Florida: Life-saving advances, medical mishaps mark 2007

Throughout South Florida, medicine was becoming a battle of conglomerates. The University of Miami bought the 560-bed Cedars Hospital, and raided top U.S. medical schools for talent to build a biotech research empire. Florida International University moved toward opening a medical school. Scripps Research Institute came closer to opening in Palm Beach County. Not everyone benefited from the medical advances. At least 47 million Americans had no health insurance, an increase of 2.2 million for the year--mostly from erosion of employer-paid insurance policies, according to U.S. Census data. In Florida, 3.6 million people, or 20.3 percent of the population, were uninsured, ranking the state behind only Texas and New Mexico.