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Ellen-Marie Whelan

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Profiting from Health Care Report
Concern remains about the country’s capacity to create enough health workers. For-profit colleges can play a role in meeting our future needs for providers, but we need to look at how to maximize their impact. Currently they tend to focus on health care “support” occupations rather than “practitioner” or “technical” health occupations. (AP/Al Behrman)

Profiting from Health Care

Julie Margetta Morgan and Ellen-Marie Whelan investigate for-profit colleges' claims of contributing to our health care workforce.

Julie Margetta Morgan, Ellen-Marie Whelan

Contraception Is Preventive Care Article
Reams of studies have consistently demonstrated that contraception is a safe and cost-effective way to reduce unintended pregnancies and a host of preventable health problems affecting both women and children. (Flickr/Phoney Nickle)

Contraception Is Preventive Care

The opinions of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops should not determine whether millions of women have access to contraception under the new health care law, write Marta Cook and Ellen-Marie Whelan.

Tackling the Obesity Epidemic Report
Availability of healthy and affordable food options, eating patterns, levels of physical activity, social and cultural attitudes around body weight, and many other factors all play a role in affecting obesity prevalence. (AP/Mike Derer)

Tackling the Obesity Epidemic

Rising U.S. obesity rates are leading to declining health and high health care costs, but provisions in the health reform bill are already beginning to address some of these challenges, write Ellen-Marie Whelan and Sonia Sekhar.

Good News 600,000 Gallons Later Article
A satellite image provided by NASA shows a large patch of oil visible near the site of the Deepwater oil spill. A long ribbon of oil stretched far to the southeast. (AP/NASA)

Good News 600,000 Gallons Later

The Obama administration has instructed BP to use a less toxic dispersant to clean up its spill, and Ellen-Marie Whelan explains why it was urgently needed.

Ellen-Marie Whelan

How the Bishops Lost Sight of Their Own Priorities Article

How the Bishops Lost Sight of Their Own Priorities

As longstanding advocates for universal health care, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has played an ongoing, and increasingly controversial, role in health reform. Early in the process, they set out a number of criteria—eight to be exact—that they set as priorities to be included in health reform legislation.

Jessica Arons, Ellen-Marie Whelan

Expanding the Primary Care Workforce Report
Primary care physician Dr. Don Klitgaard greets Muriel Bacon as her husband weighs in with a nurse, at the Myrtue Medical Center in Harlan, Iowa. (AP/Nati Harnik)

Expanding the Primary Care Workforce

Our primary care workforce is already stretched; Ellen-Marie Whelan offers solutions for coping with the shortfall, particularly if we achieve health care reform.

Ellen-Marie Whelan

Unmarried and Uninsured Report
Emily Weinstein is a recent college graduate without health insurance in Portland, OR. Young women have important reproductive health needs, such as cancer screenings, birth control, and annual well-woman care. Yet those ages 18 to 29 represent nearly half of all unmarried uninsured women and more than one-quarter of all uninsured women. (AP/Rick Bowmer)

Unmarried and Uninsured

An issue brief from Liz Weiss, Ellen-Marie Whelan, and Jessica Arons explores the barriers single women face in the health insurance market.

Liz Weiss, Ellen-Marie Whelan, Jessica Arons

Better Information, Better Decisions Report
A researcher studies the efects and treatments for concussions. Comparative effectiveness research can help doctors and patients better understand what treatments are right for them. (AP/Keith Srakocic)

Better Information, Better Decisions

Comparative effectiveness research will help everyone make better health decisions, and it will bring down costs and improve care, writes Ellen-Marie Whelan.

Ellen-Marie Whelan

Setting the Health System Up to Fail Article
A Medicare recipient receives advice from a representative from the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (AP/David Zalubowski)

Setting the Health System Up to Fail

It’s no surprise that most of the Medicare demonstrations failed, writes Ellen-Marie Whelan; the useful lessons are in the two that succeeded.

Ellen-Marie Whelan

Just released!

Interactive: Mapping access to abortion by congressional district

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