By Dennis Thompson, TUESDAY, March 11, 2014 (HealthDay News)

People fighting cancer might have to wait longer to see a cancer specialist in the coming decades, as demand for treatment outpaces the number of  oncologists entering the workforce, a new report released Tuesday warns.

Demand for cancer treatments is expected to grow by 42 percent or more by 2025, while the supply of oncologists will only increase by 28 percent, experts found.

The mismatch between supply and demand could result in a shortage of nearly 1,500 oncologists by 2025, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) report.

By Susan Jones, March 10, 2014 – 6:42 AM

(CNSNews.com)  – Defenders of Obamacare will point to a new Gallup poll showing that  the percentage of Americans without health insurance continues to fall — to 15.9 percent so far in 2014, down from 17.1 percent in the fourth  quarter of 2013.

By David Morgan, WASHINGTON Mon Mar 10, 2014 6:17pm EDT

(Reuters) – The Obama administration, in an abrupt about-face, said on Monday it would drop proposed changes to Medicare drug coverage that met wide opposition on grounds they would harm health benefits for the elderly and disabled.

Late last week, more than 370 organizations representing insurers, drug makers, pharmacies, health providers and patients urged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to withdraw changes it had proposed for Medicare Part D.

By Robert Steyer, March 10, 2014 3:41 pm Updated 3:58 pm

More Americans think their retirement will be worse than that of previous generations, according to results of an annual survey published Monday by Franklin Templeton (BEN) Investments (BEN).

Forty-one percent predicted their retirement would be worse than that of previous generations, while 25% said it would be better and 33% said it would be similar, said a news release announcing the survey results.

John Wasik, Contributor, 3/10/2014 @ 5:28PM

Not only is retirement planning a matter of saving enough, fund choices play a huge role.  When Bankrate.com came out with a study today showing how tracking one stock index would make a huge difference in your retirement income stream, I was skeptical. Then I examined one fund connected with the strategy and saw how the results made sense.

Basically, Bankrate found that by adding a group of dividend-paying stocks as measured by the Dividend Aristocrats Index, performance would be higher — even with regular retirement withdrawals.  Dividend aristocrats are companies that have been raising dividends for 25 years or more. They are the energizer bunnies of dividend payers. Here’s what Bankrate found:

By Kevin Bogardus, March 09, 2014, 06:00 am

Powerful physician groups that are Washington’s loudest voice for a permanent “doc fix” are shooting down a Republican effort to link the bill to a delay of  ObamaCare’s individual mandate.

Doctors have lobbied aggressively for legislation that would repeal a flawed  Medicare payment system that Capitol Hill has periodically patched since the  1990s.

House Republican lawmakers have set a vote for next week on a bill that could  cover the $150 billion cost of the “doc fix” by ending the controversial mandate  to have insurance — setting up a tough  vote for Democrats who have mostly stood by President Obama’s  signature program.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/medicare/200256-obamacare-bill-gets-chilly-reception#ixzz2varD2gP6
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Greg Corombos, Sunday, March 9th, 2014

The U.S. economy added slightly more jobs than expected in February, but the  pattern of job creation remains very sluggish, and President Obama only has his  own policies to blame.

That’s according to Heritage Foundation Chief Economist Stephen Moore. On  Friday, the Labor Department announced the economy added 175,000 jobs last  month, although the overall unemployment rate ticked up to 6.7 percent. The job  numbers beat the expectation of 149,000 new jobs and mark the 48th straight  month of positive job numbers, but the number of people leaving the labor force  remains a major concern. Experts like Moore say by now the jobs numbers should  be much better.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/economist-real-unemployment-rate-is-11/#B0XSgtJKGxVGJodq.99

By David Morgan, Sat Mar 8, 2014 7:00am EST

(Reuters) – Republicans, looking for ways to turn November’s congressional elections into a referendum on President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, are trying to portray Obamacare as a danger to Medicare.

The aim is to court one of the biggest and most reliable voting blocs in midterm elections, senior citizens and people near retirement, by depicting Republicans as defenders of the federal healthcare program for 42 million seniors.

By Thomas Gryta, March 8, 2014 2:00 p.m. ET

U.S. wireless carriers have rejiggered the prices of their service plans again, extending a period of unusual volatility triggered by an aggressive push for customers by T-Mobile US Inc.

AT&T Inc. is cutting prices on its wireless plans for the second time this year, lowering the monthly cost of a plan offering unlimited calls and texts and two gigabytes of Internet use by $15. The new plan, which begins Sunday, would lower the…

By Jason Millman, March 7 at 4:55 pm

The Obama administration has awarded a contract extension to a Healthcare.gov vendor, months after federal health officials had selected another firm to replace it.

According to a posting on the main federal contracting Web site Thursday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Verizon Terremark signed a contract extension in late January for cloud computing services, even though the federal agency overseeing HealthCare.gov had already selected HP Enterprise Services last July to take over the work.