Archive for July, 2008
Americans Cutting Back On Medical Care, Poll Finds
Many middle-class Americans with jobs and health insurance have trouble paying their medical bills, according to a new survey. For one couple in Florida, that means putting off dental work. And a woman in Ohio shelved her doctor’s request for more medical tests.
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Massachusetts Steps Forward On Health Coverage
In the most closely watched health care experiment in the United States, Massachusetts is requiring nearly all of its citizens to have insurance. Support remains strong for the program, and the number of uninsured has dropped by half.
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Candidates Strongly Disagree On Abortion
If elected, John McCain has said he would appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. Barack Obama supports abortion rights but has said he’s open to restrictions on late abortions.
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Britain Weighs Social Cost Of ‘Wonder’ Drugs
Tarceva has been shown to extend life in some lung cancer patients by an average of eight weeks. But Great Britain’s government health service has decided not to provide the drug. Cancer patient Donald Sutherland and his doctor, Fergus Macbeth, explain how they live with that decision.
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Swiss Firm Roche Bids $44 B For Calif.’s Genentech
Deborah Amos has this morning’s business news.
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Cholesterol Study Sinks Drug Makers’ Stocks
A study released Monday of adults with heart disease found no evidence that using cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia lowers heart-valve disease. The study’s results sent shares of the companies that make the drugs tumbling.
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Elderly To Pay Less For Mental Health Care
Last week, Congress passed a bill over the president’s objections that eliminated a pay cut for doctors — but what went almost unnoticed is that it cut the co-payment seniors pay for mental health services from 50 percent to 20 percent.
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Carol Levine, Championing The Caregiver’s Cause
Health care advocate Carol Levine has looked out for the interests of the housebound both at work and at home. For 17 years, she cared for her husband, who had been seriously injured in a car accident. He died recently, and Levine is left coping with a renewed sense of loss.
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Netherlands’ Health Care Reflects National Values
The Dutch like their health care system, even when things don’t go exactly as they want. This is in no small part because the system reflects national values such as pragmatism and stoicism — something especially apparent when it comes to matters of birth and death.
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After-Hours Doctor Calls Save Holland Money
In the Netherlands, evening and weekend physician house calls are routine. This seems like a luxury to Americans. But it actually saves the Dutch system money by keeping non-urgent cases out of expensive hospital emergency rooms.
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