American journal of public health
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This study determined the level of insurance coverage for smoking cessation treatment and factors associated with coverage among health and welfare funds affiliated with a large labor union. ⋯ Coverage for smoking cessation services is low, comparable to coverage offered by other health insurers. Interventions with union members and fund officials are needed to provide union members with access to affordable and effective smoking cessation treatments.
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OBJECTIVES. This study modeled the health and federal fiscal effects of expanding Medicaid for HIV-infected people to improve access to highly active antiretroviral therapy. ⋯ Expansion of the Medicaid eligibility to increase access to antiretroviral therapy would have substantial health benefits at affordable costs.
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Growing concern that public health laws may be inadequate to the challenges that confront public health practitioners has led to adoption of a Healthy People 2010 objective for improved laws and policies. It has also led to concerted efforts to strengthen the legal foundation for public health practice. In this editorial, the authors present a framework for collaborative research, analysis, and development to strengthen public health laws, skill in applying laws, and law-related information resources.
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The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently recommended that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reevaluate its employment of "race," a concept lacking scientific or anthropological justification, in cancer surveillance and other population research. The IOM advised the NIH to use a different population classification, that of "ethnic group," instead of "race." A relatively new term, according to the IOM, "ethnic group" would turn research attention away from biological determinism and toward a focus on culture and behavior. This article examines the historically central role of racial categorization and its relationship to racism in the United States and questions whether dropping "race" from population taxonomies is either possible or, at least in the short run, preferable. In addition, a historical examination of "ethnicity" and "ethnic group" finds that these concepts, as used in the United States, derive in part from race and immigration and are not neutral terms; instead, they carry their own burden of political, social, and ideological meaning.