The Year Ahead - Stroke and Climate - The ERA - Medical Disinformation

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If there are subjects you’d like to see or improvements made, please let me know using the comment button below. I will return to regular articles on November

The Year Ahead

A number of people have asked where our focus will be next year since the US has taken an illiberal turn towards fascism.

Universal Healthcare

I understand from progressive leaders that universal healthcare at the national level will be difficult to achieve. We will not stop telling elective officials that we need it nor will we shy away from the reasons we need it.

Reproductive Healthcare

Continue to work to restore reproductive healthcare nationwide.

We need to keep Mifepristone and Misoprotol available.

Pregnant persons have been allowed to die across the country in states that have made abortion illegal. We will continue to work to clarify those heinous laws so that doctors can save women instead of being forced to watch them die.

Work to create legislation that allows providers to provide medically sound and accurate advice and treatment in the face of facilities that seek to withhold care from patients based on so called moral/ethical “reasons”.

Cover as Many As Possible

Making sure that as many as possible have healthcare will be important. That includes extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies so that they apply in 2026 and beyond - they expire in 2025.

Convince Medicaid non-expansion states to expand Medicaid to the millions that are let behind.

LGBTQ+

We will continue to push back against legislators who seek to deny care important to t the LGBTQ+ community. We see this in legislation based in fiction as well as in religious hospitals.

YOUR SUGGESTIONS

If you see injustice in the healthcare system let us know and we will take action. Use the comment button or send an email to healthcareadvocacy1@gmail.com

Stroke and Climate Change

You know what’s coming - with wider variation of temperature the risk of stroke goes up. It is, of course mostly the poor and those who cannot insulate themselves from those changes that are most at risk.

This was actually the subject of a recent Lancet investigation. Before I cover the study let me say up front that every minute a stroke goes un treated 2 million brain cells can be lost - BE AWARE and BE PREPARED TO CAL 911 ASAP.

Here is what to look for

The BE FAST acronym is a critical tool to assess stroke symptoms:

Balance loss,

Eyesight changes,

Facial drooping,

Arm weakness,

Speech difficulty,

Time to call 911.

OK Got it BE FAST.

The latest stroke update from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD) study in The Lancet Neurology reported that "rises in ambient temperature (including heatwaves) and climate change are associated with increased stroke morbidity and mortality. (MedPage)

Earlier this year, another study published in Neurology found that, in 2019, more than half a million people died due to strokes that were linked to extreme temperatures (including both extreme highs and lows).

Specifically, research released at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery's annual meeting this summer found that worsening air quality and temperature extremes in the U.S. are linked to increased stroke burden, especially among those with lower incomes and a lack of health resources.

Researchers found that stroke prevalence was higher in areas with higher climate vulnerability scores, especially in the Southeast and the Midwest. Across the entire country, stroke incidence was 1.5 times higher in areas with the highest climate vulnerability scores (in the top 10th percentile in the Climate Vulnerability Index) compared to areas with lower scores (in the 50th percentile). Rural areas were especially likely to have high levels of combined climate vulnerability and stroke prevalence.

One more time BE FAST

Balance loss,

Eyesight changes,

Facial drooping,

Arm weakness,

Speech difficulty,

Time to call 911.

Women’s 2nd Class Status - TAKE ACTION

Please push President Biden to make the ERA the law of the land by asking the national archivist to sign and submit the amendment (which has been ratified by the required 38 states) to the Federal Registry. Contact them here.

This website has a whole host of things anyone can do from sending a postcard, making a phone call to joining a vigil near the White House in DC. (Chop Wood/Carry Water)

Medical Discipline

This article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Open) popped up last week.

Question  How frequently do medical boards discipline physicians for spreading medical misinformation relative to discipline for other professional misconduct?

Findings  In this cross-sectional study of 3128 medical board disciplinary proceedings involving physicians, spreading misinformation to the community was the least common reason for medical board discipline (<1% of all identified offenses). Patient-directed misinformation and inappropriate advertising or patient solicitation were tied as the third least common reasons (<1%); misinformation conduct was exponentially less common than other reasons for discipline, such as physician negligence (29%).

Meaning  Extremely low rates of disciplinary activity for misinformation conduct were observed in this study despite increased salience and medical board warnings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic about the dangers of physicians spreading falsehoods; these findings suggest a serious disconnect between regulatory guidance and enforcement and call into question the suitability of license regulation for combatting physician-spread misinformation.

WE CAN DO BETTER COMBATTING LIES

ACTION

Let’s contact our state medical licensing boards and let them know that when doctors spread disinformation they put patient’s lives at risk. That kind of lying about COVID-19 vaccines was responsible for 400,000 additional deaths.

Here is a link that has contact info for every state’s medical board. Find yours and call.

RESOURCES

Find My Elected Officials

Contact State and Federal Representatives - phone and email

• https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

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

Library of Advice

Specific Advice

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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