Latest Health care costs News

Don't fall for fake dentists offering veneers and other dental work on social media

Oct. 05, 2024 09:06 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — If you have stained or chipped teeth, you might be considering veneers, customized teeth coverings that can restore a photogenic smile without more extensive dental work. But dentists warn that these pricey cosmetic enhancements are at the center of a worrisome...

Hospital clowns bring joy to young Ukrainian cancer patients who survived Russian missile attack

Sep. 29, 2024 09:09 AM EDT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Their costumes are put on with surgical precision: Floppy hats, foam noses, bright clothes, and a ukulele with multicolored nylon strings. Moments later, in a beige hospital ward normally filled with the beeping sounds of medical machinery, there are bursts of...

France's new government pledges hardline stance on migration as it cozies up to far right

Sep. 29, 2024 08:28 AM EDT

PARIS (AP) — France’s new government is set to take a hardline approach to migration issues as key officials have pledged to significantly reduce the number of people entering and staying illegally in the country. After calling for snap legislative elections in June, President...

Medicare Advantage shopping season arrives with a dose of confusion and some political implications

Sep. 28, 2024 09:06 AM EDT

Thinner benefits and coverage changes await many older Americans shopping for health insurance this fall. That’s if their plan is even still available in 2025. More than a million people will probably have to find new coverage as major insurers cut costs and pull back from markets...

Sepsis and malnutrition stalk the new mothers and babies of South Darfur

Sep. 24, 2024 18:03 PM EDT

CAIRO (AP) — Mothers and children in the Sudanese region of South Darfur are experiencing one of the “worst” health emergencies in the world, humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday, one of the consequences of the violence that has engulfed the country since April 2023....

IOC candidate Samaranch urges European lawmakers to invest in sport as a public health policy

Sep. 24, 2024 08:39 AM EDT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — IOC presidential candidate Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. has urged European lawmakers to regard investing in sport as a public health policy in his first keynote speech of a six-month Olympic leadership campaign. “Let’s make this simple: Sport saves lives...

An appeals court has revived a challenge to President Biden's Medicare drug price reduction program

Sep. 20, 2024 17:02 PM EDT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A constitutional challenge to the Biden administration program enabling Medicare to negotiate lower prices for widely used prescription drugs was revived by a federal appeals court in New Orleans in a 2-1 decision Friday. Congress created the program as part of...

High insulin prices spur a federal lawsuit against three pharmacy benefit managers

Sep. 20, 2024 16:40 PM EDT

The federal government is suing some big pharmacy benefit managers over a system of drug rebates that regulators say has made the price of insulin soar for diabetic patients. Three companies that process about 80% of prescriptions in the United States — Caremark, Express Scripts...

Sri Lanka's presidential election a test for current leader, 2 years after its economy hit bottom

Sep. 19, 2024 09:55 AM EDT

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Two years ago, food cart worker Fathima Shiyama had to wait in line, sometimes for days, to get cooking gas, fuel and other essentials. It was a test of patience for her and millions of other Sri Lankans as their country languished in economic and political chaos. ...

California’s cap on health care costs is the nation’s strongest. But will patients notice?

Sep. 18, 2024 14:57 PM EDT

Vickie Villegas had to pay $3,000 out-of-pocket every time she was treated for multiple sclerosis, a disease that attacks the central nervous system. Her doctor recommended she get treatments twice a year to keep the disease from worsening, but she couldn’t afford it, the Pasadena-area resident...