Health, Healthcare Reform, Patient Advocate, Safety, Social Media and Healthcare

Social Justice and Health

Evan O'Connor February 20, 2020

Social justice is the concept that all individuals deserve equal rights and opportunities — including the right to health. Even in 2020, inequities remain in healthcare that are avoidable, unnecessary, and unjust. These inequities are the result of established policies and practices that maintain an unequal concentration of money, power, resources, and perceived value within society among communities based on gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, country of origin, or disability. Racism, homophobia/transphobia, and misogyny are all insidious forms of bigotry that have long-reaching effects into healthcare.

Over 30% of medical expenses faced by communities of color can be associated with health inequities, and are more likely to be affected by conditions

Affordable Care Act, Healthcare Reform, Prescription Drugs

2020 Primary Election Primer

Evan O'Connor January 17, 2020

We are in the beginnings of an election year in the United States and the first primary votes to determine the Democratic nominee will be cast in the coming weeks. Healthcare costs remain a top concern for voters, and candidates have developed varying proposals to improve healthcare, reform the current system, and reduce healthcare costs in the U.S.

Independent Senator from Vermont and 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders has long championed the ideal of single payer healthcare, often referred to as Medicare for All in the U.S. In a single payer system, the federal government fully covers every service and procedure, including dental, vision, long-term care and abortion, with no out-of-pocket charge to patients. Bernie Sanders has often claimed Medicare for All is the only way to address deeper problems in the United States healthcare system, from medical bankruptcies to high maternal mortality rates, especially among poor and minority women. Senator Sanders has proposed allowing importing medication from abroad at

Awareness, Health, Healthcare Reform, Specialty Drugs

Transgender Awareness Week & Remembrance Day

Evan O'Connor November 14, 2019

Transgender Awareness Week falls between November 13-19 every year and is meant to help raise visibility of a vulnerable and underserved community. ‘Transgender’ is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned at birth; ‘gender identity’ is one’s innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both, or neither.

Transgender/gender non-conforming people experience gender dysphoria, a clinically significant distress recognized by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) caused by a person’s assigned birth gender differing from the one with which they identify. This leads to increased depression among the transgender community, which can be exacerbated by being rejected by family and friends, abuse/violence, or experiencing discrimination. Gender-affirming operations have shown to yield long-term mental health benefits for transgender people.

Transgender and gender-nonconforming people can face significant problems with accessing health care. Finding a healthcare provider who is

Affordable Care Act, Healthcare Reform

Open Enrollment for Healthcare Coverage

Evan O'Connor November 1, 2019

The Affordable Care Act (ACA; aka Obamacare) Health Insurance Marketplace begins its seventh Open Enrollment period today. American healthcare consumers can sign up on the federal insurance exchange at healthcare.gov or through their state marketplaces. In recent years there has been increased confusion surrounding Open Enrollment due to changes (and attempted changes) made to the ACA under the Trump administration, leading to the U.S. uninsured rate to rise for the first time since 2014 and the largest single-year increase since 2008.

When Obama was president and launched the ACA, Open Enrollment period ran 90 days beginning November 1 and running until the end of January. Open Enrollment was cut by President Trump to 45 days in 2017 unless you qualify for the Special Enrollment Period which extends enrollment by an additional 60 days. Advertising and outreach budgets for Open Enrollment have faced cuts, limiting the people able to access assistance or appropriate information that can help them.

New rules put out by the Trump administration allow ACA subsidies to be used for

Clinics, Healthcare Reform

Planned Parenthood Forgoes Title X After Gag Rule

Evan O'Connor August 21, 2019

This week, Planned Parenthood withdrew from federal Title X funding rather than comply with the Trump administration’s “gag rule” prohibiting Title X grantees from providing or referring patients for abortion services. Title X funding is mandated to focus on family planning and related preventive health services for patients who are low-income or uninsured. Two-thirds of patients who benefit from Title X funding are at or below the federal poverty line. Providers have already been forbidden from using federal funds to pay for abortions since 1976.

Planned Parenthood has been a controversial organization to many Americans since its beginnings in 1916. Planned Parenthood began their work when information about family planning and contraception were considered “obscene.” The founders of the first birth control clinic were arrested and convicted for disseminating contraception information. In the 1960s, family planning became a central element of the War on Poverty. Today family