The last thing Americans need to fret about as they struggle to keep down medical costs is worrying about getting hit with a surprise bill for a ride in an ambulance. Just how ridiculous can those bills be? Think thousands of bucks for a few miles. The independent and nonpartisan Kaiser Health News service and….
Continue ReadingArchives for November 2017
Medicine needs to face up to sexism and sexual harassment in medical workplaces
The profession of medicine gets mixed reviews in rolling back the centuries of chauvinism, arrogance, and boorish behavior of top (male) doctors. It’s now generally if grudgingly recognized that health care, though it may be a life-and-death practice, needn’t be a rude and obnoxious one. Nurses, many of them women but many men, too, shouldn’t be….
Continue ReadingPay attention to road safety to ensure holiday cheer
Tens of millions of Americans, starting with Thanksgiving, hit the roads for a hectic season of family get-togethers and holiday social events. And though the alarms have sounded for a bit now, there’s yet more evidence that our highways are killing us at far worse rates than Americans have a right to expect.. David Leonhardt,….
Continue ReadingNew warnings on ‘Big Vape’s’ smokescreen for e-cigs’ health risks, benefits
Big Tobacco not only wrote the playbook on how to deceive the public about the dangers of cigarette smoking, its representatives are adding new pages daily now on how to make electronic or e-cigarettes and so-called vaping seem safe, even when evidence mounts that this isn’t fully true. It’s good to see that the Verge,….
Continue ReadingNursing home residents too often abused, evicted, at risk in natural disasters
With more than 10,000 boomers retiring each day and more seniors ending up at some point in their lives in nursing homes, regulators need to step up their oversight of elder care facilities. But there’s disturbing information they’re failing at this crucial task, allowing terrible abuses of older Americans who also may be evicted unfairly….
Continue ReadingNon-MDs do skin biopsies at many dermatology clinics, with sketchy results
When the private equity firms move into skin cancer treatment, you know the story is not going to end well for patients. Think lots of treatments, but hit or miss on protecting you from serious cancers. There’s a simple self-protection solution for the many boomers – like me – who need to get skin lesions….
Continue ReadingLet’s give thanks for a holiday respite from health policy turkey shoot in DC
Members of Congress have scattered back to their districts for Thanksgiving, giving the nation a bit of a break from the health policy turkey shoot that has besieged the nation’s capital. The health- and medical-related actions have piled up so fast and furious that it can be daunting. But let’s not overlook: The hot mess that’s….
Continue ReadingNew normal reclassifies millions as having high blood pressure, so now what?
Did you feel yourself just get less well? U.S. heart experts have just issued new guidelines on what Americans’ optimal blood pressure should be—effectively and suddenly shifting just under half of the adults in the nation younger than 45 into an unhealthful status as hypertensive. Doctors say there’s no doubting data that shows that blood….
Continue ReadingOverzealous youth athletics can result in hobbled adults later
Here’s another painful reminder to grownups about youngsters and sports: Moderation matters, and youthful games are supposed to fun, diverting, and character building—and most definitely should not leave today’s aspiring athletes as tomorrow’s hobbled adults. The New York Times has reported on what a pediatric sports medicine expert has described as a “dirty little secret”….
Continue ReadingLet’s toast to common sense, moderation with drinking, cancer-risk studies
When topics like booze and health flow together, common sense seems to disappear. So let’s give credit to the context-restoring efforts of Aaron Carroll— a pediatrics faculty member at Indiana University medical school, a health policy researcher, and a writer for the New York Times’ “Upshot” column—and healthnewsreview.org, a health information watch dog site. Both….
Continue Reading