Health Insurance News

Reuters - Overweight people lose virtually no weight after suffering a heart attack, according to the first study to evaluate factors associated with post-heart attack weight changes.

Reuters - Washington is abuzz with predictions of health care system reforms after the 2008 presidential elections but an unexpectedly bitter impasse over insuring poor children is a telling reminder that few things stir up partisan passions like health care.

AP - The euphoria of a soldier's homecoming from Iraq often gives way to depression, stress and trouble dealing with family members during the first months home, a new Pentagon study finds.

Reuters - The rates of three leading sexually transmitted diseases -- chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis -- rose again in the United States last year, worried public health officials said on Tuesday.

AP - Many of the pills marketed as safe herbal alternatives to Viagra and other prescription sex medications pose a hidden danger: For men on common heart and blood-pressure drugs, popping one could lead to a stroke, or even death.

AP - Fully insured health plans would be required to cover diagnosis as well as treatment for autism under an Ohio House bill advocates say would expose autistic children to early treatment that will benefit them the rest of their lives.

Reuters - The number of U.S. girls taking diabetes drugs more than doubled between 2002 and 2005, almost certainly because of rising obesity, researchers reported on Wednesday.

AP - Nearly 2 million low-income Medicare participants could be switched to different insurance plans for their prescription drug coverage next year.

AFP - Americans spoke out strongly against bosses who fire workers who are obese or smoke, a poll showed Thursday.

Reuters - The number of Americans lacking health insurance rose by nearly 8.6 million to 47 million from 2000 to 2006, with children and workers from every income level losing coverage, a new report said on Thursday.

AP - West Virginia is hoping that a little wheel can make a big difference in the state's obesity problem. The wheel is a body mass index calculator, a low-tech tool that will be distributed to doctors across the state as part of a new effort to get physicians to recognize obesity early in their patients.

Reuters - Some days, Mrs. J can't travel further than her bed to her chair, her chair to her bed. Her arms and legs work just fine, but she is too depressed to move.

Reuters - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday unveiled a revised bill to expand health insurance for needy children, hopeful they will muster enough support to override another possible veto by President George W. Bush.

Reuters - HIV testing rates have remained low in the United States this decade, with only about one-fifth of people at high risk for infection getting a test in any given year, according to a study published on Monday.

Reuters - Derry boasts the hallmarks of a classic New Hampshire town -- white-steepled churches, fading red-brick textile mills and autumn foliage that's exploding in brilliant reds and yellows.

Reuters - The Democratic-led U.S. Congress on Thursday challenged President George W. Bush on children's health care and lost, setting the stage for an emotionally charged confrontation with Republicans in the 2008 elections.

Reuters - U.S. lawmakers criticized Medicare on Tuesday for failing to properly audit the privately run health plans that provide coverage for about 7 million senior and disabled people in the government program.

Reuters - U.S. taxpayers and Medicare patients could have saved almost $15 billion in 2007 if private health insurers had cut expenses for prescription drug coverage and negotiated bigger discounts, a report from Democratic staff of a House of Representatives panel said on Monday.

HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, Oct. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Kids in the United States aren't getting the health care they need, especially in the area of prevention, a new study shows.

AP - For the first time in nearly a decade, enrollment in the nation's health insurance program for the poor fell during the fiscal year ending June 30, says a new survey of state Medicaid directors.