Healthy Communities Posts
Can Your Zip Code Determine How Long You Live?
When it comes to health, it’s not just about getting to the doctor and taking medications. Research increasingly shows us that where you live impacts your health.
Children’s Health Care Spending Driven by Rising Costs
With child visits to the emergency room declining and the overall use of prescription drugs by children at its lowest in years, it only makes sense that spending on health care for kids would be down. Right? Not quite.
A Win for the Affordable Care Act
There was a great deal of exuberance in the hallways at Burness yesterday when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) subsidies for people living in states with federally run health insurance marketplaces—and I know we weren’t alone.
Is Summer a Bummer for Kids’ Health?
It’s June, and that means school is letting out for millions of kids – but according to a new brief from Active Living Research, those of us who associate summer vacation with healthy activities are out of touch with the reality of summer break for today’s children. Recent research shows that children gain up to three times as much weight during summer break as they do during the entire school year.
What Makes a Working City?
Up on the high hills of Potrero, California, you can see sweeping views of the Bay and the city. It’s a view shared by two very different worlds. One half of the hill is dotted with multimillion dollar homes—the other half of the hill makes up Potrero Terrace & Annex, a low-income housing complex. These kinds of disparities occur all over the country—from Miami to Chicago, from Brooklyn to Washington D.C.
Investments in Education Pay Health Dividends
Health care accounts for a vast proportion of the nation’s budget. As Medicaid and Medicare approach their 50th anniversary, such programs comprise over a fifth of all federal outlays. Amid these spiraling costs, policymakers are often pressured to limit spending on other areas, including education. But education and health are intrinsically linked – meaning investments in education are investments in health, and can potentially lower spending.
Where You Live Matters to Your Health
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute released the 2015 County Health Rankings, which shows that where you live influences how well and how long you live. It compares 30 factors that communities have the ability to do something about – including education, jobs, violent crime, housing, diet and exercise.
Lending a Hand in Our Own Backyard
This past weekend, Burness teamed up with the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) to deliver fresh produce to a DC neighborhood with high rates of food insecurity through its Community Marketplace program. It was a great opportunity for us to come together outside of the office and give back to our own community.
Three Lessons for Building a Strong Website When Time Is Tight
When our friends at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF) asked us to help build a website for their latest book, What Counts: Harnessing Data for America’s Communities, we saw three things: ambitious goals, a tight timeline, and a challenge that we couldn’t pass up.
Looking at Hunger ‘With New Eyes’
Our county must tackle food insecurity very differently, involving a business sector that steps up complement the pioneering work of our elected leadership and the demonstrated passion and excellence of our nonprofit sector.
