Posts Tagged ‘economy’

As a part of their medium-term strategic plan the World Health Organization is calling for low-cost interventions that can help bolster the world’s economies. Such interventions include the distribution of vision corrective glasses to those who live in poverty. Studies have shown that blindness can contribute to poverty and those who are visually impaired have an increased risk of falling into lower socioeconomic classes and have higher rates of unemployment.

Read more and share your opinion.

Tweet This Share on Facebook

An interesting outcome of the current economic recession is the temporary alleviation of our nationwide nursing shortage. For much of the past decade the nursing shortage has increased to the point where hospitals have offered extra incentives to attract nursing staff. In some regions nurses can make as much as physicians. But now, some are delaying retirement due to economic concerns and are temporarily bolstering the number of available nurses. It is likely, however, that once the economy rebounds, the nursing shortage will once again become apparent, perhaps even worsen.

Read more and share your opinion.

Tweet This Share on Facebook

A Congressional staff briefing on the state of health care in the US will take place on Tuesday March 24. The briefing will include the release of a new report, Primary Care Access: An Essential Building Block of Health Reform, which will reveal that nearly 60 million Americans are currently without a regular source of preventitive and primary health care. This is attributable to many factors, including economic instability, as well as the worsening shortage of primary care physicians and a growing scarcity of providers willing to treat the uninsured or publicly insured.

Read more and share your opinion.

Tweet This Share on Facebook

A new report from the Institute of Medicine finds that more US residents will lose their health insurance as the economy continues to weaken and health care costs continue to rise. Many companies have begun to replace full-time positions with part-time, contract and temporary positions that do not include health insurance. The report also found that increased health insurance premiums have prompted more employees to seek out alternative options outside of plans offered by companies. According to the report, the average annual employee premium contribution for family health insurance coverage increased from $1,543 to $3,354 between 1999 and 2008.

Read more and share your opinion.

Tweet This Share on Facebook