The Democrats on Capitol Hill are promising a new ethic of fiscal responsibility as the party desperately tries to shed its tax-and-spend label of recent decades. But if spending restraint and balanced budgets are the new Democratic rallying cry, someone forgot to alert the governors. After the November elections, Democrats now control 28 governorships and a majority of state legislatures -- but they are celebrating their return to power by spending tax dollars like every day is Christmas.

Nursing homes across Illinois would disclose everything from criminal complaints to whether they serve kosher meals and allow pet visits under new legislation being pushed by state Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Testifying at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg pleaded for at least $150 million in annual federal aid to monitor and treat thousands of people who became ill after being exposed to dust and debris at ground zero.

Community Health Commissioner Rhonda Medows rushed from meeting to meeting with state officials Wednesday a day after political maneuvering stalled a spending plan to aid her agency's financially troubled PeachCare program.

If there is one issue almost everyone in Washington agrees on, it's the need to improve healthcare in Indian country. A few years ago, the former top Democrat in the Senate, Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), proposed an amendment to more than double the Indian Health Service (IHS) budget. President Bush has proposed steady increases in recent budget requests.

The changing demographics of veterans in long-term care has led to efforts to make long-term care facilities seem more like home.

On Monday, the state launched a new Web site that helps consumers in southcentral Kentucky and other areas rate and compare health-care facilities.

Mayoral candidate Tom Knox says he'd open 40 small neighborhood health centers, providing basic service to the uninsured for no more than $7.50 a visit.

Financially, it's one of Pennsylvania's biggest problems: caring for people who are too old to care for themselves.

The state spends about $4 billion a year for nursing home care. Because Pennsylvania has the nation's third-largest population of senior citizens, nearly everyone agrees the expense can't be sustained.

Massachusetts is poised to become the first state to require that all adults have health insurance that includes prescription drug coverage.

Last year, West Virginia's Medicaid program began a controversial program offering beneficiaries enhanced benefits for "responsible" behavior. Join a weight-loss program, take anti-smoking classes and make your routine checkups and screenings, and you will be rewarded with extra benefits.

At a summit meeting Tuesday for the newly created non-profit Arizona Health-e Connection board, members were talking about creating a secure Web portal as well as developing a system that would allow physicians to communicate more easily with each other about patient care.

Ever since, scientific studies have emerged linking consumption of red wine with good health and aging. Both institutions point out the health risks of drinking alcohol and urge moderate consumption, if at all. Those who don't drink shouldn't be swayed to start by the claim of health benefits, the association insists.

State investigators are looking into complaints that insurance agents switched memory-impaired residents of a Cary rest home from traditional Medicare to private Medicare plans, resulting in higher costs and fewer benefits for the residents.

In response to concerns that some babies may be missing out on essential health care, the Bush administration will issue a rule making it easier for the infants of noncitizens to gain access to services covered through Medicaid.

At Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Ill., the neonatal intensive-care unit's open-plan nursery is being transformed into a series of private "pods," with glass walls that allow staff to observe infants, but privacy curtains and reclining chairs for moms to be alone with their babies.

While finances and bookkeeping were long known to be a problem in the hospital system, County Board members learned Tuesday just how big the problem had become during the tenure of ex-Board President John Stroger.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the Healthcare Association of New York Tuesday floated a potential settlement to the health care funding wars that would add about $300 million to Spitzer's budget.

More than five million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, a 10 percent increase from the last official tally five years ago, and a number expected to more than triple by 2050, absent a cure, as the 85-and-over population soars and the baby boomers move into their late 60s and 70s.

$19.4 billion: Midyear budget goes to Senate, also contains an extra $167 million for schools.

The House overwhelmingly approved a $19.4 billion mid-year spending plan Tuesday that will help keep PeachCare and the public defender system in business.

Dr. Allan Collins may be the most influential kidney specialist in the country. He is president of the National Kidney Foundation and director of a government-financed research center on kidney disease.

A battle is brewing in Congress over a key piece of the Bush administration's strategy to lower health care costs, as Democrats plan to roll back a Republican-backed expansion of health savings accounts.

Massachusetts took a major step toward enacting its near-universal health care overhaul, with the board that oversees the plan voting on Tuesday to require insurers to provide certain minimum benefits, including coverage of prescription drugs.

The decision, subject to final approval in June, would make Massachusetts the first state to establish standards that apply to every resident and every health insurer.

Health plans are offering new and innovative programs to improve the quality of health care in communities across the country. Tonight the AHIP Foundation paid tribute to the winners of its Innovation and Excellence Award.

The generics concept has existed in pharmaceuticals for about 30 years and has received a lot of attention recently, given the spiraling costs of healthcare worldwide. Now comes a firm that claims to be the world's first generic medical device company.