In 1972, after a month of deliberation, Congress launched the nation’s most ambitious experiment in universal health care: a change to the Social Security Act that granted comprehensive coverage under Medicare to virtually anyone diagnosed with kidney failure, regardless of age or income. It was a supremely hopeful moment. Although the technology to keep […]
Mine Collapses a Reminder of the Impact of Coal Energy
By Daniel Tovrov Photographer: Peter Van den Bossche A miner in the coal-rich Chinese province of Shanxi. After a pair of explosions collapsed a coal mine in western Siberia, 66 miners and rescue workers have been declared dead while 24 remain missing and 80 survivors recover in local hospitals. According to a report by the […]
Philippines: Typhoon Santi (Mirinae) Capitol in the Eye of the Storm
"Severe Storm Warning Philippines"The Philippine Government has laid out plans to deal with the incoming storm – this is typical of the NDCC it also offersa insight onto what one can do with government resources in a disaster and how invoelvement is coordinated. The best laid plans however can not be enough when nature takes […]
Preparing for a Pandemic, State Health Departments Struggle With Rationing Decisions
Spanish Flu Ward, 1918 This story was co-published with the New York Times. New York state health officials recently laid out this wrenching scenario for a small group of medical professionals from New York-Presbyterian Hospital: A 32-year-old man with cystic fibrosis is rushed to the hospital with appendicitis in the midst of a worsening […]
In Flu Pandemic, Florida’s Hospitals May Exclude Certain Patients
by Sheri Fink, ProPublica – October 16, 2009 6:44 pm EDT Florida health officials are drawing up guidelines that recommend barring patients with incurable cancer, end-stage multiple sclerosis and other conditions from being admitted to hospitals if the state is overwhelmed by flu cases. The plan, which would guide Florida hospitals on how to ration […]
For Readers Seeking Imaginative Landscapes, Diane Tegarden’s Book Hits The Spot
Author, Diane Tegarden, lives in Pasadena, California and in April 2004, she self-published her first book, Getting Out of Limbo: A Self-Help Divorce Book For Women. Recently, she’s written two other books Light Through Shuttered Window and Anti-Vigilante And The Rips In Time. The latter title she describes as being "a blockbuster science fiction […]