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| Most web-based colon-screening information is lacking: study Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 12:31 PM PDT By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When researchers evaluated a dozen websites meant to inform patients about colon cancer screening, most were written at too high a reading level and lacked important risk and benefit information. Researchers have known for at least 20 years that many materials written for patients, not just those about colonoscopy, are not up to snuff, according to Terry C. Davis. Davis, a professor at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, was not involved in the new report but has been studying health literacy and the quality of patient information for more than a decade. "Health information is written at too high a level and it's not user friendly," Davis told Reuters Health. Full Story | Top |
| Obamacare enrollment exceeds seven million target despite setback Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 12:28 PM PDT  By Jeff Mason and David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's national healthcare program signed up more than 7 million people by the last day of March, the White House said on Tuesday, notching a rare victory after a months-long, glitch-filled rollout of the law. Obama is scheduled to make a statement about the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, at 4:15 p.m. EDT in the White House. His remarks could be the start of a victory lap for the administration, which suffered from the botched unveiling of the program's primary website, HealthCare.gov, and wavering support from Americans years after the U.S. Congress passed the healthcare law over Republican objections. "With the remarkable surge in enrollment, 7,041,000 people signed up for health insurance before the midnight deadline yesterday and that doesn't count the last day surge in signups in more than a dozen states that run their own marketplaces," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. Full Story | Top |
| FDA finds contaminated drug ingredient at GSK Ireland plant Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 12:27 PM PDT The U.S. Food and Drug Administration found that a drug ingredient manufactured at a GlaxoSmithKline Plc plant in Ireland was contaminated and said the company did not take sufficient action to resolve the problems. GSK said the ingredient was paroxetine, used to make its antidepressant drugs Paxil and Seroxat. In a warning letter dated March 18, the FDA said GSK did not fully investigate a list of objectionable conditions the regulator sent after its inspection of the plant at Cork in October. Some batches of a drug or drugs using the contaminated ingredient were later shipped, the FDA said, and GSK did not notify its customers about the lapse. Full Story | Top |
| Japanese families torn as return to Fukushima 'hot zone' begins Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 12:15 PM PDT  By Mari Saito TAMURA, Japan (Reuters) - People in Japan on Tuesday began their first homecomings in three years to a small area evacuated after the Fukushima disaster, but families are divided as worries about radiation and poor job prospects have kept many away. The reopening of the Miyakoji area of Tamura, a city 220 km (140 miles) northeast of Tokyo and inland from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear station, marks a tiny step for Japan as it attempts to recover from the 2011 disasters. "Many of our friends and neighbors won't come back," said Kimiko Koyama, 69, speaking on her return to the large farmhouse she had occupied for 50 years, while her husband Toshio, 72, tried to fix a television antenna on the roof. "My daughter won't bring our grandsons here because of the radiation." Miyakoji, set amid rolling hills and rice paddies, has been off-limits to most residents since March 2011, when the government ordered evacuations after a devastating earthquake and tsunami triggered a triple meltdown at the power plant on the Pacific coast about 20 km (12 miles) away. Full Story | Top |
| S&P 500 climbs to record after manufacturing data Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 12:05 PM PDT  By Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 advancing to an intraday record after positive data on factory activity indicated economic growth was gaining traction after a harsh winter. Gains were broad, but areas of the market closely tied to the pace of economic growth were among the day's leaders. The PHLX housing sector index rose 1.3 percent and the Nasdaq biotechnology index added 1.7 percent. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity rose to 53.7 in March, its second straight monthly acceleration. Full Story | Top |
| Aid bureaucracy, suspicion threaten to deepen South Sudan crisis: MSF Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 11:51 AM PDT  By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - The humanitarian crisis created by South Sudan's civil war may well worsen this year because of the slow international response and suspicions among warring parties of U.N. relief efforts, the head of aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Tuesday. More than 1 million people have been displaced since December 15, according to the United Nations, including 800,000 uprooted within South Sudan and 254,000 who have taken refuge in neighboring states. A ceasefire deal in January collapsed and negotiations in Addis Ababa have failed to stop fighting between the government and rebels in the country, which declared independence from Sudan in 2011 but has been plagued by disorder since. All indicates a civil conflict that is there to last, unless there is an unexpected diplomatic success," Bruno Jochum, director general of MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, told reporters in Geneva. Full Story | Top |
| White House: Obamacare enrollment exceeds seven million people Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 11:07 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday that more than 7 million people had signed up for healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act, exceeding its original goal after a botched rollout of the program. "With the remarkable surge in enrollment, 7,041,000 people signed up for health insurance before the midnight deadline yesterday and that doesn't count the last day surge in signups in more than a dozen states that run their own marketplaces," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. (Reporting by Jeff Mason and David Storey; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
