Health

Senate Republicans may use tax bill to repeal Obamacare individual mandate

By Associated Press

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told reporters on Tuesday: “We’re going to repeal the tax on poor Americans.”…

FDA approves sensor to track if patients take their medication

By Associated Press

Patients can track their dosage on their smartphone and allow their doctors or caregivers to access the information through a website.

This app tracks drug overdoses in real time

By Christine Vestal, Stateline

In an opioid overdose epidemic that killed more than 53,000 Americans last year and shows no signs of relenting, nearly every community in the nation is fortifying its public health, emergency medical and law enforcement response. But with limited resources,…

Here's why states struggle to enroll people onto Obamacare this year

By Elaine S. Povich, Stateline

The demand nationwide appears high. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which administers the federal program, announced that 601,000 signed up on healthcare.gov during the first four days of open enrollment that began Nov. 1.

Trump names former drug executive as new health secretary

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press

Turning to an industry he’s rebuked, President Donald Trump on Monday picked a former top pharmaceutical and government executive be his health and human services secretary.

To save a young woman besieged by superbugs, scientists hunt a killer virus

By Eric Boodman, STAT

Mark Smith wants to inject his dying daughter with a virus in hopes it might kill the bacteria rooted in her lungs. First, he has to find the right virus.

For Dostoevsky, epilepsy was a matter of both life and literature

By Dr. Howard Markel

There were points in his life when Dostoevsky wrote he was grateful for his seizure disorder because of the “abnormal tension” the episodes created in his brain, which allowed him to experience “unbounded joy and rapture, ecstatic devotion and completest…

Risky stimulants turn up, once again, in weight loss and workout supplements

By Rebecca Robbins, STAT

New findings highlight just how hard it has been for the FDA to keep potentially unsafe supplement ingredients off the market.

Why Maine voted to expand Medicaid -- and what's next

By Laura Santhanam

Maine voters said they want to offer Medicaid to more people in the state, but in the face of opposition from Governor Paul LePage and the Trump administration, will it happen?…

The air quality is so bad in Delhi that the city is closing schools

By Larisa Epatko

The air pollution has gotten so bad in Delhi, India, that authorities have advised people with breathing problems to stay inside and closed 6,000 schools for most of the week.