The Wall Street Journal Health Blog picked up on one of presidential candidate John McCain's remarks at this week's "town hall" debate with Se. Barack Obama. It came near the end of an explanation of his healthcare-fix proposals. Remember what he said?

"...All of those people will be covered except for those who have these gold-plated Cadillac kinds of policies. You know, like hair transplants… I might need one of those myself.”

Checking the Facts on Insurance Coverage of Hair Transplants:

William Parsley, a dermatologist who is president of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, a nonprofit group of about 700 hair-restoration doctors world-wide... laughed out loud at McCain’s remark.

Parsley said that only hair restoration as part of reconstructive surgery necessitated by severe burns, serious injuries and accidents is customarily covered by insurance.

Such reconstructive surgeries account for about 1 to 2% of hair transplants performed, he said. What about the gold-plated health insurance, we asked. Ever see any of that? Yes, he said, twice in 34 years of practice that insurers paid for a patients’ cosmetic hair transplant. The most recent instance was two decades ago, though.

Are we alone in withholding payment for hair loss? Parsley says no, cosmetic hair transplants aren’t covered in countries with government-run health systems. “They don’t even offer that in Canada,” he said.

The Senator's handlers were upset at the claims -- by an obscure New York City physician -- that Joe may have recently used Botox in advance of last week's vice-presidential debate. From Ginza:

The NY Post asked Dr. Oleh Slupchynskyj of the Aesthetic Institute and after reviewing photos, Dr. Slupchynskyj believes that Biden has had "some sort 'Lateral Brow/Eyelid Lift" and definitely had Botox injections in the 'forehead region'.

Dr. S said he would bet his next paycheck on the likelihood that Biden has had some work done. Metro Boston News summed it up quite well: Botox makes you so much more credible:

Have we already run out of things to say about the candidates? I guess so. Because the New York Post is now speculating that Joe Biden has had plastic surgery. And he maybe went into last week’s debate only after getting some shots of Botox.

They showed some pictures of Biden from 2005 and last week to the unfortunately named plastic surgeon, Dr. Oleh Slupchynskyj, who is absolutely certain Barack Obama’s choice to appeal to working-class middle Americans has had some work done. While such speculation may put off those hard-scrabble Pennsylvanians Biden’s trying to reach, he’s totally locked up the aging socialite vote.

Biden spokesman David Wade refuted the claims, saying, “I don’t know how to say no firmly enough,” but really it’s sad he even had to comment on it at all.

Led by TMZ.com, the mainstream media (MSM) has teamed with showbiz gossip rags to level an ostensibly newsworthy assault on Sharon Stone, in which a San Francisco civil court judge recently denied the actress exclusive custody of her son due to a series of supposed parenting overreactions, including her suggestion of injecting Botox in the 8-year-old's stinky feet to treat the odor.

However, at least one news organ did a bit of homework on the uses of Botox, only to discover that Stone may have a good point. Radar, a fairly subterrenean expose-driven Web-based tabloid, contacted George P. Liakeas, MD, of New York-based Smooth Synergy Cosmedical Spa, who claimed that not only are Botox injections in the feet not an overreaction, they're a pretty good way to reduce toe odor.

"If a person is concerned about sweating and odor, Botox injections would probably cure the problem because it affects the production of the sweat glands," Liakeas told Radar. "There's no reason to believe it's dangerous. [Stone] maybe be over the top in other ways, but the Botox for the feet example is not a good instance of her being inappropriate."

The "plastic surgery ghouls" of the MSM have ragged on Stone for years -- she has used cosmetic surgery -- and, as usual, has flubbed its own basic tenets regarding due dilligence and balanced reporting.

It's worse than we thought: Stone's lawyer responded to the TMZ report with a strongly worded denial of the "Botox toes" story.