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Appendicitis
Operation Causes Huge Sticker Shock in Study - (www.nytimes.com) What do
hospitals charge to remove an appendix? The startling answer is that it could
be the same as the price of a refrigerator — or a house. It's a common,
straightforward operation, so you might expect charges to be similar no matter
where the surgery takes place. Yet a California study found huge disparities in
patients' bills — $1,500 to $180,000, with an average of $33,000. The
researchers and other experts say the results aren't unique to California and
illustrate a broken system. "There's no method to the madness," said
lead author Dr. Renee Hsia, an emergency room physician and researcher at the
University of California, San Francisco. "There's no system at all to
determine what is a rational price for this condition or this procedure."
Social Security is slipping closer to insolvency - (www.latimes.com) The nation's Social Security and Medicare
programs are sliding closer to insolvency, the federal government warned in a
new report underscoring the fiscal challenges facing the two mammoth retirement
programs as baby boomers begin to retire. Medicare, which will provide health
insurance to more than 50 million elderly and disabled Americans this year, is
expected to start operating in the red in its largest fund in 2024, according
to the annual assessment by the trustees charged with overseeing the programs.
That's unchanged from last year. And the Social Security trust fund, which will
provide assistance to more than 45 million people in 2012, will be unable under
current trends to fulfill its obligations in 2033, three years earlier than
projected last year.
Hollande Meets German Resistance in Anti-Austerity Push - (www.bloomberg.com) French Socialist
presidential candidate Francois Hollande’s campaign pledge to reverse
Europe’s austerity drive met German resistance, pointing to tension between the
region’s two biggest economies. Hollande, who polls show will oust incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in May 6 elections,
yesterday said the absence of economic growth prospects explained anti-euro
National Front leader Marine Le Pen’s record score in the April 22 first round.
Le Pen, the leader of the nationalist, anti-immigrant party, won 17.9 percent,
or 6.4 million votes, surpassing poll estimates with the highest tally for the
National Front created by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1972. Hollande got
28.6 percent and Sarkozy 27.2 percent.
'No party preference' is new
political flavor in California - (www.sacbee.com)
Congressional candidate Linda Parks
isn't one for conventional choices. As she tells voters in a recent television
ad, her favorite ice cream flavor is not chocolate or vanilla, but the
nuts-and-marshmallow-loaded Rocky Road. And her chosen party preference on the June 5
ballot? "None." "I've had longtime supporters tell me, 'I don't
even know what party you are.' And I like that," said Parks, a Ventura
County supervisor who has been both a member and, more recently, a punching bag
of both the Republican and the Democratic parties. "I like the fact that
they can't peg me as one party or the other."
Surpreme
Court rejects challenge to New York City rent control - (www.latimes.com) The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a constitutional challenge to New
York City’s famed rent-control ordinance, a post-World
War II housing measure that limits the rents of more than a
million apartments. The court’s action is a setback for property-rights
activists, who had hoped a more conservative court would protect landlords and
a free market in rentals. For decades, critics have said rent-control laws deny
property owners the right to fully profit from their investment. The justices,
four of whom grew up in New York City, turned away an appeal from James and
Jeanne Harmon, who own a five-story brownstone building on West 76th Street in
Manhattan. The couple says they have no choice but to rent three apartments on
the upper floors for less than half of their market value. They also say that
one of their tenants can pay a $1,500-a-month mortgage on a Long Island house
because he pays only $951 a month to rent a unit in Harmon’s building.
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