NYC Department of Health Approves Super-Sized Soda Ban

In what should be a surprise to absolutely no one, the New York City Department of Health rubber stamped Mayor Mike Bloomberg's proposal to ban sugared beverages that exceed 16 ounces. The vote was 8-0 with one absention.The regulation passed Thursday puts a 16-ounce size limit on cups and bottles of non-diet soda, sweetened teas and other calorie-packed beverages.

The ban will apply in

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Nanny State In Action: Bloomberg's Boobish Plan

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg continues proposing health-related plan after health related plan, regardless of their constitutionality (the sugared beverage plan) or smoking bans in public spaces (and restaurants, etc.). His latest idea is to ban giving new mothers formula as part of a plan to increase the number of mothers breast feeding. Mayor Bloomberg is pushing hospitals to hide their

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Gov. Christie Seems Fine With Feds Managing New Jersey's Health Exchanges

So much for states' rights in Gov. Christie's eyes - he's open to the idea of letting the feds run the NJ health exchange. Gov. Chris Christie said he is exploring letting the federal government set up the state health insurance exchange required by the federal health care overhaul to allow individuals to buy coverage.

He also said he is not sure that New Jersey needs to expand Medicaid under

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Will States Drag Feet On Imposing Health Exchanges, and Other Thoughts

If the states don't have health care exchanges in place by 2014, when the individual mandate kicks in, they'll be cut out of the loop and the federal government will impose its own version of the exchanges, with the funding structures intact (the state will have to kick in its set percentage, regardless of whether it acts to impose its own exchange or not).

Some states are going to drag their

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Heavy Dose of Irony With Supreme Court's Decision on Health Care Act

Yesterday's historic decision upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (HCR/Obamacare) was not without a heavy dose of irony.

Where can one start? How about with the person who was the swing vote: Chief Justice John Roberts.

Roberts had been nominated by President George W. Bush and many on the left castigated his conservative views. Indeed, the confirmation vote split

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Further Observations of the Health Care Decision

The President will be speaking at 12:15PM. No doubt he'll be addressing the decision.

I've been scanning the dissent, and it seems that ruled the individual mandate exceeded the Commerce Clause/Necessary and Proper, and that since Congress didn't identify it as a tax, neither should they, even if the outcome is a functional tax.

It's not much of a surprise in either case. And there's plenty

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Health Care Reform Act Survives the Supreme Court

In a huge surprise to many on the right, the US Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (HCR/Obamacare). The Court ruled that it was a constitutionally permissible tax imposed by Congress.

The bottom line of the Court's decision, where Chief Justice John Roberts broke with the conservative group (Scalia, Thomas and

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Get Thee To A Screening

Recent news reports have called for changes in how frequently people should go for cancer screenings and that's raised all kinds of debate over what's truly appropriate and how the screenings affect health care costs, effectiveness, and life-expectancy.

Having a healthy debate over the issues is all well and good, but early detection is a major factor in getting good outcomes in any number of

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California Considers Tobacco Tax Hike With Legislature On Sidelines

California currently imposes a cigarette tax of 87¢ per pack of 20 cigarettes. That's well below the rates imposed in a number of other states, including neighboring Arizona ($2 per pack) or Oregon ($1.18 per pack). It's slightly higher than Nevada's 80¢ per pack. By comparison, New York imposes a $4.35 per pack (NYC is $5.85), New Jersey is $2.70 per pack, and Connecticut is $3.40. Out on the

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If He Can't Tax It, Bloomberg Hopes To Ban Big Gulp-Sized Soda Sales

Mayor Mike Bloomberg continues his nanny-state ways. His latest proposal is to ban sales of super-sized sugary beverages:The man behind calorie counts is set to announce a new public health initiative to battle obesity, taking aim at super-sized sugary drinks.

In other words, it may soon be time to say goodbye to those Big Gulps, those Slurpees or even Venti at Starbucks, CBS 2’s Derricke

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Cut the Fat, Cut the Gas Consumption?

In the past few days, there have been a series of reports about the costs of obesity on the American economy. The study attempts to quantify how much obesity costs for health care, transportation, and other factors.Because obesity raises the risk of a host of medical conditions, from heart disease to chronic pain, the obese are absent from work more often than people of healthy weight. The most

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New Study Finds Tremendous Disparity In Appendectomy Costs

Appendectomies are a relatively common medical procedure, which means that there are plenty of them done around the country. It therefore makes a great study to see just how much they cost.

The results of that study are eye-opening.

The costs range by tens of thousands of dollars.

In fact, the cheapest appendectomies were under $2,000 while the most expensive were over $100,000. The median

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Mayor Bloomberg's Latest Anti-Smoking Idea? Setting Rules in Apartment Buildings

Mayor Mike Bloomberg's latest nanny-state idea actually makes some sense. It calls for apartment buildings to set rules about where and how people can smoke in the buildings. The proposal has to go to the City Council for deliberation.In his latest salvo in his war on cigarettes, Mayor Bloomberg proposed sweeping legislation Wednesday to curb smoking in residential buildings — by requiring owners

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Common Sense Prevails As Doctors' Group Calls Upon Profession To Stop Over-Ordering Tests; Procedures

The MSNBC headline is misleading. Doctors aren't calling for an end to 45 procedures, including PAP tests in certain circumstances, or chemotherapy for those suffering from terminal cancer. They're calling for doctors to utilize procedures and drug regimes when the circumstances call for it - based on the science.
Nine medical societies, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the

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Super Bowl Medical Scare? Person Infected With Measles Mingled In Indianapolis Crowds

Once again, we get a reminder of why it is so important to get vaccinations. Today, we learn that health authorities in Indiana have discovered that someone infected with measles was in the crowds in Indanapolis for the Super Bowl festivities and that people who traveled to the city for the Super Bowl may have come into contact with the person. The Indiana Health Department says two cases of

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On the Destruction of the Susan G. Komen Brand Over Pulling Planned Parenthood Funding

There was no reason that the Susan G. Komen charitable foundation should ever have waded into the mess that it is now in. I'm heartened by the fact that some of the Komen affiliates are rebelling against the central organization's directives:Komen has said the decision stemmed from newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations under investigation — affecting Planned Parenthood because

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