Uninsured RX

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) on Thursday introduced a bill (S 401) that would address expected budget deficits for SCHIP programs in 14 states, CQ HealthBeat reports (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 1/26). [click link for full article]

USA Today on Monday examined how insurance companies can retroactively reduce coverage or cancel private policies if they find omissions on applications "sometimes long after the policies are issued. [click link for full article]

Like a one-size-fits-all shirt that doesn't fit anyone very well, American health insurance plans charge every person the same out of pocket cost for medical services - regardless of their effect on a person's health.So, whether your visit to the doctor is for life-threatening cancer, or just the common cold or a sprained ankle, you'll pay the same co-pay or deductible. [click link for full article]

Health policy experts are divided in their analyses of how President Bush's health insurance tax proposal would impact the insurance market, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (Boulton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/26). [click link for full article]

About one-quarter of the approximately 46 million uninsured U.S. residents qualify for government-funded health care programs but are not enrolled, the AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. Some people are unaware that they qualify for public programs, while others might have difficulty with long, complex enrollment forms or face delays in participation approval. [click link for full article]

The best-known, most-studied herbal treatment for depression today is St. John's Wort. Also known as Hypericum Perforatum (its Latin name), it's a yellow flower that grows in warm to moderate climates, including the southeastern United States.It has a 2,400-year history of safe and effective usage in folk, herbal, and ancient medicine. In fact, rumor has it that Hypericum was prescribed as medicine by Hippocrates himself. [click link for full article]

A federal jury in Buffalo, N.Y., on Thursday found James Kopp -- who in 2003 was convicted of murdering Buffalo-based abortion provider Barnett Slepian in 1998 -- guilty of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, the Chicago Tribune reports (Chicago Tribune, 1/26). [click link for full article]

CMS on Thursday proposed a 0.71% increase in standard Medicare reimbursement rates for long-term care hospitals for 2008, CQ HealthBeat reports. [click link for full article]

A Medicare pay-for-performance pilot project that rewards hospitals based on quality measures contributes to "modest" improvements in quality of care, according to a study published online Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Wall Street Journal reports (Tomsho, Wall Street Journal, 1/29). The project, which launched in October 2003, includes about 260 hospitals in 38 states. [click link for full article]

"Medicare for all is the only reform that has a prayer of providing universal coverage while containing costs," Marcia Angell, former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, writes in a Boston Globe opinion piece. [click link for full article]