health care

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In Sickness and for Health Insurance

Health benefit concerns force couples into marriage and divorce

(Newser) - Health insurance worries are pushing a growing number of Americans both into and out of marriages, the New York Times reports. Couples in which one party has better health benefits are marrying hastily as medical needs outweigh any doubts about each other. One survey this year found health insurance was...

CEO Arrested in Plan to Use Homeless in Medicare Scam

Scheme recruited LA's skid row denizens to bilk feds for unnecessary service fees

(Newser) - The CEO of a Los Angeles hospital was arrested today for defrauding Medicare by using the city’s homeless to fill empty beds, the AP reports. The FBI says Rudra Sabaratnam, of City of Angels hospital, recruited the homeless in a scheme to charge for unnecessary health services and keep...

Night Docs Need Electronic Info System to Save Lives

Inadequate handoff details can cost lives

(Newser) - The night-float hospital system, in which one resident works the night shift so that others can sleep, was created so that patients could receive care from rested, focused doctors. But there are rarely mechanisms in place to ensure the night workers have all the patient information they need when they...

Obama Health Care Cure May Prove Elusive

Quick reform isn't likely, say analysts

(Newser) - In a campaign that has made several big promises, perhaps Barack Obama's most ambitious vow is that he will bring down health care premiums by $2,500 by the end of his first term as president. But whether he can deliver that is an open question, writes the New York ...

Here Comes Era of Activist Government
Here Comes
Era of Activist Government
OPINION

Here Comes Era of Activist Government

It's necessary, and McCain is better suited for the job: Brooks

(Newser) - With daunting issues demanding immediate action—energy, the markets, and crumbling infrastructure to name but a few—the US is about to enter a phase of "government activism," writes David Brooks in the New York Times. Bad news for John McCain, right? Maybe not. As past periods of...

A Medical Frontier: 100-Year-Olds In Surgery

Doctors disagree on whether to operate on the 'late elderly'

(Newser) - Life expectancy in the United States keeps rising: more than 90,000 Americans have celebrated a 100th birthday, and experts foresee more than 1 million centenarians by 2050. As lifespans have grown, so too have medical efforts to treat the very old, from hip replacements to chemotherapy. But as the...

US Health Care Stinks: Study
 US Health Care
 Stinks: Study 

US Health Care Stinks: Study

Huge inefficiencies put American system last among 19 developed nations

(Newser) - The US health care system gets dismal grades in a ranking of 19 industrialized countries, Reuters reports. A private foundation looked at key indicators like efficiency and access, and found the US did very poorly despite spending the most money—putting it last on the list. Health-care dollars were squandered...

Obama Adds Hillcare to Health Plan

Nominee credits former opponent

(Newser) - Barack Obama has modified his health care platform with a policy straight from Hillary Clinton’s book—and he gave her credit, calling it "an idea championed by my friend Hillary Clinton, who's been leading the way in our battle to insure every American." The addition is a...

Blood Clots Killed Woman in Waiting Room

Camera caught fallen patient left ignored on NYC hospital floor

(Newser) - The death of a woman on the floor of a Brooklyn hospital was caused by blood clots from extended inactivity, CNN reports. Chronic deep vein thrombosis formed clots in her legs that eventually reached her lungs. The case has drawn international attention after security-camera footage showed the woman falling to...

Racial 'Transplant Gap' Persists

Blacks more prone to kidney disease, get just 19% of transplants; many factors at play

(Newser) - Financial struggles and difficulty finding donors—as well as an unclear “transplant gap”—make African Americans less likely to get kidney transplants than whites, the Chicago Tribune reports. Many remain on dialysis, making daily life harder and increasing the risk of death. “You can explain most of...

Nurses Raise Alarm Against Attacks at Work

Stressed patients often make victims of healers on 'front lines'

(Newser) - People may be at their most human when in pain, but often turn their anguish on their would-be healers—and now nurses are calling on workplaces and lawmakers to be more vigilant against physical attacks, the New York Times reports. “Nurses are just starting to get to the place...

