Black Health News: The Senate Finance Committee Rejects the Public Option

 

Liberal Democrats failed Tuesday to inject a government-run insurance option into sweeping health care legislation taking shape in the Senate Finance Committee, despite widespread accusations that private insurers routinely deny coverage in pursuit of higher profits.

The 15-8 rejection marked a victory for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee chairman, who is hoping to push his middle-of-the-road measure through the panel by week's end. It also kept alive the possibility that at least one Republican may yet swing behind the bill, a key goal of both Baucus and the White House.

"My job is to put together a bill that gets to 60 votes" in the full Senate, the Montana Democratsaid shortly before he joined a majority on the committee in opposing the provision. "No one shows me how to get to 60 votes with a public option," the term used to describe a new government role in health care. It takes 60 votes to overcome delaying actions thatRepublicans may attempt on the Senate floor.

 

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Global News:Somalia Finally Gets Ambulance Service

Chaos and death on the streets of Mogadishu: unfortunately, it's nothing new in the Somali capital.

 

 

Government forces are fighting against insurgents on this day in September in a bloody battle that leaves 30 dead. Dozens of wounded Somalis are taken out of the danger zone, some of them in the back of insurgents' pick-up trucks.

One of the trucks races through the streets, zig-zagging to the echoing booms of the ongoing shelling. The truck comes to an abrupt halt, stopping at a rare sight in the Somali capital -- an ambulance, waiting at the heart of the chaos to ferry the dead and the injured to the hospital.

The wounded are transferred onto the ambulance. People shout and run as the mortar attacks continue. One woman screams over and over for her son.

The ambulance is one of seven medical vehicles paid for with donated funds from local and expatriate Somalis. Residents can simply call for the ambulances without charge, and the vehicles will be dispatched to the scene.

"It is amazing," said Rufai Salad, one of the founders of the ambulance service in the Somali capital. "We have this toll-free number, 777, that you dial. Someone is giving you a free call and then coming and giving you free help.

"People here find it hard to believe it is real."

 

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Health News: Company Now Selling “Sippin Syrup” in Stores

You see it all over television, celebrities endorsing "syrup," which is a combination of cough syrup with codeine and soda, two ingredients that can make for a lethal recipe.

Stores in Southeast Texas are now carrying the products that bear the names "drank" and "syrup", but with a different twist.

Drank and Sippin Syrup are two examples of a new anti-energy drink that is supposed to provide "extreme relaxation." There is nothing harmful in these products, in fact one of the main ingredients is Melatonin, a natural substance that helps you sleep.

18-year-old Jackie Robinson says he just started drinking this anti-energy drink because of the slogan, "sippin syrup."

"I ain't gonna lie it really do," said Robinson Wednesday afternoon as he sipped his drink outside a Beaumont convenient store. "It probably attracts a lot of people from the name too."

 

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News: President Obama Talks Healthcare at CBC Conference

President BarackObama on Saturday resumed his push to overhaul the health care system, telling a Congressional Black Caucus conference that there comes a time when "the cup of endurance runs over."

"We have been waiting for health reform since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. We've been waiting since the days of Harry Truman," he said in remarks at the caucus foundation's annual dinner. "We've been waiting since Johnson and Nixon and Clinton."

"We cannot wait any longer," Obama said.

Obama spent the past week largely focused on global and economic issues in meetings with world leaders in New York and Pittsburgh.

At the G-20 economic summit that wrapped up Friday in Pennsylvania, Obama told a story about an unnamed foreign leader who privately told the president he didn't understand the at-times contentious debate over changing the health care system.

"He says, 'We don't understand it. You're trying to make sure everybody has health care and they're putting a Hitler mustache on you. That doesn't make sense to me,'" Obama said, quoting the world leader he declined to identify.

 

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Your Black World

Dr. Elaina George: Is the Death of the Medical Profession Coming?

 

by Dr. Elaina George, Your Black World 

Reports estimate that 50-60% of doctors will be sued during the course of their career. However, only 10-20% of those cases actually go to trial. Of those that go to trial, doctors are found innocent of malpractice 80% of the time. This demonstrates the fact that although the perception exists that there may be a lot of bad doctors practicing bad medicine this is actually not the case.

