President Obama’s healthcare plan requiring every American to purchase healthcare insurance was ruled as unconstitutional.

It will be interesting to see how this affects the upcoming election considering that this was such a hot button topic and a cornerstone of his campaign promises.

It has been historically difficult and unpopular to promote national healthcare.

Follow the story here.

The U.S. Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, ruled 2 to 1 that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to buy coverage, but it unanimously reversed a lower court decision that threw out the entire law.

The legality of the individual mandate, a cornerstone of the healthcare law, is widely expected to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Opponents have argued that without the mandate, which goes into effect in 2014, the entire law falls.

The overall rate of deaths from drugs — including heroin, cocaine, and prescription opioids — is approaching the number of deaths from car crashes each year.

In 2007, there were 28,000 deaths from prescription drug overdoses.

Those deaths were driven largely by the abuse of prescription painkillers.

Prescription painkiller abuse now matches abuse of illegal drugs, and mortality from the prescription drugs exceeds overdose deaths from cocaine and heroin combined

“We are in the midst of a public health crisis driven by prescription drug abuses,”

“In 2007, there were 28,000 deaths from prescription drug overdoses — five times the number in 1990, Kerlikowske said. Those deaths were driven largely by the abuse of prescription painkillers.”