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Weekend reading: Seniors smoking marijuana; Same-sex marriage and public health

For Cher Neufer, a 65-year-old retired teacher, socializing with friends (all in their 60s) means using marijuana. Once a week they get together to play Texas Hold 'Em poker "and pass around a doobie," Ms. Neufer said. … Statistics suggest that more members of the older generations, like Ms. Neufer, are using marijuana.

30 Mar 2013

Study predicts 30% premium increase for some Californians who buy their own insurance

The increases, prompted by the federal health law, will be offset for many people by new federal tax subsidies, the report suggests.

30 Mar 2013

Study highlights cost savings of generic drugs

Consumer Reports offers new analysis that finds not all patients realize they can save big by shopping around for drugs. Meanwhile, two outlets look at insurance coverage issues for couples.

30 Mar 2013

Senators urge HHS to step up efforts to curb Medicare overpayments

The lawmakers pointed to a report showing a $70 million loss caused by overpayments on medical equipment, The Hill reports.

30 Mar 2013

State roundup: NYC firms will be required to offer sick leave; Fla. government part-timers to get health coverage

New York is poised to mandate that companies with 15 or more employees provide paid time off for them when they are sick. A compromise agreement reached Thursday night resulted from a raw display of political muscle by a coalition of labor unions and liberal activists who overcame fierce objections from New York's business-minded mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, and his allies in the corporate world (Barbaro and Grynbaum, 3/28).

30 Mar 2013

Research roundup: Despite some cuts, hospitals will benefit from Medicaid expansion; Medicare's rising costs propel efforts to revamp the program

The authors write that, because of the health law's expansion of Medicaid coverage to adults making below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, "hospitals' public insurance revenue [will create] a larger Medicaid coverage pool.

30 Mar 2013

Report finds most restaurant children's meals are still unhealthy

Many menu items don't meet the restaurant association's own standards for healthful children's meals, the New York Times reports.

30 Mar 2013

Oregon offers guide to states eyeing potential of putting Medicaid enrollees in private insurance

In the last days of Georgia's General Assembly, lawmakers eliminate cuts in Medicaid payments to providers, while the state's Medicaid agency gives initial approval to a hospital fee.

30 Mar 2013

Oklahoma dentist called 'menace to the public health'

Dr. W. Scott Harrington faces an April 19 hearing over unsanitary conditions that may have exposed patients to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV infection.

30 Mar 2013

Hospitals often don't tell patients about assistance programs to help pay bills

ABC reports that although nonprofit hospitals are obligated to give back to the community, they often don't ease the strain for patients with financial difficulties. And in other news, The New York Times looks at efforts to cut emergency room care costs.

30 Mar 2013

Health industry faces shortage of IT professionals

In addition, a regulation permitting hospitals to donate medical records software to doctors is scheduled to expire.

30 Mar 2013

U.N. forced to delay urgent food aid to Guinea Bissau due to lack of donor support

"The United Nations said Tuesday that it had been forced to delay desperately needed food aid to nearly 300,000 people in Guinea Bissau since it so far had received no donations to support the operation," Agence France-Presse reports.

30 Mar 2013

Religion, religious leaders have been central to health, development improvements in Africa

"After decades of doom-and-gloom news about AIDS in Africa, optimism is finally in the air," Jenny Trinitapoli, an assistant professor of sociology, demography, and religious studies at Penn State University, and Alexander Weinreb, an associate professor in the department of sociology and a research associate at the Population Research Center of the University of Texas, Austin, write in a Slate opinion piece.

30 Mar 2013

Preventing 4.4M child deaths in next 1,000 days is possible

"To reach the goal of decreasing deaths of children who have not yet reached their fifth birthday to four million in 2015, we estimate that 4.4 million children's deaths must be averted in the next 1,000 days," U.N. Special Envoy for Malaria Ray Chambers writes in the Huffington Post's "The Big Push" blog, in the first of what he says will be a series of entries discussing successes, challenges, and actions.

30 Mar 2013

Parents, officials in Pakistan working to bring polio vaccine to areas under militant control

"Parents and officials are going to great lengths to immunize children after militants imposed a ban on polio vaccinations in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan Agency," with some parents "traveling long distances to get their children vaccinated" or "smuggling the vaccine back home," IRIN reports.

30 Mar 2013

Kerry announces $51M in additional humanitarian aid for Sahel region

"[T]he United States has announced an additional $51 million in humanitarian aid to the people of the Sahel -- a belt up to 1,000 kilometers wide that spans Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea -- bringing its total aid to $520 million" in FY 2012, Devex's "Pennsylvania Ave." blog reports.

30 Mar 2013

Investment in women's health important for global development

"Throughout my tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives and on the Committee on Appropriations, I have had the opportunity to help shape U.S. development assistance. And I am proud of the United States' leadership in providing support and funding for critical global health initiatives that both save lives and strengthen our position in the world," Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) writes in The Hill's "Congress Blog."

30 Mar 2013

Tenn. governor refuses to expand Medicaid

Gov. Bill Haslam said he wants to expand health insurance coverage for low-income residents, but "on his own terms" by enrolling large numbers in private insurance plans.

30 Mar 2013

Radiology trainees face earning challenges

For years, medical students who chose a residency in radiology were said to be on the ROAD to happiness. The acronym highlighted the specialties - radiology, ophthalmology, anesthesiology and dermatology - said to promise the best lifestyle for doctors, including the most money for the least grueling work. Not anymore.

30 Mar 2013

Physicians react to new N.D. abortion laws

Physicians on both sides of the abortion argument disagree on whether restrictions such as the hospital privileges requirement are medically necessary or whether they instead intrude upon patients' rights (Pittman, 3/27).

30 Mar 2013