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Dan
Butts --- Health Care Briefs, Part
I (Part II forthcoming in about a week)
Saving Millions for Just a Few Dollars (in Cuba)
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/040306HB.shtml
Good health doesn't have to be expensive, says a new report.
Cuba is an example: It has a stagnant socialist economy, and most
of its citizens have lived under a trade embargo from the United
States their entire lifetimes.
**Nevertheless, the life expectancy of Cuban men was higher
in 2001 (75.2 years) than American men's (74.5 years).
Madeline Drexler | Curing Our Public Health System
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/021306HB.shtml
In his State of the Union address, George Bush didn't mention
that 99 % of U.S. health care dollars are spent on treating and
curing disease, and only one percent on preventing disease. That
logic is backward - and the president's proposed 2007 budget
makes matters even worse, says Madeline Drexler.
FDA Staff Travels on Drug Industry Dollars
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/040306HA.shtml
Through an apparent loophole in agency rules the Food and
Drug Administration has allowed its employees to receive more
than $1.3 million in sponsored travel since 1999 from groups
closely tied to pharmaceutical and medical device companies.
Millions Spent to Keep States From Cutting Drug Costs
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/040606HA.shtml
The pharmaceutical industry is spending tens of millions of
dollars on lobbying, campaign donations and gifts to try to persuade
state officials not to pass laws that would cut into drug profits,
according to a report to be made public today by the nonpartisan
Center for Public Integrity.
Robert Hayes |'D' For (Medicare) Disaster
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040706C.shtml
Here's the reality: 16 million Americans with Medicare - men
and women age 65 and older and people with severe, long-term
disabilities - still have no drug coverage.
Just 7 MILLION Americans who were uninsured before the drug
program was launched are newly insured. 6 MILLION of the poorest
and frailest Americans who lost Medicaid coverage on January 1st
now have inferior, less-reliable drug coverage.
Health Coverage Reform Follows State-by-State Path
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/040506HA.shtml
As Washington continues to debate minor changes to the
health system, a growing number of states are taking action.
State lawmakers are more likely to hear from local hospitals
affected by rising numbers of uninsured patients, and from
business owners and individuals affected by rising health insurance
premiums.
Massachusetts Sets Health Plan for Nearly All (*not a
single-payer, progressive plan)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040506N.shtml
Massachusetts is poised to become the first state to provide
nearly universal health care coverage with a bill passed overwhelm-
ingly by the legislature. The bill does what health experts say
no
other state has been able to do: provide a mechanism for all of
its
citizens to obtain health insurance.
(Health Care) Coverage, In Pieces
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/040506HB.shtml
Medical insurance can be surprisingly elusive - and temporary.
For many, the safety net now requires compromise and sacrifice.
Some stories of what people do to stay covered are whispered in
confidence: a marriage of convenience, a divorce put on hold, a
person too sick to work kept on the payroll by a compassionate
boss.
U.S. to Pay Big Corporations Billions for Retiree Health Plans
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022406O.shtml
America's largest companies expect the federal government
to pay them about $4 BILLION over the next four years to help keep
their retiree health plans alive at a time when such benefits are
increasingly on the chopping block, according to a new study by
Credit Suisse First Boston.
"Conscience Clauses" Could Usher Healthcare Access
Crisis
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/033006HA.shtml
As legal loopholes that allow healthcare providers to refuse to
offer services they deem "morally objectionable" crop
up around the
nation, their breadth and severity grow, raising concerns of broaden-
ing impact.
Bladder Grown in Lab Hailed as Breakthrough for Organ Transplants
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/040406HA.shtml
The world's first organ grown in a laboratory has been success-
fully implanted in humans, heralding a new era in transplant surg
Seven patients given new bladders grown from their own cells have
functioning organs that have performed as well as those convention-
ally repaired but with none of the ill effects, scientists reveal.
Benzene Fears Prompt Call to Ban Some Soft Drinks
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/033006HB.shtml
Some leading public-health experts want education officials
to ban certain soft drinks from public schools until they're proved
safe and free of the cancer-causing chemical benzene.
William Fisher | Biscuits, Anyone? (psychiatrists & torture)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032806A.shtml
Biscuit are comprised of teams consisting of military psychia-
trists, psychologists, behavioral scientists, and other health care
professionals.
