|
Substance Use Prevention Resources
CWA has just updated resources all in one place on the
WIC Can Help
information and referral
page for June
on
Alcohol and Substance Use
. It features many women-specific resources around curbing the use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, including some new resources for consumers and professionals on e-cigarettes and opioid abuse.
|
Social Interaction and Health
|
Shopping at Amazon?
Support CWA without spending anything extra by using
AmazonSmile!
|
Did someone share this with you? Sign up here to get the CWA Flash directly!
|
|
 |
|
Staggering Numbers for Health Care
Millions of Americans can expect a desperate future when seeking health care. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a press release, county-level map and report of 2018 projected Health Insurance Exchanges participation. The uncertainty of the health care legislation makes it difficult for health plans to commit and establish rates, while health plan members, unsure of what to expect yet hoping something better or less expensive will be available, are hesitant to sign up, and will likely find no exchange coverage available. The telling Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation score of the Senate version of the health care reform bill predicts 22M more Americans will lose coverage. This is similar to the House version and is expected to leave 49M folks with no health coverage in just 9 years. Especially hard hit will be Medicaid recipients. The bill would reduce the federal deficit by reducing benefits, increasing premiums, and force higher costs on older Americans, those with pre-existing conditions, and low-income individuals. The impact of these changes will result in additional deaths due to loss of health insurance coverage. ACTION: Call and tweet your Senator, let them know that the new health care bill is unacceptable.
|
SNAP Benefits Threats: CA Impact
Federal proposed changes to SNAP benefits would impact families in all CA counties receiving CalFresh. The Golden state unfortunately has some of the highest poverty rates in the nation and, in some Congressional Districts, 1 in 6 and even 1 in 4 families would be impacted by the changes, receiving fewer food dollars. The Central Valley districts for Representatives
Costa (16th CD) and Valadao (21st CD) would be especially hard hit as 27% and 25% of households in those districts receive CalFresh.
ACTION:
Check out the
fact sheet
and map of county rankings to see the impact, particularly for the large swaths of California with high participation in CalFresh.
|
California Budget
California Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders agreed last week to a $125 billion budget that would expand CA's earned income tax credit, increase spending on safety net programs, and boost Medi-Cal payments for medical and dental providers - if allowed under federal law. Other funds for health care include mental health crisis centers for children, care for developmentally disabled individuals, family planning and HIV care. The budget also includes a one-time payment to the state's largest public-employee pension fund and more money for higher education. Not included was a proposal to expand health coverage to individuals to age 26. It does not reverse spending agreed to last year, as Brown had proposed.
|
New Webinars in Lactation & Nutrition
Join us for two free webinars, cosponsored with the California Breastfeeding Coalition and California Department of Public Health, and providing continuing education for lactation and nutrition professionals. August 24: "California Infant Feeding Guide: What is New?" as well as a webinar on Lactation Accommodation in September - details coming soon. ACTION:
Register
! Email
Sarah
with questions.
|
New Nutrition Label Deadline Pushed Back
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
has delayed the deadline
for food companies to adopt a new Nutrition Facts label on food and beverage packages. The new design (
introduced
in 2014) included highlighting the calories in packaged food and drinks using large, bold font and labeling added sugars. Large companies had been given until July 2018 to comply with the new label, and at least one food giant, Mars Inc., has said
it could be ready
to meet that deadline, but several industry groups asked for more time.
Announcing
an extension of the compliance date, the FDA stated: "The agency is mindful of the importance of balancing its mission of protecting public health with the practicalities of implementing the amended labeling requirements." The Trump administration has also
delayed the
deadline for complying with a rule that requires chain restaurants to post calories and has eased Obama-era school lunch regulations as well. Consumer advocacy groups have expressed concern that the FDA will deny consumers information they need to make healthy food choices.
|
Breastfeeding May Reduce Risk of Heart Attack or Stroke
A woman's risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke later in life
may be influenced
by how long she breastfed her children, according to
a new study
. Findings indicate that women who reported every having breastfed were about 9% less likely to have signs of heart disease in middle age and about 8% less likely to have a stroke than women who had never breastfed. This study joins a
growing body of evidence
linking breastfeeding with reduced health risks for women later in life.
|
Opioids Overprescribed After Cesarean Births
Researchers who tracked prescriptions and pill use in a group of women discharged from the hospital after cesarean delivery say that doctors may be overprescribing opioids. The average in the group of 179 women left the hospital with a prescription for the equivalent of 30 pills containing 5 milligrams of oxycodone or hydrocodone. Then, using interviews, the scientists tracked how much of the medicine they used during the two weeks after discharge. Most women used the pills for about eight days, and 75 percent had unused medicine at the end of the two weeks.
|
Teaching Kitchens
A holistic approach to nutrition education and self-care
, pairing
cooking skills
with life skills, was taken in this small but promising
study
for impacting obesity and health outcomes.
Dr. Eisenberg
, study PI, notes that our healthy system ought to favor and reward health care that prevents disease - reducing healthcare costs - over merely treating disease.
|
Annual KIDS COUNT Data Book
The
2017 KIDS COUNT Data Book
has been released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and urges policymakers not to back away from targeted investments that help U.S. children become healthier, more likely to complete high school and better positioned to contribute to the nation's economy as adults. The Data Book also shows the child poverty rate in 2015 continued to drop, landing at 21%. In addition, children experienced gains in reading proficiency and a significant increase in the number of kids with health insurance. However, the data indicate that unacceptable levels of children living in poverty and in high-poverty neighborhoods persist.
|
Paid Leave Advocacy Toolkit
MomsRising
has released an
animated video
along with a
social media toolkit
featuring sample tweets and key facts demonstrating why paid family and medical leave is so important for families, businesses, and our economy. The toolkit includes a section specifically connecting breastfeeding outcomes and paid family leave. These new resources emphasize that a national paid family and medical leave policy must be accessible to all workers, offer a meaningful length of leave, be affordable for workers, employers, and the government, have an inclusive definition of family, and offer job protection.
|
|
|
