Health Care Policy

New York City's Diabetes Death Rate Has Hit an All-Time High

Someone dies a diabetes-related death every 90 minutes in New York City, according to a disturbing new report out from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. That's 11 percent of citywide deaths in 2011, or nearly double the proportion it was in 1990, when 6 percent of citywide deaths had diab ... More >>

More Than 145,000 New York Kids Struggle with Mental-Health Conditions

According to a new study by the Department of Health, New York City preteens struggle with mental illness at rates no higher than their counterparts nationwide. But the numbers are still startling: More than 145,000 city kids -- roughly one in five -- between the ages of six and 12 are reported to h ... More >>

New York's Condom Bait-and-Switch

Department of Health hands them out, NYPD arrests people for carrying them. Is this about improving public health—or arrest numbers?

New York's Condom Bait-and-Switch

Department of Health hands them out, NYPD arrests people for carrying them. Is this about improving public health—or arrest numbers?

These New Teen Pregnancy Ads On The Subway Are Something Else

Only Nick Kroll's pet surgery faux ad for Comedy Central's "The Kroll Show" has this beat. Today, ads in the same vein as the one seen on the right will pop up on subways everywhere. Their main theme: 50 percent of teenagers do not really understand the seriousness of pregnancy at such an early age ... More >>

Paul Ryan Uses His Own Mama to Defuse Medicare Drama

In Rep. Paul Ryan's 'The Path to Prosperity' budget, Medicare, the health insurance program that is loved by older Americans and hated by deficit hawks, will cease to exist some time around 2022. The program - a lasting stipulation of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society - will be transformed into a vo ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: Maine's Proposed Prescription Pot Rules Criticized by Many

As Maine tries to come up with ways to manage its medical marijuana program, one of the state's lawmakers is speaking out against some proposed restrictions. As detailed by the Portland Daily Sun, Rep. Deb Sanderson worries that the state will implement rules that "are more restrictive and divergen ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: Delays Cause Confusion in New Jersey

Though the feds have come down on California dispensaries, including Oakland's Harborside Health Center, other states are pushing ahead with prescription pot initiatives. New Jersey, in fact, is so down with medical marijuana that one lawmaker has criticized state bureaucracy for taking too long to ... More >>

Wendy Long, GOP Senate Candidate: Soldiers 'Didn't Die' for Reproductive Rights

Wendy Long, New York's Republican U.S. Senate candidate, has lots to say about your ladyparts. As we reported last week, Long is apparently against abortion in all cases and anti-birth control. Now, news has surfaced indicating that Long has put contraception in a patriotic context, saying in stu ... More >>

BREAKING: Supreme Court Has Upheld Individual Mandate, Handing Obama Huge Victory on Healthcare Law

We're listening to the Brian Lehrer show and reading SCOTUSblog's liveblog as the Supreme Court sits for what will probably be the final time of this term. And...SCOTUSblog is saying that the mandate has survived as a tax, and that Chief Justice John Roberts has joined the left in this ruling. The ... More >>

Michael Bloomberg's Supersized Soda Ban: Can It Battle Obesity in The First Place?

The Times has a story today about Mayor Mike Bloomberg's battle with supersized sodas and how his fight is playing out in New York's poorest borough, the Bronx. Part of Bloomberg's move, the article explains, stems from the persistence of obesity in the Bronx. Though anti-obesity measures have bee ... More >>

Birth Control Buzz Kill: HHS Contraception Mandate Comes Under More Fire

American Protestants apparently want to be just like American Catholics. According to Religion News Service, they too are pissed about Barack Obama's Health and Human Services Mandate, which requires that insurance companies provide birth control coverage.

A Foreign Affair

Laugh along with David Sedaris at BAM

Karaoke For The Blind? Jewish Guild Axes Music Therapy Due To Budget Woes, Pays For Karaoke No One Can See (Part 3)

Part 3 in a series. (Part 1 is here, part 2 here.) Despite being axed by the Jewish Guild for the Blind after working as their part-time music therapist for two decades, and despite having the organization lie to her clients that she cancelled on them, music therapist Debbie Moran is lobbying on ... More >>

Street Kids: Groups Want to Make NYC Roads Child Safe

Remember, back in the day, when you used to go outside and scamper around the streets of New York with all the other rosy-cheeked neighborhood kids, playing stickball and tag and hopscotch as the summer sun sank gently into the horizon? No? Well, not to worry, Runnin' Scared doesn't either -- and ... More >>

Ask the Critics: Do Restaurants Have to Offer Restrooms?

​Sharon S. asks: I was in a small restaurant the other day and when I asked where the restroom was, I was told there wasn't one. I thought any place that served food had to offer toilets. Am I mistaken? What's the rule? Dear Sharon: I had actually been under the same impression, but the law is a ... More >>

Mayor Bloomberg Criticizes Obama Administration's Decision on Plan B

​A "haggard-looking and hoarse-voiced" Mayor Bloomberg critiqued U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius' decision tp prohibit girls under 17 from buying the morning-after pill over the counter. On December 7, Sebelius overruled a decision by FDA commissioner Margaret Hambur ... 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.

