This Week in Healthcare - 02/09/2007
Hello and Welcome to This Week in Healthcare..
Today we’ll look at the people, policies, and politicians impacting the healthcare debate, and we’ll help try to understand it all.
Our stories this week:
Walmart joins the calls for Universal Health care, Presidential hopeful John Edwards stands up for Healthcare, the Health and Human Services agency faces criticism, and the Christian Medical Association outlines its principles for using the HPV vaccine.
Our lead story — in a move that surprised many observers, retail giant Wal-Mart joined the normally critical Service Employees International Union in calling for "quality, affordable" healthcare for every American by 2012. At a press conference Wednesday, both groups pledged they would work together to promote and encourage public support for universal healthcare.
With over 1 million employees in the US, the Arkansas based Wal-Mart has said that affordable health insurance is one of the biggest issues facing it’s organization. That concern was echoed by Andy Stern, president of SEIU, who said healthcare costs are hurting his members. The partnership of business and union leaders called Better Health Care Together also includes AT&T, Intel and the Communications Workers of America union.
The group outlined four main goals including universal health coverage, and increasing the value of money spent on healthcare. They are planning to hold a national summit at the end of May to recruit private sector, government, and nonprofit organizations. Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said "this is a historic collection of strange bedfellows that have united behind a set of principles, not a concrete plan."
Presidential hopeful John Edwards released a bold plan to transform America’s health care system and provide universal health care for all Americans.
Called Stand UP for Universal Health Care, Edwards proposal was first announced during a meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Washington on Friday. Under the plan, families without insurance will get coverage at an affordable price and those families with insurace will pay less and get more choices. Edwards said American’s are the "victims of a healthcare system gone wrong where policies are driven by profits, not patient care. We have to stop letting the health insurance companies and the big pharmaceutical concerns decide our nation’s healthcare policy."
The Edwards plan will require businesses and other employers to either cover their employees or help finance their health insurance. Once these steps have been taken, the plan will require all American residents to get insurance.
On Capitol Hill, the Government Accountability Office criticized the Health and Human services agency for its pace at developing guidelines to integrate a national healthcare information network.
During discussions at two senate subcommittees, the agency was faulted for not establishing "milestones" to measure progress in the development of private protections and for not coordinating federal privacy policy initiatives. Healthcare experts have recommended the integration of electronic health records into established medical services, but consumer advocates have raised concerns over personal privacy issues. Committee members raised concerns that personal electronics records are already being integrated into medical settings and the Health Insurance Privacy Protection Act or HIPAA- passed in the mid-90’s, is not broad enough to cover the new systems.
In response to a proposed vaccination program in Texas, The Christian Medical Association, released principles this week intended to guide the use of the new Human Papillomavirus vaccine. Dr. David Stevens, head of the 16,000 member organization, detailed the principles. HPV can be transmitted during sexual activity and has been linked to cervical cancer in woman. The vaccine has been shown to fight against four types of HPV virus.
According to Steven’s, "States need to uphold the rights of parents in guiding the healthcare of their own children," Dr. Stevens added, “It’s important that children learn that abstinence and fidelity are always the best defense against sexually transmitted diseases."
That’s it for This Week in Healthcare. Tune in next week for more highlights, when we’ll look at the issues, politics, and people shaping the healthcare debate.
If you have healthcare news you’d like to contribute, please send us an email at this week at scribemedia dot org and we’ll be sure to include it. I’m John Mikytuck, Thanks for watching, and stay healthy.
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