Free Republic

The federal overhaul has had a bumpy start, but with insurance payments they can handle, many have stopped gambling on their future Lost amid all the fury, however, have been the success stories.

Wait times for cataract surgery in London jumped 50% last year, a disturbing trend officials expect will worsen unless Ontario’s health ministry restores funding. At the start of 2013, 90% of patients had surgery within 153 days. By November, that wait grew to 230 days. “It’s hurting patients,” said ophthalmologist Tim Hillson, chairperson of the Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Patients forced to wait are at greater risk for falls, car crashes and depression, preventable calamities that cost our health-care system more in the long run, Hillson said, so making them wait longer is short-sighted.

The health reform law is trying to force $15 an hour workers and their employers to buy more than a million dollars of coverage when they don't have anything like a million dollars in assets to protect. Further, some of these families are being forced to give up "mini-med" plans that paid the first $2,000 or $3,000 of medical bills and enroll in plans with deductibles of $10,000 or more. Why do we need to force a family at this income level need to pay the first $10,000 of medical costs? We don't. I can think of only two reasons...

AMAZING USE OF OUR TECHNOLOGY. STAR TREK MEDICINE IS COMING.

Kim Little had not thought much about the tiny white spot on the side of her cheek until a physician’s assistant at her dermatologist’s office warned that it might be cancerous. He took a biopsy, returning 15 minutes later to confirm the diagnosis and schedule her for an outpatient procedure at the Arkansas Skin Cancer Center in Little Rock, 30 miles away. That was the prelude to a daylong medical odyssey several weeks later, through different private offices on the manicured campus at the Baptist Health Medical Center that involved a dermatologist, an anesthesiologist and an ophthalmologist who practices plastic...

Many folks who signed up for coverage through the state and federal exchanges are running into roadblocks now that they are trying to use their new benefits. And though exchange officials and insurers have urged consumers to call their insurers if they encounter problems, many say they either wait endlessly on hold or get the runaround. Patterson's journey started New Year's Day, when she landed in the emergency room for a stomach ailment. The Independence policy number she received didn't work and the hospital required her to sign a form saying she would pay for care herself, though it agreed...

Those signing up for private health care coverage on the ObamaCare exchanges may be in for an unpleasant surprise -- they'll have insurance, but they might have trouble getting the doctor to see them. Just as with Medicaid, analysts warn that if payments get too low, many doctors might start refusing to see patients. That will leave more and more patients jockeying to see fewer and fewer doctors. They emphasize, then, that having health insurance won't necessarily translate into access to health care.

Sometimes, surprise findings can be life-saving, for example in the case of an athlete whose brain is scanned after a concussion, and radiologists spot a tumor, Hauser said. Other times, nothing can be done. That same brain scan might show early signs of an incurable condition, Hauser said, and "this young person now needs to live with the knowledge that she may someday develop this neurologic disease." Follow-up testing may do harm. Doctors, researchers and direct-to-consumer companies alike should inform potential patients about the possibility of incidental findings before they undergo a medical test. They should clearly explain what will...

Americans who are buying insurance plans over online exchanges, under what is known as Obamacare, will have limited access to some of the nation’s leading hospitals, including two world-renowned cancer centres. Amid a drive by insurers to limit costs, the majority of insurance plans being sold on the new healthcare exchanges in New York, Texas, and California, for example, will not offer patients’ access to Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan or MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, two top cancer centres, or Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, one of the top research and teaching hospitals in the country. Experts say the...

More cancelled health plans. Millions and perhaps tens of millions more Americans will lose their coverage, despite the White House's one-year suspension of the mandates that force insurers to liquidate their old products. The problem is backloaded. The exchanges don't offer what most people expect from normal commercial insurance and instead feature tighter administrative oversight of smaller groups of physicians akin to Medicaid. Clinton-era HMO-style plans are coming back, and doctor-patient relationships will be the next political casualty. In the 1990s Americans rebelled against cost containment pressure, such as the "drive through" rules that told women to leave hospitals a...

Forty-four employees of Taos Health Systems and its subsidiary, Holy Cross Hospital, will be laid off in a move administrators claim is necessary amid changing trends in the health care sector, though staff warn the cuts could imperil patients. ... Union organizers suggested the cuts could precede a change in status for Holy Cross from an acute-care hospital to a critical access hospital.

Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center said Monday it is eliminating 58 positions and laying off 36 employees as part of a restructuring to meet the challenges of the federal Affordable Care Act. Hospital administrators said the layoffs will stretch across all departments, including 15 management positions. Christus St. Vincent President and CEO Bruce Tassin said the reductions will trim $4 million from the Santa Fe hospital’s payroll.

You would think that when your party is burying a hole that is getting harder and harder to get out of, you wouldn't want to that hole get deeper faster.  But here is Kathleen Murphy, Democrat running for the House of Delegates against Barbara Comstock, telling a forum in Great Falls that she believes it should law to force doctors to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients.  Forced by government decree, mind you.  A birdie sent me this: FYI last night at the Great Falls Grange debate, Democrat delegate candidate Kathleen Murphy said that since many doctors are not accepting medicaid...

New research from the Manhattan Institute estimates that insurance rates for young men will rise by 99 percent. Rates for younger women will rise between 55 percent to 62 percent, according to the right-leaning New York think tank. The precise impact of the new health law is likely to vary markedly from state-to-state, however. These differences mean men will get hammered in North Carolina with an average 305 percent rate hike, while women will suffer in Nebraska, paying an average of 237 percent more. For most people, subsidies in the law will not counteract the rate shock, says co-author of...

Well, I sure screwed it up today… I went to sit down on a chair that wasn't there and fell, now I can't move my legs and the ER released me saying nothing is broke so there is nothing they can/will do. No brace, no chair, no crutches, nothing. The doctor didn't even touch me, tell me to wiggle toes, take my temp, listen to my heart, nothing...just a CT scan and then let me go. I couldn't even get in the car without a nurse, 2 cops and a citizen who offered to help. I don't know what to...

States running their own insurance programs as part of the Affordable Care Act have marketing and enrollment strategies that are sidestepping references to the words “ObamaCare,” a term that has largely come to be associated with the unpopularity of the plan. In Minnesota, state employees are promoting their health insurance marketplace as MNsure -- even going to the annual state fair to hand out fans imprinted with pictures of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, according to The Wall Street Journal. The grassroots effort is part of a larger, $9 million marketing effort that includes billboards and TV ads.

You see news stories sometimes that upset you, but you are not sure of the facts. Fox News Special Report had a quick report about Veterans having massive amounts of paperwork to complete in order to get their services. It sounded as if they were being buried with paper to get their medical services. With all the challenges of the federal government, the last thing we can tolerate would be for those brave souls who have risked their lives to protect our freedoms to be abused by bureaucrats and their red tape. We had to delve into this further. We...

Optimal screening frequency depends on the cancer's growth rate. If a cancer is fast growing, screening is rarely effective. If a cancer is slow growing but progressive, with a long latency and a precancerous lesion (eg, colonic polyps or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia), screening is ideal and less frequent screening (eg, 10 years for colonoscopy) may be effective. In the case of an indolent tumor, detection is potentially harmful because it can result in overtreatment. These observations provide an opportunity to refocus screening on reducing disease morbidity and mortality and lower the burden of cancer screening and treatments. In March 2012,...

Low-income families in New York City struggling with obesity will soon be offered doctor prescriptions -- not for pills, but for fruits and vegetables. The idea is that families will meet with a doctor at each clinic, as well as a nutritionist and community health worker, to discuss the connection between health and nutrition. They will then be offered Health Bucks equivalent to $1 per family member per day, so that they can buy unprocessed fruits and vegetables at the markets. That adds up to about $128 per month for a family of four. Patients are asked to return to...

Joao Maria de Souza, 45, had been in bed with his wife Leni when the animal fell through the ceiling of their home in Caratinga, southeast Brazil. The cow is believed to have escaped from a nearby farm and climbed onto the roof of the couple's house, which backs onto a steep hill on Wednesday night. The corrugated roof immediately gave way and the one-and-a-half-ton animal fell eight feet onto Mr de Souza's side of the bed. His wife, and the cow, both reportedly escaped unharmed. Rescuers took Mr de Souza to hospital with a fractured left leg but no...