Daily Rounds: Mapping AIDS; Insurers Eye Expansion; Obamacare Blunted; Brain Injury Patients Abused

Track the spread of AIDS across the Globe (NPR) - "Its expansion was frighteningly fast. A handful of AIDS cases were first recognized in the U.S. at the beginning of the 1980s. But AIDS was soon seen around the world. By 1990, the world had a pandemic on its hands. In 1997, the peak of the epidemic, more than 3 million people became newly infected with HIV. Then science struck back...The United Nations has kept track of HIV worldwide for the past couple of decades. Below, we use that data to explore some of the trends in HIV prevalence."

Two insurers see new markets beyond Mass. (The Boston Globe) - "While the political squabble over the federal health care law continues, two Massachusetts health insurers see an opportunity to expand their out-of-state businesses and pick up thousands of new customers who must have coverage or face penalties. Tufts Health Plan and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which already operate in some nearby states, are strategizing on how they can boost their market share outside Massachusetts as about 30 million Americans who do not have insurance buy subsidized private coverage or become eligible for Medicaid under the law upheld by the Supreme Court last month."

Court ruling may blunt reach of health law (The New York Times) - "The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the Supreme Court decision on President Obama’s health care overhaul would probably lead to an increase in the number of uninsured and a modest reduction in the cost to the federal government when compared with estimates before the court ruling. Of the 33 million people who had been expected to gain coverage under the law, 3 million fewer are now predicted to get insurance, the budget office said in assessing the likely effects of the court decision."

Abuse of brain injured Americans scandalizes U.S. (Bloomberg) - "Residents at the Florida Institute have often been abused, neglected and confined, according to 20 current and former patients and their family members, criminal charges, civil complaints and advocates for the disabled. These sources and over 2,000 pages of court and medical records, police reports, state investigations and autopsies contain an untold history of violence and death at the secluded institute known as FINR, which is located amid cattle ranches and citrus groves in Hardee County, 50 miles southeast of Tampa...The complaints underscore the problems that 5.3 million brain-injured Americans are having finding adequate care."