The Sun State Activist

The relative health of people in different countries, races, social classes, etc.; factors in determining availability of services, role of U.S. government in equitable distribution in the country and the world.

HEADLINES

3/6/10

JUST WHAT HEALTH CARE (AND EMPLOYMENT) IN MIAMI AREA DIDN'T NEED: TWO HOSPITALS ARE CLOSED. Jackson Health System announces closing of north and south "satellite" branches of the hospital system, in a move that will cut $165 million from the hospital's budget deficit, but will cost 4487 local hospital employees their jobs and countless numbers of people access to nearby hospitals.

INTERNATIONAL

Websites

Analysis & views:

1/3/10

Many patients in hospitals in India are going hungry as they are required by hospitals to procure their own food.

5/17/08

System of premium emergency medical care for those who can afford it is being launched in a Copenhagen suburb to the protests of critics, who claim it will create discrimination in the national health care system.

http://www.cphpost.dk/get/107252.html

6/8/07

Health ministry in U.K. admits that one in eight patients have to wait a year for medical treatment, contradicting a government promise of service within 18 weeks.

http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,2098276,00.html

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Other Media:

NATIONAL

Websites:

National Coalition on Health Care: http://www.nchc.org/

American Academy of Family Physicans: http://www.aafp.org/

Analysis & views:

9/24/09

HOLES IN THE SAFETY NET OF PUBLIC HOSPITALS IN AMERICA. Impending closing of a dialysis clinic by Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta is described as a metaphor for the crisis of medical care available to the uninsured, the poor and the illegal immigrant. Grady is forced by "bottom line" considerations of its stressed budget to abandon services like dialysis that are literally the only life-line of underprivileged persons.

3/12/09

"In store clinics" in Massachusetts stores of CVS Pharmacy draw mixed reviews from medical professionals.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/12/sick_flocking_to_in_store_clinics/

9/8/08

Inauguration of "telepharmacy" operations in local stores in North Dakota is improving rural peoples' accessibility to pharmacy services and prescription drugs obtained locally.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=86122&section=News&freebie_check&CFID=51343355&CFTOKEN=46326258&jsessionid=883054533b4386d5e324

2/23/08

Shortage of vaccines for childhood diseases is forcing Massachusetts health authorities to limit free vaccinations to younger children only, parents of older kids must pay.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/23/states_vaccine_supply_rationed/

1/16/08

Advocates of health care access for poor and elderly are outraged by decision of Franklin County NC health facility to move toward a "richer" location near an adjacent county.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/health_science/story/883016.html

10/5/07

A glass half-full or half-empty? Gannett News agency's run-down of the state of community health centers in America.

http://hattiesburgamerican.gns.gannettonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070717/CHC/707120301

8/14/07

Competition between Microsoft and Google promises web and medical consumers more control over their own health care plans:The two web giants have launched efforts to computerize medical records and make them more easily accessible to patients as opposed to the doctors and hospitals that treat them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/technology/14healthnet.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

7/12/07

Alaskan dental organizations give up on their long-term effort to stop individual therapists from providing dental services in rural areas.

http://www.adn.com/front/story/9125440p-9041670c.html

3/16/06

New study reports medical care in America is equal for all: equally bad, that is: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031502120.html?referrer=email

2/23/06

Uninsured poor can't get medical care in facilities-strapped New Orleans: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KATRINA_HOSPITALS?SITE=CADIU&SECTION=

HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

2/12/06

Locally and nationally, VA health care system overloaded by war, aging veteran population and rising health care costs: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060212/WIRE/202120359/1078

2/2/06

President's Health Care Tax Cut Proposals Are Likely To Weaken Employer-Based Health Insurance, Primarily Benefit High-Income People, And Worsen Deficits
http://www.cbpp.org/1-31-06health.htm

2/1/06

Primary health care about to collapse, physicians warn: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060130/hl_nm/usa_dc

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FLORIDA:

STATEWIDE

Websites:

Analysis & views:

2/16/10

Florida legislative session that opens in March expected to debate only minor adjustments in state's health care system, no "sweeping reforms."

Other information sources:

FLORIDA LOCALITIES

Websites:

Analysis and views:

Miami:

3/6/10

Fort Myers:

2/6/10

State health care regulators prohibit emergency surgery at Fort Myers endoscopy surgical center, citing numerous safety violations at the center.

Palm Beach Co.:

1/6/10

Palm Beach FL County closes down a recently-opened pain control clinic catering to out-of-state patients, on grounds it lacks an occupancy license.

Gainesville:

4/25/08

Shands Hospital in Gainesville, a "safety net" facility intended to serve medical needs of the relatively poor, is facing a 10% cut in Medicaid re-imbursement as a result of action in Florida legislature.

ttp://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20080425/NEWS/804250334

Volusia Co.:

1/21/08

Struggle to provide dental services to needy children in Volusia County flounders as a dental clinic closes 4 months after it opened, as the dentist resigns after having been paid $200,000 before he had seen a single patient.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD01012108.htm

Miami:

10/21/07

``Somebody dropped the ball on Liberty City " says a Miami health care advocate, referring to the fact that Jackson Memorial Hospital, having been given $6.7 million by the Florida legislature in the early 1990s to build a state-of-the-art medical clinic in this poor section of Miami, never completed the project, in fact intended to divert the funds to a clinic in a biotech park, a project also abandoned after a Miami Herald expose of corruption in that development. Now the hospital is "quietly" returning the money (with interest) to the state, believed to be the first instance ever of such a return of appropriated money by a public hospital.

http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/278969.html

Miami:

6/23/07

Miami-Dade County gets a bad report card on health care. Health Care of South Florida issues its grades for health care in the county and grades are generally low, with a flat-out F in the area of access to health insurance.

http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/148857.html

St. Augustine :

6/2/07

A small town medical clinic in Hastings FL (near St. Augustine) could provide a model for better medical services for the poor in urban settings as well.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/060207/met_174303581.shtml

Tampa:

2/13/06

Heart disease treatment programs proliferate in Tampa Bay area: http://www.tampatrib.com/MGBJR885MJE.html

Gainesville:

2/12/06

Gainesville:
2/7/06

Director of Alachua County's health care program for working poor to ask for loosed eligibility, boosting current low enrollment: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060207/LOCAL/202070322/1078/news

Other information sources

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