September 2024

US health system ranks last compared with peer nations, report finds By Jessica Glenza September 19, 2024   The United States health system ranked dead last in an international comparison of 10 peer nations, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund.   In spite of Americans paying nearly double that of other countries, […]

Doctors Give Black Women Unneeded C-Sections to Fill Operating Rooms, Study Suggests By Sarah Kliff September 10, 2024   Obstetricians are more likely to give Black women unnecessary cesarean sections, putting those women at higher risk for serious complications like ruptured surgical wounds.   That’s the conclusion of a new report of nearly one million

Therapy patients stop treatment after ‘pre-payment reviews’ swell by Jeanne Pinder September 10, 2024   A number of psychotherapy patients in the Northeast have stopped treatment because their insurer, UnitedHealthcare, is requiring substantial paperwork for what it calls a “pre-payment review” that has stopped reimbursements, therapists say.   The interruption in treatment comes after UnitedHealthcare’s

My Health Insurance Company Is Trying To Kill Me By Jonna Jerome June 22, 2024   I suspect that my daughter and I are growing too costly and inconvenient for my health plan’s customer profile. They are genius (and stealthy) in their tactics to exhaust me financially, emotionally and physically. The company manuals must contain

Should Seeking Profits Be Our Main Economic Priority? By Walter G. Moss September 20, 2024, 2024   Conservative capitalist economist Milton Friedman once wrote, “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” Was he right? Let’s look at the case of Steward Health Care.   Earlier this month (of September) the PBS News

Israel Bombs Lebanon After Blowing Up Pagers in “Act of Mass Mutilation.” Is Ground Invasion Next? Amy Goodman interviews Sintia Issa (editor-at-large at The Public Source, a Beirut-based independent media organization and Ghassan Abu-Sittah (British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon) September 23, 2024   ​​Israel attacked more than 300 sites in Lebanon Monday, killing at least 182

Money-making L.A. hospitals quit delivering babies. Inside the fight to keep one labor ward open by Kristen Hwang, Ana B. Ibarra and Erica Yee June 6, 2024   Detranay Blankenship was 16 weeks pregnant when she found out she was expecting. The days passed quickly, and soon she was 7 centimeters dilated at Martin Luther

‘Poster Child for…Corporate Greed’: Sanders Slams Health Industry CEO’s Subpoena Refusal By Brett Wilkins September 04, 2024   U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday blasted Dr. Ralph de la Torre—the CEO of a bankrupt health services company “who has made hundreds of millions of dollars ripping off patients and healthcare providers”—for refusing to comply with

As COVID Emergency Funding Sunsets, Public Health Faces Budget Cuts and Layoffs By Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez, KFF Health News September 9, 2024   Even as federal aid poured into state budgets in response to the covid-19 pandemic, public health leaders warned of a boom-and-bust funding cycle on the horizon as the emergency ended and federal

Children in Gaza will be protected from polio but not Israel’s airstrikes By Yara M. Asi September 6, 2024   At the beginning of the month, a joint effort bringing together the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, UNRWA, and other partners, started in an effort to vaccinate 640,000 children in