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TUESDAY, April 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Tens of millions of Americans will find it substantially more affordable to buy their own health insurance starting this month, thanks to generous financial help included in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) signed by President Joe Biden in March.That includes many people who've already bought a plan for this year, as well as people who don't have insurance right now.Health policy experts are urging everyone who buys their own health insurance to visit HealthCare.gov during the pandemic-prompted extended open enrollment period that runs through Aug. 15, to take advantage of the new subsidies offered under the ARPA.You're very likely to find a better deal on your health insurance than you now have."It's not just for uninsured people to come...

TUESDAY, April 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. children commonly wait hours in the emergency room for help with a mental health crisis -- a problem that has worsened over time, a new study finds.Researchers found that between 2005 and 2015, prolonged ER stays became ever more common for children and teenagers in need of mental health help. By 2015, nearly one-quarter of kids were in the ER for at least six hours -- up from 16% a decade prior.Experts said the situation likely reflects a longstanding and worsening problem: The U.S. has far too few mental health providers for children."The demand is crushing the supply," said Dr. Ken Duckworth, chief medical officer for the nonprofit National Alliance on Mental Illness in Arlington, Va.Duckworth, who was not involved in the study, called...

TUESDAY, April 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- There's good news for the millions of Americans who've already received a dose or two of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine: New research shows the vaccine should protect against illness for at least six months.The new study tracked 33 participants in the trials that led to the vaccine's approval. Six months after having received their second vaccine dose, "antibody activity remained high in all age groups," according to a team led by Nicole Doria-Rose of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Her group published their findings April 6 in the New England Journal of Medicine.The reassuring results follow on similar findings for the other major two-dose vaccine included in the U.S. vaccine rollout, made by...

TUESDAY, April 6, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- When the pandemic first hit last spring, screening mammograms fell by the wayside as COVID-19 became the most pressing medical concern in the country, but U.S. testing rates rebounded by mid-summer, a new study shows.But even though things have returned to normal, it still hasn't been enough to make up for those three months of delays, the researchers noted.Investigators from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Coalition, a federally funded, national network of breast imaging registries, found there was a near cessation of mammograms in mid-March 2020. In April 2020, screening mammography was at only 1% of expected volume, based on historical numbers. By July, that had rebounded to about 90% of pre-pandemic rates. Diagnostic mammograms, those that...