Looks like the US might get a public health care system slightly worth the name after all

Surprising positive news from North America: the US supreme court has upheld the "Obamacare proposal" with one minor change. A summary of the legal argumentation and outcome is here. The ruling itself is here.

The minor change is that states may refuse to join the Obamacare expansion of health insurance coverage but keep a bit of federal money for medicaid. However, this will mean that states that join the expansion will ijn the long run be more attractive for people to move to and live in, and it seems plausible to speculate that in the long run also sceptical states will eventually accept the entire Obamacare package.

Now, Obamacare is certainly not a perfect public health care insurance system, but it is clear that from the perspective of human well-being, equity and long-term societal and communal security it is far better than what has been available so far.

President Obama's own reaction can be seen here:

Tweets from the 11th World Congress of the International Association of Bioethics in Rotterdam

I should, I realise, have posted about this already this passed tuesday. I'm (with due permission from my doctor, employer and health insurance officer) currently attending the 11th Work Congress of the International Association of Bioethics in Rotterdam. This biennial event is the largest and most well-established conference in my general field of speciality. I'm usually tweeting from the sessions I attend - although today (thursday) is my last day. The hashtag is #IAB2012 and this will lead you to tweets by a few other people as well. The homepage of the conference is here.

Call for papers to a special issue on New Media and Risky Behavior of Children and Young People: Ethics and Policy Implications

Just a short note to inform about  a call for papers to a coming special issue of the journal Public Health Ethics, to be guest-edited by myself and my colleague Karl Persson on a topic that brings together issues actualised by complex ethics and policy challenges in the light of increased knowledge about how people's health-related behavior is influenced by their media consumption, the uncertain moral, legal and political standing of children and young people, and the rapid development of a new media landscape that radically reshapes the opportunities of families, civil society, public institutions and governments to control how children's and young people's health and well-being are influenced by their media habits.

Deadline for submissions is january 1, 2013 and more info on the topic as well as instructions for authors can be found here. If you know any people involved in public health research, media studies, applied ethics, law or political theory or similar areas, please tell them about this opportunity!

The initiation and work on this special issue is a direct outcome of the project Alcopop-TV Culture, undertaken in collaboration with the School of Law at the University of Central Lancashire and funded by the Daphne III program of the European Commission. More information about this project can be found here.

Otherwise, alas, I am still on part-time sick-leave and an adjusted work-schedule. However, the situation is steadily progressing for the better, so hopefully, I will be back and posting more regularly from this fall and on.