Free Republic

Patients who want to qualify for medical marijuana in Illinois would have to be fingerprinted for a background check and pay $150 a year — and give up their right to own a gun, state officials proposed Tuesday. The plan outlines how adults who have any of 41 specified medical conditions, such as cancer, AIDS or complex regional pain syndrome, may apply to get a patient registry identification card to purchase medical pot. The proposed rules are the first in a series of parameters expected to be outlined over the course of the year to govern how medical marijuana can...

I have faith that the implant is going to help me...when they took the trial away it was like taking candy from a baby...it was cruel! And waiting so long for the permanent one is cruel too. I am praying I am making the right decision in getting this done. It’s a huge step and one that I struggled with at first. I remember the few days I had the temporary unit in my spine, my legs didn’t hurt, I could lay on my sides and they didn’t hurt! My right hip still hurt like crazy and my back was...

With Obamacare coverage beginning in earnest on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reports that thousands of people for which Obamacare plans will block some health care access are rushing to get medical tests and procedures done before their pre-ACA coverage is eliminated. Those who were receiving medical care before being forced to sign up to a new plan on HealthCare.gov will, in many cases, be locked out of hospitals and prevented from seeing doctors who they had typically used. The WSJ contends that about 70% of new plans are more restrictive in the range of doctors and hospitals available to...

Linda and Lou Pelletier of West Hartford, Conn., went into juvenile court in Boston on Friday hoping a judge would return custody of their 15-year-old daughter to them. Justina’s life has been in limbo for more than 10 months, as the teenager has remained in state custody at Boston Children’s Hospital, mostly in a locked psychiatric ward, while her parents, doctors, and lawyers fought over her future. Dr. Mark Korson, the chief of metabolism at Tufts, had been treating Justina for that disorder (mitochondrial disease) for more than a year and had sent her to Children’s only because her Tufts...

The saga goes back to February. The 15-year-old was getting treated for Mitochondrial Disease, which affects the muscles. When symptoms grew worse, Justina Pelletier ended up at Boston Children's Hospital. Doctors there came up with a startling diagnosis. They said Justina wasn't physically sick, but mentally sick with Somatoform Disorder. It's a mental illness where someone actually experiences physical pain. When her parents tried to take her out of the hospital, they were stopped. It's now become a custody battle between the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families and her parents.

I've read a number of reports in recent days gushing over the progress Covered California is making leading the nation in signing up people for Obamacare. But, I am having trouble understanding how the numbers should make anyone gush with enthusiasm. Covered California, the state health insurance exchange, has a goal of enrolling 500,000 to 700,000 subsidy eligible Californians by March 31, 2014. Covered California just announced that it would proceed with its original plan to cancel 1.1 million existing individual policies (their estimate)––80% of them by December 31. Covered California also just said that 510,000 of them would qualify...

Here's to your health...your health insurance credentials, that is. Information security service provider Dell SecureWorks has uncovered in a new report that buyers are dropping big bucks for health insurance documents that are being hawked on the internet underground with the goal of using them to commit fraud. Dell SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) senior security researcher Don Jackson has investigated underground market supply and demand for years, and beginning in May, he sought to update how buyers are spending their money in 2013. Jackson discovered people are laying down top dollar for all-inclusive health insurance dossiers known as “Kitz,”...

The continuing saga of the gigantic tumor. I went to the oncologist today for the 1st time about the giant lump off my appendix. While the surgery does much for me, she is still up in the air about what to do next.

Gentlemen; It has now been ten days since typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines causing almost total destruction of Tacloban, Leyte, (and other towns in Leyte), Eastern Samar, (the towns of Guiuan and Basey were severely damaged), Baco City, Oriental Mindoro, towns in the north portion of Cebu, Capiz Province in Panay, and many other areas. On 10 November, 2013 I asked that Tricare provide administrative relief to Tricare beneficiaries residing in the path of typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan. Specifically I asked for a relaxation of rules for providers to be certified, (which is a unique Tricare policy that no other...

Obamacare is intensifying the doctor shortage – though not in ways that were anticipated. Everybody seems to have expected that Obamacare would sign up some 30 million people who don’t have health insurance, and they would overwhelm doctors’ offices. But these people – especially the young and healthy whose sky-high Obamacare premiums were supposed to finance everybody else’s subsidies – have stayed away. They know a bad deal when they see one. Although the young and healthy aren’t going for Obamacare, the doctor shortage is intensifying, because government intervention generally is making it more expensive and difficult for doctors to...

Looks like I may have been blessed. Had my surgery the 28th, and am recovering fine. Went to the surgeon today for follow-up, but it included the biospy results, which they only got yesterday!

Virtual Medical Assistants: A Boon to the ACA Concept? NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- As Americans are watching the Obama Administration's foray into healthcare technology fail abysmally, it is worth noting that there are companies in this field that are successful. One is Next IT, a privately held, Spokane, Wash., hi-tech company, which is a leader in intelligent virtual assistants. It is adapting its 'Alme" platform for the healthcare field. Kathleen Sebelius should have considered it. The Alme program is ...

Every cell in your body has a little clock ticking away in it. Your heart may be “younger.” Tumors are the "oldest." Embryonic stem cells, the body’s master cells, look just like newborns with a biological age of zero.

Got my surgery date today, in just 2 weeks. I am a bit scared by all this.

Greetings! I know there are freepers who have knowledge and experience in just about any area of interest, so I figured we could gather some info/input from you on various treatments/ success stories for Crohn's. I did a search and various interesting articles have been posted, perhaps some of you have other useful links you could share. Over a year ago our youngest was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Not that there is ever a good time to become ill, but this has impacted her studies and immediate University plans. She has been under the care of a physician who has...

As of Oct. 1, Michigan doctors and medical facilities will be receiving less for treating children who are in the MiChild program, which is the State of Michigan's health care program for uninsured children of working families. According to the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH), 37,503 Michigan children are currently covered by MiChild. “This came out of the blue and at a glance looks pretty benign. But actually it's very significant,” said Dr. Megan Edison, a pediatrician in Wyoming, Michigan. “Low reimbursement rates are really having a negative impact on those in the vulnerable portion of our population. That's...

Yahle, a diesel mechanic from West Carrollton, Ohio, "coded" - a term meaning emergency -- on the afternoon of Aug. 5, after arriving in the hospital that morning in cardiac arrest. A team of doctors rushed to his hospital bedside and used chest compressions, a bag connected to a breathing tube and medications to force blood and oxygen through his body. After 45 minutes, they gave up and declared him dead. "He was truly flatlined at the end of that code. He had no electrical motion, no respiration, and no heart beat, and no blood pressure," says Jayne Testa, director...

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden planned to return home with his father, Vice President Joe Biden, aboard Air Force Two following a successful medical procedure at a Houston cancer center.

Researchers from the Gene and Stem Cell Therapy Program at Sydney's Centenary Institute have confirmed that, far from being "junk," the 97 per cent of human DNA that does not encode instructions for making proteins can play a significant role in controlling cell development. And in doing so, the researchers have unravelled a previously unknown mechanism for regulating the activity of genes, increasing our understanding of the way cells develop and opening the way to new possibilities

Victoria Byers did not drink alcohol. She did not abuse drugs. But when she was a teenager in foster care, several times a month, she would board a van at her group home and go to rehab. Byers couldn't figure out why she had to take drug tests and sit in group therapy sessions on addiction at So Cal Health Services, a clinic tucked in an office park in Riverside, California. "And I told them, you know, 'Why should I be here? I have no drug issue,' " said Byers, now a slow-to-smile 22-year-old. The director of Byers' group home...