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Share your opinions on current health care issues. Discuss successes and downfalls in working in the health care system. Read archived posts to find out what works and what falls short.

Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner's Reports on Uninsured by County
What the Uninsured are Costing You

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Communities Connect: Access to Affordable Medicines, Reference Paper
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Communities Connect: Community-Based Health Care, Issue Paper: Draft #3
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Communities Connect: Leverage Public and Private Funding, Reference Paper
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Communities Connect: Physician Recruitment and Retention Incentives, Reference Paper
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Links and Resources

Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit, private operating foundation focusing on the major health care issues facing the nation. The Foundation is an independent voice and source of facts and analysis for policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the general public.

Literacy and Health Outcomes: Summary
This link summarizes a new evidence report illustrating links between health literacy and health care use and outcomes. The full report is can be downloaded as a zipped file from here. Printed copies of both documents are available by calling AHRQ's Publications Clearinghouse at 1-800-358-9295 or by E-mailing ahrqpubs@ahrq.gov.

Quality of Health Care: "Q-Pack"
As part of its effort to make health care safer and reduce medical errors, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed materials that will help patients choose wisely when it comes to their health care. Part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AHRQ is leading the Government's efforts to reduce medical errors and improve the quality of health care in America.

"Ask me-I can help."
The AMA and the AMA Foundation have developed a health literacy kit for physicians and other health professionals called "Health Literacy: Help Your Patients Understand," which contains a 48-page manual for health professionals, a video, patient information, and buttons for physicians and their office staff to wear that say simply: "Ask me-I can help."

Health Disparities Community Solutions Database
This database contains projects and interventions provided by members of the public health community. Use the form below to search for projects and interventions to health disparity challenges in our communities. The Health Disparities Projects and Interventions database is sponsored by the American Public Health Association.

Examples of Best Practices Provided by Communities Joined In Action.
A national movement is underway to transform America's fragmented health care system from the ground up. Communities Joined In Action across America are taking health care into their own hands and using proven strategies to achieve better health for more people at less cost.

Report: Many Mexican Candies Contain Lead (en Espaol)
More than 100 brands of candy sold in California, most of them from Mexico, have tested positive for dangerous levels of lead in the past decade and little has been done about it, a newspaper reported.

En ms de cien variedades de caramelos de procedencia mexicana que se venden en California se han detectado niveles peligrosos de plomo, segn un estudio.

ethnomed
The EthnoMed site contains information about cultural beliefs, medical issues and other related issues pertinent to the health care of recent immigrants to Seattle or the US, many of whom are refugees fleeing war-torn parts of the world.