New Society for Medical Anthropology “Takes a Stand” Statement on Health Insurance Reform

The Critical Anthropology for Global Health interest group within the Society for Medical Anthropology (SMA) regularly asks its members to “take a stand” on a contemporary health issue. In 2008/2009, this initiative focused on Unauthorized Im/migration and Health, which led to the development of the AccessDenied blog and related publications.

The current working group on Global Health Insurance Reform has announced that a preliminary SMA “Takes a Stand” statement on health insurance reform is now publicly available for comment on the SMA website. The statement’s primary goal is to analyze health insurance reform in the U.S. through the lessons learned from transformations of health care systems worldwide. This analysis is situated within the context of broader theoretical questions about recent neoliberal changes in both health care and the state, and about the social contract in general. In the spirit of making this initiative a true dialogue, the statement was built upon many of the points made in mini-statements contributed over the last several months by medical anthropologists with regional and topical expertise. Direct links to these mini-statements are included in the document.

This is just the first step of the process. All are invited to read the statement and leave comments by clicking on the “Leave Comments/Feedback” link in the upper left-hand corner of the webpage to share your comments, ideas, and suggestions.

Anthropology News piece: “Engaged Critical Medical Anthropology: Five Steps for Influencing Conversations on ‘Illegal’ Im/migration & Health”

Anthropology News, the official newspaper of the American Anthropological Association, recently published a piece by several AccessDenied blog founders titled, “Engaged Critical Medical Anthropology: Five Steps for Influencing Conversations on ‘Illegal’ Im/migration & Health.”  The piece is a condensed version of the authors’ 2011 Commentary in Medical Anthropology Quarterly.

Anthropology News often publishes pieces of potential interest to AccessDenied readers. A few other examples include:

• Attrition Via Enforcement – Gwendolyn Ferreti-Manjarrez

• Boundaries of the State and Politics of Everyday Life in Ireland – Mark Maguire & Fiona Murphy

• I Can Send That Money to My Mother: Remittances, Telecommunication and Post-Migration Strategies of North Koreans – Joowon Park

• Increasing Anthropology’s Visibility – Leith Mullings