Uninsured RX

About 45 million U.S. residents lack health insurance, but the "rest of us with health coverage are also uninsured" because those with coverage face "terrible, albeit more remote, health care risks," columnist Laurence Kotlikoff writes in a Boston Globe opinion piece. [click link for full article]

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and Human Rights Watch in a letter sent on Monday to the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General called on the department to investigate the death of an HIV-positive inmate at a San Pedro, Calif. [click link for full article]

In light of the "substantial" cost of medical errors, Medicare's new rule to refuse to pay the costs of preventable hospital errors will provide an incentive that should "help reduce the taxpayers' burden," a Washington Times editorial states. It continues, "It's not to say that hospitals are careless now, but the new rules will make them more diligent. [click link for full article]

Some benefits, including dental and vision coverage, included in Missouri's new health plan MO HealthNet were not funded this year, state lawmakers said Tuesday at a forum on health care, the Kansas City Star reports. [click link for full article]

Problems with medical care and other services have continued in the New Orleans area in the two years since Hurricane Katrina, according to a report released this month by the Brookings Institution, the McClatchy/Lexington Herald-Leader reports. [click link for full article]

Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, on Tuesday announced he will end his membership with Amnesty International because of the group's new policy that supports a woman's right to have an abortion under certain circumstances, [click link for full article]

The number of uninsured U.S. residents grew by 2.2 million in 2006 to 47 million, up from 44.8 million in 2005, according to data released on Tuesday by the Census Bureau, USA Today reports (Appleby, USA Today, 8/29). [click link for full article]

An increased number of U.S. companies have opened onsite health clinics for employees as part of an effort to "reign in rising health care costs," Gannett/Asbury Park Press reports. About 23% of companies with at least 1,000 employees have opened onsite health clinics, and an additional 6% plan to open such clinics in the next year, according to a [click link for full article]

Detroit's Big Three automakers -- Ford Motor, General Motors and Chrysler Group -- are "competing intensely" to become the lead contract negotiator with United Auto Workers as the Sept. 14 expiration of the current agreement draws near, the [click link for full article]

Debiopharm Group (Debiopharm), a global independent biopharmaceutical development specialist in oncology and serious medical conditions, recently presented the 'Debiopharm Life Sciences Award' to Hungarian scientist Dr Zoltan Nusser for his outstanding research in both fundamental and clinical neuroscience. Funded by Debiopharm and organised by the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the ceremony took place during the EPFL Life Science Symposium 2007. [click link for full article]