Repealing the penalties that enforce the “individual mandate” would “both reduce the number of people purchasing health insurance and change the mix of people with insurance,” as younger and healthier people with low health costs would be more likely to go without insurance, the budget office said. The Republican bill would have eliminated the expansion…
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump and congressional Republicans appear to have accomplished a feat that President Obama, with all the power at his disposal, could not in the past seven years: They have galvanized outspoken support for the Affordable Care Act. People who benefit from the law are flooding Congress with testimonials. Angry consumers…
Almost a year ago, the World Health Organization declared the Zika epidemic a global health emergency, calling for an epic campaign against a virus that few had ever heard of. As it spread to almost every country in the Western Hemisphere, scientists and health officials at every level of government swung into action, trying to…
WASHINGTON In March 2010, on the day before President Obama was to sign the Affordable Care Act into law, a group of senior Republican aides huddled in Senator Mitch McConnell’s Capitol suite to try to come up with a catchy slogan to use against it. Many conservatives were simply advocating a vow to repeal the…
Photo Credit Stuart Bradford Q How do you die of Parkinson’s disease? A Parkinson’s disease, a chronic, progressive movement disorder characterized by tremors and stiffness, is not considered a fatal disease in and of itself, though it may reduce life expectancy by a modest amount. It is often said that people die “with” Parkinson’s rather…
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans took their first major step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, approving a budget blueprint that would allow them to gut the health care law without the threat of a Democratic filibuster. The vote was 51 to 48. During the roll call, Democrats staged a highly unusual protest on…
Vaginal births can quickly go wrong if, for example, the cord wraps around the baby’s neck. The study was led by doctors from China’s national statistics office, Peking University, Harvard Medical School and New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service. The 2010 W.H.O. survey erred by relying on figures from just 21 hospitals, mostly…
Applying inexpensive petroleum jelly to a new baby daily for the first six months of life may reduce the risk that the infant will develop eczema, which can be a lifelong torment, according to a new analysis. Two studies done in newborns with relatives suffering from atopic dermatitis, the most common form of eczema, showed…
Creating hospital teams devoted to treating pregnant women who have sickle cell disease reduced death rates for those women by almost 90 percent, a study at a major hospital in Ghana showed. Sickle cell disease is common in West Africa, and among black people in the Americas whose ancestors came from West Africa. It is…