Make End of Life More Humane
From NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross: Dr. Atul Gawande began researching hospice and end-of-life care options because he says he didn't know how to broach the subject of death with his terminally ill patients. The surgeon and New Yorker staff writer writes about the...
Obesity Rates Keep Soaring, Troubling Health Officials
From the New York Times: Americans are continuing to get fatter and fatter, with obesity rates reaching 30 percent or more in nine states last year, as opposed to only three states in 2007, health officials reported on Tuesday. And: “Over the past several decades,...
Health Insurance Exchange and a Public Plan
To: Members of the Oregon Health Policy Board cc: Governor Kulongoski; members of the Oregon Legislature Re: The Health Insurance Exchange and Publicly Owned Health Plan From: Liz Baxter, Executive Director on behalf of the Community Leadership Council The...
Portland Public Schools Board Considers Eliminating PE
Tonight the Portland Public School Board takes up a proposal to reduce the budget by eliminating physical education teachers at elementary and middle schools. This proposal was in lieu of eliminating art and music teachers, or considering reducing days in the coming...
Uninsured More at Risk, Even in Hospitals
In The New York Times, Roni Caryn Rabin reports: Uninsured Americans often have difficulty getting care and paying for medications. But what happens once they are admitted to a hospital with a life-threatening illness? A new study finds that even after they have heart...
More Care Isn’t Always Better
Reporting for AP, Lauren Neergaard reports: More medical care won't necessarily make you healthier - it may make you sicker. It's an idea that technology-loving Americans find hard to believe. Anywhere from one-fifth to nearly one-third of the tests and treatments we...
Breaking Out of a Circle of Scarcity
[vimeo url="http://vimeo.com/12917438" width="580"] John Tapogna, president of ECONorthwest, presents Oregon Business Plan's research and views on the challenges for the 2010s and beyond. Data looking back up to 30 years is made visual and used to set a context for...
Delivering Better Primary Care
Here's a great article by Pauline W. Chen, MD, published recently in the New York Times. She begins: “Transforming primary care — from easily measured, time-limited activities that closely track the existing reimbursement system to more valuable but also more...
Psst! Health Reform Being Mapped Out in Oregon
There is hardly a day that goes by without someone asking about the federal health insurance reform bill and what it will mean to them as it gets implemented. When people learn that Oregon also passed legislation, there is often surprise – and curiosity about whether...
Tomorrow is Day One
So, it’s Saturday morning, and if all goes as planned there will be a vote on federal health reform tomorrow. If your email box is anything like mine, you have been inundated with requests to call your congressman and tell them to vote yes because we want health...
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