Today's Globe: medical costs, food allergies, drug reactions, UK stem-cell bill, Pfizer settlement, Sermo deal, compassion, Ethyle Kaplan

Although far more Massachusetts residents have health insurance coverage than residents nationwide, a significant portion of Bay Staters are still struggling to pay for needed healthcare, a new survey shows.

Food allergies in American children seem to be on the rise, now affecting about 3 million kids, according to the first federal study of the problem.

The number of serious drug reactions and deaths reported to the government shot up in the first three months of this year to record highs, a health industry watchdog group said yesterday.

British plans to allow scientists to use hybrid animal-human embryos for stem-cell research won final approval from lawmakers yesterday in a sweeping overhaul of sensitive science laws.

Massachusetts will get more than $2.5 million of a $60 million national settlement with Pfizer Inc. over advertising for the Celebrex and Bextra pain relief drugs.

Sermo Inc. of Cambridge, which operates an Internet social networking site for physicians, has struck a deal with financial news provider Bloomberg LP that will give professional investors access to Sermo (second item).

Boston is a laboratory for restoring the humanity that fades away after medical school through the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center's programs promoting emotional connection between clinician and patient, a Globe editorial says.

Ethyle W. Kaplan, a Newton philanthropist whose efforts with her late husband helped transform New England Sinai Hospital from a small sanatorium into a premier medical facility, died Oct. 12 of natural causes in New York City, where she had lived for several years. She was 101.