by Carla Johnson

CHICAGO (AP)—The nation’s worst hospitals treat twice the proportion of elderly Black patients and poor patients than the best hospitals, and their patients are more likely to die of heart attacks and pneumonia, new research shows.

Now, these hospitals, mostly in the South, may be at higher risk of financial failure, too. That’s because the nation’s new health care law punishes bad care by withholding some money, says the lead author of the study published Oct. 5 in the journal Health Affairs.

by Ricado Alonso-Zaldivar

WASHINGTON (AP)—Weary of getting pounded over the new health care law, Democrats are hitting the reset button for next year’s elections.

They’re changing the subject to Medicare.

MEDICARE ADVOCATES—In this June 13 photo Dena Robinson, from right, and Hannah Hoffman, join dozens of Medicare advocates gathered outside the Newseum in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Divisions over the health care overhaul appear irreconcilable, but polls show Americans of all political leanings feel protective of Medicare.

President Barack Obama’s latest debt plan for Congress, issued last week, signals he’s on board with the shift.

Gone is a proposed increase in the Medicare eligibility age the White House put on the table in earlier discussions with House Speaker John Boehner. Instead, Obama threatened to veto Medicare beneficiary cuts unless Congress also raises taxes on the rich.

WASHINGTON (AP)—Men finally may be getting a clearer message about undergoing PSA screening for prostate cancer: Don’t do it.

They may not listen. After all, the vast majority of men over 50 already get tested.

The idea that finding cancer early can harm instead of help is a hard one to understand. But it’s at the heart of a government panel’s draft recommendation that those PSA blood tests should no longer be part of routine screening for healthy men.

PROSTATE SURGERY—In this Sept. 13 photo, Dr. Gautam Jayram assists during prostate cancer surgery, watching an internal video of the patient’s body, at the University of Chicago Medical Center. (AP Photo/University of Chicago Medical Center, Bruce Powell)

If you were born in Pittsburgh 100 years ago, your health outlook would have been very different from today. In 1920, Pittsburgh had the worst recorded infant mortality rate of any major U.S. city, with one in nine babies dying before their first birthday.

Now in 2011, thanks to antibiotics, vaccines and other modern medical interventions, life expectancy and overall health have vastly improved for our youngest citizens. Unfortunately for African-American children, the gains have not been nearly as great as for Whites. According to the latest Allegheny County figures, Black infants lead all other races in infant death rates (see figure). These disparities continue throughout childhood and have spurred numerous campaigns to improve health in the African-American community and narrow the racial health gap.