Tag: health care

Commentary: Medicine’s Getting Major Injections of Woke Ideology

RealClearWire

The national racial reckoning over reparations and Critical Race Theory is taking over the world of medicine and health care. Prestigious medical journals, top medical schools and elite medical centers are adopting the language of social justice activism and vowing to confront “systemic racism,” dismantle “structural violence” and disrupt “white supremacy” in their institutional cultures.

Some activist physicians describe the present-day health care system with such ominous terms as a “medical caste system” or “medical apartheid,” the latter locution taken from the title of a 2007 book about America’s history of medical experimentation on enslaved blacks and freedmen.

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Commentary: A Tribute to Mothers with Inspiration from Maya Angelou

RealClearWire
Maya Angelou speaking

You wouldn’t think any possible controversy could append itself to that day, except that we are living in preternaturally contentious times. Two days ago, Rep. Cori Bush, a freshman Democrat from St. Louis, was testifying about racial disparities in health care, focusing specifically on childbirth. While describing her own medical experiences, Bush used the unwieldy phrase “birthing people” instead of “mothers.” Apparently, this was an awkward attempt to use inclusive language.

Predictably, this rhetorical gambit earned her a fair amount of ridicule on social media. I’m sure Rep. Bush has many virtues, but neither self-awareness nor self-deprecating humor are at the top of that list. Just as predictably, Bush lashed out at those who mocked her wording for their “racism and transphobia.” She also accused her critics of trivializing an important subject, which was a more substantive rejoinder. Bush was discussing racial disparities in America’s medical system, which is no laughing matter, and invoking her own harrowing experiences in hospital delivery rooms to do it.

Yet breezily trying to replace the word “mothers” as a sign of wokeness a few days before Mother’s Day wasn’t likely to go down well. It was Cori Bush’s own peculiar choice of words that distracted listeners from her story.

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Surveys: 46 Million People Can’t Afford Health Care, Majority of Hospitals Not Providing Pricing Transparency

The Center Square
Assorted color syringes.

An estimated 46 million people — or 18% of the country — would be unable to pay for health care if they needed it today, a recent poll conducted by Gallup and West Health found.

In another survey by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the majority of hospitals in the U.S. have yet to comply with a transparency ruling implemented this year that would help patients shop around for the most affordable prices.

Gallup’s findings are based on a poll conducted between February 15 and 21 among 3,753 adults with a margin of error of 2%.

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Michigan Business Groups Oppose Some House Health Care Reform Bills

The Center Square

A health care reform package the House passed Wednesday is creating a rift between the state’s business groups and the GOP.

Michigan business leaders formed a new Michigan Affordable Healthcare Coalition that aims to reduce health care costs without raising costs on small businesses.

In a Thursday afternoon press conference, business leaders voiced opposition to House bills 4346 and 4354, claiming they would raise health insurance premiums that are already a heavy burden for many businesses.

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COVID Death Rates Are Falling as Treatment Improves, Experts Say

Michigan Star Staff

Death rates from the coronavirus are falling in the United States showing that treatments for the coronavirus are advancing, infectious-disease experts told the Wall Street Journal.

Data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington (IHME) shows that the virus is only killing about 0.6% of those infected, the WSJ reported. This death rate has improved since April when the COVID death rate was at about 0.9%, the publication reported. 

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White House Wins Ruling on Health Care Price Disclosure

The Associated Press

The Trump administration won a court ruling Tuesday upholding its plan to require hospitals and insurers to disclose the actual prices for common tests and procedures in a bid to promote competition and push down costs.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar called the decision in federal court in Washington, D.C., “a resounding victory” for President Donald Trump’s efforts to open up the convoluted world of health care pricing so patients and families can make better-informed decisions about their care.

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Health Care Group: It Would Cost $440 Million to Provide 3 Million Tests for All Nursing Home Residents and Workers

Michigan Star Staff

Testing every nursing home resident and care facility worker in the U.S. for COVID-19 would cost $440 million in federal and state funding, a health care group found. 

Doing so would require almost 3 million tests, according to the American Health Care Association’s National Center for Assisted Living, an industry group representing nursing homes and assisted living centers that calculated how much it would cost for states to receive adequate funding so all resident and care facility workers could be tested.

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Coders Building Database Need Health Care Workers to Report Coronavirus Testing Sites So They Can Provide Data to Officials Battling Disease

Jason M. Reynolds

A coalition of computer coders and medical experts is looking for volunteers — including from the Volunteer State — to help provide better information on COVID-19 coronavirus testing sites.

TechCrunch reported on the one-week-old Coders Against Covid project, which is building a database of testing sites. The team of about 15 developers includes Andrew Kemendo of KesselRun, an Air Force software developer, and Dr. Jorge A. Caballero, a clinical instructor of Anesthesia at Stanford University. The goal is to inform officials tracking the disease and to better distribute the tests where they are needed.

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U.S. Officials Battle Coronavirus on Multiple Health Care, Economic Fronts Even as Death Toll Reaches Nine

Jason M. Reynolds

The coronavirus death toll in the United States hit nine on Tuesday, even as more areas around the world report infections.

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Slotkin Stands By Opposition to Medicare for All, Declines to Clarify Stance on Health Care for Illegal Aliens

Anthony Gockowski

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI-13) stood by her opposition to Medicare for All during a raucous Friday night town hall, but declined to say whether she supports providing health care to illegal aliens.

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Slotkin Stands By Opposition to Medicare for All, Declines to Clarify Stance on Health Care for Illegal Aliens

Anthony Gockowski

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI-13) stood by her opposition to Medicare for All during a raucous Friday night town hall, but declined to say whether she supports providing health care to illegal aliens.

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Commentary: Kamikaze Schumer Wants to Repeal Private Health Insurance

Michigan Star Staff

While the Democrats continue their impeachment pantomime war dance in the mirror-clad corner in order to keep up their spirits, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is ginning up a much more fateful danse macabre on health care. He has promised to force a vote this week on various Trump Administration directives that have injected flexibility into Obamacare. As The Hill reports, “Senate Democrats plan to force vulnerable Republicans to vote on legislation that would overturn a controversial Trump administration directive on ObamaCare.”

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Commentary: Illegal Immigration Hurts Patients

Michigan Star Staff

The Democrats often claim that they alone will protect people with pre-existing conditions. Well, unfortunately for us, this popular catchphrase delivered the greatest catch in the history of politics: under Obamacare, insurance companies couldn’t deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions — but doctors could.

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California Governor Signs Illegal Immigrant Health Care Bill Into Law

Admin

by Jason Hopkins   California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom officially made his state the first in the U.S. to offer government health care benefits to adult-aged illegal immigrants. Newsom signed SB-104 into law Tuesday, cementing it into the state’s 2020 budget. The legislation extends taxpayer-funded health care to low-income adults…

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