Health Benefits

On Thursday, the day the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, a 47-year-old Baltimore woman went to the drugstore, and pulled out her debit card to pay for a prescription refill. But she didn't have enough money in the account to cover the $425 charge. So she asked the pharmacist and staff for a favor. "I asked them to break up the prescription to give me one-third," says the woman, who would not allow her name to be published because she didn't want to disclose her medical conditions.

Love your pet with all your heart? It may not be just an emotional thing. Researchers said recently that having a pet may help reduce heart disease in humans. The American Heart Association released a study that said pet ownership, especially dog ownership, is associated with a decreased risk of heart disease and increased survival among patients. Why is dog ownership more beneficial? Experts said it's probably because owning a pooch provides cardiovascular benefits -- all those walks and games of fetch add up!

In a 1998 letter from his former boss, David George was promised health insurance for the rest of his life. In a letter in May, the same boss told him those benefits will be yanked at the end of August. For George, a former employee of Schmidt Baking Co. in Fullerton, the company's move to terminate health care benefits for him and 66 other retirees has left him and others angry - at the bakery and his union - and grasping for options. The situation has grown so touchy that the company felt compelled to craft another letter telling retirees that the Aug. 31 deadline will be extended while Schmidt seeks less costly health benefits for them, an official said yesterday.

The O'Malley administration has notified state employees in same-sex relationships that they won't be able to include domestic partners in their health insurance anymore. If they want coverage, they'll have to get married. The policy change is the result of the new Maryland law allowing same-sex marriage, which took effect Jan. 1. The thinking is that offering health coverage to an unmarried same-sex partner doesn't make sense anymore, officials said, particularly since an unmarried heterosexual partner doesn't have the same right.

After years of being relegated through the purgatory of forgotten foods, kale has found itself in the spotlight for the first time in decades and is ready to prove it belongs there permanently. A crop of the ancients, kale has been cultivated for over 2,000 years and was the precursor to modern-day cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli. Easy to plant, harvest and propagate, kale was a favorite of both the Romans and the Greeks. The leafy green fell out of favor in many cultures in the last century, as more exotic cruciferous vegetables became popular.

Love your pet with all your heart? It may not be just an emotional thing. Researchers said recently that having a pet may help reduce heart disease in humans. The American Heart Association released a study that said pet ownership, especially dog ownership, is associated with a decreased risk of heart disease and increased survival among patients. Why is dog ownership more beneficial? Experts said it's probably because owning a pooch provides cardiovascular benefits -- all those walks and games of fetch add up!

Each week a nutritionist from the University of Maryland Medical Center provides a guest post to The Baltimore Sun's health blog Picture of Health (baltimoresun.com/pictureofhealth), which is printed here. This week, Amy Reed weighs in on coconut drinks. Coconut products, such as coconut water and coconut cream, are among the hot new items hitting grocery store shelves. Are these drinks beneficial for your health? Coconut water is the liquid inside a young coconut. One cup of coconut water contains about 50 calories and no protein or fat. Coconut water is low in calories, although the amount varies depending on added ingredients such as sugar or juice.

A settlement agreement ending health benefits for Sparrows Point workers Aug. 31 was approved Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The agreement, struck by mill owner RG Steel and the United Steelworkers union last week, also retroactively ended supplemental unemployment pay as of Aug. 10. Judge Kevin J. Carey, who is overseeing RG Steel's bankruptcy case, wrote in Thursday's court order that the deal appeared to be "in the best...

The former chief operating officer of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington has called on the organization to reverse its recent decision to change health benefits for employees' spouses, a move designed to avoid legitimizing same-sex marriage. Tim Sawina, who was until last year one of the group's highest-ranking executives, called the elimination of spousal health benefits "devastating" and "wrong" in a letter Wednesday to the governing board of the social service organization.

The O'Malley administration has notified state employees in same-sex relationships that they won't be able to include domestic partners in their health insurance anymore. If they want coverage, they'll have to get married. The policy change is the result of the new Maryland law allowing same-sex marriage, which took effect Jan. 1. The thinking is that offering health coverage to an unmarried same-sex partner doesn't make sense anymore, officials said, particularly since an unmarried heterosexual partner doesn't have the same right.

The Obama administration is expected to propose new rules today that would slash the amount of sulfur in gasoline, one of the most significant steps the administration can take this term toward cutting air pollution, people with knowledge of the announcement said. The new rules would bring the rest of the country's sulfur standards in line with California's gasoline program. The oil industry has warned of resulting price increases and has been joined by members of Congress from oil states in criticizing the standards as onerous with few health benefits in return.

Nearly half of Baltimore's municipal employees and retirees have a "critical or chronic" illness - a distinction that contributes to the high cost of providing their health insurance, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday. "We need to improve the wellness of our workforce to reduce costs by promoting fitness and smoking cessation," Rawlings-Blake said as she released a consultants' report about the city's long-term finances. "Our workforce is unhealthy and it's driving up our costs.

Politicians (including former politicians) like to be right more than most people. You see, in politics, public officials live or die by their (very) public opinions concerning the issues of the day. It is with this somber thought in mind that I reissue a sampling of previously published opinions - with timely updates For Your Information. Opinion: Prominent liberals will continue to market a new narrative that pushes public sector growth as the key to economic recovery. Update: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Jan. 31 floor statement concerning the U.S. economy's negative growth in the last quarter of 2012: "Growth went down in the fourth quarter because of reduced government spending, and a reticence in the private sector as government fought over the fiscal cliff.

As we get ready to celebrate the swearing in of President Barack Obama for a second term, it is a time to talk about our hopes for the country. I would like to see President Obama submit a budget to Congress that does not include restrictions on coverage of abortion care. Even if we don't personally agree with abortion, we can agree it is unfair to pressure a woman over her decision about whether to end a pregnancy just because she has government-funded health insurance. Decisions about whether to choose adoption, end a pregnancy, or raise a child are better left to a woman and her family in consultation with her health care provider.

I was reading about some American Federal of State, County and Municipal Employees getting retroactive raises back to July 1. How nice. By way of this letter, you're welcome. I say this because Gov. Martin O'Malley and AFSCME thought it would be more fair if non-union members were forced to pay union dues. I don't belong to any union, yet because of the Fair Share Act, $13.80 is deducted from my paycheck as union dues. The reasoning is that non-union members benefit regardless of membership.

A pair of reports critical of military spending — on items as diverse as health care and dried meat — are part of the latest round of scrutiny of the Defense Department's budget as the fiscal cliff approaches. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a report this month that military compensation over the past decade increased faster than the rate of inflation and, in some years, the growth rate of private-sector wages and salaries. Another report, by Sen. Tom Coburn, outlined what the Oklahoma Republican sees as wasteful or redundant military expenditures, including the military's creation of its own beef jerky.

Three in 10 Americans say they or someone in their household have at some time stayed in a job mainly to keep the health benefits, according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll that provides some of the strongest evidence yet of pervasive concern about the costs of medical insurance and care.This phenomenon, becoming known around the country as "job lock," was most prevalent in middle-income households, suggesting the rising potency of health care as a political issue.Half the people say the nation's health care system needs fundamental changes and another 40 percent go even further, saying it must be completely rebuilt, the survey found.

Red wine surrendered a clue to its health benefits in a study suggesting Madiran, a traditional French wine, may be brimming with one of the more valuable ingredients for protecting the heart. Scientists found the most potent form of polyphenols, which help reduce the risk of artery damage, in Madiran, and lesser amounts in other wines from southwestern France and Italy's Sardinian province of Nuoro. People in those regions also tend to live longer than those in surrounding areas, according to the study, in yesterday's issue of the journal Nature.