Mars Bar Closed for Good?

​After much speculation about its closure, the famed Mars Bar ceased operation today. Sitting outside of the dive, owner Hank Penza told us he shut the place down on Monday afternoon. "I closed up," he said. "I don't want to be bothered." Penza said this is it for the bar's location on the ... More >>

Barack Obama's Birth Certificate: Here It Is! But Something About It Looks Fishy...

​Kenya, East Africa?! It says so right there on the paper... (Haha, just kidding.) That's the birthplace of Obama's father, who shares the name Barack Hussein Obama, but was not birthed on August 4, 1961. Our president was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Shut up, birther idiots. Shut up, Donald Trum ... More >>

9/11 Responders Must Show They're Not Terrorists Before Receiving Benefits

​The new 9/11 health bill requires "tens of thousands of cops, firefighters, construction workers and others who survived the worst terrorist assault in U.S. history and risked their lives in its wake" to prove to the government that they're not terrorists before they can receive medical care, ... More >>

Today in El Diario: Alcohol's Deadly Toll

​Drowning in drink New Yorkers drink a lot, so there's always a steady stream of hospitalizations and emergency room visits because of booze, and some of the city's immigrant communities are leading the way, according to the Spanish-language daily. In 2009, alcohol led to 70,000 emergency room ... More >>

Anthony Weiner is Taking Questions on Reddit

​To mark the 1st anniversary of President Barack Obama's health care reform, Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York's 9th congressional district is taking questions on the popular social news site Reddit. The "IAmA" section, which has been home to people dying (but actually lying) and Jeopardy! champ ... 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.

Dr. John & the Lower 911

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 >>

Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate

​The election of Republican Scott Brown to replace the deceased Ted Kennedy in the Senate from Massachusetts yesterday destroys the Democrats' 60-vote supermajority, widely presumed to be needed for passage of a health care bill, or so it would seem from headlines ("House Dems largely reject i ... More >>

Nate Silver Predicts Republican Odds of Victory in Today's Senate Race are "3:1"

When Nate Silver talks...​New York is looking to the North today as Martha Coakley attempts to keep Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat for the Democrats. The Massachusetts senate race has the cover of the Post and has President Obama pleading with New York Democrats (via e-mail) to report to a phon ... More >>

Health alert issued for mumps outbreak in Brooklyn

​The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has issued an alert (pdf) to healthcare providers in response to a record mumps outbreak in New York and New Jersey. The CDC traced the path of infection back to an asymptomatic 11-year-old boy who carried it from an epidemic in England to an ... 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 >>

Fort Defiance Battles the DOH

According to the Fort Defiance website, the Red Hook bar and restaurant has been shuttered by the Department of Health thanks to "nonfunctional gas cooking equipment in the kitchen." Apparently, a restaurant with gas equipment but no gas service is a DOH no-no. Fortunately, St. John Frizell, Fort De ... 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 >>

Dole Goes Public Again; Vendy Finalists Announced

​Dole Food has filed the paperwork to go public, the second time it has done so after going private in 2003. The company, currently owned by LA billionaire David Murdock, hopes to raise $500 million. [NY Times] Since Whole Foods CEO John Mackey publicly criticized President Obama's health car ... More >>

Blue Dye May Save Spines; Is a Fat Tax the Answer to Health Care Woes?

​A common and safe blue food dye called brilliant blue G -- a close relative of the popular dye Blue no. 1 -- was found to be useful in treating spinal cord injuries in rats by crossing into the spinal fluid and helping to block inflammation. [Reuters] President Obama's health-care reforms in ... More >>

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 >>

Obama Calls for Safer Food

In an interview on the Today show earlier today, President Obama said the Food and Drug Administration needs to step it up. With a salmonella outbreak in peanut butter blamed for eight deaths and sickening over 500 people, Obama said he wants to examine how the agency operates. "I think that the FDA ... More >>

Daschle in at HHS; Press Doesn't Care

'Viva Obama 2008' is a Damn Good Song

Infant Morality

No More Scars

A notorious boob doc is shut down with finality. The lawsuits, however, are still ballooning

The HIV Watchers

Aspects of proposed bill meet stiff resistance

Have AIDS, Must Travel

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

One Sick Fall

With health insurance out of reach, a generation braces itself for the worst

Letters

Congress's Dubious Medicare Reform

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

Hospital Holiday

Study Finds Poor Oversight of a Billion Health Care Dollars

Saving Babies

Fighting to Reduce Infant Mortality Among Immigrants and African Americans

The Shrink Brigade

Therapists Take On Managed Care

Problem Pregnancy

Doctors regard AZT as an AIDS vaccine for babies. But South Africa says it's too expensive.

Starve and Sever

Is the Mayor Trying To Get Out of the Hospital Business?