Dec 16 More teens use e-cigarettes than tobacco ones, survey reveals By Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press WASHINGTON — Electronic cigarettes have surpassed traditional smoking in popularity among teens, the government’s annual drug use survey finds. Continue reading
Dec 16 Insurers relax Obamacare deadline By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press WASHINGTON — Trying to head off a new round of consumer headaches with President Barack Obama's health care law, the insurance industry said Tuesday it will give customers more time to pay their premiums for January. Continue reading
Dec 15 Watch 4:45 Bloodletting and blisters: Solving the medical mystery of George Washington’s death By PBS News Hour Learn the gruesome details of President George Washington’s final hours on the 215th anniversary of his death. The retired commander-in-chief woke up at 2 a.m. on Dec. 14, 1799, with a sore throat. After a series of medical procedures, including… Continue watching
Dec 15 Small businesses drop health coverage and shift employees to Obamacare By Jay Hancock, Kaiser Health News For two decades Atlanta restaurant owner Jim Dunn offered a group health plan to his managers and helped pay for it. That ended Dec. 1, after the Affordable Care Act made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Continue reading
Dec 15 Forget armband trackers like Fitbit, new body monitors live in your gut By Frank Browning, Kaiser Health News These so-called nanomeds, miniscule sensors embedded in a placebo pill that you swallow, set up shop in your gut. As they slowly work their way through your system, these “ingestibles” – which are actually not digested – are switched on… Continue reading
Dec 15 Supreme Court blocks Arizona push to limit abortion drugs By Associated Press The justices on Monday left in place a lower court ruling that blocked rules that regulate where and how women can take drugs that induce abortion. The rules also would prohibit the use of the abortion medications after the seventh… Continue reading
Dec 15 Healthcare.gov prepares for traffic crunch as deadlines hit today By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press Wait times at the federal call center started creeping up around the middle of last week, mainly due to a surge of current customers with questions about their coverage for next year. Many will face higher premiums, although they could… Continue reading
Dec 14 Dec. 14, 1799: The excruciating final hours of President George Washington By Dr. Howard Markel It was a house call no physician would relish. On Dec. 14, 1799, three doctors were summoned to Mount Vernon in Fairfax County, Virginia to attend to a critically ill, 67-year-old man who happened to be known as “the father… Continue reading
Dec 12 Watch 7:47 Should a federal health program pay to house L.A.’s homeless? By Hari Sreenivasan, Jason Kane Continue watching
Dec 11 Watch 3:35 What you need to know about this year’s elevated flu threat By PBS News Hour ‘Tis the season to be sick, and this year’s flu shot may not save you. Doctors are warning that the season could be more severe than they thought because a strain of the virus is not responding to the vaccine. Continue watching