Health Care

Medicare and Social Security are in even better fiscal shape than we previously realized. Let's take a look at this Conservative kyrptonite: the massive success of Social Security and Medicare. (Added bonus: Affordable Care Act seems to be helping stabilize both!)

A costly drug given mostly to premature babies is at the center of a clash between the manufacturer and the nation's leading pediatrician's group, which recommends scaling back use of the medicine. The dispute involves new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which say medical evidence shows the drug benefits few children other than very young preemies.

Conservative Republicans continue to embarrass America by blocking Senate ratification of a U.N. treaty that’s designed to help disabled people, which they hate because they believe (without any factual evidence) that it threatens American sovereignty.

In case you missed the troubling news about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) earlier this week, two federal appeals courts delivered conflicting rulings on, as RH Reality Check‘s Jessica Mason Pieklo described it, “whether or not the text of the [ACA] allows the federal government to subsidize insurance premiums in its federally run exchanges.”

For all the trolling inspired by the boogeyman that is Obamacare, the actual laws and benefits reaped by consumers under the Affordable Care Act are wildly popular. Who would've thought that $2.7 million in rebate checks — just in the state of Colorado — might be something that people want?

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange took to Facebook yesterday and bragged about his role in a federal appeals' court decision in Halbig vs Burwell. This is the case that attempts to end ACA tax credits for families in states that participate in the federal marketplace — a group that includes Alabama. When families lose those credits, their federal tax bills will rise. Mark your calendar, because this is surely an enormous reversal of the long-time GOP mantra of "no taxes, no where, no how."

Within hours yesterday, two different courts reached opposing decisions on a key portion of the president's health care plan — meaning a showdown in the nation's highest court is probably inevitable. As more Americans understand and, seemingly in turn, approve of the law however, an interesting political dilemma is beginning to rise for ardent opponents of Obamacare.

The federal government has a word for physicians who don’t have financial relationships with pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers: “Error.” This week, the government began allowing doctors to log into a secure website to check the payments attributed to them by drug and device makers. This information will be made public later this year under the Physician Payment Sunshine Act. In advance, if doctors believe the material about them is wrong, they can contest it. But early reports suggest the new site has some glitches.

Medical experts testifying before Congress this week said patients are no better protected from patient harm, preventable deaths and injuries in hospitals now than they were 15 years ago, when a landmark Institute of Medicine report set off alarms about deaths due to medical errors and prompted calls for reform. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the panel's chairman, said afterward that most patients probably don't know that preventable patient harm is the third-leading cause of death in America.

Nickel, one of the most common reaction-inducing metals, is giving iPad users a rash. Those already sensitive have been breaking out after surfing for extended periods of time.