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(Reuters) - The Ebola crisis is forcing the American healthcare system to consider the previously unthinkable: withholding some medical interventions because they are too dangerous to doctors and nurses and unlikely to help a patient. U.S. hospitals have over the years come under criticism for undertaking measures that prolong dying rather than improve patients' quality of life. But the care of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, who received dialysis and intubation and infected two nurses caring for him, is spurring hospitals and medical associations to develop the first guidelines for what can reasonably be done and...

Kelley Tuthill @wcvbkelleyt This 7 mos pregnant woman just walked out of Harvard Vanguard. Was told to take shower & check for fever. #WCVB 3:37 PM - 12 Oct 2014 30 Retweets 4 favorites A man who traveled recently to West Africa is being isolated for Ebola-like symptoms at Harvard Vanguard in Braintree, Mass. WBZ Boston News ✔ @cbsboston BREAKING: Man who traveled recently to West Africa is reportedly being isolated for Ebola-like symptoms in Braintree http://boston.cbslocal.com/ 1:41 PM - 12 Oct 2014 191 Retweets 36 favorites[continued]

Before his three-hour neck surgery for herniated disks in December, Peter Drier, 37, signed a pile of consent forms. A bank technology manager who had researched his insurance coverage, Mr. Drier was prepared when the bills started arriving: $56,000 from Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, $4,300 from the anesthesiologist and even $133,000 from his orthopedist, who he knew would accept a fraction of that fee. He was blindsided, though, by a bill of about $117,000 from an “assistant surgeon,” a Queens-based neurosurgeon whom Mr. Drier did not recall meeting. In operating rooms and on hospital wards across the country, physicians...

An argument that society and families—and you—will be better off if nature takes its course swiftly and promptlyThat’s how long I want to live: 75 years. This preference drives my daughters crazy. It drives my brothers crazy. My loving friends think I am crazy. They think that I can’t mean what I say; that I haven’t thought clearly about this, because there is so much in the world to see and do. To convince me of my errors, they enumerate the myriad people I know who are over 75 and doing quite well. They are certain that as I get...

Democrats seem to love death.  Whether they’re yammering about abortion or “end of life” planning, they just can’t get enough of talking up the myriad ways people can exit life’s stage.  They always claim this is simply a discussion about personal responsibility and individual choice but, since they despise those ideals in virtually every other matter, it’s a hard argument to buy. Enter Ezekiel Emanuel.  Emanuel was one of the chief architects of ObamaCare and is, of course, the brother of Rahm.  Over at The Atlantic, he’s penned an article about his own death and he’s made a shocking announcement...

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Recent news about Obamacare hasn't exactly been good, but the press has been pretty effective in keeping it quiet. To name just a few items, Enrollment is shrinking, because perhaps as many as 20 percent of enrollees aren't keeping up with their premiums. Rising costs have moved insurers to beg for bailouts, which appear to be forthcoming. Then there's this: Just last week in Massachusetts, where the state-run health insurance got its start under Republican Governor Mitt Romney eight years ago, the state's exchange announced that everyone currently enrolled in 2014 or who should have enrolled and didn't is going...

An Australian hospital apologized on Thursday after mistakenly sending out death notices for 200 of its - very much alive - patients. Austin Hospital, in Australia's second most populous city of Melbourne, erroneously killed off the patients when it faxed death notices to their family doctors.

Liberals are now in damage control mode on the heels of the discovery of not one but two videos of Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber claiming in January 2012 that the subsidies for that program were limited to exchanges set up by the states. Their contention is that while Gruber might have worked closely with Congress to create the Obamacare bill, he is still not Congress. The other claim is that there is no document that backs up what they consider to be merely a Gruber "Speak-O." Newsflash folks! Your humble correspondent has come upon a 2011 General Accounting Office report...

Lewis-Payton admitted VISN 16 must work on “trust issues” with veterans and providers. Some of these individuals accuse VISN 16 of systematically gaming medical-record filing deadlines and leaving veterans with massive debts. When providers sent required medical records by certified mail, VA employees shredded them without explanation, insisting they were incomplete after the 90 day filing deadline had expired. As a result of this practice, one Louisiana veteran owes more than $22,000 and is being pursued by a collection agency. Lewis-Payton has not replied to questions about this case. In other cases, VISN 16 reportedly cited absurd reasons for leaving...

