President Trump has made good on his promise to try to blow up the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. His latest, twin executive actions seek to gut the national health insurance program that Republicans have reviled but could not unwind with seven years of congressional action. If the American health care system was rocky before, and….
Continue ReadingArchives for October 2017
U.S. watchdogs tally $1.5 billion cost for one type of defective medical device
Big medical device makers, like Big Pharma, have complained relentlessly that Uncle Sam hamstrings them with red tape and bureaucracy that slows or prevents innovative, life changing and lifesaving products from reaching the public. Most of this criticism has been targeted at the federal Food and Drug Administration, which under the Trump Administration, has promised….
Continue ReadingPlastic surgery patients don’t need surgeons who are social media clowns
Social media have become a “circus” for some plastic and cosmetic surgeons to clown around in unprofessional ways, including: videos in which one doctor has cradled fat removed from a tummy-tuck like an infant and put a baby face on it using a Snapchat filter. Other costumed surgeons have posted visual displays of themselves dancing….
Continue Reading40 percent of diagnosed cancers linked with patients’ excess weight
Those carrying around a few pounds extra, or maybe even a lot more, may want to get moving and to drop that excess weight for yet more compelling health causes: That’s because more than 630,000 Americans were diagnosed in 2014 with cancers linked to obesity or overweight, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention….
Continue ReadingLas Vegas tragedy helps highlight what’s right with nation’s health care system
Caregivers and the community in Las Vegas, Nev., deserve a salute for their response to the gun violence last week, which could have overwhelmed a less-prepared community’s medical system. Las Vegas isn’t a giant metropolis (pop. 2 million in its metro area), and, due to the high costs to operate such a facility, it has….
Continue ReadingFor young athletes, head contact and infections can pose costly risks
Parents happily send their eager youngsters off to a demanding array of sports activities, in the belief that athletics will improve their health and well-being. But, especially for active young men, life as a jock can carry costly long-term risks and immediate infection perils. A Yale economist and colleagues have scrutinized available public data and….
Continue ReadingFDA, lacking staff and budget, falls short on oversight of food processing
Uncle Sam, estimating that 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases each year in the United States, has pledged to step up preventive and protective measures to prevent these all too common health banes. Here’s the dirty secret about that vow: The federal Food and Drug Administration lacks….
Continue ReadingPuerto Rico engulfed by hurricane-caused health care crisis
Even as President Trump belittles Puerto Rican political leaders, the Americans on the island have been swamped by a hurricane-caused health care crisis, according to doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes there. The disturbing news reports show that sick and injured patients, with gas supplies limited, are struggling to navigate tree-blocked roads to get to hospitals….
Continue ReadingOne pig is ousted from the public trough, but what about his health care harms?
Tom Price, the orthopedist and foe of the Affordable Care Act, may have been jettisoned from his job as Health and Human Services secretary, but his agency’s effort to sabotage Obamacare smolders on. Politico, the online site, deserves a taxpayers’ salute for its dogged pursuit of Price’s self-entitled obsession with feeding at the public trough, traveling to….
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