Chiropractic Breakthrough

The Obama administration’s efforts to raise private money to carry out the president’s health care law have provoked such a strong partisan uproar that potential donors have become skittish about contributing, according to several people involved in the fund-raising program.

Conservative lawmakers and tea party advocates Thursday sought to link the IRS scandal to efforts to repeal Obamacare, even acknowledging the potential of impeachment. Rep. Michele Bachmann made the leap from Benghazi to the IRS scandal to Obamacare, a progression she said was all related.

The nation’s largest cardiovascular health organization has a new message for Americans: Owning a dog may protect you from heart disease. The unusual message was contained in a scientific statement published on Thursday by the American Heart Association, which convened a panel of experts to review years of data on the cardiovascular benefits of owning a pet. The group concluded that owning a dog, in particular, was probably associated with a reduced risk of heart disease.

Data being released for the first time by the government today shows that hospitals charge Medicare wildly differing amounts — sometimes 10 to 20 times what Medicare typically reimburses — for the same procedure, raising questions about how hospitals determine prices and why they differ so widely. The data for 3,300 hospitals, released by CMS, shows wide variations not only regionally but among hospitals in the same area or city.

For the third time, Republicans are trying to make the new health care law perhaps the biggest issue of the elections, and are preparing to exploit every problem that arises. After many unsuccessful efforts to repeal the law, the Republican-led House plans another vote soon. And Republican governors or legislatures in many states are balking at participating, leaving Washington responsible for the marketplaces.

In a study published today in the journal Pediatrics, scientists report that infants whose parents sucked on their pacifiers to clean them developed fewer allergies than children whose parents typically rinsed or boiled them. They also had lower rates of eczema, fewer signs of asthma and smaller amounts of a type of white blood cell that rises in response to allergies and other disorders.

The nation’s largest health insurers are far from leaping at the chance to join new state health insurance exchanges under President Barack Obama’s reform law, making it likely that some markets will have little or no competition next year. … But health insurers, some of whom fought the law before it was passed and continue to lobby to reverse parts of it, are wary.

Scientists have discovered that the most dangerous cancer of the uterine lining closely resembles the worst ovarian and breast cancers, providing the most telling evidence yet that cancer will increasingly be seen as a disease defined primarily by its genetic fingerprint rather than just by the organ where it originated. The study of endometrial cancer and another of acute myeloid leukemia were published simultaneously on Wednesday by Nature and The New England Journal of Medicine.

Yesterday, federal officials released simplified application forms to be used by people seeking health insurance, tax credits and other government subsidies under the law, which Mr. Obama signed 3 years ago. The new application forms — one for individuals is 3 pages long, and another for families is 7 pages — are significantly shorter than a 21-page draft that the administration circulated earlier this year. Major provisions of the law take effect next Jan. 1, when most Americans will be required to have health insurance.

The lack of competition in nearly a dozen states could present problems when the insurance exchanges that are part of the Affordable Care Act launch in October. The exchanges are supposed to give Americans who do not get health insurance from their employers the opportunity to choose from an array of private insurance plans. The idea is to generate competition between insurers that will lead to lower premiums. But in states with a dominant insurance carrier, competition and lower prices may not arrive for quite some time.