Month: January 2020

U.S. insurers and providers spent more than $800 billion in 2017 on administration, or nearly $2,500 per person — more than four times the per-capita administrative costs in Canada's single-payer system, a new study finds.Over one third of all healthcare costs in the U.S. were…

Asthma is often controlled with an inhaler, or, sometimes, with medication. When neither works, it might be that the patient doesn't have asthma at all. VOA's Carol Pearson reports that researchers have found another disease with the same symptoms as asthma that actually starts in…

In a move that could put the Obama-era health law squarely in the middle of the 2020 election, Democratic-led states Friday asked the Supreme Court for a fast-track review of a recent court ruling that declared part of the statute unconstitutional and cast a cloud…

Illinois, the largest Midwestern state in the U.S.,  is beginning 2020 with the implementation of a new law that allows people to legally buy marijuana for recreational use. The Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act also also allows the governor to pardon thousands for past low-level…

Australia's unprecedented wildfires are supercharged thanks to climate change, the type of trees catching fire and weather, experts say.And these fires are so extreme that they are triggering their own thunderstorms.Here are a few questions and answers about the science behind the Australian wildfires that…

More companies could begin making an easy-to-use version of an opioid overdose antidote under a deal announced Thursday by New York's attorney general.Under the agreement, Emergent BioSolutions will no longer enforce a contract that had allowed it to be the only company to sell naloxone…

For three decades, paleontologists the world over have been split over a provocative finding: Did a dwarf species of Tyrannosaurus rex really once exist?In 1988, paleontologist Robert Bakker and his colleagues at the Cleveland (Ohio) Museum of Natural History reclassified a specimen first discovered in…

U.S. health officials will ban most flavored e-cigarettes popular with underage teenagers, but with major exceptions that benefit vaping manufacturers, retailers and adults who use the nicotine-emitting devices.The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will prohibit fruit, candy, mint and dessert flavors from small, cartridge-based…

The number of deaths in major air crashes around the globe fell by more than half in 2019, according to a report by an aviation consulting firm.The To70 consultancy said Wednesday that 257 people died in eight fatal accidents in 2019. That compares to 534…

A Google artificial intelligence system proved as good as expert radiologists at detecting which women had breast cancer based on screening mammograms and showed promise at reducing errors, researchers in the United States and Britain reported.The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is the…

Thanks to a very special gift, one family is exceptionally grateful to be celebrating the New Year together this year. Bronwyn Benito tells us about a new surgical technique that makes it easier to give the gift of life. ...

Illinois started the new year on a high note Wednesday, becoming the latest U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana as the governor pardoned thousands for past low-level cannabis convictions.The Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act will allow residents 21 and older to legally purchase marijuana and…

The world has a plastic pollution problem.  That is the big picture.  It has countries looking for creative solutions.  Environmentalists say there's no more time for talk.  As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, they say it's time for action  ...

Haunted by the ongoing war in their country, more and more youth in Yemen are facing mental health problems. The International Committee of the Red Cross says that widespread conflict, severe economic decline, food insecurity and the collapse of essential public services continue to take…

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the federal government will soon announce a new strategy to tackle underage vaping, promising, “We’re going to protect our families, we’re going to protect our children, and we’re going to protect the industry.”Trump was vague about what the plan…

East Africa has the highest rates of cervical cancer in the world, according to the World Health Organization. In October, Kenya launched a mass vaccination of girls against the human papillomavirus (HPV),which can lead to cervical cancer. For those who acquired HPV, the vaccine is…