Unfortunately, this perception has led to an explosion in the costs of practicing medicine. Over the last 5-10 years medical malpractice premiums have gone through the roof from primary care to neurosurgery. In Florida, for example, malpractice premiums for OB-GYNs have risen to as high as 250,000 per year. This staggering statistic highlights the unintended consequence of limiting access to medical care for women who live in those states. Florida is not alone, it is happening all over the country. Physicians have either moved out of state, retired early, or they have restricted the type of medicine they practice because they cannot afford the cost of doing business.

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The Politics of Healthcare Reform

Your Black World 

Listen up as Dr. Wilmer Leon speaks with Dr. Pearl Ford about President Obama’s Healthcare Reform Plan.  Click here to listen to the latest exciting episode!

Both are graduates of Howard University’s Political Science Program

Insane Killer On the Loose: Questions about Mental Health

A legally insane killer was on the loose in the state of Washington on Saturday, two days after he escaped during a field trip to a county fair, authorities said.

Phillip Paul was able to elude a massive manhunt in Spokane County, Washington, after escaping on Thursday, a spokesman for the sheriff's department said.

Though Paul had been confined in a mental institution because of a murder confession, he was allowed to be part of a trip to a county fair Thursday.

Paul, 47, escaped from the fair around noon, which launched the massive manhunt and brought criticism from many, including state government officials. Sheriff's officials told CNN affiliate KREM-TV that Paul also escaped briefly in 1991 and assaulted a law enforcement officer.

A review has been launched on the incident along with the policy that allows patients to take trips, said Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the state's Department of Social and Health Services.

Dreyfus said she was concerned about Paul's escape and another recent brief escape by a patient at a different local mental facility.

"These incidents, separate and coincidental, have raised serious questions about the security readiness of our two state psychiatric hospitals," Dreyfus said.

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News: Obama Says Race Not an Issue in Healthcare Debate

President Barack Obama said Friday that angry criticisms about his health care agenda are driven by an intense debate over the proper role of government — and not by racism.

"Are there people out there who don't like me because of race? I'm sure there are," Obama told CNN. "That's not the overriding issue here."

The nation's first black president spoke about the issue of race during a battery of interviews on Friday. In a media blitz aimed at pounding home his health care message, he taped interviews with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Univision to be shown during the networks' Sunday morning talk shows.

Some excerpts aired during Friday night broadcasts.

Time and again, Obama was asked about whether the tenor of thehealth care debate turned nasty because of undercurrents in racism.Former President Jimmy Carter raised the point prominently this week when he said the vitriol was racially motivated.

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Flu Vaccine Dos and Don’ts

by Dr. Elaina George, Medical Correspondent, Your Black World 

Although the Swine flu virus has been identified in over 70 countries, it has not been as deadly as expected

• The world wide number of swine flu cases currently is 209,500 with 2,185 deaths

The common flu is more deadly

• In the US there have been 40,000 cases identified with 1,876 deaths. This is quite low when you compare the death rate to the typical flu virus which kills over 30,000 people per year.

Most cases of Swine flu have been mild

• Most people have had mild self-limited symptoms that resolve without any medical intervention.

Click to Read.

Health News: Doctors Restore Patient’s Vision with Her Tooth

Doctors in Miami announced Wednesday that they had performed a vision-restoring surgery that used the 60-year-old patient's tooth.

The surgery, the first in the USA, was performed Labor Day weekend at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Afterward, patient Sharron Thornton was able to see for the first time in nine years. "Sharron was able to see 20/60 this morning. She was seeing only shadows a couple of weeks ago," says ophthalmologist and surgeon Victor Perez.

Thornton was blinded in 2000 by a reaction to a drug she was taking, which damaged her cornea. Perez likened Thornton's cornea to a dirty car windshield. He says her eye surface was too dry for a corneal implant, a standard treatment.

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Health News: Couple Divorces So they can Afford Health Insurance

For Mary McCurnin and husband Ron Bednar, money trouble has followed health trouble. In 2003, the couple declared bankruptcy after their insurance covered only 10 percent of treatment costs for her breast cancer and his intestinal bleeding. In 2004, McCurnin's breast cancer returned, and Bednar underwent open heart surgery.

Now, after repeatedly refinancing their house to pay medical bills and living expenses, they're broke. To improve their chances of growing old together, they've filed for divorce.

