Results tagged “healthcare”

The national insanity over health care town hall meetings came to Dartmouth last night, and Congressman Barney Frank created an Internet sensation when he verbally smacked down a question comparing health care reform to Naziism.

Coverage of the healthcare reform initiative in the media has focused on screaming and yelling at forums conducted by congressional representatives. Real outrage or manufactured outrage? Probably some of both. Whichever it is, it's overshadowed much needed refoms. Today, the Herald reports that Niki Tsongas conducted a meeting in Chelmsford about health-care and said it was spirited and people were "passionate" and it stayed civil. MyFoxBoston.com has some clips of the meeting.

With health care reform looming, everyone's worried about how to cut costs. When everyone's insured, won't premiums go through the roof? One way to fight freaky fees is to keep patients out of the hospital once they've been in. The Berkshire Medical Center is trying exactly this in a program designed to cut down on hospital patient recidivism. Among the tips and tricks used are encouraging heart patients to avoid hot dogs, which are so full of sodium that they can promote fluid retention and trigger heart trouble. Staying frank-free is harder than you might think, though, especially around Independence Day: this July 4, one Berkshire Medical patient chowed down on a dog; she was back in the Center the next day.

We, like the majority of Massachusetts residents, support universal health care in the Commonwealth, but the current system is badly flawed. And we need to figure out a way to fix it without screwing our most financially vulnerable neighbors.

--Fraternity brothers at MIT's Delta Upsilon are saying that Robert Wells, who died over the weekend, fell from his window in an accident. [Boston Globe]

--Pants not here, pants not there, pants not anywhere! [Boston Globe, WCVB]

The Herald's front page gives a starring role to Mayor Menino's opposition to new state regulations allowing for in-store medical clinics at CVS locations (a change Bostonist outlined yesterday.)

There are lot of things to dislike about the waiting room at your doctor's office—germy fellow patients, antiquated reading material, a complete lack of shampoo and energy drinks for sale. CVS will be able to rectify at least the last issue after regulations approved yesterday by the state's Public Health Council will allow the corporation to place small medical centers within its stores.

Many fans and striking writers turned out for the Writers Guild Rally at the First Parish Church meeting house at Harvard Square at noon today. As his mom Wendy looked on, Max Schapiro, of Needham, toted a sign that said, "My Mom let me skip school to support the WGA!" Other people sported orange-and-yellow wool caps made popular on Joss Whedon's brief television series "Firefly."

Authorial Intent is Bostonist's wrap-up of readings around the city. Thursday, October 18 Joan Blades, 6:30 pm, Rabb Auditorium, Boston Public Library, Ford Hall Forum Series. Blades is the cofounder of moveon.org, and she's got a lot on her mind besides "General Betray-Us," which Congress gnawed on like they had nothing better to do. She'll be talking about momsrising.org, her organization that pushes for more rights for moms and families. Saturday, October 20 Frank, Mark,...

Current Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick is ripping on former Massachusetts governor and political aspirant Mitt Romney over health care. Patrick also pointed out that Romney's "aw, shucks" demeanor doesn't properly advertise the product within the package. Patrick said of Romney, "He's a nice fellow. But a shameless candidate." That line has echoes of the Southern "bless your heart," in which a person delivers an insult and cushions it with the line "bless your heart." The...

No joke - if you have a bag of Veggie Booty at home or in your lunch bag, throw it away NOW! Robert's American Gourmet has issued an immediate recall of Veggie Booty, the incredibly nasty, green version of Pirate's Booty. Veggie Booty has been linked to outbreaks of salmonellosis in 17 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. According...

Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, former mayor of Providence who is currently in the federal pokey for conspiracy, is coming to Boston, and Boston is welcoming him with open arms.

This Universal Health Care thing is really working out great. Not only has the Commonwealth Connector board not been able agree on what "affordable" means and what the baseline for required coverage will be, but the Commonwealth hasn't yet begun to collect fees from companies not offering coverage to their employees. The delay from the Commonwealth Connector, the board that is overseeing implementation of the legislation, in determining the baseline of coverage has resulted in...

