The housing market’s collapse is forcing a growing number of Americans sitting on large medical bills to choose between paying the mortgage and paying the doctor.
People have long resorted to borrowing against their homes to pay for medical care in times of illness or after an accident. But with home values plummeting and interest rates on adjustable mortgages ratcheting higher, some indebted patients are at risk of losing their homes in order to Read the rest of this entry »
More and more, schools are using trained drug-sniffing dogs
to examine students’ lockers, cars and book bags. The fear behind this is heroin – the cheap, available drug of choice for this school-age generation. There is demand, too, for dogs who search out gunpowder, and for portable metal-detectors. Fear of gang activity lies behind these searches.
These are sorry times that lead us to invade students’ space in these ways. The searches can create Read the rest of this entry »
WASHINGTON – Activists on both sides of the abortion question will congregate Thursday at the annual March for Life protest
in Washington to debate the possible passage of the Freedom of Choice Act.
President Obama, speaking to Planned Parenthood
while a candidate, said he would sign the legislation should it pass Congress, and his vow has energized all sides of the
issue this year.
The FOCA as introduced to Congress in 2007, Read the rest of this entry »
February 4, 2009 08:11:00
February 4, 2009 10:00:00
Consumer authorities are raising concerns about weight loss programs being sold in chemists.
A Choice survey of seven different pharmacy-supplied diet programs found many staff had received minimal training and did not assess health factors which could impact on weight loss.
Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn said they were shocked to find some programs had included children.
The consumer Read the rest of this entry »
Now that election excitement has died down, the attention of the politically obsessed has turned to speculation about who might be tapped to fill key leadership positions in President-Elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet. For the sexual and reproductive health community, the past eight years has made it clear that we have to worry about much than just who fills the secretary position at the Health and Human Services.
First, it’s important to remember exactly Read the rest of this entry »
Michigan is hiring a new company to treat prisoners with medical problems after investigators criticized the existing health provider for low productivity and not having enough doctors.
Prison Health Services Inc. learned this month that it would be recommended for a 3-year, $326-million contract with the state Department of Corrections starting in April. Nothing is official until a state board gives final approval, likely in January.
The decision Read the rest of this entry »
TARZANA – Like many physicians at Tarzana Medical Center, Dr. Brian Fenmore was excited when he heard Providence Health System planned to buy his struggling hospital.
The system had a good reputation in the community and already ran two other hospitals in the San Fernando Valley.
But when the sale became final last month, Fenmore, an obstetrician-gynecologist, got word that he could no longer perform surgical procedures that prevent pregnancy, Read the rest of this entry »
Concerned about the next phase of leadership on US Global AIDS programs, representatives of the global AIDS community are calling on the Obama Administration to establish an open process to determine who gets appointed as the next Global AIDS Coordinator.
The next Coordinator will oversee the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in the Obama Administration, and will have purview over all funding and policies concerning global AIDS Read the rest of this entry »
A RECENT Globe Spotlight article explaining the differences between the prices paid to so-called elite and non-elite hospitals by insurance companies for equivalent-quality services identifies a major dysfunction in healthcare. However, contrary to the response by many community hospital and insurance executives that this dysfunction is caused by the market power of Partners HealthCare and Children’s Hospital, the underlying cause is the way businesses Read the rest of this entry »
(FOCA) – legislation that would simply codify that which the Roe v. Wade decision affords
- legal abortion access for women. The Family Research Council says they want to reduce the number of abortions in this country but attempt to block government from instituting laws, like FOCA, that will actually protect women’s health and lives.
If enacted, FOCA, as a federal bill, would override all
state legislative abortion restrictions – which is
important Read the rest of this entry »