Their role, it has been charged by former Guantánamo interro-
gators, is to advise the military on ways of increasing psychological
duress on detainees to make them more cooperative and willing to
provide information.
Aren't forensic psychiatrists physicians? Aren't they, as well
as behavioral science specialists and prison psychologists, governed
by the ethical rules of their professions? There is nothing ethical
about advising interrogators about how to "break" detainees,
writes
William Fisher.
Bird Flu: How Serious Is the Risk?
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/032806HB.shtml
Avian flu is truly a bird disease, not a human disease. But
the virus could mutate into a form transmissible by humans.
This Q & A covers many issues around how a pandemic might
get started and what individuals can do to protect themselves.
State Bans Abstinence Program
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/032406HB.shtml
Rhode Island education officials have banned a federally funded
abstinence program from public schools that civil rights advocates
said embraced sexist stereotypes and included a voluntary student
health survey that violated privacy laws.
Panel Advises Disclosure of Drugs' Psychotic Effects
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/032406HA.shtml
Stimulants like Ritalin lead a small number of children to suffer
hallucinations that usually feature insects, snakes or worms,
according to federal drug officials, and a panel of experts said
on Wednesday that physicians and parents needed to be warned
of the risk.
ADHD Drugs - Who Said What at Last Month's Hearings
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/032006HA.shtml
The FDA's Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Com-
mittee held a two-day meeting last month to review adverse events
linked to the widely prescribed ADHD drugs that included reports
of sudden death, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes
among adults and children taking the medications.
"I'm Not a Sick Person"
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031706HB.shtml
New treatments are giving new hope to patients with multiple
sclerosis.
Big Medicine's Malignant Growth
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/022706HC.shtml
Some medical professionals say the only way to rid ourselves
of medicine's vast piles of waste is to shrink the health care industry
itself. Are they heretics or visionaries?
Bernie Horn | Debating Health Care, Finally
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/030806HB.shtml
For two months, the media has covered the Fair Share Health
Care controversy as if it were a fierce storm sweeping across the
nation, with Wal-Mart and labor unions supplying the thunder and
lightning. Reporters have all but ignored the larger story - that
Fair
Share has altered the climate of the health care debate.
Pfizer Makes List of Worst Corporate Evildoers
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031406HA.shtml
Global Exchange, the international advocacy group for human
rights, released a report naming the top fourteen "Worst Corporate
Evildoers" in the world for the year 2005. Pfizer, one of the
most
profitable drug companies on earth with sales over $52 BILLION in
2004, made the list.
Bird Flu Strain Expected to Land in U.S. This Year
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031406HB.shtml
Adding urgency to preparations for a possible influenza pan-
demic among humans, a top federal official said Monday that wild
birds infected with a virulent strain of avian flu were expected
to
show up on the U.S. mainland later this year.
Hard Times for Soft Drinks
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031406HC.shtml
Soda has already been linked with weight gain and cavities;
now the FDA admits that some popular soft drinks could contain
a carcinogen. Will the fizz finally go flat?
U.S. Nuclear Plant Leaks Fuel Health Concerns
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030506E.shtml
Years of radioactive waste water spills from Illinois nuclear power
plants have fueled suspicions the industry covers up safety problems
and sparked debate about the risks from exposure to low-level radiation.
Drug Plan Sales Tactics Probed
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/022406HA.shtml
Health insurers entrusted with administering the government's
Medicare drug benefit may be using that access and high-pressure
sales tactics to push seniors into HMOs, broader health plans that
can bring six times the revenue, critics say.
Record Share of Economy Is Spent on Health Care
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011006HB.shtml
The nation's health care bill continued to grow substantially
faster than inflation and wages, increasing by almost 8 % in 2004,
the most recent year with near-final numbers. Even as health care
costs continue to escalate, however, many Americans - especially
minorities and the poor - still do not receive high-quality care,
according to two other federal reports yesterday.
GM: New Study Shows Unborn Babies Could Be Harmed
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010906HB.shtml
Women who eat GM foods while pregnant risk endangering their
unborn babies, startling new research suggests. The study found
that more than half of the offspring of rats fed on modified soya
died in the first three weeks of life, six times as many as those
born to mothers with normal diets.
*****
November
Issue
August
Issue
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