Massachusetts employers will spend an estimated $175 million more a year for health insurance under the state's healthcare reform law, according to a report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.
In the 1970s, St. Mary's County in Maryland was once a place where no doctor wanted to settle. The county hospital used decades-old equipment, struggled to make payroll and had no full-time specialists. Then came Vinod K. and Ila Shah, Bombay-educated husband-and-wife doctors who were eager to open a practice in the rural area. The Shahs are a perfect example of a trend that has seen foreign-born doctors become the medical backbone of rural America.
In recent years, Medicaid has spent more money on antipsychotic drugs for Americans than on any other class of pharmaceuticals-including antibiotics, AIDS drugs or medicine to treat high-blood pressure. One reason: Nursing homes across the U.S. are giving these drugs to elderly patients to quiet symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.
While the leading Democratic presidential candidates agree on most policy issues, a sharp dispute has emerged: Who would do more to provide health coverage for the uninsured?