Archive for the ‘Health Policy’ Category

Spectrum

Food Friday: The Week in Food Policy and Nutrition

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Curbing Childhood Obesity, One School Meal at a Time

Childhood obesity rates have tripled in the past 30 years and are continuing their upward trend as foods become less healthy, portion sizes increase and healthy foods are harder to find - even in our schools. This Tuesday, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack addressed this growing epidemic and outlined his priorities for the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act during a press conference in Washington, D.C. As the core legislative priority for Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign, Sec. Vilsack aims to end childhood hunger by 2015 and curb the rising rates of childhood obesity by improving the nutritional value of the 9 billion meals served by school and summer programs each year. (more...)

Posted in Food Policy and Nutrition, Health Policy, Public Affairs, Public Health
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Spectrum

USDA Secretary Discusses Child Nutrition Programs

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Amidst D.C.'s "snowpocalypse," Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack managed to hold three teleconferences this week. The first was brief and followed on the heels of Mrs. Obama's unveiling of her Let's Move campaign. He along with Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan discussed their agencies' commitment to a healthier future.

The second teleconference, headlined by only Secretary Vilsack, provided an overview of the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act (CNA). According to Sec. Vilsack, the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act has twin problems: 16.5 million children live in households that suffer from food insecurity, which creates a hunger issue. At the same time, we have an epidemic of childhood obesity - one-third of our nation's children are obese or overweight. The result: high health costs and low productivity. (more...)

Posted in Community Involvement, Food Policy and Nutrition, Health Policy, Public Affairs, Public Health
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jseng
John
Seng

Larger World Of Health Care Markets Now At Your Doorstep!

Monday, February 8th, 2010

If you work for a health-oriented company that offers products or services internationally, you might be interested to know that our GLOBALHealthPR partnership expanded significantly in the past year, with exciting new access and capabilities in four countries among Latin America, Europe and Asia. Herewith our new names and faces, transmitting the best savvy in important health care markets around the world. (more...)

Posted in Health Care Industry, Health Policy, PR Industry, Public Health
By John Seng | No Comments »

 
jseng
John
Seng

Mr. Obama: Unite The Health Of Our State With The State Of Our Health

Friday, January 29th, 2010
Green area highlighted denotes the health reform section in the White House transcript of President Obama’s State of the Union Address, a little less than 8 percent.

Green area highlighted denotes the health reform section in the White House transcript of President Obama’s State of the Union Address, a little less than 8 percent.

My fellow Americans: President Obama read through nearly half of his 2010 State of the Union speech Wednesday evening before he arrived at, and all-too-briefly reviewed, what I still consider the nation's number one challenge, and indeed crisis: health care.

Interestingly, he described it as health insurance reform, which is a curious refinement from "health reform" or "health care reform." More unfortunate is that  the subject of health reform as Mr. Obama's #1 agenda item - prior to Scott Brown's surprise win of the open Senate seat in Massachusetts just nine days earlier -ultimately won less than eight percent space and time overall in the President's speech.

Whatever your politics, the newly sidelined health reform and our declining health as a nation deserved more time and a profound call-to-action from our leader. (more...)

Posted in Congress, Food Policy and Nutrition, Health Care Industry, Health Care Reform, Health Policy, Public Health
By John Seng | No Comments »

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CGHaupt
Courtney
Gray Haupt

Health Reform: Special Delivery for Christmas

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Amidst dipping public support for health care reform that dropped from 45% of Americans saying the country would be better off with health reform passage down from 54% in November, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's most recent poll, the Senate passed the last two procedural measures needed yesterday and today to cut off debate and move its health reform package forward. With identical votes of 60-39, Senate leaders secured the necessary support to block GOP filibuster attempts, setting the stage for Christmas Eve passage of the bill, H.R. 3590. A compromise was reached between Senate Democrats and Republicans yesterday to schedule a vote for 8:00 AM tomorrow morning.

Of the 47 million Americans currently without health coverage, the Senate health reform package would provide coverage for 23 million uninsured. The House bill would cover 17 million. The price tags of the two chambers' bills differ as well, with the House bill costing an estimated $1.052 trillion and the Senate legislation coming in at $871 billion. (more...)

Posted in Health Care Industry, Health Care Reform, Health Policy, Public Health
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Christina Plourde
Christina
Plourde

Part II: Public Health in Philadelphia

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Today was the first full day of sessions and posters at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.  Our Spectrum team spread through the conference and heard some interesting things, including:

Menu Labeling and Policy

In a session on menu labeling in New York City, Portland, and Seattle, research and policies were compared.  The Spectrum blog has previously written about research conducted in NYC.   The session started off with a discussion about why menu labeling is important; James Krieger asked the room to guess how many calories are in a variety of fast food meals, ranging from Burger King to Pizza Hut.  The Pizza Hut Cream Chicken Alfredo Pesto Pasta has a startling 3,270 calories per serving.  That's nearly double the recommended calories for adults in an entire day.

There are currently 16 jurisdictions that have passed and/ or are currently implementing menu labeling initiatives.  Additionally, the health reform legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday evening includes a menu labeling provision, which would preempt any state and local legislation.  The provision would only require calorie information to be posted, unlike some jurisdictions where fat, sodium, and other nutritional information is made available. (more...)

Posted in Health Policy, Public Affairs, Research, Technology, Tweets, Uncategorized
By Christina Plourde | No Comments »

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