Report takes hard look at senate immigration legislation and the impact on health care

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Article Date: 12 Aug 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Report takes hard look at senate immigration legislation and the impact on health care

A landmark immigration bill passed by the Senate would create new pathways to citizenship and provide a much-needed boost to the U.S. economy but would do little to ease immigration-related disparities in health care, according to a new report.

"The Senate bill represents the most significant bipartisan effort to reform immigration in many years," says Leighton Ku, PhD, MPH, the author of the new report and the director of the Center for Health Policy Research at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS). "It would modernize the nation's outmoded immigration system and let unauthorized immigrants earn a pathway to citizenship, but when it comes to health care, the bill offers no major changes."

The new report, which was funded in part by the Commonwealth Fund, analyzes the impact of the bill overall and specifically on health care. Ku found that the legislation would help clear the path for new legal immigration and help unauthorized immigrants earn legal status over more than a decade. That in turn, would expand the nation's workforce, bolster the economy and could help reduce the federal deficit, he says. The bill would also limit the future flow of unauthorized immigrants. But the issue brief also says that increasing access to health care for immigrants was not a high priority item in designing the bill, particularly in light of the continuing controversies about health reform.

For example, many not-yet-legal immigrants would be ineligible for most of the reforms under the Affordable Care Act, such as premium assistance or cost sharing subsidies, according to the analysis. Under the Senate bill, these immigrants could gain legal status, but remain ineligible for government assistance in obtaining health insurance or access to health care.

"Experience tells us that legalizing unauthorized immigrants will help them get better jobs in the long run. In turn, this may help them get job-based private health insurance," said Ku, who is also a professor in the Department of Health Policy at SPHHS.

Other key findings of the issue brief:

Because so many immigrants will remain without health insurance, there will continue to be a strain on the U.S. safety net of health care facilities. It will be important to maintain the nation's health care safety net, which includes community health centers and essential hospitals, to care for those who remain uninsured, including both immigrants and the native-born. The Senate bill would also make it easier for physicians and nurses from other countries to gain legal status in the United States - if they agree to provide care in rural or underserved regions. That provision could ease the health care workforce shortages in many parts of the nation. Since immigration reform will result in more people entering the United States, there will be a greater need for language assistance to help the newcomers who have a limited ability to speak English. Although federal policy already calls on health care providers to offer translation services, language barriers continue to be a common problem.

The issue brief notes that the bill still faces a rocky road ahead in terms of passage into law. The bill was developed after months of work by the so-called "Gang of Eight" Senators and passed with a strong bipartisan 68 to 32 vote. But the bill has elicited resistance now that the immigration reform debate has moved to the U.S. House of Representatives, Ku says. Despite the momentum that built up around the passage of this bill, the future of immigration reform remains uncertain, Ku says.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
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The issue brief, The Bipartisan Senate Immigration Bill: Implications for Health Coverage and Health Access, can be viewed at the SPHHS Department of Health Policy's website. A blog post on the same subject can be viewed at the Commonwealth Fund website.

George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services

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Hillary Clinton Takes On Congressional Republicans Over Obamacare

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended the Affordable Care Act and criticized House Republicans at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York City. Getty Images

At a Clinton Global Initiative panel discussion on women’s health, Hillary Clinton momentarily turned the conversation to Washington politics when she offered a full-throated defense of the Affordable Care Act and laid into a “noisy minority” of Republicans threatening to shutdown the government over the bill.

Clinton’s riff on the current affairs of the capital, where House Republicans are attempting to defund President Obama’s landmark health care bill, marked a notably partisan moment for the former secretary of state. Clinton has kept quite this year on much of what happens inside the Beltway.

“I find the debate over this issue to be quite unfortunate,” Clinton said Tuesday, on a panel moderated by CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta about women’s health. “A law was passed. It was upheld by the Supreme Court. It is the law of the land.”

To affect a contrast with what she described as today’s “noisy minority” of House Republicans, Clinton cited past health care bills, specifically George W. Bush’s Medicare Part D benefit, which also presented implementation challenges but was met with less opposition by lawmakers on the right. “You didn’t have obstructionist members of Congress once the vote was taken,” said Clinton.