"It occurred to me that I could get my first husband's Social Security," said McCurnin. Her first husband, to whom she'd been married 20 years, died in 1989. When she turns 60 in November, McCurnin said she will be eligible for $1,200 in monthly survivor's benefits from the previous marriage. As the Social Security Administration told her, she can't have the survivor benefit if she's married to someone else.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/16/loving-couple-divorces-to_n_287094.html

Dr. Elaina George Discusses Healthcare Reform with Michael Baisden

Although many Americans have seen and heard the insane debate over healthcare, almost no one understands what's going on. This is doubly true for the African American community, who is affected greatly by this debate and its outcomes. Most black bloggers aren't talking about it and black doctors are too busy to inform the community.
Michael Baisden got with Dr. Elaina George, a prominent black physician in the Atlanta area, to break down the public option, healthcare and all related issues in the interview below.During the interview, Dr. George and Baisden answer some important questions:

Click to read.

What’s Wrong with Healthcare? Listen Up!

 

In this episode of Medicine on Call, Dr. Elaina George interviews Jason Rosenbaum from The Seminal, a healthcare publication.  What is wrong with healthcare?  What is the state of healthcare reform?  What are the goals for healthcare?

 

Click here to listen!

News: President’s Speech Doesn’t Boost Him in the Polls

President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress last week didn't provide much of a boost to his job approval rating, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday shows. The nationwide survey pegs his approval at 54%, precisely where it was in two USA TODAY polls in August.

(A separate, daily poll by Gallup showed Obama's approval dipping as low as 50% last month.)

USA TODAY's Susan Page reports that 43% disapprove of the job he's doing, a tick up from the August polls and a new high in the 14 surveys we've taken since the inauguration in January.

That's not to say Rep. Joe Wilson, the South Carolina Republican who heckled the president during his speech, fares well. Two-thirds of those polled, 68%, say they oppose what the congressman did, and about one in four (23%) say they're "outraged" by it. (That group included 41% of Democrats and 8% of Republicans.)

 

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Healthcare News: People Hold a “Tea Party” to Protest Obama

Tens of thousands of fiscal conservatives packed streets in the nation's capital Saturday to protest what they consider the federal government's out-of-control spending.

Demonstrators filled Freedom Plaza and Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Washington. They waved U.S. flags and held signs reading "Go Green Recycle Congress," "I'm Not Your ATM" and "Obamacare makes me sick."

Some men were dressed in colonial costumes with tri-colored hats.

The protesters were marching to the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol.

FreedomWorks Foundation, a conservative organization led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, organized several groups from across the country for what they're calling a "March on Washington."

The Washington march took place on the same day President Obama was headed to Minneapolis to rally support for his heath care reform plan. The plan, which also was the topic of his weekly raido and Internet message, has come under fire from fiscal conservatives who consider it too costly.

 

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The Good and Bad of Obama’s Speech to Congress – a Doctor’s Perspective

by Dr. Elaina George, YourBlackWorld.com

The suspense is over. For weeks we have been holding our collective breath to see if there would be real insurance reform. Now we know. President Obama’s speech this evening incorporated a lot of different ideas, but what was most striking was his statement that the public option was just one of the avenues that could be travelled to achieve an expansion of insurance coverage. Besides the demotion of the public option as an important tool to reign in the all powerful insurance companies, I noticed that there was no mention of universal health care. Wasn’t that the point of this whole exercise?

To be fair there are some good things. Under the President’s proposal there will be:

§ Coverage for pre-existing conditions

§ A cap on out-of-pocket expenses

§ People can no longer be dropped from insurance companies when they get sick

§ No further cap on what insurance companies will pay out

It is a good start, but it doesn’t go far enough.

Click to read.

Black News: A Doctor Shortage Complicates Obama’s Plan

Obama administration officials, alarmed at doctor shortages, are looking for ways to increase the supply of physicians to meet the needs of an aging population and millions of uninsured people who would gain coverage under legislation championed by the president.

The officials said they were particularly concerned about shortages of primary care providers who are the main source of health care for most Americans.

One proposal — to increase Medicarepayments to general practitioners, at the expense of high-paid specialists — has touched off a lobbying fight.

Family doctors and internists are pressing Congress for an increase in their Medicare payments. But medical specialists are lobbying against any change that would cut their reimbursements. Congress, the specialists say, should find additional money to pay for primary care and should not redistribute dollars among doctors — a difficult argument at a time of huge budget deficits.

Some of the proposed solutions, while advancing one of President Obama’s goals, could frustrate others. Increasing the supply of doctors, for example, would increase access to care but could make it more difficult to rein in costs.

Click to read.

