Foreclosures Linked to More ER Visits, Hospitalizations

Recession Stress: New research has linked the threat of or actual foreclosures with higher ER use and hospitalizations for high blood pressure in states hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis, including California, Arizona, Florida and New Jersey, S. Mitra Kalita reports for the Wall St. Journal.

Medicaid: Republican governors have unveiled their own proposal for reforming Medicaid, calling for more limited spending and states to have more control in designing their own programs for the shared federal-state health program for the poor, Drew Armstrong reports for Bloomberg News. On the Democratic side, California governor Jerry Brown's plan to slice 10 percent from Medicaid payments to health providers has prompted a backlash from disability advocates, who are calling on federal regulators to stop the cuts. Medicaid is among most states' biggest budget items.

Effectiveness: Are radical medical treatments like heated chemotherapy akin to "security theater," in which taking off shoes at airport security checkpoints might provide the illusion, but not the reality, of improved security? Joe Colucci weighs in at the New Health Dialogue blog.

Anorexia: A federal appeals court has ruled that the health insurer of a California woman who has long suffered from anorexia must pay for her residential treatment because of the state's mental health parity rules, Emily P. Walker reports for MedPage Today.

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