Health News E-Clips

An electronic healthcare news link service provided by UHA,

Utah Hospitals and Health Systems Association

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 19, 2009

 

Utah Healthcare Headlines

Rough challenges confront Legislature (Davis County Clipper, May 20, 2009) “We’ve got a tough road ahead of us,” Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, told Davis County leaders Friday.

 

Utah working families face economic hardships (Salt Lake Tribune, May 20, 2009) One key to Utah's economic future is its working families, but more than one-third are stuck in dead-end jobs with wages so low they cannot adequately support their children.

 

National Healthcare Headlines

 

California Stages Trial Run for U.S. Health-Care Overhaul (Wall Street Journal, May 20, 2009) When representatives of various health industries stood with President Barack Obama at the White House last week and pledged to cut health-care costs, it turns out they were traveling familiar terrain.

 

Congress' conservatives offer health proposal (KSL.com, May 20, 2009) Congressional conservatives, convinced voters need to see a Republican health care plan and frustrated their party hasn't offered one, are introducing legislation of their own. Also found at New York Times, May 20, 2009.

 

Groups Use Money, Internet in Health Care Lobbying  (New York Times, May 20, 2009) Snapshots of lobbying techniques used as Congress gets ready to start writing bills overhauling health care. (Registration required)

 

Budget Scolds Shouldn't Drown Out the Chorus Calling for Health Reform (Washington Post, May 20, 2009) In the political menagerie that is Washington, there exists a species known as the budget scold -- analysts, advocates, editorial writers and politicians who possess a fierce determination to bring the federal budget into better balance. (Registration required)

 

Sodas a Tempting Tax Target (New York Times, May 20, 2009) “Sugar, rum and tobacco are commodities which are nowhere necessaries of life, which are become objects of almost universal consumption, and which are therefore extremely proper subjects of taxation.” (Registration required)

 

Group gives healthcare law high marks (Boston Globe, May 20, 2009) The landmark Massachusetts healthcare law has had only a "marginal impact" on state spending while dramatically expanding the ranks of the insured, according to a report by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. (Registration required)

 

Swine Flu Spreads in Japan, Despite Quarantine Inspections (Washington Post, May 20, 2009) To stop swine flu before it could sneak off airplanes arriving from North America, Japan dispatched masked health inspectors with fever-sensing guns to walk among passengers. (Regsitration required)

  • Survey Finds Link Between Obesity and Flu Severity (Washington Post, May 20, 2009) A survey of people hospitalized because of swine flu in California has raised the possibility that obesity is as much of a risk factor for serious complications from the flu as diabetes, heart disease and pregnancy, all known to raise a person's risk. (Registration required)
  • Japan's Aso Urges Calm as Flu Spreads (Wall Street Journal, May 20, 2009) Prime Minister Taro Aso took to the airwaves on Tuesday, urging calm as the A/H1N1 flu virus spread across Japan's western region, prompting school closings and leading some corporations to cancel business trips.
  • WHO seeks swine flu vaccine help for poor nations The World Health Organization urged drugmakers to reserve some of their pandemic swine flu vaccine for poor countries, but received few concrete offers Tuesday as experts disclosed that an effective flu shot is still months away.

 

Activists seek Justice Dept. probe of insurers (Washington Post, May 20, 2009) Activists backing President Barack Obama's health care overhaul are asking the Justice Department to open a wide-ranging investigation of what they say is monopoly-like power in the hands of major insurers. (Registration required). Also found at KSL.com, May 20, 2009.

 

Vermont Acts to Make Drug Makers’ Gifts Public (New York Times, May 20, 2009) Cracking down on medical industry payments to doctors, the Vermont legislature has passed a law requiring drug and device makers to publicly disclose all money given to physicians and other health care providers, naming names and listing dollar amounts. (Registration required)  

 

Pfizer to Expand Marketing of Generic Drugs (Wall Street Journal, May 20, 2009) Pfizer Inc. reached deals with two Indian generic-drug makers, part of its strategy to invest more heavily in generics and developing countries amid pressures from U.S. health-care reform.

 

Boy's mother faces arrest over chemo refusal (USA Today, May 20, 2009) Authorities nationwide were on the lookout Wednesday for a mother and her 13-year-old cancer-stricken son who fled after refusing the chemotherapy that doctors say could save the boy's life.

  • Arrest ordered for mom of boy, 13, resisting chemo (Boston Globe, May 20, 2009) Authorities nationwide were on the lookout Wednesday for a mother and her 13-year-old cancer-stricken son who fled after refusing the chemotherapy that doctors say could save the boy's life. (Registration required)  Also found at New York Times, May 20, 2009.

 

North Carolina Approves Ban on Smoking (New York Times, May 20, 2009) North Carolina, the nation’s largest grower of tobacco, will soon prohibit smoking in restaurants and bars. The ban, signed into law on Tuesday by Gov. Bev Perdue, is another defeat for the ailing tobacco industry on home turf in the South. (Registration required)