Free Republic

Faced with the prospect of losing her father to cancer, Chantelle Hill reacted a little differently to the average six-year-old. Instead of letting the grown-ups deal with it, she decided to save him herself. Now, she has raised more than £4,000 to buy the life-saving drugs David Hill needs after he was told they were not available to him on the Health Service.

CONCORD – A pilot program that will spend nearly $9 million to bring managed care to the Medicaid program comes up for a vote tomorrow when Gov. John Lynch meets with the Executive Council. Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen has proposed paying an Arizona company $8.9 million over three years to bring the managed care concept to Medicaid administration. Estimates are the program will save the state $5.2 million over two years after costs of running the program are deducted. Medicaid is a program of state and federal medical benefits for low-income and disabled residents. The federal and...

BRITAIN’S top medical ethics expert has urged doctors to let the most premature babies die, with treatment offered only in exceptional cases. Baroness Warnock believes Britain should follow Holland in setting an age limit below which babies would not routinely be resuscitated. She says this would prevent doctors competing for the “triumph” of keeping babies alive at increasingly young ages even though they may not survive in the long term or may be left severely disabled. Warnock’s comments were backed in part by Britain’s most senior paediatrician, who said the setting of a lower limit should be considered. In Holland,...