President Barack Obama is trying to convince Americans with health insurance that legislation in Congress would benefit them by holding three town-hall meetings. Obama will emphasize how the legislation would fix three specific problems, according to a White House official. The Democratic National Committee said it is mobilizing supporters to attend local meetings that have been dominated by health-overhaul opponents.
Arlington-based Texas Health Resources, North Texas' largest hospital system, has laid off 33 workers to gear up for cutbacks in response to a decline in patients who pay their bills. Although it is just a fraction of its 19,000 workforce, the move could be the beginning of widespread cost-cutting. The layoffs were spread across the company, from administration to clinical staff, according to a spokesman.
To cover the needs of an estimated 6.8 million uninsured illegal immigrants, some advocates have proposed broadening the healthcare overhaul legislation now before Congress. It is immoral, immigration activists say, for hospitals and doctors to deny healthcare to the seriously ill, no matter their legal status. But proponents of tougher immigration enforcement and others fighting to contain runaway costs fear that providing such services would encourage more illegal border crossings.
Louisville, KY-based Jewish Hospital has opened an outpatient facility as part of a strategy by the healthcare company to move more services to faster growing parts of the Louisville area. The facility has a 24-hour emergency room and provides diagnostic medical imaging services. It also offers oncology services such as infusion and radiation, holistic medicine, and cardiac services. A rehab center will open in November.
The University of South Florida has partnered with Intuitive Surgical Inc. to establish the USF Health daVinci Center for Computer Assisted Surgery. The $4 million center at the USF College of Medicine in Tampa is one of two centers nationwide using the daVinci Surgical Systems SI model to teach physicians in training and community physicians how to do robotic-assisted surgery, USF Health said in a release.
August will be a make-or-break month for the drive to revamp the healthcare system, as members of Congress use the recess to either sell the need for an overhaul to voters or continue attacks on the insurance industry, the chief of the insurers' main lobbying arm said. Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, said that recent broadsides against the industry by President Barack Obama and other leading Democrats are designed as a distraction as the healthcare debate becomes more contentious.