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October 21, 2009
Many U.S. health care workers lack health care coverage
 More than one in 10 U.S. health care workers lacks health insurance for themselves.
That's according to research by a team of University of Minnesota health policy researchers, led by Associate Professor Lynn Blewett.
Blewett's team examined the rates of uninsurance among U.S. health care workers by health care industry subtype and work force category, using 2004-2006 National Health Interview Survey data.
They found that overall 11 percent of the U.S. health care work force is uninsured. Furthermore, ambulatory care workers were 3.1 times as likely as hospital workers to be uninsured and residential care workers were 4.3 times as likely to be uninsured.
The findings raise concerns about safety and quality of health care in different settings, the researchers said. They add that previous research shows that uninsurance leads to delays in seeking care, fewer prevention visits, and poorer health status.
Other University of Minnesota researchers on the team were Chiu-Fang, Pamela Johnson, and Andy Ward.
More about the study
October 19, 2009
Vitality Project's long-term changes make Minn. town healthier
 It was a novel idea. Pick a family-friendly, midsized American town, give its residents ideas on how they can live healthier and longer lives, put the ideas into action one summer and see what happens.
It's called the Vitality Project and it was launched earlier this year in Albert Lea, Minn. by Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zones, who worked on the project with AARP and University of Minnesota public health experts, such as Leslie Lytle.
"It worked. It worked because we did not focus on short-term diet and exercise programs," Buettner told the USA Today. "We focused on changing their environments and then optimizing social networks."
More from USA Today
October 16, 2009
Health Care Reform: Following Minnesota's Lead
As of this writing the fate of U.S. health care reform is still in play and forty-six million Americans remain uninsured. What we know for sure is that a national reform effort will never reach its full potential without making the fundamental connection between health care and public health.
For decades, public health professionals have worked to prevent illness, raise quality of care, reduce costs, and expand health care access--all the issues that figure so prominently in the health care debate.
Minnesota has long put these public health concepts front and center and that emphasis helped shape 2008 landmark legislation that brought sweeping reform to the state.
Investing in Disease Prevention
Continue reading "Health Care Reform: Following Minnesota's Lead " »
Improving Health Care Access
Minnesota has some of the highest levels of insurance coverage in the country at around 93 percent. This success can be attributed to strong public programs, extensive employer-sponsored coverage, and a culture that fosters innovation and quality in care delivery.
Yet the state is home to some of the nation’s greatest health disparities, with minority populations experiencing lower coverage rates and worse health than the overall population. Other groups most likely to be uninsured include recent immigrants, young adults, and low- and middle-income families.
“Any health reform aimed at increasing access to health insurance will have an impact on reducing health disparities in Minnesota,” says SPH associate professor Kathleen Call. “While efforts to expand coverage are a step in the right direction, attention to cost and quality will also be needed.”
Continue reading "Improving Health Care Access " »
Rural Health Care: One Size Does Not Fit All
The fact that this country's health policy is crafted in the urban setting of Washington D.C. is both a symbolic and concrete example of how rural America can be left out of reform discussions, says SPH professor Ira Moscovice.
As director of the Upper Midwest Rural Health Research Center, Moscovice has highlighted how reform measures have failed to consider the rural health care context. For instance, proposals that seek to expand coverage have not accounted for the longstanding access issues faced by those living in rural areas. And higher government reimbursements for large, often urban-based providers who invest in robust health information technology put smaller rural-based providers at a disadvantage. Moscovice's team released a series of reports on these issues at the request of the Health Resources and Services Administration, one of the largest agencies in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"Rural heath care shouldn't be an afterthought," says Moscovice. "We want to make sure the 20 to 25 percent of Americans who live in rural settings aren't left behind."
CBO Lowers the Boom on Health Care Reform
On July 16, Doug Elmendorf, Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), said “a large-scale expansion of insurance coverage would represent a permanent increase of roughly 10 percent” to the federal budget, which is on an “unsustainable path.” With that declaration, the President’s end-of-summer deadline for signing a health care bill died.
CBO reached that conclusion after a thorough in-house analysis. But the agency also regularly consults with a cadre of non-D.C.-based economists. SPH professor Roger Feldman serves on the CBO’s Panel of Health Advisors. Recently, he’s been asked to weigh in on how malpractice reform would affect health care costs and the economic implications of a public option.
This isn’t Feldman’s first time at bat with health care reform or Washington politics--he served on the senior staff of the Council of Economic Advisors during Reagan's presidency and assisted the health reform task force for the Clinton administration. Feldman says this time around a weak economy boosts CBO’s power in the reform process. “The mood in Congress and in the country is very cautious about increasing the deficit,” he says. “CBO has much more influence in this kind of environment.”
October 8, 2009
National School Lunch Week
 Oct. 8 through 12 is National School Lunch Week, a time to recognize this program that serves 31 million U.S. students each day.
In our Public Health Moment podcast, Jamie Stang, a University of Minnesota assistant professor and nutrition expert, talks about the program's origins.
She also discusses the relatively new Farm-to-Schools movement, under which many schools are starting to buy foods locally. Stang says that Minnesota is a leader in this area.
Listen to Stang
October 6, 2009
Drinking age of 21 saves lives
 The national policy that set a minimum legal drinking age of 21 is being questioned by a group of 135 college and university presidents through an effort called the Amethyst Initiative.
But history and a comprehensive review of the research tell a much different story. The evidence is clear, consistent and compelling: A drinking age of 21 has led to less drinking, fewer injuries and fewer deaths.
That's according to the University of Minnesota's Toben Nelson (pictured), Traci Toomey, and John Finnegan, Jr. The three authored a commentary that appears on the CNN.com website.
They say:
"Lowering the drinking age will not save lives or make our campuses and communities better places to live. It will increase heavy drinking and the problems that accompany it in college communities and push the problem back into high schools. Real prevention requires constant vigilance, dedication and the courage to implement difficult solutions."
Read the full commentary
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