Death of Singer Sean Levert Encourages New Jail Drug Policy

The death of the singer Sean Levert has encouraged a proposed new policy that provides more flexibility in giving inmates their anti-anxiety medication. Levert died on March 30th of 2008 after becoming sick at a county jail in Cleveland, OH and was not given the Xanax prescription that he had brought to the jail after he was sentenced for not paying child support. The jail administrator and a jail doctor proposed the policy to allow inmates to get their prescription medication as soon as their prescriptions are verified.

China Changes One-Child Policy Due to Earthquake

China has decided to change its one-child policy to exempt the families with a child killed, severely injured, or disabled in the country’s recent earthquake. The families can get a certificate to have another child.

On May 12th of this year, there was a devastating earthquake that killed 65,000 people and left more than 23,000 people missing. There were many children that were killed and injured in the disaster. Usually, having more than one child is illegal in China and families that have more than one child are punished by having to pay fines. If the families’ legally born child is killed and the family only has an illegally born child under the age of 18, then that child can be registered as a legal child. This is a positive thing because it gives the child that was once illegal the same rights as a legal citizen and nine years of compulsory education.

China started the one-child policy in the late 1970s to control China’s very large population and to provide better education and health care. There were already certain exceptions for ethnic groups, rural families, and families where both parents are only children. In some parts of rural China, most families are allowed to have a second child, especially if the first child is a girl.

Many people in China have shown interest in adopting children that have become orphans due to the earthquake. There are not any limitations to the number of orphans that a family can adopt. The adoptions and the future birth to a family that adopts an orphan is exempt from the one-child policy as the earthquake left 4,000 children to become orphans. Most of the orphans will be sent to live with other family members.

Medicare Won’t Pay for Hospital Errors

It is reported that in a policy change, the Bush administration officials say that from now on Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries, and infections that happen in hospitals. That includes bedsores, pressure ulcers, injuries caused by falls, and infections resulting from the prolonged use of catheters in blood vessels or the bladder. They also plan not to pay for things like leaving a sponge or other object in a patient during surgery and giving a patient incompatible blood or blood products. Private insurers are thinking about making the same changes. It suppose to force hospitals to be more careful about the care of their patients and save millions of dollars.