- Reduced state dental benefits create dire situation for patients, By Anna Gorman, September 12, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Little surprises Nagaraj Murthy, a dentist in Compton for the past 32 years. He has seen patients who have suffered toothaches for years. Others who haven’t been to the dentist in a decade. Some who can’t chew hard food. But in the two years since California sharply reduced dental benefits for roughly 3 million Medi-Cal recipients, he and other dentists say the situation has become dire for patients who are waiting until their infections land them in an emergency room or their rotted teeth have to be immediately pulled…”
- Lower-income Northern Virginians struggle to get dental care, report finds, By Lena H. Sun, September 7, 2011, Washington Post: “In Northern Virginia, 16 percent of lower-income adults have not gone to a dentist in more than five years, according to a report that looks at disparities in oral health in one of the most prosperous regions in the country. Among lower-income adults who have health coverage, only one-fourth have coverage that includes dental care, compared to 64 percent for higher-income adults. Those were among the key findings in a survey of oral health in Northern Virginia released Thursday. The survey was commissioned by the Northern Virginia Health Foundation, a nonprofit group that focuses on health-care safety nets…”
Day: September 12, 2011
Technology and Innovation for Developing Countries
To help the poor, experts invent solar-powered hearing aids, motorcycle ambulances, Associated Press, September 12, 2011, Washington Post: “A bit of creativity never hurts, especially when it comes to solving health problems in developing countries. Instead of the usual donated medicines and health equipment, some experts are inventing new products for the poor, like a solar-powered hearing aid or a motorcycle ambulance. Both inventions were showcased at an engineering conference in London. And in a new report published online Monday in the journal Lancet, the United Nations highlights innovations like using text messages in South Africa to remind women with HIV to get their babies tested and tucking medicines into Coca-Cola crates to reach remote villages. Hundreds of thousands of replacement joints, surgical tools and other medical devices have been sent to poor countries over the years. But according to the World Health Organization, about 75 percent of the donated goods sit unused, either because they’re broken or no one knows how to use them…”
Jail and Nonpayment of Child Support
Unable to pay child support, poor parents land behind bars, By Mike Brunker, September 12, 2011, MSNBC.com: “It may not be a crime to be poor, but it can land you behind bars if you also are behind on your child-support payments. Thousands of so-called ‘deadbeat’ parents are jailed each year in the U.S. after failing to pay court-ordered child support – the vast majority of them for withholding or hiding money out of spite or a feeling that they’ve been unfairly gouged by the courts. But in what might seem like an un-American plot twist from a Charles Dickens’ novel, advocates for the poor say, some parents are wrongly being locked away without any regard for their ability to pay – sometimes without the benefit of legal representation…”