Monthly Archive for February, 2011

Just When You Think You’ve Seen It All

Published on February 28, 2011 in Debra Ness, Health Care, Reform, Repro Health Watch and Reproductive Health. 21 Comments Tags: .

 

Debra Ness, President

Sometimes I think there’s not much that can surprise me. But last week proved that theory wrong: the U.S. House of Representatives voted to prohibit federal funds for health care services provided by Planned Parenthood, and eliminate funding for all Title X family planning services, which are the sole source of health care for millions of low-income and uninsured women in this nation. And because, apparently, even that wasn’t enough, they also voted to defund the federal agencies and personnel that are working to implement health reform, which is the greatest advance for women’s health in a generation.

House leaders are willing to risk shutting down the federal government in order to advance their anti-woman, anti-reform agenda.

If these measures pass the Senate, unintended pregnancies in this country will skyrocket, fewer women will be screened for breast and cervical cancers and sexually transmitted infections, and women’s health will suffer terribly because millions of women will lose their primary source of health care. Planned Parenthood clinics in communities across the country will be at risk for closing.

Representatives Jackie Speier and Gwen Moore helped remind us about what is at stake with these votes when they shared their personal stories. They drove home the stakes in this debate, and the human impact of what the House is trying to do.  Their courage made it even more appalling to watch a majority of their colleagues callously vote to take away women’s health care.

We are counting on our Senators and President Obama to block these short-sighted, dangerous cuts, and to stand strong for women and their families. Tell your Senators: hands off my health care (and family planning too)!

San Francisco Paid Sick Days Law Is A Proven Success

Published on February 16, 2011 in Vicki Shabo and Work & Family. 2 Comments

Vicki Shabo, Director of Work and Family Programs

A new study released today shows that San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance (PSLO)—the first citywide paid sick days standard in the country—has been proven a success. The report, San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance: Outcomes for Employers and Employees, released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), includes the results of a survey of nearly 1,200 workers and more than 700 employers in San Francisco. The findings are overwhelmingly positive for workers, businesses and the public—adding further evidence that policies that help working families meet their responsibilities at work and at home are good for everyone.

Sixty-one percent of San Francisco voters approved the city’s paid sick days law in 2006 despite the business lobby’s fierce campaign against it. Under the law, workers in smaller businesses can earn up to five paid sick days per year while workers in larger businesses can earn up to nine. Workers can use the sick time to recover from their own illness, care for a sick family member, or seek routine medical care.

This new study shows what researchers, advocates and the San Francisco public knew to be true: San Francisco’s PSLO has had a tremendous impact on workers’ lives with little to no impact on the city’s businesses. Two-thirds of the employers surveyed now support the PSLO. They overwhelmingly report that their profits haven’t declined as a result of the law and two-thirds report no difficulties with implementation.

The study results suggest that part of the reason the impact on business has been minimal is that workers only take sick days when they need them. Even though the law allows workers to take between five and nine paid sick days annually, San Francisco workers used a median of just three days per year to recover from an illness or care for a sick family member. And one-quarter of workers reported that they didn’t take a single sick day. Commonly used arguments about employee abuse, just like concerns about hindering businesses, simply aren’t reflected in the real-life data coming out of San Francisco. It’s no wonder that the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, one of the chief opponents of the law prior to its passage, now concedes that there has not been an adverse impact on business closures or employee misuse.

This new data proves that access to paid sick days really does make a difference for working families. More than half of the workers surveyed said they have benefitted from the law. And the law has given workers who need paid sick days the most—including parents and workers with chronic health conditions—the time they need to care for their health and the health of their children. Every day we hear the stories of parents who are forced to choose between their children’s health and the financial well-being of their family; lower-wage workers who have to put off visits to the doctor and sacrifice their health to avoid losing their jobs; and workers with conditions like asthma and diabetes that require ongoing care but who are forced to put their long-term health in danger because they have no sick time. This study shows the power of a simple common-sense policy in improving the lives of these workers and their families.

One sobering note from the study is that not all workers have been able to enjoy the PSLO’s protections. Between one-fifth and one-third of the city’s employers are not complying with the law, either by failing to provide time off or by asking for more documentation than the law requires. The survey results are a call for greater employer education, outreach and enforcement to maximize compliance and workers’ access to the protections the law provides.

