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Massachusetts increases efforts to enroll low-income residents in partially subsidized health coverage by Dec. 31 deadline

Massachusetts health care officials this month are boosting efforts to enroll low-income residents in subsidized health insurance plans as the state approaches the Dec. 31 deadline for all residents to obtain coverage or face tax penalties, the Boston Globe reports.

30 Oct 2007

Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report reports on Presidential campaigns related to health care

Forty-six percent of U.S. adults who responded to a recent survey conducted by Scripps Howard and Ohio University said that Democrats were more likely to improve access to health care than Republicans, Scripps Howard/Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. The survey, which included responses from 811 adults nationwide collected from Sept 24. to Oct. 10, has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

29 Oct 2007

UAW members at Chrysler approve four-year contract with voluntary employees' beneficiary association

United Auto Workers officials on Saturday said that Chrysler Group employees represented by the union approved a four-year contract that will establish a voluntary employees' beneficiary association, the Detroit Free Press reports (Higgins, Detroit Free Press, 10/28).

29 Oct 2007

Education program leads to lasting improvement of cancer knowledge in African Americans

Disparities in access to health care and education hinder minorities and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations from receiving needed cancer services and often lead to delayed cancer diagnoses.

28 Oct 2007

Comparing public and private health insurance

The Manhattan Institute has released a new report by senior fellow Benjamin Zycher, entitled "Comparing Public and Private Health Insurance: Would a Single-Payer System Save Enough to Cover the Uninsured?" In it, Zycher dispels a common misconception regarding single-payer health insurance.

19 Oct 2007

Reducing class size may be more cost-effective than most medical interventions

Reducing the number of students per classroom in U.S. primary schools may be more cost-effective than most public health and medical interventions, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Virginia Commonwealth University.

17 Oct 2007

Dietary advice for reducing cardiovascular risk

Diet is an important part of coronary heart disease prevention, and a new review of studies finds that dietary advice leads to modest improvement in risk factors such as high cholesterol and blood pressure, especially in people at higher risk.

17 Oct 2007

Medical identity theft

Many consumers take precautions against identity theft, but what about medical identity theft?

10 Oct 2007

Genomic technologies to identify toxic chemicals should be developed

A new report from the National Research Council recommends that government agencies enhance their efforts to incorporate genomic data into risk assessments of chemicals and medicines, and calls for a concerted effort to fully develop these methods' potential to protect public health.

10 Oct 2007

African-American women less likely to have adjuvant cancer therapy than white women

A new study finds that white women more frequently take more of the life-prolonging supplemental therapies used to treat breast cancer than African-American women.

9 Oct 2007

Treatment for breast cancer differs between African-American women and white women

The study found that, among patients with breast cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes, African-Americans were less likely to have adjuvant cancer therapy than white women. In this clinical group, white women were almost five times more likely to take Tamoxifen, a widely-used cancer therapy medication, and over three times more likely to have chemotherapy.

9 Oct 2007

AACAP reaction to S-CHIP Veto

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry strongly urges Congress to override President Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (H.R. 976) act.

4 Oct 2007

Behind-the-counter drugs could be on sale in U.S. pharmacies

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United states is considering creating a new category of drugs.

3 Oct 2007

Breast cancer screening

As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, experts at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center encourage women to learn about recommended screening guidelines to improve their chances for early detection of breast cancer.

2 Oct 2007

Poor health care access common among youth leaving foster system

Youth who have been homeless for any period of time after leaving the foster care system appear to have more problems accessing health care than those with stable housing situations, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

2 Oct 2007

Experts discuss SCHIP

The U.S. House voted Tuesday to extend and expand the 10-year-old State Children's Health Insurance Program, called SCHIP. The Senate was expected to follow suit this week.

1 Oct 2007

About half of California adults diagnosed with high blood pressure take blood pressure-lowering drugs

About half of California adults diagnosed with high blood pressure, or hypertension, do not take medication to lower it, researchers reported today at the American Heart Association's 61st Annual Fall Conference of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research.

29 Sep 2007

Occupational exposures in farming and industry may be linked to death from autoimmune disease

A new study examined the possible associations between occupation and the risk of dying from systemic autoimmune diseases and found that occupational exposures in farming and industry may be linked to higher death rates from these diseases.