The United States spends $20 billion a year to care for some 400,000 Americans who rely on chronic dialysis to live. Inspection rates vary from higher than 40 percent per year in some states to lower than 10 percent in others.
Health Care
Floridians, Start Your Orwells: Rick Scott’s Buzzword-Assault on State Health Care
Judging from a 68-page transition team report, Rick Scott will seek to accelerate privatization of state health services. He has a willing audience among business-friendly Republican legislative leaders.
All Eyes on Pensacola Federal Judge Roger Vinson as Health Reform Faces Its Next Bug
Pensacola-based federal District Judge Roger Vinson will be ruling soon on the constitutionality of Obama’s health care reform. He’s likely to rule it unconstitutional, further weakening the law’s legitimacy as it moves toward the U.S. Supreme Court.
Health Care Reform Ruled Unconstitutional; Florida Judge’s Decision Up Next
Monday’s ruling doesn’t stop the roll-out of federal health care reform. Two federal judges have previously ruled the law constitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court will settle the issue by 2012 or 2013.
Turnout Strategy: Florida’s War on Federal Health Care Reform Targets 2012 Ballot
Florida Senate Republicans approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would exempt Floridians from following federal health care reform mandates. The 2012 ballot measure is intended to bring out anti-Obama voters.
Dismantled or Reorganized, It May Be the End of the Department of Health As We Know It
The state Department of Health is facing a reorganization–and possibly a dismantling–that may affect the way local departments of health are run, and the diseases they keep track of.
Don’t Call Them Pill Mills: Palm Coast’s Pain Management Practices Recoil at Bad Rap
When Flagler Sheriff Don Fleming described three local pain management practices as “pill mills,” their doctors and practitioners were stunned and explained: Pill mills are a problem. Pain management clinics are not.
44 Florida Doctors With Troubled Past On Big Pharma Payroll To Promote Drugs
Pharmaceutical companies are not only buying off doctors’ loyalties and PR. They’re doing so without paying attention to morally and medically questionable doctors, including 44 in Florida.
Swelled by Supermajority, Florida GOP Signals First Assault Victim: Medicaid
A quick special session in Tallahassee would provide $9.7 million for Gainesville’s Shands teaching hospital and lay down markers on overhauling medicaid, the health care program for the poor. One idea: forcing all beneficiaries to enroll in managed care.
With Verve and Survivors, Bunnell Pinks Up In 4-Mile Breast Cancer Awareness Walk
Bunnell’s first annual “Going the Extra Mile” walk for breast cancer awareness Saturday morning drew some 160 people and raised $2,500.