Citing the health benefits of doing so, virtually all Nashville-area hospitals plan to ban smoking outdoors on their property in 2008. Hundreds of hospitals nationwide have enacted total smoking bans, starting with the Mayo Clinic in 2002.
The American College of Physicians has officially announced its endorsement of a single-payer healthcare system. the organization, however, stopped short of saying that a single-payer system like Medicare, in which the government would get and pay most bills, is the best way to achieve universal coverage.
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said he would focus on making insurance more affordable rather than requiring universal coverage as some Democrats have proposed.
If they want to avoid a pay cut from Medicare next year, the nation's medical doctors should have to adopt electronic record-keeping, the Bush administration has announced.
In an effort to motivate workers to kick unhealthy habits, employees at some companies who are overweight, smoke, or have high cholesterol, and who don't participate in supplementary wellness programs, will pay more for health insurance.
More than 40 million people in the United States say they cannot afford adequate heathcare and go without drugs, eyeglasses or dental treatment, according to the annual report on the nation's health by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.