American journal of public health
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Health insurance exchanges are a key component of the Affordable Care Act. Each exchange faces the challenge of minimizing friction with existing policies, coordinating churn between programs, and maximizing take-up. ⋯ Policymakers must ensure that their exchange-whether state or federally run-succeeds. Whether this happens will greatly depend on the political dynamics in each state.
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We have considered the tobacco industry's challenges to legislative attempts to provide more health-related information on retail packaging. The first issue is taking and acquiring the industry's intellectual property in Australia. The second challenge involves the tensions between graphic images and the First Amendment in the United States. We have argued that the Obama administration should take advantage of the current window of opportunity to aggressively restrict the industry's control of its products.
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We analyzed the impact of Connecticut legislation incentivizing voluntary school district-level elimination of unhealthy competitive foods on National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participation. ⋯ This study provides support for national implementation of proposed rigorous competitive food standards that can improve the health of students while supporting local school district finances.
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Comparative Study
Characteristics of emergency department visits by older versus younger homeless adults in the United States.
We compared the characteristics of emergency department (ED) visits of older versus younger homeless adults. ⋯ The ED visits of homeless adults aged 50 years and older accounted for 36% of annual visits by homeless patients. Although demographic characteristics of ED visits were similar in older and younger homeless adults, clinical and health services characteristics differed. Older homeless adults had fewer discharge diagnoses related to psychiatric conditions (10% vs 20%; P = .002) and drug abuse (7% vs 15%; P = .003) but more diagnoses related to alcohol abuse (31% vs 23%; P = .03) and were more likely to arrive by ambulance (48% vs 36%; P = .02) and to be admitted to the hospital (20% vs 11%; P = .003). Conclusions. Older homeless adults' patterns of ED care differ from those of younger homeless adults. Health care systems need to account for these differences to meet the needs of the aging homeless population.
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We examined news coverage of public debates about large taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) to illuminate how the news media frames the debate and to inform future efforts to promote obesity-related public policy. ⋯ News outlets that covered the debate on SSB taxes in their jurisdictions framed the issue in largely favorable ways. However, because these proposals have not gained passage, it is critical for SSB tax advocates to reach audiences not yet persuaded about the merits of this obesity prevention policy.