| Heart health in young adults tied to later mental function Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 10:51 AM PDT By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young adults with healthy blood pressure go on to have better thinking and memory skills in midlife than their peers with higher blood pressure, according to a new analysis. Previous studies have linked poor fitness and heart health in middle age to declining mental function and dementia around age 70 or 80 (see Reuters Health story of November 19, 2009 here: http://reut.rs/1i8EG2q). The new study suggests the relationship between heart health and brain function starts much earlier, linking blood pressure and blood sugar early in life with mental acuity decades later. "We know these risk factors are important later in life but what is new is that they seem to be important for cognitive health even going from young to mid adulthood," lead author Dr. Kristine Yaffe of the University of California, San Francisco, told Reuters Health in an email. Full Story | Top |
| More than seven million people signed up for Obamacare: Pelosi Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 10:36 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, said on Tuesday that the Obama administration would announce more than 7 million people had signed up for the healthcare program known as Obamacare. Pelosi, speaking to reporters at the White House after a meeting with President Barack Obama, noted that the figures were not yet official. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
| Cigna says signed up 75,000-100,000 for Obamacare Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 09:55 AM PDT  By Caroline Humer WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cigna Corp has enrolled between 75,000 and 100,000 people in Obamacare health plans during the first three months of enrollment, Chief Executive Officer David Cordani said on Tuesday at the Reuters Health Summit. Of those, about two-thirds signed up through the public exchanges created as part of U.S. President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law, often called Obamacare, Cordani said on the day after the enrollment period for these plans ended. The rest signed up directly with Cigna. Full Story | Top |
| Obama to make statement about Affordable Care Act Tuesday Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 09:53 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will make a statement about the Affordable Care Act at 4:15 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, the White House said. Administration officials have said the program, known as Obamacare, is on track to reach a target of 7 million enrollees. Obama is expected to address that in his remarks. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Bill Trott) Full Story | Top |
| Republican budget proposes deep cuts in domestic programs Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 08:26 AM PDT  By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Representative Paul Ryan, the leading Republican voice on budget policy, rolled out a new fiscal blueprint on Tuesday that calls for deep cuts in domestic programs, increased defense spending and a goal of erasing annual deficits in 10 years. Ryan's budget, called the "Path to Prosperity," has almost no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate but is expected to serve as a campaign manifesto for Republicans in November's congressional elections. It proposes to kill President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare reforms and revives cuts in social programs such as the popular Medicare entitlement for the elderly that Ryan, who chairs the House Budget Committee, has proposed in other recent budgets. Full Story | Top |
| TSX advances as Fed hopes drive broad gains Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 08:02 AM PDT  By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose on Tuesday, continuing to get support from Monday's U.S. Federal Reserve assertion of its willingness to keep on buttressing the U.S. economy. Fed Chair Janet Yellen defended the central bank's easy monetary policy on Monday, indicating that stimulative measures to boost the U.S. economy will be necessary for some time to come. Her remarks rallied global markets and helped the Canadian benchmark stock index record a ninth straight monthly gain in the previous session. "We're picking up from where we left off yesterday," said Colin Cieszynski, senior market analyst at CMC Markets Canada. Full Story | Top |
| Report finds wide racial disparity in U.S. children's well-being Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 07:41 AM PDT By Victoria Cavaliere NEW YORK (Reuters) - African-American children's poverty, poor housing and lack of access to education pose a national crisis, said a report released Tuesday that found a wide gap in well-being among U.S. children of different races. In almost every region of the United States, African-American, Latino and Native American children face far greater barriers to their future success than their white and Asian counterparts, according to the study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which aims to improve the life of all children. The factors included whether the children were born at normal birth weight, if they were enrolled in preschool by the ages of 3 to 5, whether they lived with an adult who has at least a high school diploma, and their proficiency at reading and math during elementary and middle school. African-American children fared the worst in the study, and the situation "should be considered a national crisis," the report said. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. draft sounds alarm as world looks set to miss emissions target Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 06:36 AM PDT By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO (Reuters) - The world will need far tougher curbs on greenhouse gases, by both developed nations and emerging economies, to keep global warming from exceeding a promised ceiling, a draft U.N. report shows. Rich nations led by the United States would have to halve their emissions by 2030 from 2010 levels to keep warming below an agreed 2 degree Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) ceiling above pre-industrial times, according to the draft obtained by Reuters. Asia, including China and India, would have to limit emissions to around 2010 levels by 2030 as part of a global shareout, a tough goal for countries that say they need to burn more fossil fuels to help end poverty. "Stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations will require large-scale transformations in human societies," according to chapter 6 of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) due for release in Berlin in mid-April. Full Story | Top |
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