Health News E-Clips

An electronic healthcare news link service provided by UHA,

Utah Hospitals and Health Systems Association

 

 

Friday, March 19, 2010

 

Utah Healthcare Headlines

Utah's uninsured rate holds steady (Salt Lake Tribune, March 17, 2010) There was little change in the percentage of Utahns who went without health coverage last year, new state Health Department data show.

 

St. Mark's Hospital remodel aims at improving patient care (Salt Lake Tribune, March 17, 2010) Patients at St. Mark's Hospital may notice some changes the next time they step through the doors.

 

Utah women account for 75% of H1N1 deaths (Salt Lake Tribune, March 17, 2010) Women and minorities were disproportionately sickened by the H1N1 flu strain in Utah.

 

Health costs swallowing up incomes (Salt Lake Tribune, March 18, 2010) One evening last year, Dina Abdic, a 40-year-old real estate agent and mother of two, made a mental tally of her family's medical bills.

 

Capecchi joins call for health overhaul (Salt Lake Tribune, March 17, 2010) The complexity of competing federal health care overhauls befuddles even those in the medical profession.

·         Utah's Nobel Prize-winning geneticist supports health care reform (KSL.com, March 17, 2010) Nobel Prize-winning University of Utah geneticist Mario Capecchi says he supports the health care reform package being considered by Congress.

·         Utah clinicians say it’s now or never for health care reform (Deseret News, March 17, 2010) No matter how Dr. Kyle Jones put it to his 50-year-old patient, the results of the physical were not adding up to a clean bill of health.

·         Utah doctors urging Matheson to vote 'yes' on health care reform (KSL.com, March 18, 2010) Suspense is building across the country as a showdown looms in Washington over health care reform. Pressure is also building on Utah's lone Democrat in Congress to make up his mind.

 

Idaho first to sign law against health care reform (Deseret News, March 18, 2010) Idaho is leading the charge in a states-rights push to defeat a proposal in Congress that would require people to buy health insurance, a key piece of reforms being pushed by President Barack Obama.

 

Can chemo prevent colon cancer? (Salt Lake Tribune, March 18, 2010) Huntsman Cancer Institute has been awarded $12 million to find a drug that everyone can take to lower the risk of colon cancer, on par with taking aspirin to prevent a heart attack.

 

National Healthcare Headlines

House Democrats' tactic for health-care bill is debated (Washington Post, March 17, 2010) An obscure parliamentary maneuver favored by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suddenly ignited Tuesday as the latest tinder in the year-long partisan strife over reshaping the nation's health-care system, triggering debate over the strategy's legitimacy and political wisdom. (Registration required)

·         Health-care sleight of hand (Washington Post, March 17, 2010) How predictable: There they go again. The Republicans are trying to make an issue of the Democrats' parliamentary maneuvering in the last-ditch, this-is-it, gotta-get-it-done push for the health-care bill. (Registration required)

·         House Democrats scramble to ensure adequate deficit reduction in health bill (Washington Post, March 17, 2010) Congressional Democrats rushing to push President Obama's health-care initiative to final passage this week hit a new snag Tuesday, as the final piece of the package was held up by concerns that it would do too little to reduce the nation's budget deficit. (Registration required)

·         Was Medicare popular when it passed? (Washington Post, March 17, 2010) For some time, I've been trying to find good polling from the passage of Medicare. (Registration required)

·         Obama's health-care reform speech in Ohio convinces a few skeptics (Washington Post, March 17, 2010) Retirees who voted Republican in the last presidential election, Carol and Paul Gerhardstein were unhappy about Democratic plans to overhaul the nation's health-care system. But they showed up at a rally this week to hear President Obama defend his proposals, and a funny thing happened. (Registration required)

·         Health bill's abortion fight is much ado about little difference (Washington Post, March 17, 2010) There are any number of good reasons for House Democrats to vote against health-care reform. Abortion isn't one of them. (Registration required)

·         Democrats Consider New Moves for Health Bill (New York Times, March 17, 2010) As lawmakers clashed fiercely over major health care legislation on the House floor, Democrats struggled Tuesday to defend procedural shortcuts they might use to win approval for their proposals in the next few days. (Registration required)

·         Republicans now facing Democrats' Deem Team on health-care reform (Washington Post, March 17, 2010) Just days before the climactic vote on health-care reform, the "tea party" movement issued an unexpected surrender. (Registration required)

·         Democrats to Watch on the Health Care Vote (New York Times, March 17, 2010) Below are House Democrats who may decide the fate of the health care overhaul in coming days. (Registration required)

·         Kucinich to Support Health Overhaul (Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2010) Rep. Dennis Kucinich, in a reversal of his previous vote on health-care legislation, said Wednesday that he plans to vote in favor of a version of the bill set to come before the House.

·         Kucinich's health-care vote could be Obama's lucky charm (Washington Post, March 18, 2010) According to legend, if you catch a leprechaun in the forest, the little creature must grant you three wishes. Our Kenyan Hawaiian commander in chief evidently has the luck of the Irish, because, just in time for St. Patrick's Day, President Obama bagged himself a leprechaun -- in Cleveland, of all places -- and on Wednesday his first wish was granted. (Registration required)

·         Kucinich changes position on health care, will vote 'yes' (USA Today, March 17, 2010) Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who penned a column in Sunday's Cleveland Plain Dealer outlining his opposition to the health care bill, reversed course today and now says he will vote for it, the Plain Dealer reports here.

·         Democrats Hunt Votes for Deal on Health (Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2010) Democrats inched closer to building a majority that could pass a monumental restructuring of the health-care system, with two key House members announcing plans to vote yes, but they remained short of the total required and struggled over changes in how the bill would tax certain insurance plans.

