Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Fell By 3 Percent Last Year: Why?
According to a recent analysis
from Georgetown University, enrollment in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance
Program (CHIP) declined from 74.6 million in January of last year to 72.4
million in January of 2019, representing a drop of approximately 3 percent. It
also means that some 860,000 children of low-income families...
Unintended Consequences of the ACA: Surprise Medical Bills
Let us be clear on one thing: the
Affordable Care Act, for all its shortcomings, has successfully allowed more Americans
to access medical care services than ever before in U.S. history. That said, it
was a compromise, and is no substitute for the same guaranteed right to health
care enjoyed by...
Despite Demonstrated Dangers, Robotic Surgery Continues to Grow in Popularity
“Minimally invasive” robotic
surgery has been around since the early 1980s. A major breakthrough was achieved
in 2006 when a robot with artificial
intelligence successfully carried out heart surgery remotely on a
patient in Italy.
Robotics have proven effective in
many kinds of surgeries, but in one area,...
Alternative to Statin Drugs On the Horizon
The New England Journal of Medicine has potentially good
news this month for patients struggling with elevated LDL cholesterol levels
and are sensitive to the side effects of statin drugs (of which there are
many). It concerns a new medication that has been under
investigation for the treatment of high cholesterol...
Could Side Effects of Prescription Medicines Be Due to Gluten Intolerance?
Bad reactions resulting from unanticipated
side effects have been in the news a great deal in recent years. A fair number
of new prescriptions have serious and even life-threatening
side effects – such as gliflozin drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes, the
antipsychotic medication aripiprazole, and proton
pump inhibitors indicated for...
While Preventable Disease is on the Rise, “Anti-Vaxers” are Making Inroads in State Legislatures
In 2016, the Centers
for Disease Control reported 86 cases of measles across the country. The
following year, there were 120. Between January 1st and December 29th
of 2018, that number had more than tripled, to 372. The count for 2018 so far
is 228 – and we're not even three...
While Congress Continues to Embrace the For-Profit Medicine, Washington State Moves Forward on Universal Health Care
Last month, in a move that went
largely unnoticed by the national media, Washington Governor Jay Inslee started
moving toward universal health care. On January 8, Governor Inslee proposed the expansion of
subsidies for private insurance, allowing those who have fallen through the
cracks of the Affordable Care Act to obtain...
Sugar: a Sweet Addiction With Serious Health Consequences
According to the American
Heart Association,
adult males should eat no more than 9 teaspoons of sugar per day. The
recommended limit for women is 6 teaspoons per day, while a child’s daily
consumption should not exceed 3 teaspoons. Yet on the average, Americans
consume a whopping 20 teaspoons (that's over 100...
“U.S. Healthcare at its Ugliest”: How Private Companies Have Profited From Emergency Care
It is a dirty little secret that
keeps coming out more and more these days. It
is the practice of outrageous “trauma fees” and other unexpected, inflated
charges presented to patients who wind up in emergency rooms. It is yet one
more aspect of America's unique and dysfunctional health care “system” that...
Neocate Bone Fractures – is a Nutritional Deficit Responsible?
Neocate, an “elemental formula”
for infants and young children manufactured by Nutricia, has been linked to a
number of disorders that result in soft, brittle bones and skeletal
deformities. The root cause is a condition known as hypophosphatemia(HPP), usually caused by insufficient phosphorus in the diet. Lawsuits allege
that the manufacturer...