Health officials debate mandatory flu shots for kids, health-care workers
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people across the country willingly
roll up their sleeves and endure the quick jab of a flu shot. Many parents make the same decision for their children.
Many more choose not to be vaccinated.
But what if we had no choice?
in the nation to require the flu vaccination for children, and mandatory vaccination is also being pushed for Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (AP) — Legislation that would increase spending for children’s health care has lost support from some key Senate Republicans, but they acknowledged that they probably can’t do much to block the effort.
Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said Democrats lost his support for the estimated $32 billion spending increase when they sought to extend coverage to children of legal immigrants and Read the rest of this entry »

There are personal stories of Utahns losing family members to drug addiction, with conditions like migraines leading to pain pills, dependence and sometimes death. And then there are people who suffer debilitating pain, scared their one comfort will be taken from them.
Dozens of Utahns commented on proposed guidelines by the state health department meant to help doctors know when and how to prescribe opioids for chronic pain. The recommendations Read the rest of this entry »

NEW YORK (AP) — The advent of the Obama administration is rousing enthusiasm among abortion-rights supporters and deep anxiety among opponents as both sides mark Thursday’s anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
Abortion-rights groups view President Barack Obama — and the Democratic leadership in Congress — as allies who are likely to ease restrictions on federal funding, broaden family-planning programs, and install federal judges who Read the rest of this entry »

Election Results Signal Shift In Bioethics Debate, Opinion Piece Says
Tuesday’s election will be remembered for its “impact on core bioethical topics that have long dominated American domestic politics,” including abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research, Arthur Caplan — director of the
opinion piece. According to Caplan, the failure of state ballot initiatives that aimed to restrict abortion rights signals that the abortion debate may Read the rest of this entry »

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that “One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and ‘guide’ your doctor’s decisions.”
“Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far,” she writes, maintaining that the plan will limit growth Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (AP) — The final presidential debate was a last hurrah, of sorts, for tall tales told before a large national audience by Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.
The two took familiar liberties with facts in a matchup that also gave viewers a brand-new head-scratching exchange over a man McCain called “my old buddy, Joe, Joe the plumber.”
Each candidate again twisted his rival’s health care plan. McCain told a golden Read the rest of this entry »

One of the big questions in the debate over universal health care is what kind of benefit package is best.
Does everyone need a comprehensive plan, with coverage for chiropractic treatments, massages and Viagra? Or will a bare-bones policy, covering basic primary care and hospitalization, be enough?
“I think it should be somewhere in between,” said David Oliker, CEO of Schenectady-based
.
Albany-area employers seem to like the Read the rest of this entry »

As more adults grapple with a troubled health care system, Congress will alleviate some of the burden by passing a bill to provide health insurance to millions of low-income families.
The bill will cover 10 million children. Of the 10 million children, 4 million were previously uninsured and 6.6 million youths will continue to receive coverage under the plan. The program – which now costs more than $5 billion a year – will spend more than double, Read the rest of this entry »

Backed by both presidential candidates, Silicon Valley tech giants and other companies are leading an effort to create electronic health records containing data about your most intimate health conditions — from your bunions and bad back to your chronic hemorrhoids and psychiatric history — so the information can be easily shared with doctors, insurers and others.
Proponents of electronic health records believe they can dramatically cut Read the rest of this entry »