Parasites in Your Food

The parasitic life is all about finding niches in the ecosystem and exploiting them for all they're worth. And after billions of years mucking their way through blood vessels and intestines, you better believe they've gotten rather good at it. Untold billions are clamoring for a chance to get inside you -- and it just so happens that the best way to do that is to stow away in your next meal.

In this article, we're going to take a look at a few menu items with a high probability for parasites. By no means does this mean you're guaranteed a belly full of worms with each one! It's essential to stress that proper food storage, fresh ingredients and sanitary food preparation conditions vastly decrease the chances for food contamination.

 

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Dr. George Speaks on Health Insurance Companies

by Dr. Elaina George

There is a major misconception about the reasons for the rise in the cost of healthcare. Procedures and the practice of defensive medicine have been described as the main reasons for the exponential rise. However, the reality could not be farther from what is portrayed on TV series like Nip/Tuck. The medical insurance industry has fueled the campaign of misinformation to enhance their divide and conquer strategy. As long as people spend their energy on blaming doctors, they have less energy to pay attention to rising deductibles, premiums and co-insurance. In short, the insurance companies benefit by keeping doctors and patients at odds. In reality when a doctor charges for a procedure or performs a surgery what is paid is no where near the amount that was charged. In short, the increase in patient premiums, deductibles etc… have gone to pay administrative costs and CEO salaries.

These are 6 things you need to know so you can understand the barriers your doctor has to navigate to take good care of you:

1. Insurance companies change what they will pay for

Through the pre-certification process, insurance companies will change what services they will reimburse. This list can change yearly. It is driven by insurance company costs and not by medical necessity as determined by the doctor and the patient.

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Medicine on Call – The Latest

 

The latest episode of Medicine on Call is here. 

Click to listen

Medicine on Call with Dr. Elaina George

Dr Elaina George gives you the medical advice that other doctors won’t give.

 

 

Click here to listen!

Why Black Folks Should Fight for Healthcare Reform

By Julianne Malveaux

Congress seems to be putting the final touches on health care reform legislation, arranging to provide health care, especially, for the uninsured. Anyone who has made the summer rounds of civil rights conventions understand that African American policy makers care about this issue. Still there seems to be no passion in advocacy for heath care reform.

Our presence in this debate is much needed - we have a dog in this fight. African

Americans are more likely than others to be uninsured, so the many ways our new legislation will make insurance available is important. And even when we are insured, the way that health problems hit us are most different. According to the Centers for Disease Control, African Americans and Hispanics "bear a disproportionate burden of disease, injury, and disability." African Americans, in particular, are more likely to be killed or to die of HIV than others are.

Click to read.

How to Play the Insurance Game and Win

 

Dr. Elaina George, Medical Correspondent – YourBlackWorld.com 

For Americans, receiving heath care is like going to a casino, but here the typical rules don’t apply. In the healthcare casino, the medical insurance industry, Big Pharmaceutical Companies and hospitals make the rules to insure that the house wins every time. Over the years they have increased your stakes by increasing premiums, drug costs and hospital costs, while raking in windfall profits. The medical insurance industry has grown larger and more powerful by systematically fleecing patients and doctors. To hide the fact that they are playing with people’s health; they have been masters of distraction. The ever changing rules for patients and doctors have made it impossible to learn what you need to know. Moreover, it has placed doctors, who are the face of medicine, in a position where the patient has begun to question their motives. This has eroded the doctor patient relationship and has damaged the foundation of excellent medical care.

Over the next several weeks, we will examine how the game has been rigged so that you can finally understand the rules. Each week we will expose what you need to know to take back your power and put the odds back in your favor so you can win! This week we will examine the medical insurance industry.

Basic facts about the medical insurance industry:

· The Players - Top Medical Insurance CEOs

· Most of the insurance companies are for profit corporations

· Doctors do not receive money for ordering tests

· Insurance companies use pre-authorization to control what tests a doctor is allowed to order

· When insurance companies set a doctor’s fee of “usual and customary” it is an arbitrary fee devised by the insurance company. It is not based on the doctor’s actual cost of doing business and

· Insurance reimbursement rates are based on Medicare rates

· Premiums have risen to pay for the insurance industry’s cost of doing business (including shareholders and CEO salaries), while reimbursements for doctors have dropped by about 60-70% over the last 10 years

· Although approval for a patient’s care may be approved by the insurance company, there is no guarantee that the insurance company will pay the claim

· Insurance companies have subsidiaries that work with pharmaceutical companies in order to make money by selecting what drugs your doctor is allowed to prescribe to you.

