New York legislators have imposed limits on how much the states’ hospitals can charge low-income, uninsured patients. Patients with annual incomes at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level would be charged “a nominal payment amount.”
[Read](http://www.upi.com/HealthBusiness/view.php?StoryID=20060331-045526-8369r) (UPI)
Newly proposed legislation to study the autism rate in never-vaccinated American kids could settle the debate over vaccines and autism once and for all.
[Read](http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20060331-111327-8105r) (UPI)
Piople who take up smoking may do so because they are getting up too early. That’s just one symptom of a permanently misaligned body clock, a condition dubbed “social jetlag” that could affect more than half of us.
[Read](http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=mg19025453.500&feedId=online-news_rss20) (New Scientist)
Nine out of 10 women think one night stands are immoral, psychologists will hear at a conference.
[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/health/4863770.stm) (BBC)
This was a British survey. I’d like to see what the results would be if the study was conducted in the U.S.
If you are poor and mentally ill in Fairfax County, VA, it can take you as long as six months to see a therapist. If you need a place in a group home, you could be waiting for years.
[Read](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/16/AR2006031602292.html?nav=rss_health) (Washington Post)
*If this is the situation in one of the [richest counties](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest_income_counties_in_the_United_States “Wikipedia”) in the country, what’s it like in one the [poorer counties](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowest-income_counties_in_the_United_States “Wikipedia”)?*
A study suggests that antidepressants work better than psychotherapy in preventing relapses in elderly men and women who have recovered from depression.
Read (New York Times)
There is mounting evidence of a link between antibiotic use in infancy and asthma in children, studies suggest. A Canadian study of 12,082 children suggests those treated with antibiotics under the age of one are twice as likely to develop asthma in childhood.
Read (BBC)
Some cases of severe migraine may be effectively treated by closing a hole in the heart, research suggests. Studies have indicated a strong link between migraine with aura – the type associated with bright flashing lights – and a hole in the heart.
Read (BBC)
Wal-Mart plans to be the mass-market provider of organic food, and will double its organic offerings over the next couple of weeks.
Read (Reuters)
Blood pressure levels in the general population fell on average in 21 countries between the 1980s and 1990s but the drop was not due to medicines. Scientists believe the drop could be due to a variety of factors, such as eating less salt and more fruit and vegetables.
Read (Reuters)
Even doctors are getting nursing degrees as labor shortages in the US prompt recruitment abroad.
The number of foreign-educated nurses coming into the country more than tripled from 4,000 in 1998 to 15,000 in 2004. They now represent as much as 10 percent of all practicing nurses in the U.S.
Read (Christian Science Monitor)
A Canadian girl with a nut allergy did not die from kissing her boyfriend who had eaten peanut butter.
Read (BBC)
In the last decade, more and more immigrants are delaying care or retreating to bootleg drugs and unlicensed practitioners.
Last year, about 80 bills in 20 states sought to cut noncitizens’ access to health care or other services, or to require benefit agencies to tell the authorities about applicants with immigration violations. Arizona voters approved such a requirement in 2004 with Proposition 200. Virginia has barred adults without proof of citizenship or lawful presence from state and local benefits. Maryland’s governor excluded lawful immigrant children and pregnant women from a state medical program for which they had been eligible.
Read (New York Times)
Women who take oral contraceptives have increased chances of suffering from both migraines and non-migraine headaches, a large new population-based study shows.
Read (Reuters)
Louisiana now faces a potential scourge of mosquitoes as insects hatch in storm-created breeding grounds. The expected surge in the mosquito population this summer around New Orleans raises worries about the risk of an accompanying increase in cases of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus.
Read (Reuters)