Daily Rounds: Frustrated Weight Watchers; Affordable Care On The Line; Tech Fix For Eyes; Health Dollars For Deval

New Weight Watchers Plan Leaves Some Grumbling - NYTimes.com (well.blogs.nytimes.com) "The latest iteration of the weight-loss plan, called Points Plus, was intended to steer people toward more healthy food choices, encouraging people to eat more fresh fruits by giving them zero points, as most vegetables already were. But many longtime members who were familiar with the earlier plan, like Ms. Holwell, have been grumbling about slow weight loss under the revised plan. “I have been doing Points Plus for about a month and keep gaining and losing the same few pounds,” a commenter at one weight-loss Web site complained shortly after the new plan was introduced. Others chimed in to reassure her she was not alone." For many, affordable healthcare hinges on Supreme Court vote - latimes.com (Los Angeles Times) "...it's helpful to remember why this is even being discussed. It's not because of arcane matters of law that require judicial review. It's because of people like Sharon Scott, a 47-year-old single mom in Anaheim who pays nearly half her $24,000 annual income to her insurer, Health Net, and is unable to shop around for a cheaper policy because she has cataracts. "Many people think that if you have a preexisting condition, insurers will just charge you more," she told me. "The reality is that they won't even sell you a policy. You get shut out of the insurance system." That's what is really on the line as healthcare reform makes its way to the high court. The law includes a provision halting insurers' practice of denying coverage to anyone deemed to represent a greater financial risk because of a past or present medical condition."

Where Eye Care Is A Luxury, Technology Offers Access : NPR (npr.org) "EyeNetra has developed a $2 scope that health care workers can clip onto a smartphone. The patient stares through the eyepiece and follows colored lines that appear on the screen. Software installed on the phone translates responses into a measurement of "refractive error," which optometrists need to make a pair of glasses. Schafran says it's just a question of leveraging the power of the smartphone. "The phone is actually doing everything," he says. "It's projecting the images, and it's also doing the calculations — that's where all the smarts are."

Health care interests chip in big for Deval Patrick's presidential camapign efforts - The Boston Globe (boston.com) "Many of the individuals and companies who contributed have a lot at stake in the current debate, including executives affiliated with Partners Healthcare, the state’s largest hospital network, and Shields Health Care. The governor is hoping to change the way Massachusetts patients and insurers pay for medical care, from the current fee-for-service plan to a global-payment system, in which providers would have a fixed budget to care for each patient."