Sisters of Mercy headed toward Peru in 1961. A year later, the Catholic Church changed the rules regarding nuns.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- The baby boomer generation's efforts at creating social justice dramatically transformed history -- from the Vietnam War to gay rights.

Even institutions that kept tradition at their very core -- institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church -- were radically changed by this generation.

Within the church, perhaps the biggest agents of this change were its nuns. A wave of new thought during the 1960s opened cloister doors.

While modernization of the church did leave fewer nuns in the pipeline to carry out work in the health care and education fields, the ones who stayed -- this baby boomer generation of religious sisters -- undertook a kind of grass-roots, social justice-oriented health care.

Even today, their work continues to fill in the gaps left by our general health care system.

Vatican II revolutionizes religious life

It was Pope John XXIII who initiated the Roman Catholic Church's modernization movement in 1962. The pope was decidedly not a baby boomer -- he was born in 1881. But he inspired the boomers, who were left to carry out his reforms.

He convened the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, whose leaders created 16 documents that redefined the role of the church in the world. They allowed Catholics to work and pray with members of other faiths, replaced the Latin Mass with church services held in local languages, and dramatically changed how religious sisters lived and worked.

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Baby boomer nuns help revolutionize health care

Editors note: This is the third of a four-day series previewing the major issues before the 2013 Montana Legislature, which convenes next Monday in Helena. The full series is posted online at Missoulian.com.

HELENA Once again, health care will be a contentious issue at the Montana Legislature and the biggest battle is likely over whether Montana approves new, federally funded health coverage for 60,000 people in the state.

Most Democrats and health care providers are solidly behind the proposal to expand Medicaid for low-income Montanans in 2014, funded by the federal health care reform bill passed three years ago.

Were talking about a billion dollars a year of new economic activity in the state, largely affecting the health care industry, says incoming House Minority Leader Chuck Hunter, D-Helena. I think that is a very telling story that is hard to ignore.

Supporters of the expansion say it will improve peoples health, help the states economy and cut costs, because those with insurance are more likely to visit a doctor or clinic than show up at a hospital emergency room for high-cost care.

But theyll be up against a Republican majority clearly skeptical, if not downright hostile, toward the idea of expanding government health coverage and the reach of Obamacare.

I have to wonder about the wisdom of increasing reliance on a federal government that cant seem to get its financial house in order, incoming Senate President Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, said.

The federal government is funding nearly all the costs of Medicaid expansion from 2014-17 and most of the costs for ensuing years. However, the state Legislature must approve the expansion and any state cost of administering it.

Its estimated the expansion would bring $210 million a year in federal funds to the state over the next 10 years.

A wild card in the Medicaid and health care debate is Gov.-elect Steve Bullock, a Democrat, who has steadfastly refused to say whether he supports expanding the program.

Continued here:

Medicaid, health care issues likely to be contentious at 2013 Legislature

Sisters of Mercy headed toward Peru in 1961. A year later, the Catholic Church changed the rules regarding nuns.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- The baby boomer generation's efforts at creating social justice dramatically transformed history -- from the Vietnam War to gay rights.

Even institutions that kept tradition at their very core -- institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church -- were radically changed by this generation.

Within the church, perhaps the biggest agents of this change were its nuns. A wave of new thought during the 1960s opened cloister doors.

While modernization of the church did leave fewer nuns in the pipeline to carry out work in the health care and education fields, the ones who stayed -- this baby boomer generation of religious sisters -- undertook a kind of grass-roots, social justice-oriented health care.

Even today, their work continues to fill in the gaps left by our general health care system.

Vatican II revolutionizes religious life

It was Pope John XXIII who initiated the Roman Catholic Church's modernization movement in 1962. The pope was decidedly not a baby boomer -- he was born in 1881. But he inspired the boomers, who were left to carry out his reforms.

He convened the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, whose leaders created 16 documents that redefined the role of the church in the world. They allowed Catholics to work and pray with members of other faiths, replaced the Latin Mass with church services held in local languages, and dramatically changed how religious sisters lived and worked.

See the rest here:

Nuns help revolutionize health care

Published: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 at 5:42 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 at 5:42 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns ends his 24-year career in Washington on Thursday, giving way to Ted Yoho, the political upstart who shocked the long-term incumbent with an 875-vote primary win then sailed past a Democratic foe to become North Central Florida's new congressman.

Stearns, an Ocala Republican and one of 13 House members from both parties to be upended by a primary challenger in 2012, recently reflected back on his career on Capitol Hill, calling attention to his major accomplishments and regretting that some initiatives he rigorously championed fell short.

He believed foremost that he was accessible, hosting roughly 650 town hall meetings over his tenure.

"I think I was very transparent," he said. "I was always trying to get the feeling of the people."

Stearns ranked high on his list of achievements his work in the decommissioning of the federal government's Cross Florida Barge Canal project, his advocacy on behalf of military veterans, and some health care legislation that captured some of his own medical history.

According to THOMAS, the Library of Congress' website that monitors and archives congressional legislation, Stearns has authored 359 bills, amendments and resolutions during his time in Congress.

The first, introduced in May 1989, advocated a time extension for senior citizens to qualify for housing under the Fair Housing Act. The most recent, proposed this past July, blocked the Obama administration from charging military veterans an enrollment fee for the Tricare health care program.

Along the way, nine of the bills sponsored by Stearns passed the House and four were eventually signed into law, according to GovTrack, another legislative-monitoring website. (Numerous amendments he tacked on to other bills also were adopted.)

Stearns indicated in an interview that many of the causes he fought for mirrored his own personal circumstances.

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Health care, veterans are part of Stearns' legacy

If you think wait times at Toronto hospitals are already too long, just wait until 2036.

Twenty-five years from now, Toronto is expected to have one million new residents. Its projected the GTA will reach 9.2 million by 2036, a 44 per cent increase from 2011.

Density is rapidly increasing to well above the old city average of 4,077 people per square kilometre, a trend expected to continue to intensify in coming decades.

The citys health-care services, particularly hospitals, are already plagued by long wait times and stretched resources. The average current wait time in a Toronto emergency room is about eight hours.

So what needs to happen to keep quality health care from taking a dive?

Its a question that must be addressed if the province is to prepare for the coming growth in Canadas biggest city.

Dr. Tarek Sardana, president of Orleans Urgent Care in suburban Ottawa, said health-care delivery in high-density urban cores like Toronto could benefit from facilities similar to the one he leads. He describes it as a walk-in clinic on steroids.

Since opening in 1994, at a time when hospitals were facing budget cuts and ER-trained staff were losing their jobs, the Orleans clinics, staffed with emergency-experienced staff, have seen 60,000 patient visits on average annually.

We fill a niche between the hospital, big-city stuff, and the family doctor, Sardana said, adding that most of the costs of a visit there are covered under OHIP. Urgent care, if done properly and not affiliated with a public facility because costs go up in the right spots, where there are crowded emergency departments and difficulty accessing care, they could fill the gap.

The cost of seeing a single patient, who is typically treated and out the door within a few hours, is minimal next to the single-patient cost at a hospital.

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Density and the city: How will Toronto health care cope with population growth?