State takes step to shift some of poorest, sickest to managed care, By Anna Gorman, April 5, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “California is beginning the process of shifting 1.1 million of the state’s sickest and poorest patients into managed care, which healthcare officials say will cut costs and improve treatment. The move is part of a broader state plan to continue moving residents with publicly funded health coverage into managed care, prompting concerns among critics who fear that patients could lose their current doctors. State officials announced Wednesday that Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and San Mateo will be the first counties to provide managed care to the patients, who are enrolled in both the federally run Medicare and the state-federal Medi-Cal program…”
Tag: Disease
Poor Children and Dental Disease
‘Silent epidemic’ of dental disease threatens poor kids’ health, By Renée C. Lee, March 4, 2012, Houston Chronicle: “Every time Dr. Martee Engel treats a young patient whose teeth have brown or white chalky spots, she’s reminded of an acute problem affecting children – particularly poor children. Engel sees more than her share of early childhood tooth decay as dental director at Denver Harbor Clinic in northeast Houston. The clinic treats mostly poor children who are twice as likely as more affluent children to have untreated tooth decay, studies show. While overall oral health care for adults and children has improved, tooth decay continues to be the most common chronic disease among children. It can have serious social and health consequences when untreated and, in rare cases, can be fatal…”
Poverty and HIV/AIDS – Malawi
Cash payments help cut HIV infection rate in young women, study finds, By Sarah Boseley, February 14, 2012, The Guardian: “Regular small cash payments to girls and young women can enable them to resist the attentions of older men and avoid HIV infection, according to a new study. Girls and young women are at the greatest risk of HIV infection in endemic countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, between a quarter and a third have the virus by the time they reach their early 20s. But educating girls about risks and promoting condom use has had little impact in countries where they are struggling with poor education, low status and poverty, and where older men with money offer one of the few ways out of financial difficulties. A team of researchers from the World Bank, University of California at San Diego and George Washington University in the US carried out a randomised controlled trial in Malawi to find out whether monthly payments to schoolgirls and their families would help change the girls’ behaviour and safeguard their health…”