-part story) on individuals age 65 plus who are having problems finding an Alaskan physician who will accept Medicare. I am working with KTUU in developing this story, which won’t air until November. If you are one of those individuals, please call me with your story. Read the rest of this entry »

The State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the federal program that provides health insurance to children whose families can’t afford private coverage, ends it’s original ten year run on September 30, 2007. This has important implications for Alaskans because this funding is central to Denali KidCare’s ability to provide health insurance to the children of low-income working families. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this month Governor Sarah Palin announced the appointment of 14 Alaskans to the Alaska Health Care Strategies Planning Council. The Alaska Health Care Strategies Planning Council was created under Administrative Order 232 by Governor Sarah Palin on February 15, 2007.

The purpose of the council is to develop a statewide plan to identify short-term and long-term strategies to effectively address the issues of access to, and cost and quality of, health care for Alaskans. The council is to prepare and submit to the Governor and the Legislature, by January 1, 2008, a health care action plan. I wish them the best. In case you haven’t seen the list and details about the appointees to this important Planning Council, here they are: Read the rest of this entry »

SB 160 was introduced April 23, 2007 as “Mandatory Universal Health Care.” The bill is cosponsored by Senators Hollis French, D-Anchorage, Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, and Senator Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage. Here is what Hollis has to say about the bill: Read the rest of this entry »

On Sunday, April 1, 60 Minutes will run a hard-hitting segment about the prescription drug lobby. The segment focuses on how the drug lobby’s enormous clout distorted the purposes of the new Medicare druglegislation and resulted in a prohibition that prevents Medicare from bargaining for more reasonable drug prices. Read the rest of this entry »

Statehealthfacts.org now offers a children’s health section that includes customized fact sheets for Alaska. Some of the resources included are:

• Demographic Profiles for Children based on Race/Ethnicity or Citizen Status
• Health Status Indicators based on Infant Mortality, Number of Births of Low Birthweight, Mothers Receiving Timely Prenatal Care, and Childhood Immunizations
• Health Insurance Coverage of Children based on Children with Medicaid and Uninsured Children
• Medicaid and SCHIP Enrollment Statistics
• Medicaid and SCHIP Expenditures
• Medicaid Eligibility Levels
• Enrollment Practices for Children

The site can be found here

A study on the U.S. health-care system released “without fanfare” earlier this year by McKinsey Global Institute, the independent research arm of the consulting firm, examined why the U.S. spends nearly double the average of other industrialized countries on health care – with no better, and in some cases inferior, medical outcomes. According to a Washington Post item about the study, even after adjusting for wealth, population mix and higher levels of some diseases, the U.S. spends $477 billion a year more on health care than would be expected if it fit the spending pattern of 13 other advanced countries. That waste of money works out to 3.6 percent of the nation’s entire economic output, or $1,645 per person, every year. Read the rest of this entry »

In his annual State of the Union address last week, President George Bush outlined his 2007 priorities which focused largely on next steps in the Iraq war, expansion of renewable energy sources and a new tax-based proposal aimed to address the availability of health coverage for all Americans.

The President outlined a private-sector health care approach which seeks to reduce the number of uninsured through changes in federal tax policy. His proposal extends tax deductions to anyone who purchases their own coverage in the private market, financed through a tax on “gold-plated” employer-sponsored plans worth more than $15,000 for family coverage and $7,500 for individual coverage. In addition, through Medicaid waivers, the President proposed an increase in federal assistance to states that make private-sector health care plans available to low-income or chronically ill individuals. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you interested in how the state of Alaska can help reduce the cost of prescription drugs to you and your family, fight misleading drug ads, and protect your medical records from commercial exploitation? Really, who would say “no”?  Visit the website of the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices (NLARX) for the details. Learn, for example, about Maine’s new legislation which… Read the rest of this entry »

There is a large advertisement in the December 4 issue of the Anchorage Daily News by Alaska Open Imaging Center. This advertisement, however, is not about the services provided by the imaging business, but rather it is a broad attack on the State of Alaska Certificate of Need Program.  Here is a brief description of the program that is being attacked…