Healthcare in the Commonwealth is totally affordable, unless you get sick. The Commonwealth Connector is taking up debate on the latest plan to provide the legislative mandate for affordable healthcare. We did some simple math on the issue: $2,000 deductible in a year comes out to about $167 per month (if you hit the deductible that year). The premium would be a lot lower than initially discussed – coming in at around $175 per month. Add the two numbers together and you get $342. That's not too far off the initial number that came out, $380 per month for coverage. Still a far cry from the $200 Mitt promised.

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,...

It's not fuzzy math, it's just expensive. The Commonwealth's new universal health insurance law passed last year was touted as a great chance for Massachusetts to become a leader in the nation in universal health care. At the time the talk was about a $200 per month premium. The legislation (let's call it Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006 for fun) mandates that all adults in Massachusetts who make $29,412, three times the poverty...

The good news about last night's gubernatorial debate in Springfield was that the moderators and the panelists had the opportunity to remind the candidates that there's more to Massachusetts than Boston. The debate was also a more tasteful affair with a moderator – Jim Madigan of WGBY-TV - who seemed to relish telling people to settle down.

The Church of Christian Science, the Boston-based church, is taking up issue with the Commonwealth's new law on mandatory healthcare coverage. They fear that the way the law is currently written it does not allow for employers to provide an option of faith-based healing. Christian Scientists believe that the power of healing lies in the deity, and through prayer all illness and sickness can be healed. To that end they don't practice medicine or subscribe to the common treatments that common medical practice provides. In this recent push the effort is being made to make sure that the language provided in the new healthcare law will allow for them to provide a faith-based healing method (so you pay for someone to pray for you, not to give you penicillin). Semantics are always important when discussing law, even a comma can effect the legality of an action. The Church of Christian Science is treading lightly on this issue. While it's an important issue for the nature of their faith and they don't want to be subject to the fines the state may impose for every person in their employ who chooses their faith-based heathcare plan (because it's not medical care, it's "health care") they are making sure that it's understood they're only asking for the option to provide the service. They are not requiring that the option be provided by all, only that they're not penalized for providing it.

When Bostonist received an e-mail notifying us that the results were in, we were expecting news about a new M&M color being introduced. It turns out the e-mail was referring to the latest survey from Men's Fitness magazine, which once again ranked the Fittest/Fattest Cities in the U.S. While Bostonist’s own fitness routine has dropped off in the last few months, it seems that our city has actually improved in health, moving from the 11th Fittest City in 2005 to the 10th Fittest City in 2006. The Fittest City overall is Baltimore, which was ranked 25th in 2005, while Chicago takes the Fattest City award (but that authentic deep dish pizza is definitely worth it). So, how did little ol' Boston get to the number 10 spot? Well, Men's Fitness created a report card of sorts to see how all the cities stacked up in 5 areas. Here is how we did:

Last night PBS premiered “RX for Survival - A Global Health Challenge,” a three-part, six-hour series on worldwide public health. Focusing on innovations in the last century, including vaccines and antibiotics, the series highlights efforts to eradicate disease around the world and comes at a timely moment: The Massachusetts State Legislature is debating a bill that would change healthcare coverage in the state and the White House just yesterday, released a plan to address the...

While Bostonist and, we imagine, most of the rest of the Commonwealth's population, are thinking about Theo Epstein's departure, our legislature is considering a matter that may well affect us more (and Theo not at all): expanding healthcare coverage. You may recall that back in July, the Governor proposed a healthcare plan that would make purchasing health insurance mandatory for everyone. This idea was roundly panned by commentators, but yesterday, Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi presented a proposal that incorporates some elements of Romney's mandatory coverage, but puts a much larger burden on employers.

A couple days ago, Bostonist's fearless editor sent us an e-mail, as he sometimes does, suggesting a possible post: "Is the morning-after pill something you want a stab at? I think it's worth coverage and if you don't want it I'll take a crack at it." True, we thought, it is frequently in the headlines, and our special job here is to write snide political and legal commentary. But what do we say about the...

What the hell is going on with the economy?

Having once worked for a labor union, Bostonist knows that relations between workers and management can get more than a little tense. But we were impressed with the audacity of Harborside Healthcare: The Boston company is challenging the results of a union election, saying that the voting was not fair because a union organizer threatened to use voodoo on healthcare workers (most of whom are Haitian) if they didn't vote for the union.