Healthcare

Coffee News to Wake Up To

By Justin Katz | May 20, 2011 |

Early morning seemed the appropriate time to mention this news report: Drinking coffee, regular or decaffeinated, may reduce the risk of prostate cancer, according to a study by Harvard University researchers. The study found that men who consumed six or more cups of coffee a day had a 60 percent lower risk of developing deadly…

Democrats in Massachusetts Take Health Care Out of Collective Bargaining

By Marc Comtois | April 27, 2011 |

Reality has hit Massachusetts’ Democratic politicians, from the Governor on down: they realize the state can no longer afford to negotiate fixed medical co-pays in government employee contracts that span multiple years while the actual costs quickly increase well past the negotiated level. House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last night to strip police officers, teachers, and…

Health Care: Yes, we have no bananas

By Marc Comtois | March 9, 2011 |

It’s up to over 1,000 entities that have acquired a waiver from adhering to President Obama’s national health care law. One is the entire State of Maine, whose motto, Dirigo or “I lead,” could be prophetic as other states look to do the same. Meanwhile, the unintended, but predicted, consequences (h/t) of this hurried health…

Observed from Within the Complications

By Justin Katz | February 28, 2011 |

The complaints against high-deductible health insurance coupled with health savings accounts presented in Richard Salit’s article, yesterday, seem more like groans against change than anything: … some health experts say that you can’t expect people who are ill to be cost-conscious consumers — even healthy people have difficulty price-shopping for medical services. That’s why Christopher…

Health Care “Reform” = IRS Expansion

By Marc Comtois | February 16, 2011 |

U.S. News tells us that the IRS is ramping up because of the new health care reform plan (we’re all so surprised!): The Internal Revenue Service says it will need an battalion of 1,054 new auditors and staffers and new facilities at a cost to taxpayers of more than $359 million in fiscal 2012 just…

The Obamacare Waiver List Grows

By Marc Comtois | February 3, 2011 |

Melissa Clouthier called attention to this from Ethel Fenig at the American Thinker: In August, 2009, as he was extolling the virtues of his proposed Obamacare, President Barack Obama (D) famously promised “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” And if you’re a union member you certainly can;…

Seems Folks Argued This All Along…

By Justin Katz | February 2, 2011 |

This point was made so early in debate over the federal healthcare overhaul — before the Democrats rammed it into law despite every negative signal from the American people — that it’s difficult to believe that anybody still believes the opposite. Still, it’s worth noting its restatement: Two of the central promises of President Barack…

Marriage as Healthcare Policy

By Justin Katz | February 1, 2011 |

Pankaj Ahire, of Charlestown, uses extremely condemnatory language, laying the potential death of his same-sex partner at the foot of RI Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin: The lack of marriage equality implies that my excellent health and dental insurance does not cover my partner. Unfortunately, my partner has had health issues, and could not go…

Health Care Wrangling

By Marc Comtois | January 19, 2011 |

The U.S. House of Representatives will most likely try to repeal the Obama Health care program this week, though that’s where the effort will stop because of the political realities (Democrats control the Senate) while on another front, we are now up to 26 states that are suing the Federal Government over the imposition of…

The Predicament of Dementia

By Justin Katz | January 8, 2011 |

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk notes an unfortunate, but natural, reaction to dementia. Relating the story of a woman who could only connect with her afflicted mother by singing hymns, with the lesson being that “there’s always someone in there,” Pacholczyk goes on to lament our tendency to behave as if that’s not the case: Sometimes we…