Healthcare reform in US brings good news for women. Because the gender based health insurance industry and due to the gender, women are greater sufferers. They used to pay more and get less in return. But with implementation of new healthcare reform and “Affordable Care Act”, hopefully the biased against women in health care will be removed.

In a study it was seen that as many as half of women delay seeking medical advise because they could not afford it, in compare less than 40% men (approximately 39%). Due to women suffering, their children also suffer. Before implementation of Affordable Care Act, women are being charged higher health insurance premiums in compare their male counterparts. Even pregnancy was treated as preexisting medical condition and frequently denied or charged higher health insurance premiums for that.

With introduction of Affordable Care Act by Obama Administration, everybody (men and women alike) can buy private health insurance. Women will be able to avail maternal benefits along with basic health benefits under new law/Act. Under new law men and women will have access to quality, affordable health insurance, even if they loose their job or changes in employment, illness, or relocation.

From start of 2014, Affordable Care Act will help in the following way:

• Under new Affordable Care Act, an insurance company can not deny any woman (or man) a health insurance due to preexisting medical condition or exclude coverage for that preexisting condition.
• Insurance companies can not charge more due to gender or a preexisting medical condition.
• Insurance companies can not charge whatever they want (a cap will be in place) a woman out of pocket and copayments and deductibles.
• For men and women their will be coverage for pediatric,, dental and eye care under new Affordable Care Act.
• There will be no annual upper limit of medical expenses for new plans and existing employer plans.

From 2011, the Affordable Care Act has reduced the gender bias:

• From starting of 2011, all insurance companies must prove that they must spend 80% of insurance premiums on medical expenses and not in non medical expenses such as salaries for executives, marketing etc.
• All insurance companies must justify the increase in premium to State Governments and States can prevent unjustified increase in premiums.

All the above mentioned benefits will hopefully able to remove/reduce gender bias against women, with previous health insurance plans.

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Denis Farrell/AP

Condoms like this one were given out during the African National Congress party's centenary celebrations in early Now a South African health official says that 1.35 million of them are being recalled amid charges some broke during sex.

The party may be over, but the trouble may just be starting in South Africa.

The health department in Free State province is recalling 1.35 million condoms that may not be up to snuff.

The affected condoms â€" a government brand called Choice â€" were distributed early this month as part of the festivities marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the African National Congress.

The ANC, the ruling political party in the country for the past 17 years, is known for its pivotal role in the ending of apartheid and its longtime leader Nelson Mandela's message of equality.

But quite a few of the "revolutionary rubbers," as the City Press newspaper called the freebies, reportedly broke during sex. "People would claim that the condoms burst," AIDS activist Sello Mokhalipi, of the Treatment Action Campaign, told the paper. "When we investigated the complaints it turned out the condoms are porous."

 

A Free State health department spokesman told the Associated Press they were given out in hotels and bars in the city of Bloemfontein during the ANC centenary celebrations there.

Mokhalipi told the AP that TAC's testing with water-filled condoms found "they were leaking like sieves."

The South African Bureau of Standards certifies that condoms are in compliance with international standards. All the condoms reportedly got the SABS OK.

While HIV remains a challenging public health problem in South Africa, a recently published analysis suggests that condoms have played a key role in reducing the incidence of HIV infections in recent years.

If you're wondered how condoms are tested. The nerds at Consumer Reports revealed their methods in a video you can watch below.

Healthcare reform in US brings good news for women. Because the gender based health insurance industry and due to the gender, women are greater sufferers. They used to pay more and get less in return. But with implementation of new healthcare reform and “Affordable Care Act”, hopefully the biased against women in health care will be removed.

In a study it was seen that as many as half of women delay seeking medical advise because they could not afford it, in compare less than 40% men (approximately 39%). Due to women suffering, their children also suffer. Before implementation of Affordable Care Act, women are being charged higher health insurance premiums in compare their male counterparts. Even pregnancy was treated as preexisting medical condition and frequently denied or charged higher health insurance premiums for that.

With introduction of Affordable Care Act by Obama Administration, everybody (men and women alike) can buy private health insurance. Women will be able to avail maternal benefits along with basic health benefits under new law/Act. Under new law men and women will have access to quality, affordable health insurance, even if they loose their job or changes in employment, illness, or relocation.

From start of 2014, Affordable Care Act will help in the following way:

• Under new Affordable Care Act, an insurance company can not deny any woman (or man) a health insurance due to preexisting medical condition or exclude coverage for that preexisting condition.
• Insurance companies can not charge more due to gender or a preexisting medical condition.
• Insurance companies can not charge whatever they want (a cap will be in place) a woman out of pocket and copayments and deductibles.
• For men and women their will be coverage for pediatric,, dental and eye care under new Affordable Care Act.
• There will be no annual upper limit of medical expenses for new plans and existing employer plans.

