Before he was even 12, Lorenzo Louden had shot a man and slept with two prostitutes. Growing up so early, it’s no wonder he preferred gang life to school and eventually wound up in prison. Now 57, Louden runs the Springfield-based nonprofit Tower of Refuge with his wife, Bevey. Using his life experience and her […]
health care
Posted inOpinion
GOP unhinged by Obamacare: Laugh till it hurts
Whacking yourself on the head with a ball-peen hammer would be stupid. But doing it again and again – that’s insane. Welcome to your U.S. House of Representatives, presently led by a pack of tea party Republicans. They are so crazed by Obamacare that they repeatedly hammer themselves over the head with it, having voted […]
Posted inNews
Community clinic begins expansion
Breaking ground on the new expansion for Central Counties Health Centers is (from left to right) CCHC board chairman Bobby Hall, Springfield mayor Michael Houston, Ward 3 Ald. Doris Turner, and CCHC president and CEO Craig Glover. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE A clinic offering health care to underserved people in and around Springfield started an […]
Posted inOpinion
Corporate greed is making us sick
The failure of our corporate and political leaders to make sure every worker gets good health care is causing some unpleasant consequences – like widespread stomach flu. Ill workers often spread illness, because millions of employees who deal directly with the public are not covered by paid sick leave policies. So, when they come down […]
Posted inNews
Insurance regulator slams companies for ‘manipulation’ to charge more
Calling their scheme “manipulation,” Illinois’ head insurance regulator in April blasted a plan by health insurance companies to circumvent federal health insurance reforms and continue to charge discriminatory rates for an extra year. While the Illinois Department of Insurance says it won’t approve such plans, which it politely says are “contrary to law,” a statewide […]
Posted inOpinion
A little knowledge….No 3 in a series
Bill Gardner, posting on The Incidental Economist, Aaron Carroll’s invaluable health care blog, reported the other day on trends in the prescription of Prilosec, Prevacid and other proton pump inhibitors. These drugs are used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD, and their prescription for use by infants has exploded. The patients are babies who […]
Posted inNews
Senate passes ‘Obamacare’ bill
The confusing world of health insurance could get a lot easier for Illinoisans in October, when the federal government opens a public health insurance marketplace here. The state would only get to take control of the marketplace, however, after creating a board to oversee it. The Illinois Senate approved a bill to do just that […]
Posted inOpinion
Fundamental issues
I have written before (here, here, here and here) about health care – an important topic in a town like Springfield in which the health racket industry in all its manifestations is the top employer. I take it up again here to vent about the now-famous (among wonks) study of Medicaid outcomes in Oregon – […]
Posted inNews
Health insurance reform closer to reality in Illinois
The Illinois Senate could vote next week on implementing a crucial piece of the federal health insurance reforms passed in 2010, but two competing bills could lead the state in opposite directions. The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, sometimes called “Obamacare,” calls for each state to set up public health insurance […]
Posted inOpinion
Just what the doctor ordered
When it comes to their health – and eventually, everything does – Americans’ motto is, “Too much is never enough.” That phrase ought to be printed on every test report, every insurance form, every hospital receipt generated by a national health care system that spends more and gets less for it than more advanced nations […]
Posted inNews
Congress candidates clash on health care
As the Republican-controlled U.S. House continues its crusade to repeal the federal health care reforms passed in 2010, two candidates seeking to represent Springfield in the House take to the campaign trail with widey different views on the reform law. Republican Rodney Davis of Taylorville and Democrat David Gill of Bloomington each seek Illinois’ new […]
Posted inOpinion
Living too high off the hog
Springfield has become to sick people what Decatur is to soybeans, a major regional processing center in which raw materials are processed by the latest in high-tech machinery into novel products such as tennis-playing octogenarians and bankers with a 60-year-old’s bank account and a 30-year-old’s heart. According to published reports, this year the local medico-insurance […]
