Free Republic

An Easton Area High School nurse has been asked to stay home from work and now faces death threats after making a controversial comment about Charlie Kirk‘s death, according to a supporter of the nurse. Meanwhile, opponents of nurse Kelly Keegan are planning a rally Thursday night calling for her resignation from Northampton County Council. It will be council’s first meeting since Keegan, of Forks Township, allegedly made the comment in a social media post. Keegan allegedly posted on Facebook after Kirk’s shooting death, calling him a “monster” and saying his wife and children are better off without him. The...

he Charlie Kirk assassination fallout continues as dozens of doctors and nurses across the country are fired or suspended for celebrating Charlie Kirk's death.

Up to 10% of pediatric hematologic malignancies attributed to imaging-related radiation exposureKey Takeaways: One in 10 childhood blood cancers may result from medical imaging-associated radiation exposure. Cancer risk increased with cumulative radiation dose, ranging from 1.41 times higher to 3.59 times higher. Children exposed to at least 30 mGy had 25.6 excess blood cancers per 10,000 by age 21. One of every 10 blood cancers in children may result from radiation exposure associated with medical imaging, according to a large retrospective analysis. The risk of hematologic malignancy increased with cumulative radiation exposure versus none, ranging from 1.41 times higher for...

In 2019, President Donald Trump issued a sweeping Executive Order, 13877 that placed the needs of patients first. It called for hospitals to provide price transparency for patients. This was the type of healthcare cost reform that was needed for decades, as prices were often hidden from patients. Unfortunately, with the advent of the administration of President Joe Biden, progress was halted on this issue. The Biden administration refused to pressure hospitals and health care plans to provide price transparency for patients. As noted by Ilaria Santangelo, Research Director of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, under the Biden administration compliance with the regulations was...

Health insurance prices in the U.S. have been spiraling for four consecutive years, and employers are now bracing for the highest spike yet in 2025—the biggest increase in 15 years, according to a wide-ranging survey of more than 1,700 employers. The National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans by Mercer, a subsidiary of Marsh McLennan, is part of the advisory firm’s services to help employers manage health insurance costs while seeking to improve employee health and well-being. Sunit Patel, Mercer’s US Chief Actuary for Health and Benefits, said two factors are combining to send costs higher. “Health benefit cost trend has...

Four in 10 Britons said they were lonely at least sometimes in a new survey tracking the health costs associated with loneliness. Loneliness is a common problem – and it’s expensive to health systems, according to a new analysis from the United Kingdom. People who are often lonely cost the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) up to £885 (€1,024) more annually than their more sociable peers, according to the estimates, which were published in the journal PLOS One. Researchers surveyed more than 23,000 Britons on their levels of loneliness, well-being, and health care visits from 2021 to 2023, and used...

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in US men, excluding skin cancer, and the second-leading cause of male cancer deaths, after lung cancer. One in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and about 3% of men will die from it. Early-stage prostate cancer often has no warning signs because the tumor is small and hasn’t spread — a PSA test can help detect potential problems before symptoms develop. September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Here’s what you should know about updates to screening guidelines, advances in treatment and the one diet that may help prevent it.

Demetre Daskalakis, the former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, who resigned on Wednesday, warned of the forthcoming “ideologic direction” of public health in an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC’s This Week.“From my vantage point, as a doctor who’s taken the Hippocratic oath, I only see harm coming,” Daskalakis told Raddatz. “I may be wrong, but based on what I’m seeing, based on what I’ve heard with the new members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, or ACIP, they’re really moving in an ideologic direction where they want to see the...

TLDR: The American Bar Association has spent decades pushing sweeping gun control—from penalties on victims who don’t report stolen guns, to redefining the Second Amendment as “militia-only,” to backing bans, mandates, and red flag laws—despite no evidence these measures reduce crime.Punishing victims: ABA wants criminal/civil penalties if gun owners don’t “promptly” report lost or stolen guns, despite no evidence that it reduces crime.Rewriting the Second Amendment: In 1994, ABA pushed the “militia only” interpretation to justify more restrictions on private ownership.Decades of bans and mandates: From “assault weapons” to .50 cal rifles, red flags, permits, microstamping, and doctor questioning—ABA has...

Mississippi has declared a public health emergency after infant deaths in the state surged to their highest level in 15 years. Latest data showed 323 babies died in the state before their first birthday in 2024, or a death rate of 9.7 fatalities per 1,000 births. That is up from 8.9 per 1,000 the prior year, and the highest rate since 2009 when the rate was 10.1 per 1,000. Mississippi has had the worst infant mortality rate in the nation for seven years, and was well above the national average of 5.6 deaths per 1,000 in 2023, the latest national...

