News of the Week: Suicide rates rose nationwide since 1999
Each week we share articles on subjects that are important to NUHW and its members. Here are several must-read stories over the past seven days:
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported on Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital announcing layoffs, which would include 35 NUHW members, even though the hospital raked in a $55 million last year. The hospital is offering to forgo laying off 28 nursing assistants, but only if all 150 nursing assistants agree to go from a 40 hour/week schedule to a 36 hour/week schedule that would result in a pay cut for our members and less care for their patients.
Amid two high-profile suicides last week, the CDC issued a report Thursday showing that suicide rates rose in all but one state between 1999 and 2016, with increases seen across age, gender, race and ethnicity, NPR reports. In more than half of all deaths in 27 states, the people had no known mental health condition when they ended their lives.
In a ruling that could set the stage for disenfranchising millions of poor, minority voters, CNN reports that the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday that Ohio can purge residents from the voter rolls if they fail to vote in several elections. Ohio sends a notice after a voter skips a single federal election cycle. If the voter fail to respond and does not vote in the next four years, the voter’s name is removed from the rolls.
In its latest effort to undermine the Affordable Care Act — and in the process, raise premiums for many Americans — the Trump administration is urging a federal judge in Texas to throw out the law’s protections for people with preexisting conditions, according to the Los Angeles Times. In other words, the administration wants insurers to be able to deny coverage to the people most in need of it, or to charge them considerably higher premiums than they’re allowed to charge today.
London Breed moved ahead of Mark Leno in the race to be San Francisco’s next mayor, Mission Local reports. With about 24,000 votes left to count, Breed now leads by about 1,500 votes.
November’s election in California will have far-reaching ramifications for the Affordable Care Act and national healthcare policy, David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund, told California Healthline. “If California voters don’t elect more Democrats to Congress, it will be harder for the party to gain legislative control and “the Affordable Care Act will continue, as it has been, to be under attack from an empowered Republican majority,” he said.
An American government escort handed over the 5-year-old child, identified on his travel documents as José, to the American woman whose family was entrusted with caring for him. He refused to take her hand. He did not cry. He was silent on the ride “home.” The first few nights, he cried himself to sleep. Then it turned into “just moaning and moaning,” said Janice, his foster mother. He recently slept through the night for the first time, though he still insists on tucking the family pictures under his pillow. José’s separation from his father is part of the Trump administration’s latest and most widely debated border enforcement policy, The New York Times reports.