healthcare

Earl "Skip" Cooper  |   OW Guest Contributor
May 5 2011

Legislation requires regulators' approval

An important piece of legislation aimed at protecting our families and small businesses from astounding increases in health insurance costs is moving ahead in the state legislature.

All of us need to tell our representatives to pass this important bill right away.

May 5 2011

Disagree with new recommendations that screening should begin at age 50

A U.S. health task force stunned much of the medical world and many women in November 2009 by recommending that most women didn’t need to get their first mammogram until age 50.

But a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll finds that women in their 40s want their mammograms, and two-thirds of them weren’t even aware of the task force’s recommendations.

Apr 27 2011

Avoid furloughs

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Nearly 20,000 city workers voted to avoid more than a month of furlough days and will begin paying for their retirement healthcare for the first time, the Coalition of City Unions announced today.

"We voted with the best interests of Los Angeles residents in mind,'' said Tim Butcher, a heavy duty Truck operator with the Bureau of Street Services. "The changes to our contracts will end furloughs immediately, and that means we can get back to work for the people of this city.''

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
Mar 31 2011

Workers use street theater to oppose Prime Healthcare practices

Following months of escalating concern over Prime Healthcare Services’ business practices, hundreds of residents and healthcare workers staged a protest with a street theater in front of Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood last Saturday to underscore their demands that the hospital’s owner stop profiting at the expense of patients, caregivers, and the community.

Mar 17 2011

What to expect next

When L.A. voters went to the polls on March 8, they passed 10 of the 11 measures presented. Following are an explanation of the changes these measures will bring forth.

Measure G
will reduce the city’s costs for the pension and retirement healthcare plans for newly hired police officers and firefighters. The ballot question does not apply to the pension plans or retirement healthcare costs of existing police officers and firefighters. Measure G rolls back benefits that were created with Los Angeles Charter Amendment A in 2001.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.