The fate of national healthcare is in the US Supreme Court’s hands—again

January 8, 2020 ACA, Affordable Care Act, health, health insurance, healthcare, law, News, obamacare, politics

Quartz

Read More

No Obamacare replacement 3 years after Trump’s promise to ‘immediately’ change it

December 30, 2019 Donald Trump, health, healthcare, Medicare, News, obamacare, obamacare repeal, politics, trump, World

Nearly three years after taking office, Americans still are waiting for Trump's big health insurance reveal. Prescription drug prices have edged lower, but with major legislation stuck in Congress it's unclear if that relief is the start of a trend or merely a blip.

Google is secretively collecting health data, and American workers should be worried

November 26, 2019 Affordable Care Act, health, health insurance, healthcare, News

Earlier this month, Google confirmed it is collecting the comprehensive health histories of millions of Americans, through a partnership with the largest nonprofit health system in the US. This news should concern us all, but especially anyone who isn’t self-employed.

The...

Doctors are prescribing off-label nicotine replacements for teens addicted to vaping

October 3, 2019 health, News

With over 800 cases and 12 deaths attributed to a mysterious vaping-related pulmonary illness (VAPI) in the United States, a growing number of teens have been going to the family doctor with concerns about their e-cigarette vaping habits....

The US just promised to adopt universal health care

September 23, 2019 health, News

Every single member of the UN doubled-down today on a commitment to provide universal health coverage to their citizens. The fact that the US will be among them is perhaps evidence of how disconnected these declarations can be from actual domestic political agendas.
...

A radical approach to confronting addiction puts human connection first

September 19, 2019 drugs, health, News

In 2015, Jennifer Nicolaisen was working in consulting and getting by some days on just two hours of sleep. She was a 27-year-old statistician in northern Virginia, basking in what she called “rising star energy”—the glow that came from approval from her boss, her c...

For rural America, Medicare for All is a matter of life or death | Barb Kalbach

September 11, 2019 health, health insurance, Healthcare industry, News, Society, US politics

Insurance firms are gobbling up airtime in Iowa to attack Medicare for All. They claim it would hurt the very same hospitals their business model has spent years bleeding dry
Rural hospitals are often the economic heart of a community. Worse, when minutes mean the difference between life and death, every hospital that closes leaves patients in danger. Since 2010, 113 rural hospitals have closed their doors, leaving more than 30 million Americans an hour or more away from critical car...

Why Planned Parenthood was right to refuse federal funding | Moira Donegan

August 22, 2019 Contraception and family planning, health, News, planned-parenthood, politics, US news, US politics

The Trump administration put Planned Parenthood in an untenable position – and the organization made the moral choice to walk away
The Trump administration expanded its assault on women’s rights this week, engineering the loss of birth control and other reproductive healthcare coverage for millions of low income women.
On Monday, the administration’s Title X gag rule went into effect, barring any provider who performs abortions or even provides referrals for them from receiving...

Detroit accidentally caused a pollen crisis by bulldozing the city’s abandoned areas

August 15, 2019 health, News

Much of Detroit is in ruins. The city spreads over 139 square miles, but about 20 square miles of that—an area just under the size of Manhattan—is vacant. Home in 1950 to more than 1.8 ...

Victorian MPs to debate bill to let transgender people change birth certificate without surgery

August 11, 2019 health, News, transgender

Despite vocal opposition from the Coalition and a new women’s group, Labor bill looks set to pass parliament
The Victorian parliament is gearing up for a debate over the rights of transgender and non-binary people to be able to choose the gender listed on their birth certificates.
Under current law in Victoria, in order for transgender people to have their birth certificate changed to affirm their gender, they have to have undergone sex affirming surgery, often at great cost. It is something many transgender people do not wish to undertake, it is not covered by Medicare, and often the surgery is not available in Australia.
Continue reading...