Clinton, a possible presidential candidate in 2016, did acknowledge that Democrats could stand to benefit from Republican threats in Washington to shutdown the government over funding for the bill. “It wouldn’t be the worst thing for Democrats if they tried to shut the government down,” she said. “We’ve seen that movie before. It didn’t work out too well.”

“If they want to try to shut the government down,” Clinton added, “that’s on their head — that’s their responsibility.”

But Clinton said that if Republicans “go even further” by refusing to raise the debt ceiling over the issue, sending the country into default, “that is not just partisan politics, that is going to the heart of our credibility around the world,” she said. “I hope that smarter, cooler heads prevail and that we deal with our budget and we deal with our debt limit.”

Clinton, calling Obama’s health care reform a “significant step forward,” did acknowledge the bill wasn’t infallible. “Nobody is saying it’s a perfect bill. I served in the senate for eight years — there is no such thing as a perfect bill.”

She also gestured toward the public messaging problems the Obama administration has faced with the measure, stressing that while people may “agree with the specifics” of health care reform, “they have been in effect convinced the overall program is not to their liking.

“We’re in this sort of bipolar political world,” Clinton said.

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Chevrolet takes over Weather Channel app to promote Silverado

By Rebecca Borison

September 18, 2013

Chevrolet's ad in The Weather Company's app

Chevrolet is betting big on cross-screen advertising as part of a partnership with The Weather Company to promote the 2014 Silverado 1500 across mobile platforms.

The partnership is centered around The Weather Company's?new online series, called ?Hero Next Door,? which features weather heroes who help their neighbors after a severe weather event. As a part of the companies? cross-platform effort, the partnership will translate onto TV, desktop, smartphones and tablets.

?Mobile ads were leveraged in the larger ?Hero Next Door? campaign and strategy,? said Randi Stipes, vice president of client solutions at?The Weather Company, Atlanta.

?With so many devastating stories that come out in the aftermath of severe weather, it's good to remember the often heart-warming highlights, the caring individuals who risk everything to help, or even save, their neighbors,? she said.

"?Hero Next Door? with Chevrolet recognizes amazing weather heroes who take action, exude character and put their communities first. It's a twist on the usual weather news story that highlights those local stories of amazing human kindness and generosity that emerge from unthinkable disasters.?

Hero Next Door
The new online series includes six two to three-minute episodes that tell the story of a new hero. The Weather Channel will launch a new one every two weeks through the end of the year.

Consumers can nominate a weather hero by submitting a name, description of the heroic act and photo or video to the Weather Channel?s Facebook page. Nominated heroes may be chosen to be featured on an episode of Hero Next Door.

The contest runs through Oct. 31.

According to Ms. Stipes, The Weather Company decided to use Facebook because it lets consumers interact with the brand and join the community. It is also integrated with mobile, so consumers can easily nominate a hero.

While the videos are not accessible via mobile, the Chevrolet spots will run on mobile apps and mobile Web sites.

On the first day of the sponsorship, Chevrolet took over The Weather Company?s iPhone and Android apps. When a user opened the mobile app, he or she saw an image of the Chevrolet Silverado in different backgrounds depending on the time of day.

According to Ms. Stipes, Chevrolet will continue to have a presence on the Weather Company?s mobile screens throughout the program with ADaptors, custom-targeted ads and run-of-mobile/tablet video.

Chevrolet took over The Weather Company's app

Mobile weather
The Weather Channel has been?active in the mobile space over the years.

Last month, the company launched an updated version of its mobile site to give users all the information they need to easily plan their day (see story).

In April, The Weather Channel revamped its iPhone and iPod touch app to make it more personalized and relevant, with display live tiles on the home screen providing users with immediate access to radar, forecasts and new video (see story).

The company has also rolled out other video series which were accessible on desktop and mobile. Earlier this summer, weather.com featured six videos of eco-heroes through their journeys and challenges (see story).

?The Weather Channel continues to deliver the best information, whether that's the best forecasts, weather details, or the most relevant advertising or content on all of our mobile products,? Ms. Stipes said.

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile?Marketer, New York

Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer. Reach her at rebecca@mobilemarketer.com.

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