Although the United States remains the world’s most affluent nation, it also is a country where money plays a driving, negative role in its people’s well-being. Sudden financial losses may shorten some Americans’ lives, while dismal finances may keep many others from seeking medical care. So why are politicians still pushing to slash the nation’s….
Continue ReadingArchives for April 2018
Hospitals give patients and taxpayers too many causes for high anxiety
Hospitals may be providing us all with too many causes for high anxiety, with reports on increasing findings of “nightmare” bacteria stalking more health care facilities than had been known, more disclosures about how taxpayers may foot an even bigger bill to deal with a beleaguered public hospital in Washington, D.C., and a respected reform….
Continue ReadingAs opioids take a work toll, more Americans urged to carry overdose antidote
Our nation’s lethal opioid epidemic is reaching its tentacles right into our paychecks, as employers face rising health insurance costs that crimp their ability to give pay raises to the rest of us. This is happening even as we are being urged to carry overdose antidotes, just in case. The independent, nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation….
Continue ReadingPro sports faulted for fattening fans, old and young, with blitzes of food ads
If Americans want to battle obesity, including among youngsters, one place to start is avoiding unhealthy food products hawked relentlessly by major league sports advertisers. Weight woes plague grownups and show no signs of letting up — they’re increasing, instead, with 40 percent of Americans found to be obese in 2015 and 2016, a sharp….
Continue ReadingCalif. warns hospitals to boost quality, safety of care or get booted from ACA
Although Republicans have ripped at the health insurance offered under the Affordable Care Act, a less known but also important aspect of Obamacare may soon benefit Californians. This West Coast ACA-related move also may be worth watching by patients and medical safety advocates, as well as employers and insurers. The Golden State, the San Francisco….
Continue ReadingOff-label drug tied to deaths, $1 billion in harms — and $3.6 billion in sales
In a display of just how corruptive big money has gotten to be in modern medicine, Big Pharma keeps getting dubious doctors to write so-called off-label prescriptions for powerful anti-psychotic medications — no matter their proven harm to patients nor big settlements drug makers have been forced to pay. The Washington Post deserves credit for….
Continue ReadingWhy are some ER doctors refusing to give stroke patients ‘brain-saving’ care?
It’s no April Fool joke: Emergency doctors across the country, according to the New York Times, have been defying widely accepted standards of care and withholding a drug that rigorous clinical trials and medical specialists long have recommended for stroke victims. Administration of the drug, tPA or tissue plasminogen activator, helps to prevent brain injury after a….
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