Health Headlines for Monday, July 23

Sniffles? Cancer? Under Medicare Plan, Payments for Office Visits Would Be Same for Both

New York Times

The Trump administration is proposing huge changes in the way Medicare pays doctors for the most common of all medical services, the office visit, offering physicians basically the same amount, regardless of a patient’s condition or the complexity of the services provided.

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Medicare option is popular but vague among Democrats

Axios

A public health care plan — once deemed too liberal to make it into the Affordable Care Act — is now the more moderate position for many Democrats who are uncomfortable with the party’s rapid embrace of “Medicare for All.”

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Counties band together in push to make drug makers pay for wave of addiction

Press Republican

A total of 51 county governments across New York have opted to sue pharmaceutical firms, seeking to hold them accountable for the costs of responding to an epidemic of fatal opioid overdoses.

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Letter: Single-payer health care is not the best choice

Buffalo News

The July 15 Another Voice says, “The time’s right in New York for single-payer health care.” The writer of that column could not be more wrong.

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Bed plan at downtown hospital to follow trends

Observer-Dispatch

Deciding how many patient beds to put into a new hospital is a complicated issue.

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