The Certificate of Need (CON) program is a review process used to promote responsive health facility and service development, rational health planning, health care quality, access to health care, and health care cost containment. Project reviews help ensure that the public will be able to comment on the project during its development, that it fits well within the continuum of care, and that the project will meet the public need while preventing excessive, unnecessary, or duplicative development of facilities or services. Read the rest of this entry »

There is no Alaska Health Care Responsibility Report, but there should be. This public policy will not solve the nation’s severe problem of lack of access to quality health care for tens of millions of Americans, but it is an important start. The Missouri Health Care Responsibility Report will present information about where recipients of state-funded Medicaid health care are employed. It will list those businesses with at least 50 Missouri employees who receive, or whose dependents receive Medicaid. Read the rest of this entry »

State legislatures across America are responding to a range of crises regarding health care quality, costs, and accessibility since the federal government seems incapable of significant reform in these life-and-death issues. There are few places where the interested legislator or health policy advocate or analyst can find a systematic review of this information, but the State Health Policy section of the Kaiser Family Foundation is one of them. For this reason, it is a valuable resource of Alaskans interested in the complex and far-ranging issues of health care reform for our state. Read the rest of this entry »

Center for
Advancing Faculty Excellence

Office of
Sponsored Research

Office of
Community Partnerships

invite you to the first of three community
forums on

Health and Healthcare in
Alaska

During the 2006-07 academic year,
UAA is hosting three community forums on Health and Healthcare in Alaska. The
goal of the series is to bring together key individuals from the university,
medical, government and Anchorage communities to discuss challenges and
solutions for improving health and health care in Alaska. Each session will
feature a panel of experts followed by community discussion; the next day, a
panel of UAA faculty will share their research or perspectives on related
topics. The first topic is “Health: At What Price?” Free and open to the
public. Please RSVP to lori@uaa.alaska.edu or 786-4644.

HEALTH: AT WHAT
PRICE?
Thursday November 16
7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
UAA/APU
Consortium Library Room 307

Read the rest of this entry »

The following quote is from the first electronic edition of State Health Notes, a new emailed newsletter from Families USA, one of my favorite progressive public policy websites. I am posting this here because I believe that we in Alaska need to be monitoring all innovative state legislation that has the goal of increasing access to health care for those that do not have adequate access.

By now, you’ve all heard about the Massachusetts health reform law, which seeks to expand affordable coverage to all state residents through a variety of means, including both employer and individual mandates. What you may not have seen is the blog created by a Massachusetts health advocate that discusses this health reform legislation, as well as other health care issues that affect the state. On this blog, John McDonough from Health Care for All provides an informative and insightful commentary on all the debates going on in Massachusetts around health reform. Definitely worth checking out. Read the rest of this entry »

I would like to draw your attention to a couple of important recent health policy accomplishments in Alaska.  The first is the Mayor’s Taskforce on Obesity and Health—the “Mayor,” of course, being just re-elected Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. The website contains a wealth of information about the problems and accompanying issues of obesity in Anchorage, Alaska, and the Lower-48. Most importantly, however, there is also a draft of the brand new Municipality of Anchorage Ten Year Plan on Obesity and Health.

Policy implications and explications are sprinkled throughout the planning document.  For example, Read the rest of this entry »

Important information from the folks at Alaska Community Action on Toxics…

Klukwan, Inc. has again filed for a permit to aerially spray pesticides on 2000 acres of Long Island in Southeast Alaska, against the opposition from the Haida people of Hydaburg and other Southeast tribes, fisher groups, and conservationists.

What’s wrong here: Read the rest of this entry »

I remember reading a magazine article several years ago–might have been Discover magazine, I don’t recall for certain–that discussed in great detail as a clear possibility, the disaster that has now befallen New Orleans. I remember at least one vivid illustration of the consequences for the city of the predicted huge tidal surge. At the time I thought that the article was somewhat alarmist and possibly the rantings of a marginal scientist/journalist. How wrong I was. Now I feel the need to consider a reevaluation of the issues associated with possible natural or other disasters in Alaska, and, of course, I am not alone in this rude awakening. Read the rest of this entry »

