. Insured parents don’t necessarily insure their children, so say researchers who found that more than 3 percent of U.S. children and adolescents are uninsured or underinsured at some point during any given year – even if they have at least one parent who is insured, says HealthDay.com. That means that almost 3 million U.S. children each year are without medical coverage and have no access to prescription drugs. Slightly more than half of those uninsured children, however, qualify for public coverage but are not enrolled. More than 9 million U.S. children are uninsured; some 18 million at some time or another are not insured, according to the study. What it means, study author Dr. Jennifer E. DeVoe said at a news conference on Tuesday, is that millions of parents are “unable to access stable, continuous health-care coverage for themselves and their children. These are painful realities, choices to forego and delay care every day.” DeVoe is an assistant professor of family medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. Her study, along with other studies addressing health-care concerns, appear in a special Oct. 22/29 issue, titled “Health of the Nation,” of the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA.

Staph infections claim the career of a promising college athlete. When part of Kenny George’s right foot was amputated this fall because of a staph infection, the ugly flesh-eating illness claimed the career of a promising athlete. But George’s experience shows how serious staph infections, which are on the rise, can be. Read more about George’s dilemma and just how prevalent staph infections have become at Vital Signs.

Wayman Tisdale hopes procedure stops bone cancer
Ex-NBA player Wayman Tisdale has undergone a partial amputation of his right leg, in hopes that it prevents the spread of bone cancer. Tisdale, who worked the paint for Indiana, Sacramento and Phoenix before beginning a successful career as a jazz bassist, discovered the disease after he fell and broke the same leg early last year. He announced plans to undergo the procedure on his Web site before it was reported as a successful operation this week: “This may sound drastic, but I have put it in God’s hands and now have peace, knowing that this is the best way to put this disease in check.” Tisdale, 44, plans to resume touring and promoting his latest album Rebound, which he says was inspired by the health challenge.