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President Obama’s actions and proposals on reducing gun violence include efforts to address the nation’s fragmented and porous mental health system. Mental health advocates are buoyed by the attention given to an issue they say has been ignored for far too long.
Consumer columnist Michelle Andrews answers a reader question about minors’ mental health records and whether they need to be disclosed to insurers paying for care.
For one San Diego Hospice, the trouble began with a federal audit.
More patients with the flu are seeking care at the emergency room this year, and despite the 112 million Americans who have gotten a flu shot, it remains to be seen if this year’s version will be just bad or historically bad.
The requirement is only for individual and small-group health plans, and some advocates worry that the new benefits may not be sufficiently comprehensive or affordable.
At a White House news conference Monday, President Obama discusses how he sees Medicare, Medicaid and other health care spending factoring into the looming conflict over raising the federal debt ceiling.
Despite rapid growth in high-deductible health plans and rising employee contributions for insurance premiums, consumers’ share of national health spending continued to fall in 2011 — slipping to its lowest level in decades.
The storefront doctor’s offices serve a vast number of uninsured Latino residents, in a kind of parallel, cash-only health system. But officials have little information on the quality of health care the clinicas provide, and whether they might be able to help fill persistent and profound gaps in Los Angeles’ strained safety net.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who helped create the Children’s Health Insurance Program and fought to protect the social safety net, says he will not seek reelection in 2014.
The new online marketplaces, to be set up by October, are designed to make it easier to buy insurance. But they’re in the middle of a political fight over the health care law.
