Summer Reading and Viewing

  ..Stuff to read and watch if you care about... 

Speaking engagements were hard to come by over the summer but there is no shortage of resources to learn more about what's happening in reproductive justice and health care reform.  Here are my top recommendations, most of which are available to stream for free online or check out from the library.

..Reproductive Justice...

The Texas Tribune's Video Series: Fertile Ground

For a comprehensive look at the impact of political games being played with Texas's Women's Health Program. After the SCOTUS ruling, it is still under siege. This 6-part series explains what happened with family planning funding and abortion restrictions during the last Texas legislative session. Data and numbers should give you a good idea of what's at stake.

Rachel Maddow's MSNBC Documentary: The Assassination of Dr. Tiller

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Preview available here. If you subscribe to Netflix streaming service, you can find Rachel Maddow's profile of the political circumstances and events leading up to the day in 2009 when the late-term abortion provider was shot to death in his church. Dr. Tiller's simple explanation of why he chose to perform late-term abortions is an especially profound moment. The documentary also exposes the conditions that have forged a culture of terrorism against abortion clinics and providers.

.. America's Broken Health Care System...

These resources may be a bit dated but give a well-rounded overview of what makes the current model unsustainable. Examining other health care systems around the world gives insight into what we can and cannot accomplish going forward.

Frontline's Sick Around America

Frontline tours the nation talking to patients and representatives from the health insurance industry to answer the question: what's wrong with health care in America?  The insurance industry speaks for itself in this piece and they seem surprisingly on-board with reform. Frontline also produced a series about health care around the world, I haven't got around to watching yet.

Helene Jorgensen's 2008 book Sick & Tired: How America's Health Care System Fails Its Patients

This is personal story about one woman who contracted lyme disease and her battle to afford her medical bills and stay sane doing it. She open's with the story of Nikki White, which is also mentioned in the Frontline documentary. Jorgensen short, but well-researched volume highlights what I see as one of the biggest problems with the current system: conflicts of interest at nearly every level of health care delivery.

The Healing of America by T.R. Reid

I am late to the game on this bestseller from 2010, but, like the Frontline piece, it tours health care systems around the world, many of which serve as models for systems we already use, like Medicare and the V.A. health service. The book leaves you with the haunting question: how much inequity are we willing to tolerate when it comes to healthcare?

...Well, I hope this list helps to kill the last few hours before school starts up again. Many of the issues touched-upon will be big election-year talking points so we should all keep well-informed...
  

On the Eve of the SCOTUS Ruling: Panel on Social Determinants of Health Disparities; Moving the Nation to Care About Social Justice

By: Megan Antonetti-Elford

At the edge of the cliff of good health...
(slide taken from the presentation of Dr. Camara Jones)

I tweeted for everyone to tune in to webcast a few weeks ago to hear discussion about topics that I think are mostly missing from the health care debate. We often hear complaints about constitutionality and the economic pitfalls of controlled markets, but these discussions miss the point with regard to the state of health care in this country. On the eve of the SCOTUS ruling on the Affordable Care Act, we should refocus on the goal of achieving health care equity in America and the impact of social determinants like racism that are at the root of this issue. We have analyze why health disparities arise in the first place.


An archived webcast of the University of North Carolina Minority Health Project's presentation can be viewed here: http://www.minority.unc.edu/institute/2012/. Some points stood out for me particularly and I hope they inspire others to watch the webcast in full and, of course, to tune into the discussion next year, after we have seen the outcomes of the upcoming health care ruling play out.


Dr. Camara Jones, MD, MPH, PhD, Medical Officer for the CDC, opened the program with a electrifying talk setting up a framework for talking about social determinants of health disparities.  She spoke about three levels at which we can approach the problem of health care equity as the "cliff" pictured above -a great metaphor for addressing how health care resources are spent and also how health disparities arise. Dr. Jones argues that disparities arise in quality of care, access to care, and differences in opportunity, exposure, and stress in daily life.  To keep people away from the cliff (getting sick and needing health care), the third level, the differences in opportunity and exposure, must be addressed.


Racism can be difficult to talk about in this context but Dr. Jones pinpointed it quite well, defining it as "a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how we look." Like all of the other power structures at play, from sexism to capitalism, racism  "unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities" while providing a reciprocal unfair advantage for others outside those populations.  This may contribute to the fact that knowledge of a persons perceived race and zip code can accurately predict his overall health or BMI. Identifying and correcting the mechanisms of institutionalized racism in decision making in this country may be the most important way to achieve health equity.


What is health equity? According to Dr. Jones, it is "the assurance of the conditions for optimal health for all people." It is a process guided by reason and social morality requiring these three tactics:

• Valuing all individuals and populations equally
• Recognizing and rectifying historical injustices
• Providing resources according to need

How did the U.S. get so behind in looking after the health of its citizens? We have to look at how the system of racism, in its history, in its manifestation outlined by Dr. Jones, and in its limiting of access to health care colors the opposition to the health care law. Racism is a component in this debate we can't be afraid to talk about, especially because it is institutionalized at levels beyond the availability of health care, to public education, protection of reproductive rights and access to accurate sex education, and even the prison system. We have to look at the motivations and actions of the unfairly advantaged because they hurt us all.


*hyperlinked text links to relevant films, viewable online for free