http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. The rise in childhood obesity and associated health conditions have become a significant concern in the United States. An initiative by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, which fights childhood obesity, found benefits in expanding health care coverage to obesity services, preventive care and ensuring that families comply with preventive care guidelines. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-redesign-beneficial-children-obesity.html Health Fri, 03 May 2013 08:20:02 EST news286786971 When the eye cancer retinoblastoma is diagnosed in racial and ethnic minority children whose families don't have private health insurance, it often takes a more invasive, potentially life-threatening course than in other children, probably because of delays in diagnosis, Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center (DF/CHCC) researchers will report at the 26th annual meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology Oncology being held in Miami, April 24-27. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-diagnosis-worsen-outlook-minority-uninsured.html Cancer Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:30:01 EST news286025989 (HealthDay)—Most overweight adults feel that specific weight-loss benefits offered by health plans would be helpful, but few are willing to pay extra for them, according to a study published online April 9 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-overweight-adults-weight-loss-health-benefits.html Overweight and Obesity Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:08:21 EST news284918885 Lowering the costs of healthy foods in supermarkets increases the amount of fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods that people eat, while also appearing to reduce consumption of nutritionally less-desirable foods, according to research from the RAND Corporation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-discounts-healthy-foods-diets.html Health Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:00:01 EST news282829349 (HealthDay)—About 71 million Americans with private health insurance plans received at least one free preventive health service—such as a mammogram or flu shot—in 2011 and 2012 because of the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration said Monday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-millions-free-due-health-law.html Health Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:30:01 EST news282852234 The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 ("Parity Act") increased access to mental health and substance use services in hospitals, yet consumers continued to pay more out-of-pocket for substance use admissions than for other types of hospital admissions, finds a new Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-mental-health-substance-hospitals-parity-law.html Health Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:15:55 EST news281164544 University at Albany and Weill Cornell Medical College researchers discuss proposed changes in HIV-Testing guidelines by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) in a perspective article in the March 7 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Authors Erika G. Martin, assistant professor of public administration and policy at UAlbany's Rockefeller College and fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, and Dr. Bruce R. Schackman, associate professor of public health and chief of the Division of Health Policy at Weill Cornell, address the broad impact the changes will have on the health care of HIV-infected patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-discuss-broad-impact-hiv-testing-guideline.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:00:14 EST news280745998 African-Americans and individuals without private health insurance are less likely than others to receive a kidney transplant before requiring dialysis, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The findings indicate that efforts are needed to ensure the equitable distribution of donor kidneys and the timing of transplantation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-disparities-kidney-transplant.html Other Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:00:05 EST news278869706 (HealthDay)—The Obama administration is giving states additional time to set up so-called health insurance exchanges, a key element of the 2010 health reform law designed to bring coverage to an estimated 30 million Americans who don't have insurance. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-states-health-exchanges.html Health Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:40:01 EST news277477898 (HealthDay)—Half of the states in the nation have rebuffed a key provision of the Obama administration's health reform law: the creation of state-based health insurance exchanges, according to data compiled by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-states-health-exchanges_1.html Health Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:40:02 EST news275076519 People with private health insurance are nine times more likely than those without to have bariatric weight-loss surgery, a new study has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-broader-access-obesity-surgery.html Overweight and Obesity Mon, 10 Dec 2012 08:10:02 EST news274348691 In the first study to compare mental health-related emergency department (ED) visits between children with and without autism spectrum disorders (ASD), researchers found that ED visits are nine times more likely to be for psychiatric reasons if a child has an ASD diagnosis. Published in the journal Pediatric Emergency Care (Epub ahead of print), the study found externalizing symptoms, such as severe behaviors tied to aggression, were the leading cause of ED visits among children with ASD. Importantly, the likelihood of a psychiatric ED visit was higher if a child carried private health insurance rather than medical assistance. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-children-autism-emergency-room-psychiatric.html Autism spectrum disorders Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:31:20 EST news273774523 (Medical Xpress)—About 115,000 women lose their private health insurance every year in the wake of divorce, according to a University of Michigan study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-divorce-thousands-women-health-coverage.html Health Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:13:13 EST news271959177 In the United States, the cost paid for statins (drugs to lower cholesterol) in people under the age of 65 who have private insurance continues to exceed comparable costs paid by the government in the United Kingdom (U.K.) by more than three fold. These results from Boston University's Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program, are a follow up of an ongoing comparison of prescription drug costs between the U.S. and U.K. The initial results reported on relative drug costs in 2005. The current updated results for 2009 appear this week in the journal Pharmacotherapy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-prescription-drugsa-comparison-countries.html Medications Thu, 01 Nov 2012 04:29:37 EST news270962944 Forty percent of people who received health care outside of their insurance network did so out of necessity, finds a new study in Health Services Research. About half of those patients did not know how much they would have to pay for their out-of-network care. Out-of- network care can occur during an emergency medical situation or when the network status of a physician or hospital is unknown or if an in-network doctor is unavailable. