U.S.News Magazine has just published their expanded and improved 2007 list of the best Children's Hospitals in the United States. Parents now have better tools with these new rankings of pediatric hospitals. It can come down to life vs. death. The best hospitals have greater ability to treat kids successfully and send them home.

The Honor Roll

Children's Hospital (Denver)
Children's Hospital Boston
Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Children's Medical Center (Dallas)
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Johns Hopkins Children's Center (Baltimore)
New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley-Komansky Children's Hospital
St. Louis Children's Hospital-Washington University
Texas Children's Hospital (Houston)

Click here for the full article

MEGA Life and Health Insurance, Mid-West National Life Insurance, and their parent company HealthMarkets, Inc are being sued by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley for routinely misleading people about what their health insurance policies cover. These are serious new allegations of misrepresentation and unfair and deceptive practices. The complaint also charges MEGA Life with disclosing the personal information of applicants and policyholders to various third parties. The suit seeks to require MEGA LIFE and Mid-West to pay refunds and make restitution to individuals harmed by the sales practices and substantial civil penalties and costs to the state.

These companies usually market under the umbrella of NASE, for National Association of the Self Insured, an association created solely to make it easier to target individuals and small businesses looking for low cost health insurance, but the coverage they provide is not what MEGA and Mid-West's advertising and sales agents make it out to be.

West Nile Virus is hitting Californians hard. Four people have died of the virus in California and the disease is spreading. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently designated the counties of Kern - with 60% of the state's 64 cases - Colusa and San Joaquin, to be in a state of emergency, giving them access to a 1.35 million dollar fund. The high season (August and September). is just starting and there are already three times as many cases as there were last year in California.

West Nile originated in the Middle East but is now usual in North America. Humans and animals get WNV from the bites of mosquitoes that have fed on infected birds. WNV cannot be spread by an infected human which is good becuase most infected people experience no symptoms at all. Those who do have symptoms usually show signs (fever and flu-like symptome initally, sometimes progressing to disorientation, convulsions, tremors, and loss of vision.The symptoms last several weeks. Less than 1% with WNV become seriously ill.