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Altering the course of schizophrenia with new research

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is launching a large-scale research project to explore whether using early and aggressive treatment, individually targeted and integrating a variety of different therapeutic approaches, will reduce the symptoms and prevent the gradual deterioration of functioning that is characteristic of chronic schizophrenia.

21 Jul 2009

House face-off looms over sweeping health bill

House Democrats, who last week touted their health overhaul bill after it passed two of three committees have fight on their hands this week.

20 Jul 2009

Obama administration silent on San Francisco health insurance ordinance

"As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to consider a restaurant group's challenge to San Francisco's health coverage ordinance, one voice is noticeably silent: the Obama administration's," The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

20 Jul 2009

Advocates push to end Medicare's two year wait for disabled

There are 1.8 million disabled Americans who wait two-years to enroll in Medicare. Many say that waiting period can be devastating.

20 Jul 2009

Americans living with no insurance, or less insurance, during recession

Decisions about forgoing care because of the cost for the long-term uninsured have been a way of life, "but for a sizable group, being without a job and insurance is a new, deeply distressing condition," The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.

20 Jul 2009

Efforts to 'fix' Medicare payments at center of reform

The Wall Street Journal reports: "A plan to end a program that would cut government payments to doctors is emerging as the flash point in the debate over whether President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul the health system would increase the federal budget deficit.

20 Jul 2009

Health overhaul issues fill the Sunday talk shows

The Associated Press reports: "President Barack Obama's advisers are urging critics of their health care overhaul to wait for Congress to finish writing legislation before issuing verdicts. They also signaled they are willing to wait longer than their White House-imposed August deadline for action if it means they can sway wary lawmakers.

20 Jul 2009

e-Health revolution will give Australian patients access to their health records

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) which represents than 27,000 doctors across Australia has criticised the government's plans for 'e-health' medical records reform.

20 Jul 2009

House Committees prepare for votes on health reform bill

Votes are planned Thursday in the House Education and Labor and Ways and Means committees on a $1.5 trillion plan to overhaul the nation's health care system, The Associated Press reports.

16 Jul 2009

Obama presses lawmakers on health reform

In President Obama's push for health reform, "new fault lines are opening up everywhere you look. Liberals are worried that Obama is going squishy on including a strong, government-run 'public option' among the health-care choices available to Americans.

16 Jul 2009

Proposals may limit health insurance choices and squeeze some middle earners

"President Obama and leading Democrats have stressed that people who like their employer-sponsored insurance would be able to keep it, under a health care overhaul. But they haven't emphasized the flip side: That people who don't like their coverage might have to keep it," Kaiser Health News reports.

16 Jul 2009

Lawsuits allege some medical device companies gave kickbacks to surgeons

Whistleblowers allege in lawsuits unsealed Wednesday that some medical device companies gave kickbacks to heart surgeons to get the doctors to use their products to treat a heart condition, The Wall Street Journal reports.

16 Jul 2009

Obama administration proposes big changes in Medicare payment oversight

Determined to cut Medicare costs, the White House unveiled a plan that would shift much of the power over Medicare payment rates from Congress to the executive branch.

16 Jul 2009

House Democrats' health bill would tax rich to finance insurance expansion

House Democratic leaders Tuesday unveiled their bill to reform America's health care system - and insure an additional 37 million Americans over the next 10 years - to the tune of more than $1 trillion, funded mostly through an up-to-5.4 percent surtax on income for the wealthiest Americans, The Washington Post reports.

15 Jul 2009

How much health care for $1 trillion?

USA Today asks what the additional $1 trillion cost of a health care overhaul (over 10 years) will actually buy. "Although the eye-popping price tag would help boost insurance coverage to 95% or more of the public, it's not enough to do everything advocates initially want.

15 Jul 2009

J & J: hospital deal will hurt medical device sales

The CFO for Johnson & Johnson's said President Obama's deal with hospitals to cut Medicare costs will reduce the sales of medical devices, Bloomberg reports: "Hospitals buy medical devices, including J&J’s artificial hips and stents to prop open clogged arteries, directly from the manufacturer, (Johnson and Johnson CFO Dominic) Caruso said today in an interview with Bloomberg News.

15 Jul 2009

Massachusetts' budget forces retreat from universal coverage

"The new state budget in Massachusetts eliminates health care coverage for some 30,000 legal immigrants to help close a growing deficit, reversing progress toward universal coverage just as Congress looks to the state as a model for overhauling the nation’s health care system," the New York Times reports.

15 Jul 2009