Senior Prescription Savings

About 45 million U.S. residents lack health insurance, but the "rest of us with health coverage are also uninsured" because those with coverage face "terrible, albeit more remote, health care risks," columnist Laurence Kotlikoff writes in a Boston Globe opinion piece. [click link for full article]

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - South Africa's president called critics of his embattled health minister "wild animals" in a remarkable display of support for a woman decried by AIDS activists for advocating beets and garlic as remedies for the disease.

OTTAWA (CP) - Another children's product made in China has been added to the growing list of recalls over concerns about lead, making it the fourth such recall in less than one month.

OTTAWA (CP) - Health Canada has announced the recall of Favor Set children's pencils because the coating contains high amounts of lead. Amscan Canada is voluntarily recalling 140,000 units of all 16 models of the pencils, which were made in China.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The approval of a new vaccine against smallpox was announced Saturday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which says the shots could be made quickly if the virtually extinct virus reappears.

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (CP) - The birth of identical quadruplet girls in Montana last month has ignited debate south of the border with editorial writers and bloggers attacking the Canadian health-care system.

TORONTO (CP) - As children try to get back into the groove at school, one thing is almost certain: sleep patterns will be a bit wonky as they adjust from late nights and leisurely mornings to earlier bedtimes and rise-and-shine wake-up calls.

In light of the "substantial" cost of medical errors, Medicare's new rule to refuse to pay the costs of preventable hospital errors will provide an incentive that should "help reduce the taxpayers' burden," a Washington Times editorial states. It continues, "It's not to say that hospitals are careless now, but the new rules will make them more diligent. [click link for full article]

Some benefits, including dental and vision coverage, included in Missouri's new health plan MO HealthNet were not funded this year, state lawmakers said Tuesday at a forum on health care, the Kansas City Star reports. [click link for full article]

Problems with medical care and other services have continued in the New Orleans area in the two years since Hurricane Katrina, according to a report released this month by the Brookings Institution, the McClatchy/Lexington Herald-Leader reports. [click link for full article]