Insights

<p>In the annals of twin research, the twisted story of the identical Blankenburg brothers could fill a volume.</p>

<p>Each month, the San Francisco public radio station KQED airs an hour-long program called <a href="http://www.californiareport.org/healthdialogues/index.jsp">Health Dialogues</a> that delves deeply into such topics as food safety, asthma, swine flu and environmental health.

<p><a href="http://www.grist.org/member/1554">Tom Philpott</a>, food editor for <a href="http://bit.ly/4BcniJ"><i>Grist</i></a&gt;, has been calling for an investigation into the connection between H1N1, or swine flu, and actual swine.

<p><a href="http://twitter.com/DrPam?utm_source=follow&amp;utm_campaign=twitter2008…. Pam</a>, whom I just began following on Twitter, shares this interesting <a href="http://healthcarereform.nejm.org/?p=2201&amp;query=TOC">article</a&gt; about which medicine will define America as we head toward historic health reform. Worth a read. If the New England Journal is having this debate, it suggests a sea change in thinking about medicine and medical technology and its role in improving health for all. Please share your thoughts!</p>

<p>Evan George graduated with a history degree from Occidental College. His mentor was legendary <i>Los Angeles Times</i> writer <a href="http://departments.oxy.edu/english_writing/test_faculty.htm">Bob Sipchen</a>, who got George interested in journalism. George spent some time at the late, lamented <i>LA Alternative</i> and the <i>Los Angeles Downtown News</i> before joining the legal news team at the <i>Los Angeles Daily Journal</i> two years ago.

<p>All Dr. Narinder Kumar had to do to stay in practice was make one phone call a day.</p> <p>The phone call was a little unusual but straightforward. Kumar, a pediatrician in Davenport, Iowa, had to call a lab with a contract with the Iowa Board of Medicine to find out whether he had to give a urine sample that day. Kumar had agreed to this arrangement in May 2006.</p>

<p>On Monday, I listened in on a telephone press briefing on the impact of national health reform on Californians. The briefing, sponsored by the California advocacy group Health Access, highlighted new research from the <a href="http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu">UCLA Center for Health Policy Research</a>, the <a href="http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/">UC-Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education</a> and the labor-backed advocacy group <a href="http://healthcareforamericanow.org/">Health Care For America Now</a> (HCAN). </p>

<p>The goal was anything but modest. On Monday, 22 leaders from San Francisco Bay Area public health and journalism circles gathered in Oakland to brainstorm about ways to transform the way journalists report on health.</p>

Comprehensive immigration reform hasn't happened since 1986, when the Immigration Reform & Control Act (IRCA) was passed. Now immigration reform is in the air once again - with President Obama saying the issue will be tackled next year. What is it like for undocumented and seasonal workers to get health care under the current system? Will immigration reform change things?

<p>Employees everywhere sleep a little easier knowing that their company covers the bulk of the cost of their disability insurance. If they are hit by a car or fall of their roof or incur some other injury that prevents them from working, they can count at least a modest income from their insurance policy.</p><p>At least that's how the insurance company's brochures make it sound.</p>