Erie Family Health Center

Beats this week:

1)  Today, the Chicago Tribune covered health care reform and its potential impact on low-income individuals in Chicago. Erie Family Health Center and other community health agencies were featured in the story by Judith Graham.

2) Four community health centers in Milwaukee received $1 million from GE to increase primary care services to uninsured and underinsured individuals. This is the second city to receive GE Developing Health funding – a three-year program providing funding to health centers.

3) According to a new report, one in four Californians under the age of 65 are without health insurance.  In the last two years, the state’s number of uninsured individuals has increased by nearly 2 million. Despite these alarming statistics, California does not actually have the highest rate of uninsured but follows closely behind Texas.

4) The story of health care reform continues to unfold. Currently, the Obama administration is putting the pressure on for House Democrats to give the green light on health care. Rep. Dennis Kucinich is the most recent Democrat to ‘flip’ their vote from ‘no’ to ‘yes.’

5) Public Health Officials in Lake County (northern Illinois) have partnered with local churches to make a final push for H1N1 vaccination. Read Beats Per Minute’s coverage on why it is still important to get vaccinated this late in the flu season.

Beats this week:

1) A study published recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that a $1 increase in the cost of soda (one liter) translated into significant health benefits, including 2.34 pounds in decreased weight and improvement in the risk of heart disease. This study was released just as New York begins a final push for a soda tax.

2) Did you know that today is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. It is a day to recognize the special risks HIV/AIDS poses for women and girls, and to raise awareness of the disease’s increasing impact on them. In 2007, more than a quarter of HIV those diagnosed with HIV were women.

3) President Obama has continued his push to pass health care reform in the upcoming weeks, keeping to his commitment of March 18. Congress, however, seems to be on a different page than the President, with many contentious issues, such as abortion, still left unresolved.

4) Today in Springfield, Governor Pat Quinn gave a speech on the current state budget crisis and his proposed FY11 budget. In sum, Quinn plans to use five strategies to ease the fiscal crisis: cutting spending, strategic borrowing, maximizing federal assistance, new jobs and increasing revenues. His speech included a plea for a 1% increase in income taxes in order to fund education at the current levels. 

5) Researchers have discovered that the HIV virus can hide in bone marrow cells and eventually turn into blood cells. This research explains why patients need to follow strict medication adherence, even if the virus is absent from their blood cells. Eventually, researchers believe that this finding will allow them to develop better medications to treat the disease in the blood and other parts of the body, including bone marrow.

Beats this week:

1) This week President Obama released the final details on the health care reform bill and urged Congress to give an up or down vote on the legislation. In remarks to a group of medical professionals, President Obama asked Congress to put aside politics and take action on behalf of the American people.

2) Politico confirmed from Senator Tom Harkin that Senate Dems have decided to use reconciliation as a means to pass health care reform.

3) Meanwhile, at the local level, big Chicago hospitals saw huge profit gains in 2009 while smaller hospitals continued to struggle.

4) Recent research published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that certain segments of the U.S. population have a higher prevalence of HIV than exists in parts of Africa. For example: “More than 1 in 30 adults in Washington, D.C., are HIV-infected—a prevalence higher than that reported in Ethiopia, Nigeria, or Rwanda.”

5) Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report this month that provides a breakdown by state of the federal dollars spent on public health. The report found that spending for public health has been flat and steady for the last five years and that the Midwest received the least amount of funding for disease prevention.

The health care summit has started up again after a short break. Erie took a little bit of a longer break but now we are back in the mix!

1:14 – After the break the group came back and is still discussing health insurance regulation.

1:18 – We are back to talking about pre-existing conditions. President Obama is discussing why he disagrees with setting up high risk pools for those who have more pre-existing conditions (‘older, sicker people’).

1:26 – Senator Jay Rockefeller (D) does not really care for health insurance companies: ‘they are in it for the money.’ Then he referred to them as sharks. He feels this way because of lack of oversight, anti-trust rules, etc. Senator Rockefeller believes that they need more restrictions in order to make them more accountable (or ‘clip their wings’ as Senator Rockefeller said).

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Good morning everyone! We are getting ready here to start the live blog thread here in a few minutes. If you are at a computer and want to watch the health care summit on a live stream you can do so at the White House website for live videos. Otherwise C-SPAN is offering great coverage on all of their tv and radio outlets.