From 2011, the Affordable Care Act has reduced the gender bias:

• From starting of 2011, all insurance companies must prove that they must spend 80% of insurance premiums on medical expenses and not in non medical expenses such as salaries for executives, marketing etc.
• All insurance companies must justify the increase in premium to State Governments and States can prevent unjustified increase in premiums.

All the above mentioned benefits will hopefully able to remove/reduce gender bias against women, with previous health insurance plans.

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Related posts:

Effects of New Healthcare Reforms in US

Emergency Loans in Health Care

Important Points to Remember While Buying Health Insurance

What Factors Determine Health Insurance Premium?

Four Tips to Buy Right Health Insurance

Health Insurance for Visitors

Few Women’s Health Facts on International Women’s Day

Getting Medical Care in Las Vegas at Affordable Cost

Importance of Travel Insurance

Tips to Save on Health Insurance Premiums

Enlarge Arman Zhenikeyev/iStockphoto.com

Now that feels good.

Arman Zhenikeyev/iStockphoto.com

Now that feels good.

There are few more sybaritic pleasures than scratching an itch.

But according to a study just out in the British Journal of Dermatology, the intensity of the scratching delight varies with the location of the itch.

The research team was lead by Gil Yosipovitch, a man described as the "Godfather of itch." He and his colleagues at Wake Forest School of Medicine recruited 18 brave souls to take part in their study.

To induce itch, the researchers rubbed their subjects' skin with approximately 40 cowhage spicules. Just in case you're not familiar with cowhage spicules, they are tiny threads taken from a tropical legume.

OK, that's not really very helpful. Just take it on faith that when applied to a human's skin, cowhage spicules reliably induce intense itching.

Subjects didn't get to scratch their own itch. That would induce too much variability into the experimental design. Instead, the researchers rubbed their subjects' spicule-induced itches with a Medi-Pak 7-inch cytology brush (item #24â€"2199, General Medical Corp., Elkridge, Md.).

 

Probably not as satisfying as scratching with a nice sharp fingernail, but more reproducible.

The researchers tested the itch-scratch response at three sites: back, forearm and ankle. Turns out scratching the ankle produced a more pleasurable itch relief than the other two locations.

Now before you shake your head in wonderment that the researchers chose the back, ankle and forearm to make their measurements, be reassured that this is just the start. "Future studies," they write, "could also examine the scratching pleasurability associated with other itchy areas such as the scalp or the anogenital region." OK.

Whatever else they learn, the Wake Forest researchers have proven one thing: every itch has its niche.

Healthcare reform in US brings good news for women. Because the gender based health insurance industry and due to the gender, women are greater sufferers. They used to pay more and get less in return. But with implementation of new healthcare reform and “Affordable Care Act”, hopefully the biased against women in health care will be removed.

In a study it was seen that as many as half of women delay seeking medical advise because they could not afford it, in compare less than 40% men (approximately 39%). Due to women suffering, their children also suffer. Before implementation of Affordable Care Act, women are being charged higher health insurance premiums in compare their male counterparts. Even pregnancy was treated as preexisting medical condition and frequently denied or charged higher health insurance premiums for that.

With introduction of Affordable Care Act by Obama Administration, everybody (men and women alike) can buy private health insurance. Women will be able to avail maternal benefits along with basic health benefits under new law/Act. Under new law men and women will have access to quality, affordable health insurance, even if they loose their job or changes in employment, illness, or relocation.

From start of 2014, Affordable Care Act will help in the following way:

• Under new Affordable Care Act, an insurance company can not deny any woman (or man) a health insurance due to preexisting medical condition or exclude coverage for that preexisting condition.
• Insurance companies can not charge more due to gender or a preexisting medical condition.
• Insurance companies can not charge whatever they want (a cap will be in place) a woman out of pocket and copayments and deductibles.
• For men and women their will be coverage for pediatric,, dental and eye care under new Affordable Care Act.
• There will be no annual upper limit of medical expenses for new plans and existing employer plans.

From 2011, the Affordable Care Act has reduced the gender bias:

• From starting of 2011, all insurance companies must prove that they must spend 80% of insurance premiums on medical expenses and not in non medical expenses such as salaries for executives, marketing etc.
• All insurance companies must justify the increase in premium to State Governments and States can prevent unjustified increase in premiums.

All the above mentioned benefits will hopefully able to remove/reduce gender bias against women, with previous health insurance plans.

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Related posts:

Effects of New Healthcare Reforms in US

Emergency Loans in Health Care

Important Points to Remember While Buying Health Insurance

What Factors Determine Health Insurance Premium?

