A peek behind the curtain – and insiders look at a dental practice

By Dr. Stephanie McGann, DMD FAGD, Columnist, The Times When I was building my first office, I was amazed by the tremendous amount of time, energy and money that was needed for things that I felt had no direct relation to patient care.  Decades later, the only difference is that each and every one of these tasks I have learned has a very direct relationship to patient care.  It’s the side of a...

Ryan Costello’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times Donald J. Trump, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are trying really, really hard to make sure U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello doesn’t get re-elected in 2018 — although it may be his own history that ultimately proves his undoing. Oh, sure, the President and the Speaker of the House — as fellow Republicans — will swear until the cows come home that they back the two-term...

Op/Ed.: Protecting children’s health care

By U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello, Sixth District, Pennsylvania U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello (R-6) For two decades, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has offered vital services to families across the country, including right here in Southeastern Pennsylvania. In fact, Pennsylvania launched statewide CHIP in 1992 and it has been recognized as the model for federal CHIP, which launched five years...

GOP putting the ‘mean’ in meaningless legislative efforts

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times Fall, that time of year when a young man’s fancy turns to…a budget crisis, political dysfunction, a renewed health care mess and, oh, yeah, off-year elections. So, let’s see, the state still lacks a revenue plan to pay for a spending plan it passed some months ago, so now some bills aren’t being paid. The state House Republicans have come up with a wacky plan...

Nurses, impacted families meet with Costello

Congressman Ryan Costello meets with families who are participating in the Chester County Nurse-Family Partnership Program. From left to right: Gina Martinez with her nine month old son Isah; Dale and Deja Joseph with their seven month old daughter Aria; and Congressman Costello. WEST CHESTER — Two Chester County families and nurses and staff from the Chester County Health Department met with Congressman...

Unintended consequences and Newton’s Third Law

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times While Democrats wept over special election results this week, U.S. Senate Republicans — in secret — put together their version of the health care reform, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, which apart from some minor details, appears to be a lot like the house health care plan, the American Health Care Act: it cuts benefits for the poor, could lead to big rate...

Letter: Costello must support universal healthcare

To The Editor, On January 24th 2017, Representative John Conyers of Michigan introduced a bill for health care reform that would automatically cover all Americans with health insurance without cost. H.R. 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act would provide free primary, preventative, and emergency care, as well as prescription drug coverage for all Americans. The measure would be paid...

Bill was right: it’s a crazy system (part II of II)

By Nathaniel Smith, Columnist, The Times Our current health care “system” is such an undependable patchwork as to be, for many Americans, crazy. For years Democrats have been saying that Obamacare, officially the Affordable Care Act (inspired, incidentally, by Mitt Romney’s program in Massachusetts) is imperfect but a good step forward while Republicans (even some benefiting from it) say...

Bill was right: it’s a crazy system (part I of II)

By Nathaniel Smith, Columnist, The Times Bill Clinton was right about health insurance when he controversially said on October 3: “…The people that are getting killed in this deal are small business people and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies. Why? Because they’re not organized, they don’t have any bargaining power with insurance companies, and they’re...

Op/Ed: 21st century medical innovation

By Ryan Costello, U.S. Rep., Sixth Congressional District Ryan Costello Creating a new locally developed heart valve, finding a personalized cure to an individual’s battle with arthritis, or even breakthroughs in the mapping of the human genome – these are medical modernizations that American scientists and researchers are developing daily.  We have seen medical advancements accelerate over the...