Health Care Policy

Poor Analysis

'Viva Obama 2008' is a Damn Good Song

Daschle in at HHS; Press Doesn't Care

Health Officials Defend Soda Tax, May "Look At" Pizza, Cheeseburgers

Daschle Out at HHS

While new Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner owed $34,000 in taxes, he had an excuse, if not a good one, in his confusion over his salary arrangements with the World Bank, and it's not like a Treasury Secretary has that much to do with finance anyway. But Tom Daschle, Senate lion and proposed Health a ... More >>

On Rudy's GOP Menu: Flies, Expired Milk, and Inadequate Personal Cleanliness

A closer look at Giuliani's dining suggestions

Pataki's Pick

A new hire could cast the governor's prochoice stance further into doubt

Congress's Dubious Medicare Reform

How a New Prescription-Drug Plan Could Drive Up Prices for the Elderly

Profit and Loss

Why the U.S. gets so little bang for its health care buck

Pataki May End Your Life Early

A Grave Threat to Our Hospitals

Presidential Prescriptions

Gore and Bradley on Health Care: The Differences Are in the Details

Flirting With PseudoScience

South Africa’s President May Become the First World Leader to Believe That HIV Is Not the Cause of AIDS

'Freedom Is Participation in Power'

Nader Tells New York Crowd to Grab the Reins

When Crazy Is Normal

Portrait of a Grieving City

Wheedle, Leverage, Organize

Paul Wellstone's Lesson for the Overwhelmed Dems

Hospital Holiday

Study Finds Poor Oversight of a Billion Health Care Dollars

GAO Decides to Investigate Medicare Ads

Study Finds Poor Oversight of a Billion Health Care Dollars

Letters

Study Finds Poor Oversight of a Billion Health Care Dollars

How to Kill a War in 10 Not-So-Easy Steps

Desperate times call for desperate measures—like talking to lobbyists

Have AIDS, Must Travel

A change in the way programs are funded affects local HIV/AIDS services

Former Health Commish, Surgeon General Charged With Using State Workers to Shop, Move Statue

Former New York health commissioner Antonia Novello has been charged with defrauding the government by using state employees for personal business. She has pleaded not guilty. This, you may remember, was how they got former controller Alan Hevesi, but at least he was having state drivers chauffeur a ... More >>

Town Brawl! Rightbloggers Applaud Aggro Outbreaks at Health Care Meetings

As you may have heard, some of the town hall meetings held by public officials for debate on Obama's health care plans have become brawls. In St. Petersburg, protesters bellowed until Representative Kathy Castor left the meeting; in St. Louis, a health care reform proponent, Brian Matthews, said h ... More >>

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey Against Health Care Reform

​Did you once boycott Domino's Pizza because of its support of the anti-abortion movement and other right wing causes? Well, here's another politically retrograde business to add to your boycott list: Whole Foods. According to an article in the current Counterpunch by Russell Mokhiber, of sin ... More >>

Inside the Heads of Obama's Health Care Town-Hall Rowdies

​Did you once boycott Domino's Pizza because of its support of the anti-abortion movement and other right wing causes? Well, here's another politically retrograde business to add to your boycott list: Whole Foods. According to an article in the current Counterpunch by Russell Mokhiber, of sin ... More >>

Rightbloggers Explain How Obama is Trying to Trick Veterans into Killing Themselves

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that President Obama, in the middle of a contentious health-care debate, has a 57 percent approval rating. This sounds pretty good till you get to the spin: it's 12 points lower than it was in April. Hence, "Polls Show It's Time for Democrats to Drop ... More >>

Rightbloggers Scour Kennedy Funeral for Anti-Obamacare Ammo

After a plane crash killed liberal Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife and daughter, and several staff members in 2002, his friends and family held a memorial at the University of Minnesota attended by 15,000 people. The theme was "Stand up, keep fighting" for Wellstone's beliefs, and the expected D ... More >>

Michael Pollan on American Obesity and the Healthcare Debate; Tavern on the Green Files for Bankruptcy

​Following last night's speech by President Obama on healthcare reform, Michael Pollan pens an op-ed pointing to the "elephant in the room" of the health-care debate: the way Americans eat. [NY Times] Tavern on the Green has officially filed Chapter 11, listing assets and liabilities of as mu ... More >>

Carrie Prejean at Values Voters: God Has "Bigger Crown for Me in Heaven" Than Trump Does

​The Values Voters Summit -- held in liberal D.C. rather than in Branson, Missouri, for some reason -- kicked off this morning, and has already heard from former Miss California Carrie Prejean, whose remarks are characterized by a sympathetic Dakota Voice: "She said she was raised by parents w ... More >>

Heather Graham in Shorts, Tank Top for the Public Option

"MoveOn Fembot for ObamaCare," yells Big Hollywood about this MoveOn.org ad for getting the public option into the federal health care plan. It stars Heather Graham, who, BH further informs us, " joined a coven of witches." Compounding the treason, "the ad's narrator is counter-culture hippie and ... More >>

"Drink Yourself Fat": City Grosses You Out for Your Health

Remember the "Pour on the Pounds" Department of Health ad warning New Yorkers that when they were pouring Coke and Snapple they were actually pouring fat? Well, DOH has followed through: now there's a TV ad showing a man drinking the fat. They also plop a repulsive mass on a plate to demonstrate ... More >>

City Closer to Lifting Beekeeping Ban

Bees: good for rooftops.​Someone at the Board of Health must have gotten a taste of honey: one year after council man David Yassky introduced a bill legalizing beekeeping in the city, the Board has proposed lifting the ban.

Poll: Americans Like Barack Obama, Disapprove of Barack Obama; Want Health Care Reform, Disapprove of Health Care Reform, Etc.