This week, President Trump officially launched his push to remove illegal aliens from state Medicaid rolls by cross-checking them against federal databases, a move that’s sure to send Democrats running to the courts yet again. But when it comes to illegal immigrants and welfare, Democrats have a serious problem — and it’s not just their continuing slide in favorability. It’s that they just can’t make up their minds about whether those here illegally are receiving federal Medicaid dollars at all. When Congress was debating Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, one of the left’s oft-repeated refrains was that there was...

The Trump administration is cracking down on noncitizens receiving Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program benefits, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The center launched an oversight program, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to provide states with reports of individuals enrolled in Medicaid who do not appear on federal databases. “We are tightening oversight of enrollment to safeguard taxpayer dollars and guarantee that these vital programs serve only those who are truly eligible under the law,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

When leftists attack our health care system for its supposedly market-driven forces, they fail to grasp a key fact. American health care has rarely functioned like a market because few, if any, patients know the price of their care in advance. A recent personal experience illustrated this problem and reinforced the rules the Trump administration must finally implement to make prices transparent.A Surprise Bill After the FactLast April, I went to the Surgery Center of Chevy Chase just outside Washington for outpatient foot surgery. Staff informed me in advance that my estimated financial responsibility would total $574.12 — an amount...

A former physician at one of the nation’s most respected pediatric institutions is facing federal charges for allegedly amassing one of the largest known personal collections of child sexual abuse material in recent history. Howard M. Saal, 73, a former geneticist and dysmorphologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, appeared in federal court this week after investigators say they uncovered a horrifying trove of over 153,000 images and 470 videos of child pornography, with some victims reportedly being as young as newborns. According to charging documents, the nightmare began when a Hamilton County Sheriff’s detective assigned to the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task...

Researchers expose problem with arm cuffs and how simple fixes could greatly improve accuracy. In A Nutshell * Standard arm-cuff blood pressure tests often read nearly 6 points too low, missing about 30% of people with high systolic blood pressure (140 mmHg or higher). * Cambridge researchers found the problem stems from a hidden drop in blood pressure in vessels below the cuff during the test. * In lab tests, low “downstream” pressure caused readings to be off by as much as 9–10 points. * Simple fixes, like redesigning cuffs, adjusting arm position, or using small correction factors, could make...

Scientists at Columbia Engineering have developed a bioactive, injectable healing gel derived from yogurt. By harnessing extracellular vesicles (EVs) from milk, the team developed a soft material that mimics living tissue and promotes natural regeneration. This novel gel doesn’t just deliver therapeutic molecules; the EVs help build the structure of the gel itself. In mouse models, it boosted blood vessel formation and tissue repair—without added chemicals. The research hints at a future where food-derived biotechnology plays a powerful role in healing the body. Designing the Next Generation of Bioactive Hydrogels Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a new approach to...

A 59-year-old man has been jailed in Gastonia, N.C., on charges of larceny after allegedly robbing an RBC Bank for $1 so he could get health care in prison. Richard James Verone handed a female teller a note demanding the money and claiming that he had a gun, according to the police report. He then sat down and waited for police to arrive. "… I say, 'I'll be sitting right over here, on the chair, waiting for the police,'" Verone told reporters, recalling the June 9 robbery in an interview from Gaston County Jail. And wait for the police, he...

I’m not a doctor. The following are my observations of the medical system as a patient, not a professional opinion.I’m hoping for change; that is, for Congress and President Trump to decisively end Obamacare. We must push the healthcare industry towards healing from the abominations foisted upon it by over-regulation, DEI, gaslighting, cumbersome reporting, and a system that doesn’t incentivize health. RFK Jr. is helping by slowly tackling diet and immunizations.The pharmaceutical industry’s financial vice-grip on doctors, stifling independent diagnosis and creative, proactive treatment, does no service to the ill. Research follows funding, and if there’s no profit, there’s no...

Stage IV patients paid over $700 more per month in the initial 6 months post-diagnosisA diagnosis of cancer brings substantially higher out-of-pocket costs (OOPCs) for privately insured patients, particularly those with more advanced cancer, researchers found. In a cohort of more than 46,000 patients, an incident cancer diagnosis was associated with a mean increase in OOPCs of $592.53 per month in the 6 months after diagnosis, reported Liam Rose, PhD, of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, and colleagues. This finding "underscores the financial burden of cancer care on patients with insurance who are not yet...

The system will focus on diabetes, weight management, and digital tools for patient check-ins. The Trump administration announced it is launching a new program that will allow Americans to share personal health data and medical records across health systems and apps run by private tech companies, promising that will make it easier to access health records and monitor wellness. More than 60 companies, including major tech companies like Google, Amazon and Apple as well as health care giants like UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health, have agreed to share patient data in the system. The initiative will focus on diabetes and...