Free Republic

Sexist and racist patients could be barred from non-emergency care at NHS trusts, under new rules to be enforced from April. Currently, staff can refuse to treat non-critical patients who are verbally aggressive or physically violent towards them. But these protections will extend to any harassment, bullying or discrimination, including homophobic, sexist or racist remarks. Health Secretary Matt Hancock wrote to all NHS staff on Tuesday to announce stronger measures to investigate abuse and harassment towards staff, saying "no act of violence or abuse is minor". "Being assaulted or abused is not part of the job," he said. "Far too...

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney tore into President Trump on Monday after Trump challenged the intelligence community's assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, calling Trump's behavior "disgraceful and detrimental to our democratic principles." Romney's comments came hours after Trump held a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, in which he questioned whether Russia was behind efforts to meddle in the 2016 election. "President Trump's decision to side with Putin over American intelligence agencies is disgraceful and detrimental to our democratic principles," Romney, who is running for Senate in Utah, said in a...

One of the top issues for U.S. voters is health care. There is a simple solution most of the world is smart enough to recognize but is lost on us: a single-payer system. There are two compelling reasons for a single-payer system. The first is the moral argument that health care security is a right for all of us. The second is a little more complicated, and that is health care economics. Sadly, most Americans do not understand this aspect of the health care debate and how it adversely affects them. Anthem announced its first-quarter profits to be $1.31 billion....

Mitt Romney is mapping out plans to become a major player in the Senate — positioning himself to be the spokesman of a listless Republican Party establishment that’s been steamrolled by President Donald Trump. The failed presidential candidate turned Utah Senate hopeful has made it clear to senior party officials that he intends to make a splash with his all-but-certain arrival on Capitol Hill next year, according to nearly a dozen senators, major party donors and confidants who’ve spoken with him.

WASHINGTON — Senator Susan Collins of Maine said on Monday that she would oppose the latest plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, leaving Republican leaders clearly short of the votes they need for passage. Ms. Collins, a Republican, announced her opposition in a written statement, delivering a significant and possibly fatal blow to the party’s seven-year quest to dismantle the health law.

John McCain has once again shown he has no loyalty to his party, his friends, or to his voters. In likely torpedoing what may prove Republicans’ last effort to rid the country of ObamaCare, McCain evinced the nostalgia of an old man for better times. He wants the Senate to operate as it once did, with bipartisan comity and regular order. Yes, and I’d like to return to the days when kids were addicted to twilight stickball rather than video games. Those gentler times are long gone. What we have now is a bitterly divided Congress, and country. Democrat leaders...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Friday said he "cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham Cassidy proposal. McCain is one of four Republican senators who are undecided on the GOP healthcare overhaul, and his opposition dealt the bill's chances a significant blow. Read his full statement below: "As I have repeatedly stressed, health care reform legislation ought to be the product of regular order in the Senate. Committees of jurisdiction should mark up legislation with input from all committee members, and send their bill to the floor for debate and amendment. That is the only way we might achieve...

Will health care reform create second class employees? According to Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Executive Director Robert Greenstein, the Senate Finance Committee healthcare bill, which Max Baucus expects to finally publish to the public sometime soon, will include a mandate on employers to provide health coverage to employees, or pay the government an amount equal to the government subsidy under the public or co-op plan for every employee who qualifies for subsidies because of family income below 300% of the federal poverty level. Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights points to a powerful unintended consequence...

An Open Letter to President Obama Regarding the Appointment of Science Advisor John Holdren Dear President Obama, I note with dismay your appointment of Dr. John Holdren as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Although Dr. Holdren’s experience in academia and administration may be adequate, his publicly expressed views regarding population control disqualify him from holding office. I will set aside objections to Dr. Holdren’s scientific competence. Despite his strong scientific credentials, he advanced theories...

Two industry trade groups, America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association announced that they are willing to accept a government requirement that insurers accept all applicants if, in exchange, the government forces everyone to buy insurance. “People with pre-existing health problems aren’t really buying insurance, they’re asking that someone else pay their medical bills,” said industry spokesman William Welsh. “The only way to make this work is to require people who don’t think they need insurance to buy it anyway. This will enable us to cover the losses on the ill from profits on the...

'If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system," Barack Obama told an audience in Albuquerque on Monday. He was lauding the idea of a health-care market -- or nonmarket -- entirely run by the government. Most liberals support single payer, aka "Medicare for All," because it would eliminate the profit motive, which by their lights is the reason Americans are uninsured. The Democratic Presidential candidate takes a more moderate campaign line, though we suppose just about everything is "moderate" compared to a total government takeover. While preferring that option in theory,...

