Healthcare Shopper News

For the informed consumer of health care

Florida Health Reform Legislation Passed

The state of Florida has passed health insurance legislation that will allow insurance carriers to offer bare-bones coverage for as little as $150 per month. Aimed at Florida’s 3.8 million uninsured residents, the plans would be exempt from existing state-mandated coverage requirements. For instance the plans would not be required to offer coverage for long-term hospitalizations or treatment from specialists, but would cover preventive care and office visits.... read more

Posted by Phil Daigle on May 8, 2008 1:45 PM
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Paternity Kits Available Over The Counter

Consumers with a pressing need to validate the paternity of a child can now buy a DNA Collection Kit offered by a Utah-based genetics company called Identigene. Available over the counter at Rite-Aid stores in 30 states. You pay $22.99 for the kit and another $119 processing fee for the results. The kit has swabs to collect cell samples from the inner cheek of the child and the "alleged" father and consent forms. You get the results in the mail... read more

Posted by Phil Daigle on April 3, 2008 4:08 PM
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Shortage of Geriatric Physicians Grows

The US doesn’t have enough Geratricians. Currently, there about 7,000 Geriatricians practicing in the US. And the shortage is getting worse, because our medical schools and teaching hospitals are training one or two geriatricians for every nine specialists in higher paying specialties like cardiology or orthopedic surgery, Geriatricians make less money because their patients are on Medicare and their services are reimbursed a lower rate than private insurance patients. Additionally, the treatment of the elderly is less attractive to young... read more

Posted by Phil Daigle on March 13, 2008 2:08 PM
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Proposed California Health Plan Dies

Sadly, the California Senate Health Committee defeated a ground-breaking proposal to reform the state's health insurance system and extend coverage to millions of uninsured residents. In the end, it was the economic downturn that killed the well-intentioned plan. The state already has a $14.5 billion deficit, so the pprobability that the ambitious proposal would not be self-sustaining was just too risky to bear at this time. The nation was watching California on this one and the proposal's failure doesn't bode... read more

Posted by Phil Daigle on January 31, 2008 11:31 AM
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Saline Nasal Wash Beats Commercial Cold and Sinus Products

If you have a child, you know all too well how often they have upper-respiratory tract and sinus infections. According to recently published studies, commercially available sinus and cold medications are ineffective at best and in some cases even dangerous for use by children. For treatment of cold symptoms, try using a nasal wash solution made from processed seawater. It can also prevent respiratory infection from coming back. During the study, 390 children were tested over a period of 6... read more

Posted by Phil Daigle on January 24, 2008 11:38 AM
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People Are Sicker Without Health Insurance

A Harvard Medical School study (published recently in JAMA) found that older individuals got sicker than insured people in a comparable age group. Additionally, the differences in health were quickly reduced when the uninsured individuals became eligible for Medicare at age 65. The study also found that previously insured participants experienced no significant change in their health as they transitioned to Medicare, while participants who previously had little or no prior coverage experienced a significant slowing of the decline of... read more

Posted by Phil Daigle on January 4, 2008 1:07 PM
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Small Business Supports Individual Health Insurance Mandate

Group health insurance is too expensive for many small businesses and it’s not surprising that almost 70% of the working uninsured are employed by businesses with fewer than 100 employees. A majority of small business owners (57%) say they will support an individual health insurance mandate - where individuals are required to insure themselves. It stands to reason that small businesses would jump at the chance to get their employees covered by individual plans especially if they wouldn’t be required... read more

Posted by Phil Daigle on January 4, 2008 12:16 PM
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Give The California Health Plan a Chance

The status quo of American health care is unacceptable. What makes it a political nightmare to fix is that what one side really wants is a single payor government system like Medicare and what the other side really wants is to minimize government involvement and let a free market bring about changes naturally. How's that working for us so far? Pragmatists, including most presidential candidates, occupy the middle ground seeking workable solutions at the risk of loosing their political constituancies.... read more

Posted by Phil Daigle on December 19, 2007 1:43 PM
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Incompetent Doctors Seldom Reported by Colleagues

While virtually all doctors (96%) agree that they should report incompetent colleagues, only 45% of them have ever done so. This according to a recently published study by Dr David Blumenthal from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Institute for Health Policy. Results were based on responses from 1,662 family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, anesthesiology, and cardiology physicians between November 2003 and June 2004. Another telling bit of information was that about one third of respondents said they would order unneeded... read more

Posted by Phil Daigle on December 4, 2007 3:16 PM
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Walgreens Drops Some CVS Caremark Prescription Drug Plans

Walgreens is no longer going to fill prescriptions for these four CVS Caremark plans: ArcelorMittal, Johnson Controls, Progressive Casualty Insurance, and the Wisconsin Education Association Trust managed plans. These plans are available in Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Wallgreens says they can't make money on these four plans, saying "The reimbursement rates are unreasonably low and below-market". Wallgreens is trying to preserve profits while CVS Caremark is trying to lower the cost of health care for its members. In... read more

Posted by Phil Daigle on December 4, 2007 2:42 PM
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