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-people-out-of-network-patient.html Health Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:10:02 EST news270464431 Young black patients and patients without private health insurance are less likely to be assessed for a kidney transplant when they start dialysis, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). These patients are also less likely to be put on the transplant waiting list and to receive a transplant. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-status-likelihood-kidney-transplantation.html Other Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:00:01 EST news262539457 (Medical Xpress) -- A new study from Washington University in St. Louis suggests that health insurance exchanges, a key provision of the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, may need to be monitored to make sure there is sufficient competition between private insurance plans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-lack-competition-hike-health-exchanges.html Health Tue, 05 Jun 2012 06:21:11 EST news258096066 Men are significantly more likely than women to need urgent hospital care, including readmission, within a month of being discharged, finds research in the online only journal BMJ Open. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-men-women-urgent-hospital-discharge.html Health Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:30:02 EST news253981050 (HealthDay) -- For men undergoing radical prostatectomies (RPs), private health insurance coverage is linked with fewer complications, less in-hospital recovery time, and decreased mortality, compared to public coverage, according to a study published in the April 1 issue of Cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-short-term-outcomes-private-prostatectomies.html Health Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:00:01 EST news252332394 Prevention is better than cure; however, when it comes to screening for cancer new research shows that U.S. health services are not as cost-effective as international, and publically run, counterparts. The research, published in The Milbank Quarterly, compares U.S. screening services to screening in the Netherlands and found that while three to four times more screening took place in the United States, the rates of mortality were similar. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-effective-cancer.html Cancer Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:06:19 EST news251456769 In the United States, the cost paid for statins (drugs to lower cholesterol) in people under the age of 65 who have private insurance is approximately 400 percent higher than comparable costs paid by the government in the United Kingdom (U.K.). These findings, from the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program, are the first results of a comprehensive comparison of prescription drug costs between the U.S. and U.K. The study appears on-line in the journal Pharmacotherapy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-statin-percent-higher-uk.html Medications Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:55:09 EST news244994100 In the fierce national debate over a new federal law that requires all Americans to have health insurance, it's widely assumed that private health insurance can do a better job than the public insurance funded by the U.S. government. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-health-infants-costly-private.html Health Thu, 08 Dec 2011 04:00:42 EST news242539177 Health care costs for hepatitis C patients with end-stage liver disease are nearly 2.5 times higher than those in the early stages, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-economic-advanced-liver-disease.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:25:32 EST news239894718 A new national study shows that wealthier Americans and those with private health insurance fare better than others on one important measure of health – and this health gap only grows wider as they age. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-physical-functioning-declines-rapidly-poor.html Health Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:53:06 EST news239892781 The human papillomavirus (HPV) is more likely to be found in tumors of laryngeal cancer patients who are male and those with private health insurance, according to a new study from researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-gender-tied-hpv-infection-laryngeal.html Cancer Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:05:13 EST news235224249 Alternative funding for health care in Canada will not result in lower costs nor contribute to financial sustainability, states a commentary in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-alternative-health-care-funding-canada.html Health Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:26:36 EST news233234622 A wide range of clinical and non-clinical factors can affect whether women go on to have a vaginal delivery after having a caesarean, according to two major reviews published in the August issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-women-reveals-factors-affecting-vaginal.html Health Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:00:01 EST news230981933 Families are increasingly relying on public health insurance plans to provide coverage for their children, a growing trend that researchers say is tied to job losses, coverage changes to private health insurance plans, and expanded access to public plans, according to new research from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-families-shifting-private-health-children.html Health Wed, 27 Jul 2011 03:04:37 EST news230954663 A new study by Harvard Medical School researchers published today [July 21] in the Annals of Emergency Medicine finds that access to outpatient psychiatric care in the greater Boston area is severely limited, even for people with reputedly excellent private health insurance. Given that the federal health law is modeled after the Massachusetts health reform, the findings have national implications, the researchers say. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-privately-hard-psychiatric-massachusetts.html Health Thu, 21 Jul 2011 03:47:29 EST news230438837 Newly diagnosed cancer patients frequently face hurdles in obtaining an appointment for care with an oncologist, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennnsylvania that will be presented Saturday, June 4 at the 2011 annual meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology (Abstract #6128). Even callers with private health insurance had difficulty scheduling an appointment, with just 22 percent of them obtaining a slot, compared to 29 percent of uninsured patients and 17 percent of patients on Medicaid, according to results of a study in which research assistants posed as patients seeking an initial evaluation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-two-thirds-newly-cancer-patients-unable.html Cancer Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:07:44 EST news226159651