Now, annual checkups for the nearly half a million Massachusetts children on Medicaid will carry a new requirement: Doctors must offer simple questionnaires to detect warning signs of possible mental health problems, from autism in toddlers to depression in teens. Over the last several years, such questionnaires have increasingly become the standard of care in pediatric practices, but spurred by legal action Massachusetts is jumping ahead of other states by requiring the screens for all its young Medicaid recipients.
Under a bill signed into law, all pregnant women in New Jersey will be tested for HIV as part of their prenatal care unless they object. The law also requires testing for newborns if the HIV status of the mother is unknown. The new testing procedures are some of the most aggressive HIV-prevention measures in the country for pregnant women and newborns, making New Jersey one of just a handful of states with laws requiring some form of prenatal testing.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is on the attack against her main rival, charging that Barack Obama's health plan would leave millions of Americans without medical protection while hers provides coverage to all. The assertion, flatly rejected by the Obama campaign, rests on a pivotal difference between the two Democratic presidential candidates' health proposals. Clinton says she wants the government to require all citizens to buy insurance or face a penalty. Obama relies on a mandate for children only, and instead emphasizes ways to make coverage more affordable.
Despite an increasing number of free medical clinics, treatment is hard for the needy to track down. That's especially true for the nation's top health problems--high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol--that require ongoing care even when the person feels no symptoms if they're to avoid heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure and amputations. Clinics require a special trip, a long wait, perhaps a baby sitter, annoyances for the well-to-do but huge obstacles for someone who must take three buses to reach the doctor or who loses a day of pay for the time off.
The spread of the MRSA superbug strikes fear in many. But for an entrepreneurial few, it's prompting a burst of marketing for products and services that they maintain can foil the scary drug-resistant staph bacteria. From disposable condom-like covers for stethoscopes to room-fogging that dispenses disinfectants originally created to fight bioterrorism, the MRSA fear factor is spurring an anti-MRSA industry.
The number of uninsured in Georgia has climbed steadily in the past decade, coinciding with the inexorable rise in health care costs. Politicians have pushed various solutions for the problems, as the state's medical safety net quietly tries to deal with a patient deluge. About two-thirds of the state's uninsured live in households headed by a full-time worker. But all too often, the employer doesn't provide health insurance, or if it's offered, the worker can't afford it.