"Health & Medical News"

Washington — The American Medical Association’s campaign to raise awareness of the nation’s 47 million uninsured and to help address the problem is going nationwide.

The three-phase initiative kicked off in August 2007 with $5 million in advertising in Washington, D.C., and in the early presidential primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. This year the campaign will spend about $15 million to spread the AMA’s message across the country using print, television, radio and Internet ads; healthy lifestyle events; mobile billboards; and profiles on the popular social networking sites MySpace and Facebook.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

Pennsylvania physicians are fighting to stave off Gov. Edward G. Rendell’s plan to divert funds from the state’s medical liability assistance program to cover the uninsured.

Doctors and other health care professionals contribute annually into the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Fund — known as Mcare — set up under a 2002 tort reform package. Physicians are required to have $1 million in liability insurance, but the fund subsidizes half of their premiums and pays claims exceeding $500,000.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

The sky is darkening outside the office of Terry Eska, MD. The rural Texas internist’s appointments are finished, but his work isn’t. A new nursing home patient needs inpatient dialysis, which isn’t available at the local hospital, so Dr. Eska calls a hospital an hour away.

The hospitalist at the other end of the line is reluctant about accepting a Medicare patient who may need critical care, and this man might be “at death’s door” anyway, as Dr. Eska puts it. But the hospital’s kidney specialist believes the man has a chance and the patient’s daughter isn’t ready to give up, so the hospitalist relents — after venting to Dr. Eska about the hospital’s finances.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

Washington — A wealthy Maryland county is working on a plan to provide at least basic health care to most of its 15,000 uninsured adults — a concept that could be reproduced in many counties around the United States, its proponents say.

The proposal, announced by Howard County leaders in October, would provide free primary, specialty and hospital care; personal care plans; and prescription drugs to enrollees. Individuals would pay monthly premiums ranging from $50 to $85, depending on income. These premiums would cover the bulk of the program’s $2.8 billion cost.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

Uninsured Sacramento Residents Pay 68 Percent More than the Federal Government

SACRAMENTO—Uninsured consumers in Sacramento pay 68 percent more for common prescription drugs than the federal government does for the same medications, according to, “Paying the Price: The High Cost of Prescription Drugs for Uninsured Californians” a new California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) Education Fund report released today.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6% [?]