Health Buzz: State Medicaid Cuts and Other Health News
As Economy Falters, Many States Cut Back on Medicaid
Many states are cutting back on Medicaid as revenue falls and more people are out of work and without private health insurance, the Washington Post reports. Nineteen states have already lowered payments made to nursing homes and hospitals and ended coverage of certain treatments. Some states have stopped payments for services that the federal government doesn't require them to cover, such as physical therapy, hospice care, hearing aids, and eyeglasses. A couple of states are asking poor people to contribute more to the cost of their care, and many states are now paring back on enrolling optional patients. States, which share responsibility for Medicaid with the federal government, must meet basic federal requirements for who can enroll in the program and what services must be covered. About 50 million Americans were covered by Medicaid last year.
Read a U.S. News primer on the Medicaid rulebook. Schools have also faced a cut in Medicaid funding.
Michael Jackson, Health Rumors, and Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency
Claims are swirling that Michael Jackson may—or may not—be gravely ill and in need of a lung transplant because of a rare genetic condition called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Whether the King of Pop is breathing easy or gasping to hit a high note, the buzz has certainly cast a spotlight on a little-discussed disorder that can lead to lung disease in adults, Lindsay Lyon reports. Learn more about the lung disorder in a U.S. News interview with Mark Wewers, a pulmonologist who is a professor of medicine at Ohio State University Medical Center. Wewers started working with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency 25 years ago; he now runs a specialty clinic for affected patients.
Michael isn't the only Jackson to battle health issues recently. His sister Janet had a bout with vestibular migraines earlier this year.
Healthcare Conscience Rule Could Stir Legal Backlash
Women's groups, state governments, and a host of others have reacted harshly to the new conscience rights regulation put forth by the Department of Health and Human Services last week. The National Family and Reproductive Health Association stated that the "new regulations will limit access to contraception to low-income and uninsured women and men and will create new hurdles for family-planning service providers," Deborah Kotz reports. The National Partnership for Women and Families noted, "These regulations leave the term 'abortion' undefined, so individuals and institutions are free to classify birth control as abortion." And the ACLU also expressed its "grave concern."
Earlier, U.S. News explained how the new rule could limit women's access to birth control and explored whether contraception is sometimes abortion.
—January W. Payne
Other Popular New Articles From USNews.com
Reader Comments
For Steve
I am responding to you because a lot of what you opined is unusual and false.
How does a failing healthcare system that is being cut indicate a Theocracy? A Theocracy is indicated by the laws being removed and replaced by a particular religion's rules. You made Christianity an example. So let's say the Ten Commandments and the 2 Greatest Commandments. In these Commandments, there is no discrimination against anyone; they only apply to Christians [Catholics are Christians too].
Women being stoned to death, death for working on the Sabbath, etc., these are not Christian laws. They're not even mentioned in the Ten Commandments nor the 2 Greatest Commandments! Those two laws are from the old system of Judaism, which was eliminated by God while He was Jesus here on Earth. He reinstated the Ten Commandments and added 2 Greatest ones. The two Greatest Commandments are:
1. You shall love God with all your might, with all your body, with all your soul, etc. If you are Christian, then love for God is total.
2. You shall love your neighbour as you do yourself. Again, if you are Christian, this should be followed. You must even love your enemies while defending yourself from unjust harm. For example, the kind terrorists and warmongers do, regardless of religion.
What "old men" are you quoting? It sounds like you're talking about the two bodies of older Judaism's Priests. They have nothing to do with Christianity.
God is only greedy for our love, not for anything else. Wealth means nothing to Him. It is merely a human invention. Satan and his followers are greedy. Humankind can become greedy. We need to pray for all who are greedy, that they may learn that just treatment, love, and friendship are the values that should be cherished.
The Catholic Church was started by God as Jesus Christ, in 33 A.D. He gave Peter the Keys to the Kingdom, making Peter the first Pope. Constantine was never a pope. As far as anyone knows, he was a struggling Catholic that had difficulty following his religion in such a pagan era and foolishly tried to manage it all on his own. He should've had a bishop or some other advisor. This way, so much wrongdoing that he had done would not have happened. Even learning the Ten Commandments would've contributed to better justice.
The idea that the Middle Ages were "Dark Ages" is a Protestant notion. The only way it was a dark age was because so many were illiterate. However, that was normal at the time, due to various factors, none of which were involved with religion. It was also the time when Protestant Chrsitianity began as a protest against the Catholic Church.
The Church did not hand over any Jews. They tried to protect them. Where do you get this absurd notion that they hate the Jews? They don't. They just do not follow Jewish laws.
You badly need to do real research on the various religions you're bashing, as you sound like a Jack Chick wannabe. A good source to get you started is here...
http://www.catholic.com/library.asp
Your country is not gonna BE, period
Because in a normal country people would be out rioting in the streets by the millions.
Not in America. You reap exactly what you sow.
What Have We Become?
Taking life-saving services away from the poor and needy is immoral. Social Darwinism is immoral. Cut prison funds, the funds that have been hijacked by the prison-guards union. Cut war spending - $1,000,000,000 every week to good-old-boy contractors. We have the money to care for our people, but we waste it on corporate contracts for more and more prisons and more and more wars. What is my country going to be like in 100 years?
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