· Insurance companies invade patient privacy by buying lists from pharmacy clearing houses that document what prescriptions you have ever gotten. They use this information to deny coverage to new and existing members based on a ‘pre-existing condition’ even if you had only filled a prescription once.

What you can do to protect yourself:

· Read your insurance contract and if you don’t understand it contact your insurance company or human resources and ask questions

· Choose coverage that fits your medical needs as well as your budget. If you have chronic medical problems make sure that you choose an insurance company with a large network of doctors so that you have choice.

· If you currently have a physician and you are happy with their care, ask them what insurance company they belong to and ask them about access – specifically, if the insurance mandates pre-certification for services.

· Before you go to your doctor know your benefits, don’t depend on the doctor’s office to do it. For example, if you have recently seen a doctor or had medical care, that information may not be updated. Therefore, the status of your deductibles or co-insurance may not be current and that can affect what you have to pay.

· If you have been denied medical care by your insurance company and you have exhausted their appeals process, but still feel that you have been unfairly denied, you should contact the insurance commissioner in your state. The insurance commissioner is the main regulatory authority that can change a decision that has been made unfairly.

· Open your insurance bill (also known as an explanation of benefits), it will detail what was done by the doctor or hospital, the amount the insurance company paid and the amount you have to pay. If you have questions about what was done call the doctor’s office or hospital and ask them to clarify what was done and why. Honest mistakes can be made and rectified in a timely way when you are proactive.

Next week, we will take a detailed look at the pharmaceutical industry. If you have any questions please send them to drgeorge@tmo.blackberry.net or http://www.twitter.com/medicineoncall.

Dr Elaina George is a prominent Board certified Otolaryngologist who practices in Atlanta. She started her practice Peachtree ENT Center with a mission to practice state of the art medicine that is available to everyone, and has come to be known as, the patients’ advocate. Dr. George graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Biology. She received her Masters degree in Medical Microbiology at Long Island University, and received her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. She completed her residency at Manhattan, Eye Ear & Throat Hospital. Her training included general surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital, pediatric ENT at The NY-Presbyterian Hospital, and head and neck oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She has published in several scientific journals and presented her research at national meetings. You can listen to her radio show Medicine on Call, and read her blogs as a medical correspondent for Your Black World .

To have Dr. George as a speaker, please reach out to information@yourblackpublicity.com or call S. Prewitt at (901) 413-0203.

Science Must Determine if Athlete is a Woman or Not

No 1: Caster Semenya celebrates as she wins gold in Berlin Photo: AP

Semenya crowned a spectacular season by triumphing in 1min 55.45sec while Britain's Jenny Meadows produced a lifetime best of 1min 57.93sec to take the bronze - Britain's third medal of the championship. Fellow Briton Marilyn Okoro was eighth.

But instead of being able to celebrate her victory, Semenya found herself facing uncomfortable questions about whether she should really have been lining up in today's first-round heats of the men's 800m.

Click to read more.

Are Doctors to Blame for the High Cost of Healthcare?

Dr. Elaina George, a prominent family practice physician in Atlanta, has a bone to pick with President Obama. During various healthcare town hall meetings and press conferences, the president has villified doctors as the cause of the high cost of healthcare. But Dr. George doesn't agree.

As one of the few black doctors in America who is taking the time to speak out in the current healthcare debate, Dr. George says that the culprits in the high cost of healthcare are The American Medical Association, hospitals, big pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies. Here is how she breaks it down.

1) Our country has gotten away from preventing illness and is instead engaged in the high cost of managing disease. Dr. George explains in the interview below that rather than actually curing illnesses or preventing them, we simply try to manage them. Her argument, as with many others in the healthcare profession, is that this attitude is driven by the fact that pharmaceutical and insurance companies only maximize profits when people stay sick. Symptoms tend to be treated instead of the underlying cause of the illness, making problems worse in the long-term.

2) According to some physicians, the public option on healthcare may not be as great as it sounds. When it comes to the public option (which is being heavily debated right now), Dr. George argues that while the option may provide health coverage for many Americans who don't have it, it may not cause insurance companies to pay their fair share of the cost of healthcare reform. "The argument that the public option will drive down costs is disingenuous," says Dr. George. "How can a program designed to cover about 10 million people (as per the Congressional Budget Office) really exert any pressure on the health insurance industry when a company like Blue Cross and Blue Shield has over 30 million members and United Healthcare is even larger?"