As a whole, this new report adds to the growing evidence that paid sick days policies benefit working families, employers and our communities. Currently, 40 percent of private-sector workers in the United States don’t have access to paid sick days. And millions more cannot use the time they have to care for a sick child or family member. Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee, WI, have already followed San Francisco’s lead by passing paid sick days laws, and states like Connecticut are seriously considering legislation that would guarantee workers the right to earn paid sick days. There are no more excuses for lawmakers and employers not to do the right thing for working families. The scare tactics used by opponents have been shown to be baseless. It’s time for lawmakers to reject them and enact the common-sense policies that are proven to work for everyone.

What, No Tiara?

Published on February 8, 2011 in Christine Bechtel and HIT. 0 Comments
Christine Bechtel

Christine Bechtel

Recently, a reporter conducted an analysis of the people considered to be “the most powerful” in the field of health information technology (IT).

Focusing on the Health IT Policy Committee (a federal advisory body that provides input to key federal agencies with jurisdiction over health IT), the reporter conducted an analysis of stakeholders serving on various workgroups with the capacity to influence public policy.  His generous conclusion is that based on the number of workgroups and other subjective factors – including “forceful will” – that the most powerful person is…me.

My parents couldn’t be happier.  My colleagues won’t let me live it down.

I’m more than a little embarrassed, since I can think of about a thousand other people in Washington more powerful than I am – including the hard-working federal agency staff that actually set and oversee the implementation of HIT policy and initiatives.

But to me, the most powerful people are actually those professionals in the field who are making a real difference every day in the lives of patients and their families.

They are living examples of how this can be done – that electronic health records can be used in a meaningful way right now to truly benefit not just doctors and health insurance companies, but patients and families themselves.

Physicians like Ted Eytan, who are using their medical training and their deep rooted personal beliefs that care really is about patients to help health systems like Group Health and Kaiser Permanente re-engineer the way they use information to provide care that is better, safer and more patient-centered.

Professionals like Micki Tripathi, who are leading statewide efforts to build systems and relationships that help doctors talk to each other electronically (through information exchange) and thereby coordinate care for patients who need it.

Institutions like the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is making it possible for veterans and their families to download their own health information electronically – so they don’t have to tote reams of paper from doctor to doctor in an attempt to make sure their care teams have the information they need to provide the best care they can.

These outstanding people and organizations are changing health care for patients and their families every day.  They do what they do to help people like Susan Crowson.  Susan was a caregiver for her father, “Pop,” for years.  She created Excel spreadsheets to track his complex care.  She alone bore the burden of getting doctors to share important information.  When she took her dad for lab tests every two months, Susan was the one who had to make sure all Pop’s doctors got the test results — or it didn’t happen.  In today’s technologically advanced world, this is just unacceptable.

At the end of the day, I believe that power in this world is about making a meaningful difference in people’s lives, and these are just a few of the most powerful people in my book.  And more “power” to them!

On the FMLA Anniversary, Let’s Focus on the Unmet Needs of Working Families

Published on February 5, 2011 in Portia Wu and Work & Family. 0 Comments

Portia Wu, Vice President, NPWF

18 years. That’s how long the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) has been in place. It was the first bill President Clinton signed into law and it remains one of the proudest accomplishments of his presidency.

The FMLA is the first national law designed to help working families meet the dual demands of work and family. Incredibly, as I write this today, it’s also the last.

As we celebrate this anniversary and reflect on how far we have come, we must renew our commitment to ensuring all working families have basic job protections so they can meet their health needs. Today, many do not: More than 75 million workers still don’t have family and medical leave protections. Millions more can’t afford to take the unpaid leave the FMLA makes possible.

At a time when workers are struggling to manage responsibilities at work and at home—and when losing a job often means six months or more of unemployment—we must redouble our efforts to ensure workers have leave to meet key family health needs. The FMLA was an historic step, but it was just a first step. We must continue the progress.

Since 1993, millions of workers have been able to use the FMLA to take unpaid job-protected time away from work to recover from illness, care for a sick family member or bond with a new child. The legislation has allowed workers to keep their health insurance and their jobs when they need leave.

