Mothers and Healthcare; Advocacy Educational Opportunities; Nursing Home Staffing
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A Good Day To Advocate for Better Healthcare
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Medical Debt and Mothers
New mothers are twice as likely to have medical debt as young women who didn’t recently give birth, according to a new KFF analysis. Among women ages 18-35, about 14% of those who gave birth in the last year-and-a-half have medical debt above $250, compared to 7.6% of women in the same age group who didn’t recently have a child. (KFF)
Extra Help for Mom’s and Newborns
A bill was recently introduced in the US House of Representatives to help moms and babies that need help. It is H.R.7815 - Mamas and Babies in Underserved Communities Act of 2024. It will expand maternal health care services, including prenatal care, postnatal care for infants, and postpartum care for mothers to improve the quality of such services, to improve health outcomes for women and infants receiving such services and to reduce disparities in access to care, in the quality of services received, and in health outcomes for women and infants in need of such services.
The grants will be aimed at public or nonprofit private health care provider that serves one or more minority, low-income, or medically underserved communities.
ACTION
Yesterday was Mother’s Day. Let’s do something for them and ask our Member of Congress to co sponsor and support this important bill. Their contact info is here https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials.
or use RESISTBOT on your cell phone by texting SIGN PICANY to 50409 to send this email.
“I am your constituent and you and I know that being a mom is hard. It is especially hard if you don’t have all the resources you need for yourself and your newborn. I want you to help them by actively supporting H.R.7815 - Mamas and Babies in Underserved Communities Act of 2024. It will provide grants to public or nonprofit private health care provider that serves one or more minority, low-income, or medically underserved communities to provide those essential services to new moms and their newborn. Thank you.”
Medical Debt Seminar May 14th
The State of Medical Debt in America: Join the Lown Institute on May 14 at 10 am PDT for a two-hour intensive event featuring multiple panel discussions addressing the growing problem of medical debt in the United States. Register here. (Thank you to Save Secular Healthcare WA)
Featured panelists:
Elisabeth Benjamin, Community Service Society of NY
Lisa Edmonds, patient advocate
Berneta Haynes, National Consumer Law Center
Noam Levey, KFF Health News
Sara Rosenbaum, Milken School of Public Health, GWU
Christopher Goodman, School of Medicine Columbia
Alexandra Spratt, Arnold Ventures
Learn About Single Payer (Universal) Healthcare
Teammates - Here is a video recording of Single Payer 101 by Dr. Diljeet Singh for Physicians for a National Health Plan.
Here is the slideshow used during “Single Payer 101”.
We also encourage you to register HERE for their next webinar, “Taking Advantage: How Corporate Health Insurers HARM America’s Seniors” on Monday, June 3 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
If you’d like the presentation materials they are here.
Nursing Home Staffing Updates
On April 22, 2024, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a highly-anticipated final rule that creates new requirements for nurse staffing levels in nursing facilities, settings that provide medical and personal care services for 1.2 million Americans, and for which the adequacy of staffing has been a longstanding issue. CMS received nearly 50,000 comments on the proposed rule, ranging from comments that strongly supported the proposed standards to those that opposed them. Among those comments, the nursing home industry suggested the rule was too onerous, given staffing shortages and costs, and could lead to nursing facility closures. This was of course, fear mongering. Many resident and family advocates suggested the proposed standards were too weak to address quality concerns. Some of us were thankful for new standards (I was). (KFF)
The graph below shows that only about 20% can meet the new standard and about 59% can meet the interim standard. There is work to do to protect those in care facilities.
We have discussed this before. Recall that when nursing homes are purchased by for profit entities (like private equity investors) death rates rise by 10% in a year, staff oversight declines and overmedication occurs. Here is a link to that study.
Let’s watch this space and see how they do - those in nursing facilities deserve better than they are getting.
Resources
Find My Elected Officials
Contact State and Federal Representatives - phone and email
Healthcare Advocacy (Us) Website
Our Newsletter resources including reproductive healthcare - Healthcare Advocacy Reading List
Important Healthcare Resources
League of Women Voters Healthcare Reform Toolkit
Organizations to Contact
National Nurses United Medicare4All
Physicians for a National Health Program
One Payer States
Healthcare Now
Reproductive Health
NARAL - Pro Choice America
Charley. chatbot abortion resource - make sure to use a secure incognito browser if you live in a state that has banned abortion
Planned Parenthood
Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline has references about where to procure abortion medications. They also assist women in the process of self managed abortion or miscarriage by phone or text and will respond in an hour. Details and hours of operation at their website.
United State of Women Reproductive health page (bottom of the page) has important resources such as medical support, access to Telehealth, prescriptions by mail, and legal support references.
Practice careful communications - The Digital Defense Fund has a number of tips to keep texts, calls, and internet use private. Here is their site.
If you need financial help with an abortion try abortionfunds.org
Claims Denials and Appeals & What to Do
Appeal a Healthcare Decision
Appeal/Negotiate a Hospital Bill
Disinformation Management
Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency
Save Democracy
Chop Wood, Carry Water by Jessica Cravens
RESISTBOT
Link to the RESISTBOT site to learn more
Link to Chop Wood, Carry Water RESISTBOT write up
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