British doctors will take the historic step of admitting for the first time that many health treatments will be rationed in the future because the NHS cannot cope with spiralling demand from patients. In a major report that will embarrass the government, the British Medical Association will say fertility treatment, plastic surgery and operations for varicose veins and minor childhood ailments, such as glue ear, are among a long list of procedures in jeopardy. James Johnson, the BMA chairman, will warn that patients face a bleak future because they will increasingly be denied treatments. He will urge the NHS to...

Woman gives birth to healthy son after defying doctors who told her to abort 'disabled' babyLast updated at 16:03pm on 23rd July 2007A couple were advised by medical experts to abort their unborn child amid fears he would be severely disabled - but he was born perfectly healthy. Heather O'Connor and Jamie Bramley went through months of turmoil after being told that scans suggested part of the baby's brain could be missing. But Jake, their first baby, arrived weighing a healthy 7lb 9oz - and with no defects. Consultants at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester had recommended Heather should...

Michael Moore's controversial health care documentary "Sicko" pulled a vanishing act this week, disappearing from a Lancaster theater where it was scheduled to open Friday. Terrell Falk, Cinemark vice president of marketing and communications, said the film's distributors, the Weinstein Co. and Lionsgate, were responsible for the sudden scheduling change. "The distributor pulled the print," she said. "They've pulled prints from us all over the country." A Lionsgate spokesman said "Sicko" was opening in "limited release" and would expand to the Antelope Valley area "in a few weeks." "Our print count just got really limited" due to budget constraints and...

<p>The wonder drug could be prescribed in time for the nationwide smoking ban from July 1.</p> <p>Champix — developed by Pfizer which makes anti-impotence drug Viagra — blocks cravings, lessens withdrawal symptoms and even reduces the pleasure from ciggies.</p> <p>In trials nearly half of smokers — 44 per cent — kicked the habit after a 12-week course as opposed to 30 per cent using other NHS anti-smoking medication.</p>

April 03, 2007, 9:40 a.m. One Harsh PrescriptionA doctor vs. cyber humanitarianism. By Sally Satel On February 14, 2006, Paul Wagner gave Gail Tomas, a total stranger, his left kidney.  Wagner, a 40-year-old Philadelphia purchasing manager, met Tomas, a 65-year-old former opera singer on the Internet — through a site called Matchingdonors.com, which pairs patients needing an organ with humanitarians who are willing to donate.   Beautiful stories like this will no longer come to be, however, if Dr. Douglas W. Hanto, has his way. Writing recently in The New England Journal of Medicine Dr. Hanto, a transplant surgeon and...

"Freedom/You've got to give for what you take" - George Michael Health care is hot. The status quo is not. And universal care is in the air. The three leading Democratic candidates are reaching out for the healing hands of complete coverage. The numbers say there's more to it than pure poll positioning. The problems are real as millions are uninsured and costs are climbing. Last year Americans spent more than $2 trillion on health care. This year we'll spend more, and in a decade, we're likely to be dropping a whopping $4 trillion-plus a year on health care -...

Senate President Don Perata's health insurance plan, unveiled today, is a nightmare that sounds good but falls apart under the slightest scrutiny. It's modeled on the Massachusetts plan which compels every working resident to have insurance and requires most businesses to provide insurance. A big state insurance pool would be formed which would offer the public different insurance options. But the Perata plan ignores all the informed criticism of the Massachusetts plan that has emerged as more economists and businesses have taken a close look at it. I just finished a conference call with Perata's staff, and all the buyer's...

Patients who are forced to wait longer than doctors would advise for NHS treatment can travel abroad for care and reclaim the cost after a landmark court ruling. The European Court of Justice said yesterday that the NHS must refund the cost of foreign care if patients endure ''undue delays'' for surgery in Britain.

  EXCLUSIVE Cleaning boss hit by MRSA Crippled for life ... devastated ex-boss NormanPicture: PETER LOMAS     By ANDY RUSSELL A FORMER NHS cleaning supervisor has lost a leg — after catching the deadly MRSA superbug in his own hospital. Dad-of-two Norman Turner, 42, contracted the disease while recovering from a routine operation to replace an artery. Last night he slammed doctors, nurses and cleaning staff at Blackburn Royal Infirmary, Lancashire, for “appalling” standards of hygiene. Norman, who worked for 15 years at the hospital — where he helped to train staff to combat MRSA — said: “I was...