In a recent Politico Magazine article titled, “Let’s Talk About Death Panels,” Harold Pollack urges reviving one of the most notorious proposals that did not make it into the Obama Health Car Law – “advance planning consultations.”During the debate over Obamacare’s enactment, there was considerable controversy over a provision in an early version under which health care providers would have been paid by Medicare to discuss with their patients whether they would want life-saving medical treatment.After former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin dubbed the planning sessions “death panels,” the provision was dropped from the law ultimately enacted.As Pollack...

Another day, another VA tragedy. An Albany nurse claims dying New York Veterans were denied painkillers. Instead they were given salt water mixtures. Valerie Riviello, a nurse at the Albany Stratton VA medical center, claims that fellow employees had reported to her that dying veterans were denied painkillers such as morphine to ease their pain. Instead, they were given salt water mixtures. Riviello told the Times Union: Among stories that nurse Valerie Riviello has heard from other employees at the Albany VA is one about dying patients who were supposed to receive morphine to alleviate pain, but instead got a...

How would you feel if someone promised to give you a car, and then reneged on that pledge? That’s how all Americans should feel when it comes to ObamaCare -- because Barack Obama’s failed and discredited campaign promise to lower health insurance premiums has cost the average American family an amount equal to the price of many new cars. During his 2008 campaign, one of then-Senator Obama’s most audacious promises was that his health plan would reduce premiums by $2,500 for the average family. His repeatedly made his pledge on videotape; you can view those promises here. But health insurance...

A Stockton couple is worried that they may face a bill of more than $70,000 for a hospital stay that was initially covered by insurance. Their health plan, Anthem Blue Cross, sent them a letter last month telling them that their insurance coverage has been canceled retroactively, back to the first day of the year -- and that they may be responsible for paying bills for medical care during that time. We called Anthem Blue Cross, and they said, ‘Well, we can cancel people whenever we want. We can do whatever we want,’” Xanttopulos said. A spokesman for Covered California...

Linda Rolain passed away at her Las Vegas home on Monday after the Nevada resident but the Obamacare enrolleee died needlessly. Rolain’s family had joined two lawsuits against the State of Nevada and the company that set up its troubled online software, Xerox.The Nevada resident tried to enroll in the state’s health exchange in November and after numerous issues, finally paid in January for coverage to start in March. But when she went to get treatment, there was no record of her name and she finally received an insurance card in May.She underwent surgery in mid-May but struggled to recover.When...

A devastating new Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General report released on Tuesday reveals that the Obama administration has yet to determine whether 1,295,571 of the over 8 million Obamacare enrollees are U.S. citizens lawfully in the country. The finding, located on page 11 of the report, states that 44% of the remaining 2,611,780 application "inconsistencies" are related to verifying "Citizenship/national status/lawful presence." Another 960,492 application inconsistencies were related to verifying whether subsidy applicants provided accurate income information.

Linda Rolain passed away at her Las Vegas home on Monday Her family had joined two lawsuits against the State of Nevada and the company that set up its troubled online software, Xerox She had tried to enroll in the state's health exchange in November and after numerous issues, finally paid in January for coverage to start in March But when she went to get treatment, there was no record of her name and she finally received an insurance card in May She underwent surgery in mid-May but struggled to recover Robert Rolain, who lost 60 pounds due to stress,...

A key former adviser behind President Obama's healthcare law said the traditional role of health insurers would be "dead" by 2025, predicting massive changes in the industry. "By 2025, insurance companies as we know them — taking in premiums and paying out — dead," Ezekiel Emanuel ... Emanuel, the older brother of former White House chief of staff and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has long argued that health insurers will shift away an employer-based system. By 2025.. ... Most Americans currently receive health insurance through their employers. ObamaCare includes an employer mandate, which requires companies with 50 or more...

There are hundreds of aspects of Obamacare that people argue over. But there’s one question that matters above all others: does the Affordable Care Act live up to its name? Does it make health insurance less expensive? Last November, our team at the Manhattan Institute published a study indicating that Obamacare had increased the underlying cost of individually-purchased health insurance in the average state by 41 percent in 2014, relative to 2013. We’ve now redone the study on a county-by-county basis, complete with a brand-new interactive map. Depending on where you live, the results may surprise you.Our new county-by-county analysis...

National insurance giant UnitedHealthcare plans to cut up to 700 Massachusetts doctors from its physician network for seniors enrolled in its private Medicare plan as a way to control costs, according to company officials. For elderly patients enrolled in the plan, the cuts mean they will have to find a new doctor or eventually switch to a new health plan that covers their current doctor. The move, effective Sept. 1, follows similar cuts made by the insurer to its Medicare Advantage provider networks in 11 other states... There is also pending legislation in Congress to prevent health plans from cutting...