Posts Tagged ‘san francisco’

San Francisco is the first city in the US to offer a health plan for its uninsured citizens. The plan, called “Healthy San Francisco,”  was launched two years ago and has received high marks in independent studies. Currently, three-quarters of San Francisco’s uninsured adults have enrolled in the program which guarantees access to medical services. “Healthy San Francisco is not insurance,” and doesn’t function outside of the city limits. But ”any uninsured adult who lives in San Francisco and earns up to 500% of the federal poverty level annually is eligible. … Patients must pick a medical home out of a network of more than 30 public and private clinics, physician groups and hospitals within the city limits. The idea is that patients get consistent care and the system avoids duplicating services. … Preventative services, care for illness and chronic conditions, hospital stays and prescriptions are all covered.” The funding for the program comes from public funds as well as an employer mandate. Restaurants and businesses may also contribute to the fund by way of an additional “fee” added to their patron’s bills. [Los Angeles Times via Kaiser Health News]

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New research from San Francisco State University is thought to be the first to show that sighted and blind people use the same facial expressions in response to certain emotional states. By studying both sighted and blind Olympic athletes the researchers found that 85 percent of silver medalists, regardless of visual ability, showed the same “social smile”, where only the mouth smiles – compared with a “real” or Duchenne smile (named after the 19th century French neurologist who discovered that a smile which results from true happiness involves not only the mouth but also the eyes). “Individuals blind from birth could not have learned to control their emotions in this way through visual learning so there must be another mechanism,” said the researchers. This is why they believe that some facial expressions may be intrinsic, not learned.

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