In recent years, we have seen some improvements. Members of the military, their families and flight crews now have protection under the federal FMLA. Some state leave laws have recognized more family caregiving relationships and covered more workers. Last year, the Department of Labor interpreted the law to allow some grandparents and some lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) parents to take unpaid time off to care for a new or ill child. In addition, after years of advocacy by the National Partnership and allies, the Department of Labor will collect new data on FMLA access and usage in 2011 so that we can see how the law is working—and what improvements may be needed.

Those are important steps, but workers need more. At the national level, we urgently need to extend FMLA job-protected leave to people who work part-time and for smaller companies, to siblings, grandchildren and others.

And we need to make paid leave available. Many families cannot afford to take unpaid leave. That’s why access to paid family and medical leave is so critical. California and New Jersey have paid family leave insurance programs that have made a tremendous difference for working families’ economic security, with a minimal cost for both businesses and workers. California’s program—the first in the nation—has recently made headlines as a big success. A major report released last month revealed that an overwhelming majority of businesses and workers are benefiting from the program. New Jersey is seeing similarly positive results.

America needs a national paid family leave insurance system or, at the very least, we should dedicate funds to support innovative states that are developing their own paid leave programs.

The National Partnership was the driving force behind passage of the FMLA all those years ago. Today, we’re calling on members of Congress to take the next big step toward becoming a family-friendly nation. Whether it’s to care for a new child, to deal with one’s own illness or to meet the health needs of a family member, all workers will need paid family and medical leave—and employers and our country will benefit when we provide it. The time to do this is now.

California Passes the Nation’s Paid Family Leave Test

Published on February 3, 2011 in Vicki Shabo and Work & Family. 0 Comments

Vicki Shabo, Director of Work and Family Programs

More than eight years ago, California lawmakers showed a historic commitment to working families in their state by establishing the nation’s first paid family leave program. Earlier this month, six-and-a-half years after the program was implemented, the results of its test are in—and they send a compelling message to employers, workers and lawmakers throughout the country.

Here’s what we know. On January 12th, Dr. Eileen Appelbaum, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and Dr. Ruth Milkman, professor of sociology at City University of New York, released Leaves That Pay. These two esteemed researchers conducted a two-year survey of 253 California employers and 500 California residents who needed time away from work to care for a new child or ill family member. It found that an overwhelming majority of employers and workers are seeing benefits from California’s program—proving that the most common objections to paid leave policies throughout the country no longer apply.

What does it mean? That the sky-is-falling anti-leave arguments the business community has long been using—increased costs, decreased productivity, employee abuse, and a disproportionate burden on small businesses—are bogus. This new report reveals that nearly 87 percent of employers in California have experienced no significant cost increases as a result of the state’s paid leave program. What’s more, 89 percent or more have experienced an unnoticeable or positive effect on productivity, profitability, and turnover. Less than 10 percent knew of any employee abuse. And contrary to pre-passage claims, small businesses were less likely than larger businesses to report negative effects from the program.

Paid family leave is about supporting working families, and now we know that California’s program has been successfully doing that—particularly for those working parents in “low-quality” jobs that pay less than $20 per hour and offer no health care benefits. Ninety-one percent of them report that taking paid leave to bond with a new child had a positive effect on their ability to care for their family. Women have been able to double the length of time they breastfeed, which promotes good health for both mother and child. Data from the California Employment Development Department show that men’s use of paid leave to bond with a new child has been increasing steadily since the start of the program. These are real improvements for working families in California.

No new mother should have to worry about rushing back to work after giving birth. No new father should have to choose between his job and caring for his child. And no working adult should have to send his or her older parent to a costly institution or watch them suffer from lack of proper care because they can’t take time off to provide care.

But tens of millions of workers in this country struggle with these very decisions as they try to plan and provide for their families without paid family leave. With more and more families depending on at least two incomes, we need policies that address the realities of our times.

Fortunately, momentum for state paid family leave programs is building. Since the start of California’s program, New Jersey has established a paid leave program. Washington passed legislation to create a program, but its implementation has been delayed due to lack of funding. This new report on California’s program proves that these policies are highly positive for both businesses and workers.

California’s pioneering paid leave program was a test for this country. Given the compelling evidence in this substantial and significant report, it is clear that program passed the test—with flying colors. Now, the responsibility shifts to other states and the federal government to follow California’s lead.