Health care costs news and stories by mail.com

Health care costs

Do penalties for smokers and the obese make sense?
Faced with the high cost of caring for smokers and overeaters, experts say society must grapple with a blunt question: Instead of trying to penalize ...
Penalty could keep smokers out of health overhaul
Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law, according to ...
In Mass. law, states get a health overhaul model
When Massachusetts adopted its landmark health care law in 2006, the goals were ambitious and the potential solutions complex. More than 90 percent ...
Obama: We must reduce health costs, deficit
President Barack Obama says the nation must make the "hard choices" to reduce the cost of health care and the size of the deficit. But the president ...
Arizona to tax hospitals to pay for Medicaid
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has built a political career in standing up to the federal government over everything from immigration to health care. So she ...
Study: Hundreds of rare disease drugs in testing
For the nearly 30 million Americans who suffer from a rare disease, there's heartening news: Drugmakers have been shifting much of their research away ...
Unusual respite from surging health care costs
Americans kept health care spending in check for three years in a row, the government reported Monday, an unusual respite that could linger if the ...
Indian court to rule on generic drug industry
From Africa's crowded AIDS clinics to the malarial jungles of Southeast Asia, the lives of millions of ill people in the developing world are hanging ...
Steroids loom in major-college football
With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight — 30 pounds or more ...
Walgreen fiscal 1Q profit sinks nearly 26 pct
Walgreen's fiscal first-quarter earnings sank nearly 26 percent as costs tied to a couple big deals and Superstorm Sandy helped put a ...
Fewer health care options for illegal immigrants
For years, Sonia Limas would drag her daughters to the emergency room whenever they fell sick. As an illegal immigrant, she had no health insurance, ...
Surprise: New insurance fee in health overhaul law
Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with ...
Drug makers' settlements get high court review
The Supreme Court will take a close look at payments from brand-name drug makers to manufacturers of generic equivalents to keep the no-name products ...
Longer tamoxifen use cuts breast cancer deaths
Breast cancer patients taking the drug tamoxifen can cut their chances of having the disease come back or kill them if they stay on the pills for 10 ...
More American workers to pick their insurance
For some American workers, picking the right health insurance is becoming more like hunting for the perfect business suit: It takes some shopping ...
Drugmakers collaborate to facilitate drug tests
Johnson & Johnson and two other major drugmakers say they are collaborating in a global project aimed at getting patient tests of experimental drugs ...
Liberal group outlines substantial Medicare cuts
Trying to prevent a raid on health care programs in upcoming budget talks, a think tank close to the White House on Wednesday released a plan for ...
CVS Caremark 3Q profit up 16 pct. as sales rise
CVS Caremark Corp. said Tuesday that its third-quarter earnings climbed 16 percent. The drugstore operator and pharmacy benefits manager posted ...
Officials debate whether to scrap malaria program
The future of a pricey malaria program meant to provide cheap drugs for poor patients may be in jeopardy after health officials clashed over its ...
Merck 3Q profit up 2 pct despite sales decline
Drugmaker Merck & Co. said Friday that third-quarter profit rose 2 percent as lower spending and taxes, plus sales growth for several key medicines, ...
Arizona getting to know Carmona in Senate race
Arizona voters have seen Richard Carmona in combat fatigues, in a surgeon's mask and gown, wielding a pistol as a SWAT team member and most recently ...
Romney's Medicare plan raises cost questions
Mitt Romney's Medicare plan won't try to control costs by limiting the payments that future retirees would use to buy private health insurance, aides ...
Defective generic pill revives quality concerns
More Americans than ever are taking generic drugs, as blockbuster medicines like Plavix and Lipitor become available in low-cost versions. But the ...
Report: Premium hikes for top Medicare drug plans
Millions of seniors enrolled in some of the most popular Medicare prescription drug plans face double-digit premium hikes next year if they don't shop ...
Romney Medicare plan: Key details still in flux
Medicare is the one health insurance plan that will cover virtually every American at some point in life, and Republican Mitt Romney is proposing the ...