Click to read.

Dr. Elaina George Speaks on the Healthcare Debate – Where are We Now?

 

by Dr. Elaina George

The debate on healthcare reform is in full swing, but no one is paying attention to the long term effects.

I am for universal healthcare in theory. As a physician, I believe that it is a fundamental right. Unfortunately, the way the debate and pending legislation has been crafted, the outcome will result in unintended consequences.

As a physician in solo practice, I am in a unique position to see the outcome if we continue on the path that Congress is proposing in HR 3200.

1. A single payer system that pays the same rate as Medicare or as the bill stipulates (5% above Medicare) will lead to LESS choice. People are overlooking the fact that most private physicians are currently NOT accepting new Medicare patients because they can’t afford to do so and stay open. There will be no reason for this to change if the reimbursement scale is adopted.

Unintended consequence: The network of private physicians would be smaller and more patients will be placed in a system of fewer physicians, less choice and longer waiting times to be seen. This would have the opposite effect – what is the point of universal healthcare if you don’t have quality physicians to provide it?

2. The proposed healthcare bill sets up a bureaucracy run by a National health insurance commissioner and sets up an insurance “self regulatory agency” – made up of national insurers, national agencies, and insurance producers. There are no physicians or patient advocates.

Click to read.

Healthcare Reform 101

Walter Gaines Jr., left, who supports health care reform, confronts a man who opposes health care reform in Alhambra, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

 

Dr Tyeese Gaines Reid – TheGrio.com.

 

With the bombardment of speeches, commentaries and rowdy town forums, many Americans are struggling to decipher the current state of health care reform. Understanding the ins and outs of over 1,600 pages of proposed law is daunting. Unfortunately, there is no politician or any crystal ball that can predict either plan's success at this stage.

To date, two bills have been proposed - the 1,017-page House bill (H.R. 3200) and the 615-page Senate Health Committee bill. A third bipartisan bill is said to be in the works from the Senate Finance Committee. Until September, when Congress reconvenes, we will continue to wait and debate on the limited information we do have.

Here is a summary of those bills, commonly-raised concerns and the debate as it now stands.

1) Problem: The Uninsured
Millions are uninsured and falling ill without insurance can be financially catastrophic. Many of these are working people, or recently unemployed, who can't afford to buy insurance plans. Others are self-employed or small business owners who also can't afford insurance. Some are between the ages of 55 (retirement age) and 65 (Medicare-eligible age), and thus have no coverage. In 2008, the Kaiser Commission reported that 41 million were uninsured, while another 35.8 million people had no insurance during part of the year.

Proposed Solution: "Health care for all." Both bills have outlined strategies to include all Americans in some form of a health insurance plan - whether Medicaid, Medicare, the private or the public/community option.

2) Problem: Pre-existing conditions
People with any history of medical problems ("pre-existing conditions") can be denied coverage by certain insurance plans because their condition makes them too high-risk.

Proposed Solution: Ban the pre-existing condition clause for all health insurance companies, including those in the private option. The hope is that as more young and healthy Americans have insurance and pay their premiums, that money will offset the costs of taking care of the sicker Americans.

3) Problem: The under insured
Some people with health insurance have plans that don't cover all basic health care needs (the "under-insured").

Proposed Solution: All health insurance plans will cover hospitalizations, outpatient hospital and clinic care, physician fees, equipment, prescription drugs, rehabilitation, maternity care, child care, preventive care, mental health, and marriage and family therapy. The addition of coverage for mental health and counseling is an added benefit not often covered currently.

 

Click to read.

News: President Obama’s New Healthcare Commercial

President Obama just bought a great deal of ad time to push his healthcare reform bill.  What do you think?

Click to watch the ad.

BET Puts on a Conference for Black Female Health

BET Foundation officials believe if anyone has the power to help family members get healthier, it's the woman in the house.

That's why the organization is bringing the BET Foundation Women's Health Symposium, Remembering Our Health, to Detroit for the first time Saturday.

"Our women's health symposium was designed to educate African-American women on how to better care for themselves because we've realized when it comes to health disparities, the leading person that can influence health disparities is the African-American female," says Debra Kilpatrick, director of women's health programs for the Washington, D.C.-based BET Foundation Inc.

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The event, which is free but requires registration, runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium and Student Center. It features Grammy-winning gospel great Vickie Winans as emcee and a special performance by R&B songstress Deborah Cox during the 3 p.m. plenary session.

 

Click to read.