When you first log onto I-SaveRX, your initial impression might be visual disappointment, because the site has an older, kind of unsophisticated look to it. You need only scroll down to the bottom of the home page, however, to realize that this site is absolutely unique. At the end of the home page are the official state seals of five states, the current sponsors of the website. Alaska’s State seal is not there, but should be. This website enables the residents of these states to save a lot of money on their prescription drug bills. All states have an open invitation to join, and Alaska should certainly consider being the very next state. Here’s why… Read the rest of this entry »

This important information comes my way from Wendy Barrett, BSW, Service Coordinator at Denali Family Services. But first, “what is Denali Family Services?” you might ask. Here is the elegant way in which they describe themselves:

At Denali Family Services, we believe and operate under the simple premise that children and families belong together. We believe that children belong in their own communities. We are advocates. Our goal is to creatively provide health services for children who experience significant emotional challenges and their families or caregivers. Every day we work with parents, children, health care providers, and anyone relevant in each child’s life to assist in reaching his/her life goals. Our goal may seem lofty to some, but to us as Denali Family Services, it is our life’s work and joy.

Read the rest of this entry »

The American Dental Association (ADA) really, really does not like Alaska’s Dental Health Aide Therapist program. The Association is sponsoring some very disturbing, negative, scare-tactic television ads to generate political pressure against this program–part of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act–which is currently up for reauthorization. The following is a press release from the ADA:

WASHINGTON, July 15 /U.S. Newswire/ — American Dental Association (ADA) President-elect Robert Brandjord, DDS, yesterday urged a Senate committee to reject a plan that would allow therapists with as little as 18 months of training to perform surgical procedures on American Indians and Alaska Natives, as proposed in the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (S. 1057).

“This is second-class care,” he said. “It is unsafe, unfair and unneeded. It is an admission that those who been entrusted to provide care have essentially given up.” Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Martha Moore of the Department of Health and Social Services for a concise, fact-based statement of support for important public policy. It is an art to effectively support and advocate proposed public policy in just a few short paragraphs:

SB 87 – Seat Belt Violation as Primary Offense is sponsored by Senator Con Bunde of Anchorage. Currently, Alaska state law requires all individuals to wear a seat belt while driving or riding in a vehicle. However police officers can only cite someone for non-use of seat belt after they have been pulled over for another violation. Senate Bill 87 changes the enforcement of this law to “primary”. This would mean that police officers could pull someone over for not wearing a seat belt. Read the rest of this entry »

Paul Fuhs has been dashing about town since late last year distributing a flyer entitled “Synopsis of CON appeal and lawsuit” on behalf a group calling itself AMC2, short for Alaskans for Medical Choice and Competition. The AMC2 website is slick and compelling. It tugs at the heartstrings with all the right buzz words and phrases such as,

We believe in the fundamental premise of the American free-market system in which consumer welfare is maximized by open competition and consumer sovereignty. We believe that government intervention in the current health care system has impeded competition from delivering full potential to consumers.

badly misdirected

The problem is that this entire effort is badly misdirected. The group’s ubiquitous flyer clearly states that their goal is to “eliminate the CON program,” but termination of the Certificate of Need program would likely be a blow to progressive public policy in Alaska. Read the rest of this entry »

Senate Bill No. 67 is bad public policy because, on the one hand, it is unlikely to perform as promised by the sponsors, but, on the other hand, it severely limits our rights to fair compensation for injuries or death perpetrated by negligent health care providers. Here is the key provision of the bill:

The damages awarded by a court or a jury under [c] of this section for all claims including a loss of consortium claim or other derivative claim arising out of a single injury or death may not exceed $250,000 regardless of the number of health care providers against whom the claim is asserted or the number of separate claims or causes of action brought with respect to the injury or death. [e] Multiple injuries sustained by one person as a result of a single course of treatment shall be treated as a single injury for purposes of this section.

So, no matter how many negligent, drunk, or impaired physicians, nurses, technicians, and medical assistants are responsible for the injury or death of you or your child, this “tort reform” bill limits the award to a quarter million dollars. No matter how much “pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, disfigurement, [or] loss of enjoyment of life” you, your loved one, or your child will suffer, this bill limits the award to a quarter million dollars. Read the rest of this entry »