8:52 – The room at Blair House looks quite full. Speaker Pelosi is also present. Everyone is beginning to sit – looks like things will be starting soon!

8:58 - Kathleen Sebelius was sitting in Harry Reid’s seat. He definitely did not look happy when he asked her to move! A nice bit of humor for the morning.

8:59 – President Obama is walking to the Blair House right now.

9:04 – After walking across the street to Blair House, President Obama has just arrived! He is currently making the rounds and shaking hands with everyone. After, he is beginning a quick opening statement.

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As you all know, tonight is Paint the Town Red, Erie’s event for our HIV/AIDS program, Lending Hands for Life. Well over 200 people will be in attendance this evening! As such, Health Beats is on hiatus for this week but we will return next week!

Also, stay tuned tomorrow as we live blog the President Obama’s bipartisan health care summit! Tune in starting at 9:00am for a play by play of the summit!

In the meantime, here’s a little Paint the Town Red inspiration:

Erie Family Health Center: PAINT THE TOWN RED from Erie Family Health Center on Vimeo.

Would you pay $1.94 per day in health insurance for the privilege of unlimited access to comprehensive preventive and primary care services at the level of quality provided by Erie Family Health Center?  It sounds like a pretty good deal.

They way I look at it, the health care “pie” is divided into three slices.  The first slice is primary and preventive care like Erie provides, a good deal as you’ll read about below.  The second is both basic and sophisticated outpatient testing such as x-rays, mammograms, CT scans and MRIs, to which Erie arranges affordable and deeply discounted linkages with partners.  The third is the most expensive—hospitalization, surgery, rehabilitation—and Erie provides linkages as well.  And I’m not even going to touch the issue of long term care (a whole other pie).

Health care reform pie is on a lifeline in Washington, DC, and cost is of high concern.  Meanwhile, around the country, at over 1,200 health centers like Erie, data staffers hit the send button this week and uploaded information for 2009 on the 20 million medically disadvantaged people cared for at community health centers.  The fix is in, and the data show that health centers provide very cost effective primary care and preventive services. 

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Beats this week:

1) President Obama is planning a bipartisan summit on health care on February 25. Making the announcement during a pre-Super Bowl interview, Obama pledged that he wanted to work with Republicans to pass health care reform but would not agree to throw out the entire health care reform bill and start over.

2) As reported by Beats Per Minute last week, the First Lady Michelle Obama is leading an initiative to fight childhood obesity. The campaign, called “Let’s Move,” was kicked off this week.

3) Meanwhile, at the state level, the Illinois General Assembly allowed Governor Pat Quinn to delay sharing the details of his budget plan until March 10.  Many social service organizations across the state are bracing for another tough Spring and Summer of budget delays.

4) With health care reform stalled, hospitals nationwide continue to struggle as billions of dollars in medical bills go unpaid.

5) A study recently released by International Communications Research found that up to $9 billion could be raised for states with a $1 per pack tax on cigarettes. This report concluded that most Americans would support this increase over other tax increases or budget cuts.

Beats this week:

1) A new study finds that community health centers fill the gaps in the health care crisis. This study coincides with the President’s 2011 budget plan, which calls for $290 million to expand a network of federally funded health centers.

2) Illinois had the first primary elections in the country on February 2. Read about the results of yesterday’s primary here.

3) “It is my greatest hope that we can get this done not just a year from now but soon. We came extremely close,” said President Obama about health care reform. So the question still exists, is health care reform still possible?

4) With the state of health care reform still unknown, legislators are taking steps at the state level to change health care coverage. In total, 11 states have health care bills aimed at improving coverage.

5) New mental health insurance coverage rules recently unveiled could improve access to critical behavioral health services. The new rules, known as The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, would decrease many barriers to care faced by patients in need of mental health services.

Like many community health center advocates around the country, I waited patiently during last night’s State of the Union speech for President Obama to discuss health care reform. All week I had heard many rumors about what would or would not be said about health care reform during this important speech. It was nearly 30 minutes and 3,000 words before I heard: “health insurance reform.” A sense of relief rushed over me: it was clear that the President was not abandoning his pledge to reform health care.

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune

Packaging health reform with a slightly different name – health insurance reform – President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to passing health care reform legislation. “Here’s what I ask Congress, though: Don’t walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people. Let’s get it done,” said Obama. The President acknowledged that even as he was speaking, more individuals would go without health insurance and that Congress needed to take action to relieve the American people. (more…)