​In a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, President Obama has a 51 percent approval rating, and the same respondents disapprove of his handling of the economy (53 percent), the deficit (56 percent), and health care (53 percent). They approve of the way he handles terrorism (56 percent), and p ... More >>

The New York Health Department Has Lifted Its Beekeeping Ban

Here's some very sweet news for local beekeepers and those hoping to acquire some hives of their own: Earlier today, the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene voted unanimously to lift its decade-old beekeeping ban, which had lumped honeybees together with such dangerous creatures as poi ... More >>

Rightbloggers Agree: Passage of Health Care Bill an Affront to Jesus

Jim Hoft's obstreperous Gateway Pundit blog is associated with the conservative Catholic magazine site First Things. That may seem odd to those of us who know Hoft best for his non-sectarian ravings against Pepsi Cola and Honest Tea as "in the tank" for President Obama or, more recently, items like ... More >>

Health Care Bill Passes: America Does "Walk of Shame," Satan Appointed to Cabinet Position

​Good morning, Komrades! In case you didn't hear, health care legislation passed last night, and for all of our new readers who're getting to know your new socialist regime a little better, let me introduce you to the Village Voice, wherein by "Village" we mean "America" and by "Voice" we mean ... More >>

NYC Health Department Didn't Get the Rat Memo

​The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (oh, really?) will "virtually eliminate" the Manhattan office of city pest control aides, reports AM New York.

The NYC Health Dept. Knows All about Your Dirty Sex Life

None of you is the cow in this scenario.​Some bad news on the butt sex, ladies. New York City knows you're having it, and they are ashamed! See, it seems that we've been a bit remiss on the whole protection side of things. And the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is not okay with our ... More >>

Dance and Sex for Health, as They Do in Brazil

​Oh Brazil, we love you so much. First you gave us Brazilians. And then you gave us that Gisele, what a charmer! Say what you will about models, but it was kinda funny when she had that tiff with Bridget Moynahan for saying that she considered Bridget's son her son, which of course pissed Brid ... More >>

Rick Lazio's History of Fearmongering with 'Misinformation' on Health-Care Reform. We Dig Up a Memo.

Lazio needed health care in 2000 when he fell and busted his lip in front of everyone on the first day of his futile Senate campaign. See Jon Stewart's clip.By Scott Greenberg Gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio's "Stop Obamacare" campaign sounds suspiciously like one of his fearmongering strategies ... More >>

Should I Freak Out at the New DOH Letter Grading of Restaurants?

Kenneth G asks: What will the impact of letter grades be on the city's restaurants? Should I be packing up and moving somewhere else? Dear Kenneth: All around me foodies are going crazy, worrying about the Department of Health's new A-B-C letter grading for restaurants. I would caution you to wait ... More >>

Dr. John & the Lower 911

Kenneth G asks: What will the impact of letter grades be on the city's restaurants? Should I be packing up and moving somewhere else? Dear Kenneth: All around me foodies are going crazy, worrying about the Department of Health's new A-B-C letter grading for restaurants. I would caution you to wait ... More >>

DOH Announces That 80 Percent of Restaurants Have Earned an A or B Grade

This just in from the Department of Health: Of the restaurants inspected so far, 48 percent have received A grades, and 31 percent have gotten a B. Twelve percent earned Cs and eight percent did not pass and were closed. That sounds great at first--and Dr. Thomas Farley, New York City Health Commi ... More >>

Calorie Posting Laws Like New York's to Expand Country-Wide

​Thanks to President Obama's health care reform bill, calorie-posting laws similar to the ones we already have in New York will soon expand nationally: Chain restaurants and vending machines will be required to post calories in a "clear and conspicuous manner." The rules apply to any chain wit ... More >>

"Nobody Likes Cathie Black": This Week's Score Card

​Cathie Black, Mayor Bloomberg's Schools Chancellor appointee that nobody likes, is getting less popular with each passing day -- so unpopular, in fact, that she was given a big "thumbs down" by the panel chosen to evaluate her. Several groups, including city councilmen, state assemblymen, par ... More >>

West Village Bookstore Lampoons DOH

​Three Lives confers on itself the highest grade. The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene got something of a comeuppance when beloved Greenwich Village bookstore Three Lives & Co. posted their own version of the restaurant-rating letter grade.

New York City Launches New Bed Bug Website, Rules

​The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have rolled out a new website to educate locals about bed bugs as the warm months approach and everyone starts to get itchy again. The slick site offers an illustrated Q&A with a streaming voiceover to address issues like "How can I te ... More >>

Birth Control Now Considered Preventive Health Care, Will Be Available for Free

​The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has decided that FDA-approved contraceptive methods will be available for free, without co-pays or cost sharing, to women covered by new insurance plans in the U.S. "Not doing it would be like not covering flu shots," said Health and Human Serv ... More >>

Part of Obama Health Care Program Scrapped; Bishop Indicted for Failing to Report Abuse; Steve Jobs Memorial

​The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, or CLASS, has been cut from the health care bill signed by Obama in 2010. The program relied on monthly premiums and would offer protection to those who signed up. CNN reports that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius ... More >>

Turkey's Nest Tavern, Beloved Bedford Ave Bar, Closed for Health Violations, Plans To Reopen Wednesday

Creative Commons via BitchcakesBurrrrrp!Have no fear, Williamsburg lushes. Even though the Turkey's Nest, the Bedford Avenue drinking hovel made famous by its take-out margaritas and bathtub-sized beers, has been shuttered since last Wednesday, the old-school bastion of neighborhood degenerates is, ... More >>

AP: Mom Kills Self, Shoots Kids, Over Food Stamps

http://thewhizzer.blogspot.com/​A Texas woman who was denied food stamps fatally shot herself and severely wounded her two children in a state welfare office Tuesday, The Associated Press reports.