Subaqua Sternal Rubs

Subaqua Sternal Rubs Archives

Romney eyes penalties for those lacking insurance - “Massachusetts residents who choose not to obtain health insurance would face tax penalties and even the garnishing of their wages under a proposal Governor Mitt Romney unveiled yesterday. Romney says the ‘’individual mandate” he is proposing, part of his broader plan to cover the roughly 500,000 people who are uninsured, would not cost the state any money. But some healthcare specialists say the approach might cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than state taxpayers currently provide for government health coverage. Romney’s plan would require all residents in Massachusetts to have some form of health insurance or agree to pay their medical bills out of their own pockets. Currently, people without health insurance often go to hospitals and receive care they never pay for, because the hospital and the state pick up the tab. Under Romney’s proposal, uninsured Massachusetts residents would be asked to enroll in a plan when they seek care.” Post a Comment

Previous post follow up: AMA: Physicians Charge Pharmacists With Interference in Medical Care - “The American Medical Association’s policy-making body voted today to press for state laws that would allow physicians to dispense medications when there is no nearby pharmacist willing to dispense the prescribed drugs. The new AMA policy is an attempt to overcome what doctors say is a stampede of pharamacists who say they cannot in good conscience dispense certain medications. ” (Registration required or use this login.) Post a Comment

Senate leader predicts stem cell vote within month - “Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said on Wednesday he hoped to have a vote within a month on the controversial issue of expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Despite President Bush’s veto threat, the House last month easily approved legislation to expand federal funding for stem cell research using excess embryos from fertility clinics. Senate backers of the bill say they have a solid bipartisan majority and want a vote soon in the Senate.” Post a Comment

Diagnose Me, Dr. Frist! Hat tip: Kevin, MD Post a Comment

Schiavo Autopsy Released

Thursday, June 16th, 2005 Print Email

Thanks to a reader tip, as a follow-up to previous posts (1, 2), the Schiavo autopsy report has been released, and it seems to support the position of husband Michael Schiavo:

The autopsy of Terri Schiavo found no evidence that the severely brain-damaged woman was strangled or abused and that no amount of therapy would have reversed her condition, a medical examiner said Wednesday.

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A risky numbers game - “Cardiologists in New York, graded for more than a decade on whether their patients live or die, are less likely to perform angioplasties on high-risk patients than are Michigan doctors, whose records are not made public.” Post a Comment

Woman dies at MGH after battle over care - “Quietly ending one of the state’s most prominent right-to-die cases, a woman paralyzed with Lou Gehrig’s disease has died at Massachusetts General Hospital after a two-year legal battle between the hospital and her family about whether to remove her life support.” Post a Comment

Study: Whiplash victims who hire a lawyer take longer to recover. “Even allowing for an expected correlation between the two variables — persons with more serious injuries are presumably more likely to retain lawyers — legal representation appears to have an independent effect in prolonging the process of recovery, Sun says.” Post a Comment

Overweight Workers Receive Smaller Wages

Friday, May 13th, 2005 Print Email

An interesting article I found relating to one of yesterday's posts:

Workers who are obese might be receiving lower wages than other employees as companies try to compensate for higher health-related spending associated with overweight workers, according to a… Stanford University study recently published as a working paper on the Web site of the Massachusetts-based National Bureau of Economic Research, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The study used data from a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, which contained detailed information about employees' height, weight and health, as well as their jobs, wages and education. Researchers from 1989 to 1998 compared hourly wages of obese and nonobese workers, factoring in experience and job type. While other research has shown obese workers receive lower wages than nonobese people, the new study shows the phenomenon exists only in companies offering workers health insurance, the Chronicle reports. Severely overweight workers with health care coverage in 1989 were paid an adjusted average of $1.20 less per hour than workers of normal weight, according to the study. The wage difference increased incrementally to $2.58 in 1998, which suggests the gap widened as workers aged, the researchers said.

Source/Read more at: Medical News Today

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Smoker? You’re fired!

Thursday, May 12th, 2005 Print Email

More companies are taking action against employees who smoke off-duty, and, in an extreme trend that some call troubling, some are now firing or banning the hiring of workers who light up even on their own time.

The outright bans raise new questions about how far companies can go in regulating workers' behavior when they are off the clock. The crackdown is coming in part as a way to curb soaring health care costs, but critics say companies are violating workers' privacy rights. The zero-tolerance policies are coming as more companies adopt smoke-free workplaces.

Source/Read more at: USAToday

I personally don't smoke, and I try to avoid second hand smoke as much as possible. However, if this trend continued to hospitals/EMS agencies, then a large majority of the workforce would be eliminated. It also sets up a dangerous trend: Are we going to start firing people because they don't exercise, eat poorly, or have a BMI of greater than 25? These are choices an individual makes, yet the entire society bears the burden of that individual choice because the society has to pay for the increasing health care costs of treating the known disease sequelae of that choice. The only fair solution I can think of is let the workers keep their jobs, but they should also be responsible for the choices that they make. Those that choose to impact their health in a negative way should be responsible for the increased cost to society to treat their preventable diseases by paying increased health insurance premiums.