A new blood screening technique has turned up antibodies with the ability to neutralize many strains of the AIDS virus, a discovery that might help create a long- sought vaccine against the deadly disease.
For all the attempts to lower the cost of health care in the United States, it remains expensive. Overall medical spending accounts for more than 17 percent of America’s entire economy.
As lawmakers look for ways to trim costs and extend insurance coverage to more people, one of their greatest challenges has been pulling apart the many layers of expense.
In the health care debate, many agree that the payment system for doctors and hospitals doesn’t work. They’re paid for each procedure they perform, giving them a perverse incentive to perform more.
“2010 medical plan cost trends will be more than four times greater than the annual increase in average hourly earnings,” the Segal Co. said in its authoritative annual review of cost trends at most of the nation’s major health and drug-plan providers. For the year ended last July, it noted, wages rose by 2.5 percent.
One of them most powerful women in the nation is calling for health care reform. Wellpoint CEO Angela Braly says she supports guaranteed coverage for everyone - as long as everyone gets and stays covered.
AARP, which has lost tens of thousands of members over its support for efforts to revamp the health care system, is preparing a post-Labor Day blitz to try to cast itself as a politically impartial advocate on health care issues.
Most Americans find the health care reforms being discussed in Congress confusing and say President Obama has not clearly explained his plans to overhaul the system, according to a CBS News poll released Tuesday.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) has pledged to include a government-run insurance option in the House bill that will be voted on next month. This reassures liberals but will make it difficult or impossible to get the votes needed to pass it if the public option is included.
At least four million Americans under age 65 are exposed to high doses of radiation each year from medical imaging tests, according to a new study in The New England Journal of Medicine.
About 400,000 of those patients receive very high doses, more than the maximum annual exposure allowed for nuclear power plant employees or anyone else who works with radioactive material.
Exactly one year before Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy’s death from cancer Tuesday, the longtime senator and scion of one the nation’s most famous families took a labored walk to the podium at the Democratic National Convention and declared guaranteed health care for every American the “cause of my life.”
