(L.A. Times) State legislators from the Southern California are championing a proposal by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich to require nursing homes statewide to prominently post the ratings they receive under a federal five-star system, similar to the grades displayed by restaurants.

Today, State Reps. Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) and Cameron Smyth (R-Santa Clarita) introduced Assembly Bill 215 to require(…)

(Bloomberg) — Just as President Barack Obama prepares to overhaul the U.S. medical system, providers of U.S.- backed health plans for the elderly are raising prices.

Humana Inc., Health Net Inc. and other providers increased 2009 premiums by 13 percent on average, or more than five times as much as last year, for people who use the Advantage version of Medicare,(…)

Lack of coverage can spur cutbacks in necessary prescriptions, study finds

(HealthDay News) – American seniors who reach the no-coverage “doughnut hole” in the Medicare Part D drug plan are less likely to use prescription drugs than those with an employer-based plan, a new study finds.

The finding raises concerns about health consequences and increased costs from hospitalizations and doctor visits resulting(…)

(Businessweek)- A new report says laws crimp Medicare’s ability to control costs on cancer, leading to a 267% increase in drug spending over seven years

Medicare spending on cancer drugs has skyrocketed in recent years, and Congress has severely limited the program’s ability to do anything about it, says a report in the Feb. 7 issue of The New England Journal(…)

(Newsweek)- Are freelance and part-time gigs the future?

In this economy, a job isn’t just a job: It’s a pastiche of part-time gigs, project contracts and fill-in freelance work. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment was up in December across all fifty states from the previous month and the prior year. Some 2.5 million full-time jobs have evaporated in(…)

(The New York Times)WASHINGTON — The stimulus bill working its way through Congress is not just a package of spending increases and tax cuts intended to jolt the nation out of recession. For Democrats, it is also a tool for rewriting the social contract with the poor, the uninsured and the unemployed, in ways they have long yearned to do.

With(…)

(The New York Times)- Medicare, with little public debate, has expanded its coverage of drugs for cancer treatments not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Cancer doctors had clamored for the changes, saying that some of these treatments, known as off-label uses, were essential if patients were to receive the most up-to-date care. But for many such uses there(…)

The New York Times- Few Americans probably have any inkling of how their neighborhood hospital prices the myriad of distinct services rendered patients. I doubt many patients can understand the long hospital bills that feature exotic items such as “cath porta cath perit” or “OP6-central line reposit,” and so on. Even fewer still likely understand why a Tylenol pill or(…)

Start by reforming Social Security and Medicare.

The Wall Street Journal-Barack Obama thus far has treated politics mainly as a business of mobilization, not persuasion. That will now have to change. He’s had the audacity to inspire more hopes than he can deliver, especially with his new talk of entitlement reform. He might, if he were Pinochet, deliver a giant, non-porky(…)

(Newsweek) Obama says he doesn’t want to mortgage our children’s future. If he means it, he’ll have to cut retirees’ Social Security and Medicare benefits. Who wins?

Probably no political platitude is more invoked or more ignored than this: let’s do it for the kids. Everyone recognizes the moral power of making sacrifices today for our children’s well-being tomorrow. That’s why(…)