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Author Archive for LocalHealthGuide

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Barbara Lopez, 46, graduates from Rush University's College of Nursing. Her son, Nick, 16, stands by her side –  and her decision – to go back to school. (Barbara Lopez)

As economic conditions force a tighter job market, new nurses find it’s harder than ever to land their dream job—or any job, for that matter.

“Nursing, even in hard times, was thought to be recession-proof.”
By Chris Linden and Melissa Suran, Medill News Service
It wasn’t supposed to be this hard. Nursing student Barbara Lopez had been told for a long time that she would have an easy time finding a job.
But it took her five months—starting before she graduated in June—to [...]

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Grassley: No Longer Sure Bipartisan Health Deal Possible In September

Grassley: No Longer Sure Bipartisan Health Deal Possible In September

By Eric Pianin and Mary Agnes Carey
Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa indicated Thursday he was no longer sure whether negotiators can reach a bipartisan deal in September, citing mounting public concern about excessive government spending and soaring federal deficits.
Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee which is attempting to draft a bipartisan health care [...]

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Views: The Health Reform Bills Would Be Great For the Business Of Health Care

Views: The Health Reform Bills Would Be Great For the Business Of Health Care

By Robert Laszewski
President of the consulting firm Health Policy and Strategy Associates
“From the looks of these health care bills, this ‘health care reform’ thing will be great for business!”
Have you noticed how none of the big health care business special interests is running any negative health care reform ads? Why should they when each is [...]

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Health in the news

Health in the news

Bed bug summit in Seattle. New York Times reporters discuss possible impact of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s death on the health-care debate.

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FDA warns potentially dangerous stolen insulin is still on the market

FDA warns potentially dangerous stolen insulin is still on the market

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned today that potenially dangerous stolen vials of insulin are still on the market.
Last June, 129,000 vials of the long-acting insulin Levemir made by Novo Nordisk, Inc. were stolen in North Carolina.
Only 2 percent of the stolen vials have been recovered.
The FDA said it has received multiple reports [...]

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New doctors at Virginia Mason

New doctors at Virginia Mason

Six new physicians have joined Virginia Mason Medical Center.
Cardiology
Sara Weiss, MD, joined Virginia Mason in the Section of Cardiology. Weiss received her medical school training from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. She completed her internal medicine residency, cardiology fellowship and heart failure fellowship at the University of Colorado in Denver.
Hematology and Oncology
Nanette Robinson, [...]

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Should the Homeless Be in Medicaid?

Should the Homeless Be in Medicaid?

By Pam Fessler, NPR News

NPR is a Kaiser Health News partner
Most homeless people in America are too poor to buy their own health coverage, but many also don’t qualify for Medicaid, the government-run health program for the poor.
Walter Brooks, a 63-year-old homeless man, is seen by physician assistant Jean Prevas at the Health Care for [...]

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Children’s Advocates Fear Health Reform Could Undermine Children’s Health Insurance Program

By Mary Agnes Carey
As Democratic leaders pursue their quest to provide millions of Americans with health care insurance, some advocates see an unlikely casualty of reform: youngsters now covered by the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) whom they fear could end up with reduced benefits.
About 7 million children are insured under CHIP, which provides coverage [...]

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Supplement recalled after it is found to contain the drug tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis

Supplement recalled after it is found to contain the drug tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis

A dietary supplement sold under the name STEAM is being recalled after a batch was found to contain the erectile dysfunction drug tadalafil, the active ingredient in the prescription drug Cialis.
This is the second recall the maker of STEAM, Nutracoastal Trading LLC, has had to announce recently.
Last month, another batch of STEAM was found to [...]

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FDA investigates reports of liver damage due to orlistat, the active ingredient in Xenical and Alli

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today that it was reviewing the safety of the weight-loss drug orlistat after receiving reports that 32 people using the drug developed severe liver damage, including reports of six cases of liver failure.
Orlistat is the active ingredient in the prescription weight-loss drug Xenical and the over-the-counter product [...]

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Health stories in the news

Health stories in the news

Unapproved hormone used to prevent premature births
Seattle Times health reporter Kyung Song writes in today’s issue of the paper about a program in which Washington state’s largest Medicaid contractor is promoting the use of a synthetic hormone that is thought to prevent premature births.
But the hormone, called 17P, has not been approved by the U.S. [...]

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Checking in With Health Economist Victor Fuchs

Checking in With Health Economist Victor Fuchs

By Laurie McGinley
“Despite being a supporter of President Barack Obama, Dr. Fuchs suggests that the president and Congress are more interested in getting a reform proposal that can pass than getting a plan that will curb health costs over the long run.”
Victor R. Fuchs is a Stanford University Health Policy core faculty member and the [...]

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In weekly address Obama says opponents of health-care reform resort to “willful misrepresentations”

Transcript:
Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
Each and every day in this country, Americans are grappling with health care premiums that are growing three times the rate of wages and insurance company policies that limit coverage and raise out-of-pocket costs. Thousands are losing their insurance coverage each day.
Without real reform, the burdens on [...]

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Views: Where Things Stand

Views: Where Things Stand

By James Capretta
President Barack Obama’s op-ed in the Sunday New York Times is a revealing indicator of the state of the health care debate.
Gone is the emphasis on “health care reform” and “bending the cost-curve “and “changing the delivery system.”
As polls in July began showing public support dropping for sweeping health care legislation, the Obama [...]

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Views: Public Option Will Lower Private Health Insurance Premiums . . . to Zero

Views: Public Option Will Lower Private Health Insurance Premiums . . . to Zero

By Paul Guppy, vice president for research at Washington Policy Center
Responding to the concern that setting up a government-run public option insurance plan would inject politics into American health care, public option backers are saying, “Right. And that’s a good thing.”
A recent Washington Post article reports, “Economists in this [pro-public option] camp say a public option [...]

