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Wall Street Journal Examines Group Health Insurance Policies As Option For Uninsured
People who no longer have health insurance because of a job loss, voluntary retirement or other reasons have begun obtaining health coverage through the "little-known" option of group coverage, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Journal, the option is especially beneficial for people with pre-existing conditions to whom some insurers deny coverage. Federal law requires group policies to cover pre-existing conditions provided a person has not been uninsured for more than 63 days.To qualify for group coverage, an individual, a couple or a small group of people must provide evidence of ownership of an actual business, which could include freelance, contract or consulting work. Industry experts note that rules vary between states. In addition, group coverage could cost more than individual coverage, according to the Journal. The Journal reports that insurance companies might add extra fees for smaller groups. The smallest groups, sometimes of two or three people, can face surcharges of about 30% more than what larger groups pay, according to insurance broker Rick Martin.According to the Journal, it is unclear how many business owners currently are eligible for group coverage. Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation indicate that about one-third of the four million uninsured U.S. residents between ages 55 and 64 are self-employed, the Journal reports (Greene, Wall Street Journal, 5/27).
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Obama"s Plan Isn"t The Answer The Washington Post
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Total Laparoscopic Aortic Surgery Is Feasible, Shows Satisfactory Results
Recently the use of laparoscopy for vascular procedures has been limited by difficulties in aortic exposure and anastomosis techniques, as well as the concurrent competitive progress of endovascular surgery. For aortic repair, best results (in terms of long-term patency) have been obtained by conventional surgery which has been associated short-term morbidity and mortality.
Cardiovascular

Ultrasound Predicts Cardiovascular Risk After Ischemic Attack

Ultrasound can be used to determine a patient"s heart risk after a transient ischemic attack (TIA). An evaluation of transcranial (TCD) and extracranial (ECD) Doppler ultrasonography, published in the open access journal BMC Medical Imaging, has shown that both future stroke and future cardiovascular ischemic events can be predicted by abnormal findings. Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death on long-term follow-up after a TIA. Dr. Holger Poppert from the Technische Universität MÃønchen, Germany, worked with a team of researchers to evaluate the ability of ultrasound to predict the likelihood of new vascular events in 176 TIA patients, with a median follow-up of 27 months. He said, "Nearly 40% of the patients with either stenoocclusive disease in ECD or pathological findings in TCD suffered a new ischemic stroke or TIA. Furthermore, detection of reactive collateral flow patterns or intracranial stenosis by TCD predicts new cardiovascular ischemic events on medium to long-term follow-up". The researchers found that 5 of 18 patients with abnormal TCD findings (27.8%), but only 4 of 134 patients without (3%), developed a subsequent cardiovascular ischemic event. Speaking about these results, Poppert said, "Our findings support the routine use of TCD in addition to ECD in TIA patients. Moreover, routine screening tests for coronary artery disease and aggressive prevention therapies should be considered in TIA patients with pathological TCD findings". Notes: Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography predicts cardiovascular events after TIA Katrin Holzer, Suwad Sadikovic, Lorena Esposito, Angelina Bockelbrink, Dirk Sander, Bernhard Hemmer and Holger Poppert BMC Medical Imaging (in press) http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmedimaging/ Graeme Baldwin BioMed Central


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