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I've read a number of reports in recent days gushing over the progress Covered California is making leading the nation in signing up people for Obamacare. But, I am having trouble understanding how the numbers should make anyone gush with enthusiasm. Covered California, the state health insurance exchange, has a goal of enrolling 500,000 to 700,000 subsidy eligible Californians by March 31, 2014. Covered California just announced that it would proceed with its original plan to cancel 1.1 million existing individual policies (their estimate)––80% of them by December 31. Covered California also just said that 510,000 of them would qualify...

Here's to your health...your health insurance credentials, that is. Information security service provider Dell SecureWorks has uncovered in a new report that buyers are dropping big bucks for health insurance documents that are being hawked on the internet underground with the goal of using them to commit fraud. Dell SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) senior security researcher Don Jackson has investigated underground market supply and demand for years, and beginning in May, he sought to update how buyers are spending their money in 2013. Jackson discovered people are laying down top dollar for all-inclusive health insurance dossiers known as “Kitz,”...

The continuing saga of the gigantic tumor. I went to the oncologist today for the 1st time about the giant lump off my appendix. While the surgery does much for me, she is still up in the air about what to do next.

Gentlemen; It has now been ten days since typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines causing almost total destruction of Tacloban, Leyte, (and other towns in Leyte), Eastern Samar, (the towns of Guiuan and Basey were severely damaged), Baco City, Oriental Mindoro, towns in the north portion of Cebu, Capiz Province in Panay, and many other areas. On 10 November, 2013 I asked that Tricare provide administrative relief to Tricare beneficiaries residing in the path of typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan. Specifically I asked for a relaxation of rules for providers to be certified, (which is a unique Tricare policy that no other...

Obamacare is intensifying the doctor shortage – though not in ways that were anticipated. Everybody seems to have expected that Obamacare would sign up some 30 million people who don’t have health insurance, and they would overwhelm doctors’ offices. But these people – especially the young and healthy whose sky-high Obamacare premiums were supposed to finance everybody else’s subsidies – have stayed away. They know a bad deal when they see one. Although the young and healthy aren’t going for Obamacare, the doctor shortage is intensifying, because government intervention generally is making it more expensive and difficult for doctors to...

Looks like I may have been blessed. Had my surgery the 28th, and am recovering fine. Went to the surgeon today for follow-up, but it included the biospy results, which they only got yesterday!

Virtual Medical Assistants: A Boon to the ACA Concept? NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- As Americans are watching the Obama Administration's foray into healthcare technology fail abysmally, it is worth noting that there are companies in this field that are successful. One is Next IT, a privately held, Spokane, Wash., hi-tech company, which is a leader in intelligent virtual assistants. It is adapting its 'Alme" platform for the healthcare field. Kathleen Sebelius should have considered it. The Alme program is ...

Every cell in your body has a little clock ticking away in it. Your heart may be “younger.” Tumors are the "oldest." Embryonic stem cells, the body’s master cells, look just like newborns with a biological age of zero.

Got my surgery date today, in just 2 weeks. I am a bit scared by all this.

Greetings! I know there are freepers who have knowledge and experience in just about any area of interest, so I figured we could gather some info/input from you on various treatments/ success stories for Crohn's. I did a search and various interesting articles have been posted, perhaps some of you have other useful links you could share. Over a year ago our youngest was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Not that there is ever a good time to become ill, but this has impacted her studies and immediate University plans. She has been under the care of a physician who has...

As of Oct. 1, Michigan doctors and medical facilities will be receiving less for treating children who are in the MiChild program, which is the State of Michigan's health care program for uninsured children of working families. According to the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH), 37,503 Michigan children are currently covered by MiChild. “This came out of the blue and at a glance looks pretty benign. But actually it's very significant,” said Dr. Megan Edison, a pediatrician in Wyoming, Michigan. “Low reimbursement rates are really having a negative impact on those in the vulnerable portion of our population. That's...

Yahle, a diesel mechanic from West Carrollton, Ohio, "coded" - a term meaning emergency -- on the afternoon of Aug. 5, after arriving in the hospital that morning in cardiac arrest. A team of doctors rushed to his hospital bedside and used chest compressions, a bag connected to a breathing tube and medications to force blood and oxygen through his body. After 45 minutes, they gave up and declared him dead. "He was truly flatlined at the end of that code. He had no electrical motion, no respiration, and no heart beat, and no blood pressure," says Jayne Testa, director...

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden planned to return home with his father, Vice President Joe Biden, aboard Air Force Two following a successful medical procedure at a Houston cancer center.

Researchers from the Gene and Stem Cell Therapy Program at Sydney's Centenary Institute have confirmed that, far from being "junk," the 97 per cent of human DNA that does not encode instructions for making proteins can play a significant role in controlling cell development. And in doing so, the researchers have unravelled a previously unknown mechanism for regulating the activity of genes, increasing our understanding of the way cells develop and opening the way to new possibilities

Victoria Byers did not drink alcohol. She did not abuse drugs. But when she was a teenager in foster care, several times a month, she would board a van at her group home and go to rehab. Byers couldn't figure out why she had to take drug tests and sit in group therapy sessions on addiction at So Cal Health Services, a clinic tucked in an office park in Riverside, California. "And I told them, you know, 'Why should I be here? I have no drug issue,' " said Byers, now a slow-to-smile 22-year-old. The director of Byers' group home...

In case readers missed it with all the coverage of the Trayvon Martin murder trial and the Supreme Court’s rulings on gay marriage and the Voting Rights Act, the US Supreme Court also made a ruling on lawsuits against drug companies for fraud, mislabeling, side effects and accidental death. From now on, 80 percent of all drugs are exempt from legal liability. In a 5-4 vote, the US Supreme Court struck down a lower court’s ruling and award for the victim of a pharmaceutical drug’s adverse reaction. According to the victim and the state courts, the drug caused a flesh-eating...

When Regal Entertainment Group (RGC) in April blamed ObamaCare for the fact that it was cutting some of its workers' hours, backers of the law mounted a furious backlash against the theater chain, among other things filling its Facebook page with boycott threats. Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/061913-660419-local-governments-cut-hours-to-avoid-obamacare-mandate.htm#ixzz2WiSoRbw2 Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook

Several prominent medical associations have voiced opposition to a proposed gun control rule to increase the number of mental health records shared with the national background check system, saying it would only contribute to the stigma against mental illness. . . , a key proposition to add mental health records to a national background check database has been vociferously opposed by medical groups. Many voice concern that adding people deemed "mentally unfit" to the national database would increase the stigma of mental illness and dissuade many from seeking help. . . . . . . Unlike the Manchin-Toomey Bill to...

**SNIP** They also requested that the sentencing memo, however, be partially "under seal," or out of public view, as it "will contain personal sensitive details about [Jackson's] medical condition, as well as the medical condition of one of his family members," the Sun-Times reported. **SNIP** "I'm not bound by the sentencing guidelines," Judge Robert Wilkins said earlier in court, noting he cannot go beyond the maximum of five years. "The sentencing guidelines are advisory, and they are something I am bound to consider."

I believe we are moving toward two different health systems. Which tier do you think you will be in? In one system, patients will be able to see doctors promptly. They will talk to physicians by phone and email. They will have no difficulty scheduling needed surgery. If they have to go into a hospital, a "hospitalist" (who reports to them and not to the hospital administration) will be there to make sure their interests are looked after. They may even have an independent agency that reviews their medical records, goes with them when they meet with specialists and gives...