Daily Rounds: Health Law Loser; Estrogen Comeback; Teen Angst Over SSI; Toxic Tuna

The Health Care Ruling Doesn't Worry Me | The New Republic "Hudson conceded that striking down the individual mandate would not invalidate the whole Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. If you strike the individual mandate but leave the rest, you have a system that could easily be patched up with a better mechanism to avoid free-riding. The real loser here is the health insurance lobby. Health insurers would have preferred to avoid any health care reform at all. But the health insurance lobby's second-highest priority would be a working system with an individual mandate. A world in which they cannot discriminate against sick people but in which healthy people can avoid buying insurance until they're sick is a nightmare." (tnr.com)

Second Look at Estrogen in Breast Cancer Protection - NYTimes.com "Frightened women abandoned hormones in droves. But now a controversial new review of data suggests some good news: certain women who take estrogen alone, without progestin, to treat menopause symptoms may actually be protected from breast cancer." (The New York Times) Teenagers in SSI program face a cruel dilemma - The Boston Globe '“That’s why I’m not working this summer,’’ said Martinez, a freshman at Holyoke High School who is being treated for ADHD and depression. “If I work and I get a certain amount, then they’ll take money away from my mom. She needs it. I don’t want my mom’s money to go down.’" (Boston Globe) Mercury in Tuna Prompts New Call to Limit Intake - NYTimes.com "Consumers Union is urging pregnant women to avoid eating tuna altogether and advising small children to limit consumption after tests on dozens of cans and pouches of tuna found mercury in every sample. The tuna was bought in the New York metropolitan area and online." (The New York Times)