Health Issues

Although the United States can provide the best medical services in the world, the World Health Organization in the World Health Report 2000 placed the United States in 37th place on its list of national health systems.  A major reason for this was the failure of this system to provide so many of its citizens with adequate health care.  Click here for the World Health Report for 2004

The Employer Health Benefits 2004 Annual Survey is published by the Kaiser Family Foundation.  This annual survey of employers provides detailed insights into trends in employer-based health coverage, including changes in premiums, employee contributions, cost-sharing policies and other relevant information.  The Kaiser Foundation is another excellent resource for information related to health matters.

We are the only nation among the world's advanced industrial societies that does not provide health care of all of its people.

The American Health Quality Association represents Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) and professionals working to improve the quality of health care in communities across America. QIOs share information about best practices with physicians, hospitals, and nursing homes. Working together with health care providers, QIOs identify opportunities and provide assistance for improvement.

Articles:

 

These articles were published by MisLeader.org - a web site maintained by MoveOn.Org  Politics Put Over Women and Children's Health  Bush Cuts Children's Health While Rewarding HMOs

Time for a Checkup by Merrill Goozner of the Center for Science in the Public Interest provides a very disturbing analysis of health care in America.

New Report Shows Health Care is Far Less Affordable Than It Was Four Years Ago published by Families USA.

See also the Medicare section on this web site

Links:

Families USA "is a national nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans. Working at the national, state, and community levels, we have earned a national reputation as an effective voice for health care consumers for over 20 years..."

Health Affairs - The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere deals with a wide range of health issues.  Many articles from past issues are available on line.

The Health Research Group, part of Public Citizen's organization, does excellent investigative work and provides important reports.

 

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation web sites: The Kaiser Family Foundation "is a non-profit, private operating foundation focusing on the major health care issues facing the nation. The Foundation is an independent voice and source of facts and analysis for policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the general public." The Kaiser Network "provides quick access to timely, reliable, and non-partisan information on national health issues through daily news summaries, webcasts, transcripts, access to public opinion data, and much more." The Kaiser Family Foundation's State Health Facts Online. This resource contains the latest state-level data on demographics, health, and health policy, including health coverage, access, financing, and state legislation. KaiserEDU gives health policy students and faculty easy access to data, literature, news and developments regarding major health policy topics and debates.

NARAL - Pro-Choice America: More than thirty years after Roe v. Wade, the pro-choice movement is still fighting to protect and defend a woman’s right to choose. Unlike the other rights we expect as Americans, this is not one we can take for granted. NARAL Pro-Choice America is the only organization with a proven history and expertise to combat an aggressive anti-choice movement intent on taking away our rights and freedoms.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine addresses a number of issues related health.  It is a non-profit organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.

Physicians for a National Health Program "is a single issue organization advocating a universal, comprehensive Single-Payer National Health Program. PNHP has more than 10,000 members and chapters across the United States."

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is a non-profit educational organization committed to the elimination of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, the achievement of a healthy and sustainable environment, and the reduction of violence and its causes. PSR is the US affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.  The Oregon Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility focuses on issues within the state.

Oregon Action "is a statewide community organization dedicated to economic and social justice for all. We empower the voices of under-represented people — particularly poor and low-income people, people of color and women — to influence public policy. Through leadership development and community organizing, we work to shift the balance of power on issues that matter to our members – winning real changes that make real differences in people’s lives."

See also "Poverty"

Recommended Reading: 

Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business -- and Bad Medicine by Time Magazine investigative reporters Donald Barlett and Jim Steele.  This book is highly critical of the U.S. health care system and offers practical and economical solutions.

The Truth About the Drug Companies:  How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It by Dr. Marcia Angell.  She is currently a member of Harvard University Medical School's Department of Social Medicine.

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"Poverty is taking your children to the hospital and spending the whole day waiting with no one even taking your name --- and then coming back the next day, and the next, until they finally get around to you."  Mrs. Janice Bradshaw, quoted by Sargent Shriver before the House Committee on Education and Labor, April 12, 1965