Health, Health Care | featured news

The growing toll of diabetes cost the nation a record high $245 billion in 2012, a 41% increase from $174 billion in 2007, according to new research released today. The study Economic Costs of Diabetes in the U.S. in 2012, commissioned by the American Diabetes Association, estimated the health care and work-related costs of diagnosed diabetes. The full study will be published in the April issue of Diabetes Care.

Keith Foreman, like a growing number of disabled Americans on Medicaid, qualified for a personal caregiver to help him with daily activities such as dressing, shaving and preparing meals. Foreman, 57, who has a spinal injury, hired his girlfriend, Sheila McDonald. In 2011, McDonald received almost $5,000 from Medicaid for six months of care she provided to Foreman.

Nobody loves a party pooper. And it seems nobody these days loves the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Few Americans had even heard of it until three years ago, when the advisory board with the 10-syllable name challenged convention by saying women under 50 might not benefit from mammograms, just as the debate over health care was coming to a boil.

In arguments made against the Obama administration’s health care law, a thread that runs through many of them is an analogy between the health care law and broccoli.

On a chilly afternoon at a community clinic in Southeast Washington, three young doctors are busily laying the foundation for the health-care law’s success. Jacob Edwards flips through a manual on skin conditions, diagnosing a rash that looks like chicken pox. Jessica O’Babatunde consults her supervisor on treating an adolescent’s obesity, which is literally off-the-charts. And Julie Krueger peppers 3-year-old Daphauni with questions at her physical: How do you spell your name? What did you eat for breakfast? What’s your favorite vegetable? (Cheese.)

Like a lot of companies, Veridian Credit Union wants its employees to be healthier. In January, the Waterloo, Iowa-company rolled out a wellness program and voluntary screenings.

The number of obese people in the U.S. is projected to double by 2030 contributing to soaring health costs.

Raymond Johnson was due for some good news. Earlier this month, he was denied Medicaid coverage after being diagnosed with breast cancer. But he just got the call he was waiting for: South Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services is granting him coverage, after all.

Food-borne illnesses, such as E. coli and salmonella, not only take a toll on American consumers' health, they cost the United States $152 billion annually in health care and other losses, according to a report released Wednesday by a food safety group.

The U.S. spent an average of $7,681 per person on health care in 2008, for an eye-popping total of $2.3 trillion even though ...