·         Idaho is first to challenge federal health care mandate (USA Today, March 17, 2010) Idaho is the first state to enact a law that requires the state to sue the federal government if health care legislation requires residents to buy insurance.

·         Survey shows how middle class hit by health-insurance crisis (USA Today, March 17, 2010) As Congress nears its historic showdown on health reform, a new state-by-state survey highlights how middle-class Americans were hit by the insurance crisis even before the worst of the recession took hold.

·         Democrats: Vote your conscience on health care (Washington Post, March 18, 2010) Dear wavering House Democrats, I feel your pain. Eighteen years ago, I was elected on the coattails of a popular young Democratic president who promised a post-partisan Washington. (Registration required)

·         CBO scores health-care bill at $940 billion, Dems say (Washington Post, March 18, 2010) Congressional Democrats on Thursday will unveil a final version of their comprehensive health-care plan, with House leaders saying the bill would cut the federal deficit by more than $100 billion over the next decade and more than $1 trillion over by 2030. (Registration required)

·         Democrats yet to decide on health-care bill bear the weight of Washington (Washington Post, March 18, 2010) Rep. Jason Altmire has met with President Obama twice this month and received a phone call from Air Force One. (Registration required)

·         CBO: $940 billion health bill would help cut deficit over 10 years (Washington Post, March 18, 2010) An emerging compromise on health care between House and Senate Democrats would cost $940 billion over the next decade and expand insurance coverage to an additional 32 million Americans, congressional budget analysts said Thursday. (Registration required)

·         The Health-Care Wars Are Only Beginning (Op Ed, Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2010) On Dec. 7, 1941, an announcement was made during the football game between the hometown Washington Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles. All the generals and admirals at Griffith Stadium were instructed to report to their duty stations. Little did they know their lives would be changed forever and America would be at war, or on war footing, for the next half-century. Pearl Harbor had been attacked. (Registration required)

·         A Broader View of Health Care (Opinion, New York Times, March 18, 2010) My Thursday column argues that the crucial element of health care reform is its effort to increase access to the uninsured. (Registration required)

·         Obama Delays Trip as Report Aids Final Push on Health Care (New York Times, March 18, 2010) As House Democrats geared up for a possible vote on Sunday to pass health care legislation, the Congressional Budget Office issued an analysis allowing them to point to significant cost savings in the decades ahead. (Registration required)

·         Health Bill to Cost $940 Billion Over Decade (Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2010) The final version of the Democrats' health overhaul will cost $940 billion over a decade and expand insurance coverage to 32 million Americans, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released Thursday.

·         Obama's proposed health care plan is full of gimmicks and fraud (Commentary, Deseret News, March 18, 2010) In a swindle that would make Bernie Madoff look like an amateur, President Barack Obama has gotten a substantial segment of the population to believe that he can add millions of people to the government-insured rolls without increasing the already record-breaking federal deficit.

·         Health care rush is risky (Editorial, Deseret News, March 18, 2010) Polls say more than half of Americans do not trust the health care reforms passed by the Senate in December.

           

Health Bill Drops Ban On Deals Between Brand- Generic-Drug Makers (Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2010) A proposal that would ban patent-settlements between brand-name pharmaceutical companies and makers of generic medicines won't be included in legislation overhauling the U.S. health-care system.

 

On health care, listen to the nuns (Washington Post, March 17, 2010) One of the tragedies of the viciously politicized battle over health-care reform is the defection of the nation's Roman Catholic bishops from a cause they have championed for decades. (Registration required)

·         Catholic nuns break with bishops on abortion, back Obama health bill (USA Today, March 18, 2010) Catholic nuns are urging Congress to pass President Barack Obama's health care plan, in an unusual public break with bishops who say it would subsidize abortion.

 

Access, Access, Access (Opinion, March 18, 2010) First, a question: When in American history did life expectancy improve the most? (Registration required)

 

London seminar offering free IVF from Virginia clinic sparks controversy (Washington Post, March 18, 2010) A Virginia infertility clinic sparked an international ethical controversy Wednesday by sponsoring a seminar in London that gave away an attempt to get pregnant using an American woman's eggs. (Registration required)

 

Report: Thyroid cancer radiation a public threat (USA Today, March 18, 2010) A Nuclear Regulatory Commission rule allowing hospitals to discharge radioactive thyroid cancer patients to their homes and hotels poses a public health threat, a congressional report says today.

 

Honest Food Labels (Editorial, New York Times,  March 18, 2010) Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, has said one of her priorities is to improve the information on food package labels. (Registration required)

 

Kraft to cut salt in Oscar Mayer, all North American foods (USA Today, March 17, 2010) Kraft Foods said Wednesday that it will cut the salt in its products that are sold in North America by an average of 10% over the next two years to appeal to health-conscious consumers.

 

Studies: Drugs don't reduce heart problems for diabetes patients (USA Today, March 17, 2010) Key results from a landmark federal study are in, and the results are disappointing for diabetics: Adding drugs to drive blood pressure and blood-fats lower than current targets did not prevent heart problems, and in some cases caused harmful side effects.

 

Patients bear brunt as cancer care spending hits $90 billion (USA Today, March 17, 2010) The cost of cancer treatment is "skyrocketing" — both for individual patients and the nation, a new analysis shows.

 

Maker of Tylenol Explains Actions Taken to Alleviate Musty Smell of Pills (New York Times, March 18, 2010) The Johnson & Johnson unit that drew criticism and a federal warning letter in January on the grounds of mishandling quality control problems with Tylenol says it has taken steps to prevent similar incidents in the future, according to documents newly posted on the Web site of the Food and Drug Administration. (Registration required)