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Democrats’ Strategy to Avoid Filibuster Carries Serious Risks

By Eric Pianin
August 21, 2009
With prospects for a bipartisan deal dimming, Democrats are considering the use of Byzantine budget rules this fall to ram through their own version of health care overhaul legislation without fear of a Republican filibuster.
The gambit is laden with parliamentary hurdles that could give GOP opponents plenty of opportunities to block [...]

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Democrats’ Go-It-Alone Strategy

By Eric Pianin
August 21, 2009
So if Democratic leaders and the White House decide to use special “reconciliation” budget rules to try to pass health care overhaul legislation this fall without Republican support, how would it work?
Every year, the House and Senate draft a concurrent budget resolution – a joint blueprint of anticipated federal [...]

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FDA orders halt of topical ibuprofen product sales

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered eight companies to stop selling topical ibuprofen products because the salves have not been shown to be safe or effective.
The names of the products and manufacturers that received warning letters are:

Emuprofen (Progressive Emu, Inc.)
BioEntopic 15% Ibuprofen Crème (BioCentric Laboratories, Inc.)
Ibunex Topical Ibuprofen (Core Products International, Inc.)
LoPain [...]

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Health Care Uproar Swallows Whole Foods

Health Care Uproar Swallows Whole Foods

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey slammed President Obama’s health-care reform proposals last week in the Wall Street Journal. Now his company faces a boycott. John Burnett reports
By John Burnett, NPR news
(NPR is a Kaiser Health News Partner)
Whole Foods has taken pains to distance itself from founder and CEO John Mackey, but it may be too late.
Credit: [...]

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Attacks May Force Democrats To Scale Back Health Reform Ambitions

By Eric Pianin and Mary Agnes Carey
August 20, 2009
Relentless attacks on President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul effort, coupled with continued questions on how to pay for it, are prompting some political and health care experts to suggest that Democrats will have to scale back the cost and scope of the legislation to get something [...]

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Can Health Reform Pass? Experts Weigh In

Can Health Reform Pass? Experts Weigh In

Will President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats have to greatly scale back their health care overhaul proposals to get legislation passed this year?
Here’s what some experts are saying.
Henry J. Aaron, health care economist at the Brookings Institution:
Congress and Obama should attempt to pass what is necessary for setting the foundation for a process of evolution [...]

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Sound Health: Affairs of the heart

By Lori Whittaker, MD
I love to talk about affairs of the heart:  Not just because St. Valentine’s Day falls in February, but because this is American Heart Month.
Your heart can always use a little TLC.  And the same goes for the heart of your husband, your wife, your significant other, your kids and even your [...]

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Gary Diego with a picture of his wife Ellen at his home in Truckee, Calif. Photo: Brad Horn/KHN

Code Blue: Out-of-Network Charges Can Spur Financial Emergency

By Paul Raeburn
August 19, 2009
On the evening of March 1, 2008, Gary Diego was relaxing with his wife, Ellen, when she abruptly lost her hearing, began repeating herself, and seemed to be losing her grip.
Gary Diego with a picture of his wife Ellen at his home in Truckee, Calif. Photo: Brad Horn/KHN
Alarmed, Diego rushed her [...]

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Yummy Foods recalls Wife Cake product because egg and wheat allergy concerns

Yummy Foods recalls Wife Cake product because egg and wheat allergy concerns

Yummy Foods Company is recalling its 17 oz/480 g. Wife Cake product because it contains egg and wheat that is not declared on the packaging and may pose a danger to people with allergies to these ingredients.
“People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to egg or wheat run the risk of serious or life-threatening [...]

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Photo Credit: KaiserHealthNews

Health Co-ops Touted as Alternative to Public Plan

Seattle’s Group Health Cooperative seen as potential model for health reform.

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Boehner Blasts PhRMA On Deal With White House

Calls President A ‘Bully’
By Mary Agnes Carey – Kaiser Health News
The drug industry’s decision to agree to $80 billion in concessions to the White House was short-sighted, will hurt drug manufacturers and their customers, and “has all the markings of a deal gone sour,” House Minority Leader John Boehner wrote Monday to his former colleague, [...]

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East King County subdivision residents urged to boil drinking water

Credit: Janice Haney Carr/CDC
Washington state health officials have detected the bacteria E. coli in the water supply of the Riverbend Homesites development in eastern King County and are warning residents to boil their drinking water before use.
About 1,600 people live at the development, which is just off Interstate 90 Exit 32 east of North Bend [...]

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Checking In With Denver Health CEO Patricia Gabow On A “Model” Health Care System

By Andrew Villegas – Kaiser Health News
Patricia Gabow – Photo: Kaiser Health News
President Barack Obama’s trip Saturday to Grand Junction, Colorado is meant to highlight an efficient, high-quality health care system, one with “integrated care.”
That phrase has become a popular term these days as Congress and policy gurus contemplate how the national health care delivery [...]

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Ad Audit: Club For Growth’s Anti-Government Message

By Jordan Rau
AD TITLES: ”Six Months: The Dangers of Government Run Health Care” and “Where Does It End“
SPONSOR: The Club for Growth
SUMMARY: An anti-tax group goes after health care proposals in Congress, alleging they would lead to health care rationing and crushing government deficits.
But the campaign includes some dubious comparisons with the British health system, and the [...]

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To prevent health reform, special interests try to scare the public, Obama says in weekly address

Attempts by the opponents of reform to scare the public are disappointing, President Obama said, but not surprising:
We’ve seen it before. When President Roosevelt was working to create Social Security, opponents warned it would open the door to “federal snooping” and force Americans to wear dog tags. When President Kennedy and President Johnson were working [...]

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