Four Tips to Buy Right Health Insurance

Health Insurance for Visitors

Few Women’s Health Facts on International Women’s Day

Getting Medical Care in Las Vegas at Affordable Cost

Importance of Travel Insurance

Tips to Save on Health Insurance Premiums

Enlarge USDA/AP

Not who you want to meet on your tropical vacation.

USDA/AP

Not who you want to meet on your tropical vacation.

If winter has you daydreaming of a vacation to sunny lands, you might want to consider the risk of dengue fever in your plans.

The number of cases of the disease, a severe flu-like illness with excruciating headaches, joint and muscle pain, is soaring, according to an update from the World Health Organization.

Now more than 40 percent of the world's population is at risk â€" 2.5 billion people, according to the group. In 2010, there were 1.6 million cases in the Americas alone.

"Not only is the number of cases increasing as the disease spreads to new areas, but explosive outbreaks are occurring," WHO warned in a statement on its website.

 

Europe can expect a dengue outbreak soon, the WHO statement says. In 2010, locally acquired cases were reported in Croatia and France for the first time.

Closer to home, last year Miami logged two cases of dengue fever, both of which were locally acquired.

When it comes to infectious disease, this is bad news. Until now, most cases of dengue in the United States have been in people returning from places like the Caribbean, South America or Asia, where the disease is common.

"It means it's in our area, not an imported disease," Vincent Conte, deputy director of epidemiology for the Miami-Dade County Health Department, told the Miami Herald last September.

In 2010, there was a dengue outbreak in the laid-back vacation haven of Key West, the first sizable outbreak of the disease in the U.S. in more than 50 years. Federal health officials said at the time that the Southern U.S. should brace for more. (NPR's Richard Knox reported on that outbreak.)

Dengue is caused by a virus, and the virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. It lives in urban areas, likes to breed in flowerpots and similar containers, and bites during the day, when people are out and about. There's no vaccine to prevent dengue. The best way to avoid it is to avoid getting bitten by a mosquito.

With no new cases in Miami since September, earlier this month the health department lifted its dengue advisory.

But the authorities there are still urging people to dengue-proof by draining standing water from flowerpots and pool covers, covering up with clothing and repellent, and repairing window screens.

The global surge of dengue has not gone unnoticed by scientists, who are trying to figure out how to halt transmission.

NPR's Dan Charles reported last year on efforts to study dengue in Peru, while scientists in England are working on genetically modified sterile male mosquitoes. And in Australia, scientists are feeding mosquitoes bacteria in the hope that they'll be too sick to bite. Here's Joe Palca's report.

Healthcare reform in US brings good news for women. Because the gender based health insurance industry and due to the gender, women are greater sufferers. They used to pay more and get less in return. But with implementation of new healthcare reform and “Affordable Care Act”, hopefully the biased against women in health care will be removed.

In a study it was seen that as many as half of women delay seeking medical advise because they could not afford it, in compare less than 40% men (approximately 39%). Due to women suffering, their children also suffer. Before implementation of Affordable Care Act, women are being charged higher health insurance premiums in compare their male counterparts. Even pregnancy was treated as preexisting medical condition and frequently denied or charged higher health insurance premiums for that.

With introduction of Affordable Care Act by Obama Administration, everybody (men and women alike) can buy private health insurance. Women will be able to avail maternal benefits along with basic health benefits under new law/Act. Under new law men and women will have access to quality, affordable health insurance, even if they loose their job or changes in employment, illness, or relocation.

From start of 2014, Affordable Care Act will help in the following way:

• Under new Affordable Care Act, an insurance company can not deny any woman (or man) a health insurance due to preexisting medical condition or exclude coverage for that preexisting condition.
• Insurance companies can not charge more due to gender or a preexisting medical condition.
• Insurance companies can not charge whatever they want (a cap will be in place) a woman out of pocket and copayments and deductibles.
• For men and women their will be coverage for pediatric,, dental and eye care under new Affordable Care Act.
• There will be no annual upper limit of medical expenses for new plans and existing employer plans.

From 2011, the Affordable Care Act has reduced the gender bias:

• From starting of 2011, all insurance companies must prove that they must spend 80% of insurance premiums on medical expenses and not in non medical expenses such as salaries for executives, marketing etc.
• All insurance companies must justify the increase in premium to State Governments and States can prevent unjustified increase in premiums.

All the above mentioned benefits will hopefully able to remove/reduce gender bias against women, with previous health insurance plans.

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Related posts:

Effects of New Healthcare Reforms in US

Emergency Loans in Health Care

Important Points to Remember While Buying Health Insurance

What Factors Determine Health Insurance Premium?

Four Tips to Buy Right Health Insurance

Health Insurance for Visitors

Few Women’s Health Facts on International Women’s Day

Getting Medical Care in Las Vegas at Affordable Cost

Importance of Travel Insurance

Tips to Save on Health Insurance Premiums