E-Records Improve Care, But Cost Discourages Doctors

Insurers, hospitals are main beneficiaries; feds weigh financial incentives

(Newser) - Doctors aren’t using electronic health records, though they lead to better care, a study reports. Why? The costs are prohibitive, especially for small private practices. E-records do bring savings—but for insurers and hospitals, not doctors who invest in them. The government is experimenting with financial incentives for doctors...

Dying Patients Helped by Docs' End-of-Life Talks

But only a third of terminally ill receive them, study says

(Newser) - While only a third of terminally-ill cancer patients received end-of-life talks from their doctors, those who did fared better, a study has found. Doctors who hedge may think they’re protecting their patients, but patients who got the talk were no more likely to get depressed, avoided living their final...

Left Has Won (Whoever Wins)
 Left Has Won (Whoever Wins) 
analysis

Left Has Won (Whoever Wins)

The conservative counter-revolution has failed

(Newser) - After 4 decades, the conservative revolution launched by the likes of Goldwater and Buckley is not only washed up, Michael Lind writes in Salon, it  failed "completely, undeniably and irreversibly." The structure of 20th-century American liberalism is intact, if battered, he writes, and liberals should stop worrying so...

Multiple Adult Stem Cells May Make Treatment Trickier

Researchers find different types in organs, complicating search for therapeutic cells

(Newser) - There is probably more than one type of adult stem cell in the intestines and other organs, a University of Utah researcher finds—which means therapies based on the cells could be more complicated than expected. Scientists had hoped a single stem cell could fix damage to an entire organ,...

McAuliffe: Clinton Won't Concede Tonight
McAuliffe: Clinton Won't Concede Tonight
UPDATED

McAuliffe: Clinton Won't Concede Tonight

Denies AP report she'll concede delegate loss

(Newser) - The Clinton campaign strenuously denied an AP report today that Hillary Clinton will concede defeat in the Democratic delegate race tonight in New York. Unnamed "top advisers" tell AP she won't formally drop out or endorse her Democratic rival, but she will acknowledge Obama's delegate win, and her campaign...

Obama to Offer Clinton a 'Graceful Exit'

She could join cabinet or lead charge on health care

(Newser) - As Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the Democratic nomination wane, Barack Obama's camp is readying a consolation prize for the loser-apparent, the Daily Telegraph reports. In a "negotiated surrender," Clinton will likely be offered a cabinet post or the chance to lead a Senate charge on health care,...

NYC Plans Organ-Recovery Ambulance
NYC Plans Organ-Recovery Ambulance

NYC Plans Organ-Recovery Ambulance

Proposal for quick harvesting raises thorny questions

(Newser) - New York City is planning a “rapid-organ-recovery ambulance” that would collect the bodies of victims of sudden deaths to be used for organ transplants, hoping to ease a pressing need for donors, the Washington Post reports. But the idea has sparked controversy among health and bioethics experts, concerned over...

Who's Afraid of Google Health?
Who's Afraid
of Google Health?
OPINION

Who's Afraid of Google Health?

Concerns over personal privacy "misguided"

(Newser) - Google's new health record-sharing service has privacy advocates' hearts racing. But the benefits outweigh the risks, both in costs and potential lives saved, James Gibney argues in the Atlantic. Ready access to personal health records could prevent medical errors like incorrectly prescribed meds while saving billions in related  costs.

Detained Immigrants Dying for Lack of Health Care

Overburdened system fails to adequately diagnose and treat detainees, Post finds

(Newser) - The number of detained immigrants has skyrocketed since 9/11, and many do not receive critical health care in overburdened federal detention centers, the Washington Post reports. Several immigrants, detained for minor offenses or waiting to seek asylum, received little or no care for life-threatening symptoms which finally killed them, a...

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