http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Combining Medicare's hospital, physician, and prescription drug coverage with commonly purchased private supplemental coverage into one health plan could produce national savings of $180 billion over a decade while improving care for beneficiaries, according to a new study by researchers at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The Commonwealth Fund published today in the May edition of Health Affairs. Under the proposed plan, called "Medicare Essential," Medicare beneficiaries could save a total of $63 billion between 2014 and 2023, with total premium and out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries estimated to be 17 percent to 40 percent lower than current costs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-medicare-essential-billion-years.html Health Mon, 06 May 2013 16:00:10 EST news287073877 New findings from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment show that Medicaid coverage had no detectable effect on the prevalence of diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure, but substantially reduced depression, nearly eliminated catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditures, and increased the diagnosis of diabetes and the use of diabetes medication among low-income adults. The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment is the first use of a randomized controlled study design to evaluate the impact of covering the uninsured with Medicaid and provides important evidence for policy makers as the U.S. undertakes Medicaid expansion in 2014. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-medicaid-mental-financial-health-shown.html Health Wed, 01 May 2013 17:00:01 EST news286644231 (HealthDay)—For young women with breast cancer, a longer treatment delay time (TDT) is associated with decreased survival, especially for African-American women, those with public or no insurance, and those with low socioeconomic status; and women with early-stage breast cancer with Medicaid are more likely to undergo mastectomy than those with private insurance, according to two studies published online April 24 in JAMA Surgery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-breast-ca-tx-common-poor.html Surgery Thu, 25 Apr 2013 05:23:44 EST news286086210 A record number of U.S. children were covered by health insurance in 2011, mostly due to substantial increases in the enrollment rates of public insurance, according to new research from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-children-health.html Health Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:11:49 EST news279288703 Compared to the nation, a higher proportion of children in California are uninsured, one in every 10 children or more than 1.1 million in 2011. More of California's children have public health insurance and fewer through their parents' employer. And, over the past three years, a decade of advances in California children's public insurance enrollment has stalled, as coverage in Healthy Families (California's children's health insurance program) declined as a result of reductions in state government funding. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-higher-proportion-california-children-uninsured.html Health Wed, 14 Nov 2012 18:31:43 EST news272140294 (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 (HealthDay)—Preterm neonates born to low-income parents have a disproportionately high risk of developing posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus (PHH) that requires multiple surgeries and extensive follow-up, according to research published online Sept. 28 in Pediatric Neurosurgery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-post-bleed-hydrocephalus-low-income-preemies.html Pediatrics Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:20:01 EST news269790101 In 2009, children with public insurance were three times more likely and children with no insurance were eleven time more likely not to have a primary care physician, compared with children with private insurance. Without a primary care physician, the Emergency Department (ED) often becomes the primary point of contact for treatments and diagnoses. A new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics reports that children with private, public, and no insurance may receive differing levels of treatment in EDs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-disparities-treatment-children-emergency-department.html Health Thu, 10 May 2012 00:00:01 EST news255783660 (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 Supreme Court justices battled Wednesday over the fate of US President Barack Obama's health care reforms, with liberals fighting to salvage the rest of the law if a key provision is declared unconstitutional. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-court-health-law.html Health Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:06:05 EST news252176760 The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday on whether President Barack Obama's landmark health care law should be struck down if its key requirement that all Americans buy insurance is declared unconstitutional. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-day-supreme-court-health-law.html Health Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:57:07 EST news252154620 (HealthDay) -- In the community setting, health indicators are significantly associated with post-kidney-transplant mortality, according to a study published online Feb 20 in the Archives of Surgery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-health-indicators-tied-transplant-outcomes.html Surgery Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:20:02 EST news249195568 The financial burden Americans face paying out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs has declined, although prescription costs remain a significant challenge for people with lower incomes and those with public insurance, according to a new RAND Corporation study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-financial-burden-prescription-drugs.html Health Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:41:15 EST news247941667 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 While mammography rates have improved among foreign-born women residing in the United States, these women are still less likely to have undergone breast cancer screening than native-born U.S. women. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-mammography-immigrants.html Cancer Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:18:49 EST news235660708 Children with public insurance are 22 percent less likely to receive comprehensive primary care than those with private insurance, according to new research from the University of Michigan Medical School. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-children-health-comprehensive-primary.html Health Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:00:01 EST news229967143 Sixty-six percent of publicly-insured children were unable to get a doctor's appointment for medical conditions requiring outpatient specialty care including diabetes and seizures, while children with identical symptoms and private insurance were turned away only 11 percent of the time, according to an audit study of specialty physician practices in Cook County, Ill. conducted by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings are published in the June 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-specialty-physicians-two-thirds-children.html Health Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:00:01 EST news227362110