Month: October 2013

By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Thursday reinstated a Texas abortion restriction that was blocked by a lower court this week, allowing nearly all of the state's sweeping anti-abortion law to go into effect. The decision by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals means doctors who perform abortions in Texas must have admitting privileges with local hospitals within 30 miles of their clinic, according to court documents. The Texas law passed in July was the most fiercely debated proposal to restrict abortions in the United States this year. The Appeals Court overturned U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel's ruling on Monday, a day before the law was due to go into effect, that a section of the measure pertaining to admitting privileges was unconstitutional after supporters said it would force clinics to close.

The hundreds of thousands of Americans whose individual insurance policies will be canceled as Obamacare takes full effect next year are experiencing a disruptive element of healthcare reform, the head of health insurer Cigna said on Thursday. In the past week, reports of pending plan cancellations have become a political problem for President Barack Obama, who promised years ago as he was pushing to pass the healthcare law that Americans who liked their health plans could keep them. Nearly half of U.S. consumers with individual health plans are also expected to qualify for tax credits to buy insurance on new state exchanges under Obamacare.

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) – The rate of preterm births in the United States dropped to a 15-year low of 11.5 percent in 2012, according to a report released on Friday, but the country still came in dead last among industrialized nations on this measure of infant health. The rate reflects six straight years of declines, possibly due to factors such as a drop in smoking among women of childbearing age, said the March of Dimes, the nonprofit group that produced the report. The improvement comes during an acrimonious, partisan debate in Congress about health insurance centered on President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law. The Affordable Care Act requires all insurance plans to cover maternity care, spreading the cost of healthy pregnancies across society.

A Japanese lawmaker handed Emperor Akihito a letter on Thursday expressing fear about the health impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, breaking a taboo by trying to involve the emperor in politics. Taro Yamamoto, who is also an anti-nuclear activist, gave Akihito the letter during a garden party, setting off a storm of protest on the Internet from critics shocked at his action. "I wanted to directly tell the emperor of the current situation," Yamamoto told reporters, referring to the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant north of Tokyo, which has been leaking radioactivity since it was battered by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

Insurer Cigna Corp said on Thursday it expects to increase its 2014 earnings from 2013, reflecting its smaller exposure to uncertainty around private Medicare and the rollout of individual insurance on new exchanges around the country. Cigna, which reported third-quarter profit that beat analysts' expectations on Thursday, has both a U.S. and overseas health insurance business and also sells disability and life insurance. Cigna said that diversification will help it next year, which it expects to be challenging because of broad changes in the healthcare industry. Larger competitors UnitedHealth Group Inc, WellPoint Inc and Aetna Inc have recently painted 2014 as uncertain because of private Medicare cuts and changes related to President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law.

In order to achieve this, you have to eat healthy food, especially fruits. One of the most important aspects of fruits is they help in weight loss. When you look for a …

By Susan Cornwell and David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Enrollment in health insurance plans on the troubled Obamacare website was very small in the first couple of days of operation, with just 248 Americans signing up, according to documents released on Thursday by a U.S. House of Representatives committee. The Obama administration has said it cannot provide enrollment figures from HealthCare.gov because it doesn't have the numbers. The federal website, where residents of 36 states can buy new healthcare plans under President Barack Obama's law, was launched on October 1. "We do not have any reliable data around enrollment, which is why we haven't given it to date," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told lawmakers on Wednesday.

By Christopher D’Angelo LIHUE, Hawaii (Reuters) – The mayor of the tropical island of Kauai, Hawaii, vetoed a measure on Thursday that reins in pesticide use by agricultural companies and limits where they can plant genetically modified crops, saying the bill was “legally flawed.” The Kauai County Council voted 6-1 on October 16 in favor of the bill that would require buffer zones around schools, hospitals and homes where no crops can be grown and limits pesticide use. Kauai County Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. said in a statement that while he agrees with the intent of the bill, he is not going to allow it to go into effect. This latest twist comes after months of protests by islanders and mainland U.S. groups who want to see a range of broad controls on the global agrichemical companies that have found Kauai’s tropical climate ideal for year-round testing of new biotech crops. Among those testing biotech crops on Hawaii’s “Garden Isle,” as Kauai is known, are DuPont, Syngenta AG, BASF, and Dow AgroSciences, a division of Dow Chemical Co. Kauai Coffee, the largest coffee grower in Hawaii, also opposed the measure.

BAGON, Myanmar (AP) — Five decades of isolation, military rule and woeful health care have left Myanmar with a particularly high rate of blindness. Now the veil of darkness is starting to lift, thanks in part to an "assembly line" surgical procedure that allows cataracts to be removed safely, without stitches, through two small incisions.

Of the many excuses I hear for why people don't lose weight, "It's too expensive," is … It is true that prepackaged junk food can cost less than fresh, healthy food.