MNA Daily NewsScan, June 21, 2012: 26k uninsured die each year; hospitals lag in workforce diversity (Page 102)

Editor’s Note:  Our thoughts are with colleagues and community in Duluth and elsewhere in the state, in the aftermath of flood devastation.

HEALTH CARE

26,000 Uninsured Die Each Year   The study, released on Wednesday by the consumer advocacy group Families USA, estimates that a record high of 26,100 people aged 25 to 64 died for lack of health coverage in 2010, up from 20,350 in 2005 and 18,000 in 2000.  That makes for a rate of about 72 deaths per day, or three per hour.

$129 Marked for Community Health Centers    The 2010 federal healthcare overhaul established the Community Health Center  Fund to provide $11 billion over five years to fund health center operations,  expansions and construction. Wednesday’s funding announcement followed more than  $1.7 billion in health center funding provided by the healthcare law in fiscal  2011.

Vans Deliver Access to Health Care   Nurse Jennifer Doble took Dominga’s medical history, then escorted the family to the clinic: a 31-ton truck parked outside.  The trailer, equipped with a defibrillator, a crash cart, blood pressure monitors, wheelchair lift, chest X-ray suite and an electrocardiogram, is one of a handful of mobile health clinics in Minnesota that are part of a strategy to bring medical care to the state’s under- and uninsured.

LABOR

Hospitals Lag In Workforce Diversity  According to a survey from the American Hospital Association’s Health Research  and Educational Trust, minorities represent 29% of all patients, but only 14%  of hospital board members, and 14% of executive leadership.

90M Workers of This Kind Won’t Be Needed By 2020   Between 90 and 95 million low-skill workers — or 2.6 percent of the global workforce — will not be needed by employers by 2020 and will be vulnerable to permanent joblessness.

Editor’s Note:  Our thoughts are with colleagues and community in Duluth and elsewhere in the state, in the aftermath of flood devastation.

HEALTH CARE

26,000 Uninsured Die Each Year   The study, released on Wednesday by the consumer advocacy group Families USA, estimates that a record high of 26,100 people aged 25 to 64 died for lack of health coverage in 2010, up from 20,350 in 2005 and 18,000 in 2000.  That makes for a rate of about 72 deaths per day, or three per hour.

$129 Marked for Community Health Centers    The 2010 federal healthcare overhaul established the Community Health Center  Fund to provide $11 billion over five years to fund health center operations,  expansions and construction.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, June 21, 2012: 26k uninsured die each year; hospitals lag in workforce diversity  »

Stories we’re scanning:

NOTES ON NURSING

Nurses’ Rx for Healing – A Robin Hood Tax   Nurses are on the streets throughout the world today to demand a small Robin Hood tax on Wall Street transactions.  In Guatamala, Manhattan, El Paso, Minneapolis and numerous sites around the globe, thousands of nurses who see too much suffering as Wall Street bankers get paid six-figure bonuses are calling for a new public health measure – economic justice.  Read why nurses are at the forefront of this movement. 

California Court Says Unsupervised Nurses Can Administer Anesthesia   The order will have its greatest impact in rural areas, where nurses commonly  administer anesthesia in hospitals, under a doctor’s orders but without  in-person supervision.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, June 19, 2012: Robin Hood Tax Day; underemployed & underpaid  »

Stories we’re scanning:

HEALTH CARE

Health Cost Relief Only Temporary   If health care spending isn’t brought in line with overall economic growth, Americans will eventually face agonizing choices between paying medical bills and funding other priorities such as education and infrastructure.

NURSING

Kansas City Nurses Reaffirm Commitment to  NNU  A spokeswoman for the National Nurses Organizing Committee of National Nurses United said the vote this week was 260 to 92 in favor of the union.

LABOR

America Without A Union Movement?  When labor was at its numerical apogee in 1955, the wealthiest 10 percent claimed just 33 percent of the nation’s income.
… Read more about: MNA Daily NewsScan, June 14, 2012: No unions = huge wage gap; Mich. nurses deliver big message to state  »