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Health Care for the Poor Republicans would also blow up the Medicaid program, which gives health care to more than 50 million Americans, mostly poor and disabled. He would save $771 million over the next 10 years by cutting Medicaid and sending it as a block grant to states, which would be given new flexibility on how to spend the money. Some may find creative savings, but many—especially those under GOP control—are likely to cut benefits. Medicare and Medicaid Republicans are being called courageous for taking on Medicare and Medicaid, this plan punts on perhaps the most electrified political rail of all: Social Security. That program is still solvent, but as millions of baby boomers retire, it's going to start running big deficits. Republicans have talked before about reforming Social Se­curity, but this latest plan simply calls for bipartisan action down the road. Republicans   plan won't become law in anything like its current form. As long as Democrats control the Senate—a...

Health Care For Seniors - Repeal Republicans will save more than $1 trillion over the next decade by transforming the government's two major health care pro­grams and repealing Obama's 2010 health care law. Medicare, which provides health care for more than 45 million American seniors, already consumes about an eighth of federal spending, and its costs are set to explode as the baby boomers start retiring. Republicans   would phase out Medicare's current mechanism, which reimburses health care providers without payout limits for patients, and begin federal payments to private health plans chosen by future seniors. Republicans say that competition would lower prices—and that seniors who can't count on automatic coverage will be more judicious about their health care consump­tion, which would also lower costs. Critics worry that Republicans won't give seniors enough money to take care of themselves. Their plan would cap Medicare payments at a rate slightly above infla...

What to do about your bad back or arthritic knee. Peo­ple with chronic pain are twice as likely to suffer from depres­sion and anxiety as those with out. What starts in your lower back eventually eats away at your soul. You enjoy your loved ones less, and you are less enjoy­able to them. If pain affects body, mind and spirit, then treatment must address these three pillars of the human condition. Unless there is acute nerve damage, pain can't be mea­sured by traditional diagnostic tools. Physicians can predict a pain diagnosis related to in­jury but are otherwise work­ing largely in the dark, reliant on patient narrative. If you're seeing a doctor for your pain and the problem has not been resolved after six months of treatment, get a second opinion from a specialist. All doctors learn rudimentary pain man­agement in medical school, but few are trained fully at diagnosing it.  Exercise and stretching can often help alleviate pain. Medications such as anti-inflammatory (the ib...