The Coalition on Human Needs is teaming up with other organizations and “calling on all members of the Senate to put aside partisan games, to put aside rhetoric and enact legislation that has broad bi-partisan support – an extension of unemployment benefits and the COBRA health care subsidy through the end of 2010.”

While conventional wisdom tells us our health revolves around the choices we make as an individual, research from public health demonstrates that it is the social, economic and cultural conditions we live in that really matter.

In a guest post, Craig Parker, discusses the right to health debate taking place in South Africa. Do we all really have the right to health and what does this right really mean? Over the last few weeks this debate has been a focus of a pro-business South African newspaper. Swinging between public health advocates [...]

While Congress and popular media outlets struggle to recover from their tizzy over bipartisan health care reform, 1.2 million Americans lost their unemployment benefits Sunday. And all thanks to a single-handed effort by Republican Sen Jim Bunning of Kentucky.

Senators Kyl and Grassey are blocking the consideration of bill that would extend unemployment benefits to millions of workless Americans. That is unless Congress agrees to permanently weaken the estate tax. Holding hostage the livelihoods of hard-hit Americans, the priorities of Kyl and Grassey are clear.

At the end of this month, unemployment insurance is set to expire for millions of workless Americans. Unless action is taken by congress to extend this service, by June there will be five million unemployed Americans, ineligible for benefits. Jobs for America Now is connecting people to their Senators’ offices here. Tell your representatives to [...]

A new study published in the latest issue of Social Science & Medicine links poor health to job insecurity in 16 European countries. With results similar to findings from other studies, this research makes a unique contribution to the evidence base by investigating international differences.

Medical care institutions are the typical target of health system reform. While these institutions can and do improve the quality of life of sick individuals, they do little to prevent or resolve major chronic problems like cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Research from public health shows that efforts focused on behavioral change or lifestyle interventions are [...]