Parent to Parent: Indifference and mental disabilities

When I was 10 years old, my parents bought a small cottage near Cape Cod. I spent most of my summers there until I went away to college. Down the street from us lived a girl with Down syndrome by the name of MaryAnn. She was almost exactly my age.

Check it out

HEART HEALTH

The following events promoting heart health are being offered by Northampton's Cooley Dickinson Hospital:

# Heart, Arteries and Veins: Today from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Dakin Conference Room, interventional radiologists Dr. Julia Gates and Dr. George Hartnell will engage participants in a trivia game show approach to dispel myths about vascular disease.

Medical debt puts patients at risk of financial ruin

Frances Giordano found out she had lung cancer in June.

After that, the bad news just kept coming.

First, she discovered that even with a good job and health insurance, her medical expenses were more than she could afford on disability.

Squeezed by health bills

Debt accrued through an inability to pay medical bills is a raging problem in America. Signed in 2010, The Affordable Care Act, if enacted as planned in 2014, is supposed to help. One provision aims to make sure every health insurance plan delivers good value by requiring that 85 percent of the premium dollar go toward health care.

In the meantime:

Do research to select good therapist

"Being in therapy is great," comedian Caroline Rhea once joked. "I spend an hour just talking about myself. It's kinda like being the guy on a date."

Patients draw strength from art

The courageous lion has nothing on Ethan Puhalsky.

The 7-year-old from Norton, Ohio, bravely endures countless tests, treatments and lengthy hospital stays as he battles leukemia.

So when he had the chance to work with an artist during one of his many stays at Akron Children's Hospital, it's only fitting that he decided to paint a portrait of his favorite stuffed lion.

Who will pay for palliative care for the severely ill?

What if a new medication for severely ill patients had no role in curing them, but made them feel much better despite being sick?

Let's say this elixir were found to decrease the pain and nausea of cancer patients, improve the sleep and energy of heart failure patients, prolong the lives of people with kidney failure, drive down health care expenditures and ease the burdens of caregivers?