Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

Cognitive Function Is Superior In Breast Cancer Patients Treated With Letrozole Versus Tamoxifen
New results show that postmenopausal women with breast cancer receiving adjuvant letrozole have better cognitive function than women being treated with tamoxifen. The data, from a recent meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), are drawn from a sub-study of the Breast International Group (BIG) 1-98 trial.

In Australia Indigenous Health Experts Reject MP's Call For Removal Of Alcohol Restriction
Leading medical researchers from Australia"s George Institute for International Health are surprised by recent statements made by a Western Australian Member of Parliament, Hon. Carol Anne Martin MLA, who is calling for the removal of the alcohol restrictions in the Kimberley towns of Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing. The George Institute considers these statements a disappointing response to the positive community impacts of the alcohol restriction.
News of the day
Farmer Still Under Consideration For Obama Administration Position, Takes Harvard Medical School Appointment
While Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer is still being considered for a senior role in the Obama administration, Farmer has been appointed chair of Harvard Medical School"s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine -- Jeffrey Flier, the medical school"s dean, said on Wednesday -- the Boston Globe reports. Flier said that Farmer will take a leave of absence from the medical school if he is offered a position with the administration. For now, Farmer is slated to succeed the current chair, Jim Kim, on July 1 (Smith, Boston Globe, 5/28). Foreign Policy"s "The Cable" reports that Farmer is "under consideration to head" USAID or "serve in a top administration international assistance post that would encompass it." An unnamed "international health activist" said that Farmer might be appointed USAID administrator "as an interim thing" and that he might go on to lead a new position focused on "global health in the process of foreign assistance reform over the coming year." Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is organizing efforts to reform the Foreign Assistance Act later this year. The act was originally written in 1961 (Rozen, "The Cable," Foreign Policy, 5/26).On Tuesday, Jack Lew, Deputy Secretary Of State for Management and Res, said that the government is considering ways to significantly improve coordination of various agencies that work with global health assistance. "We"re open to creative ideas about how to bring appropriate res to bear," Lew said, adding, "When we look at public-private partnerships and recruiting, we"re looking at how to cast the broadest net to bring in the right talent and commitment to address the challenge" (Boston Globe, 5/28). Partners in Health said it is pleased that Farmer is being considered along with other strong candidates. Wendy Sherman, an advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Aaron Williams, a former USAID official who is now with RTI International, are among some of the "[p]reviously rumored contenders for the USAID administrator job," according to "The Cable." Last week, Farmer had a meeting with Clinton, Partners in Health said. Andrew Marx, a spokesman for the group, said that one of the reasons why people are "excited about the idea of Paul is that he and Partners in Health in the past have been quite prepared to challenge the accepted wisdom." According to Marx, Farmer did not buy into the conventional approach to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in the 1990s, when WHO"s official policy was not to treat people who were diagnosed with the disease because it was complicated and the costs were high. When asked if Farmer would be interested in a USAID administrator position that has strong democracy and governance components, Marx said, "Good governance and democracy are important to us," adding that the group"s work focuses on building up countries" public health systems rather than creating independent health clinics. David Bryden, senior program policy officer for the Center for Global Health Policy, said, "There are many exciting things about Paul Farmer." According to Bryden, Farmer "has been a person with a very practical mindset, he knows how to get the job done, put aside conventional wisdom when it"s wrong. ... It"s really exciting" ("The Cable," Foreign Policy, 5/26).
Nutrition

Dems Prepare For Health Reform Cost Analysis While Courting GOP Votes

What is sure to be a staggering price tag for health reform has Senate Democrats talking about changing the chamber"s normal accounting procedures, The Hill reports. "Some Democrats are arguing behind the scenes that they should not use the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office"s cost estimate, as is custom. Instead, they would use cost estimates from the White House Office of Management and Budget. This unusual option could give Democratic leaders hundreds of billions of additional dollars to work with as they draft their plans. But Republicans would call it an accounting gimmick and a huge spending loophole." Rep. Barbara Boxer, D., Calif., among other Democrats, said she won"t abide by the CBO"s scores if they don"t take illness prevention into account. "Complaints about CBO"s scoring of preventive benefits is not new. Republicans routinely blasted CBO on this issue when they controlled Congress during the Bush administration. CBO experts say they can only rely on hard data in assessing savings, not anecdotal information. ň€¦ (Sen. Max) Baucus (the Montana Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee) told The Hill Thursday that he estimates that roughly 50 percent of the cost of reform would be covered by savings generated from reforms such as greater emphasis on preventive medicine, improvement of information technology and coordination of healthcare" (Bolton, 6/11). MSNBC reports that "supporters of the health insurance overhaul are concerned that it could stall if voters doubt that Obama"s plan will curb costs while maintaining current levels of care. They are pressuring the CBO to include long-term - and somewhat speculative - savings in its estimate of the health care bill. An early test of the CBO"s willingness to venture into such territory could come as early as next week." The CBO has a number of problems in scoring, including speculation on what something will save and pinpointing savings as many as 15 years out (Curry, 6/11). Kaiser Health News details how Democrats are trying to secure the votes of more than a dozen moderate and conservative Republicans to pass health reform with bipartisan support. To do it, Baucus "emerged from a morning session with key Republicans and Democrats saying he was "inclined toward" jettisoning a proposed government-sponsored insurance program endorsed last week by Obama in favor of a new proposal to create national, state and regional health care insurance cooperatives. Republicans bitterly oppose the public insurance option, saying it would undermine the private insurance industry and lead to a national health insurance system. Some conservative Democrats also are skeptical of the public plan option, even as they and Baucus support Obama"s overall reform goals." Democrats are pursuing Republican Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Pat Roberts of Kansas, and Mike Enzi of Wyoming, among others. "Republicans appeared disorganized early in the health care debate, but are beginning to galvanize around a set of objections to the legislation as Democratic committee leaders in the Senate and House have begun to circulate a series of proposals in anticipation of legislative markups, beginning next week in the HELP Committee and later this month in Finance" (Carey and Pianin, 6/11). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California, however, opposes the cooperative compromise, MSNBC reports in a separate story: In response to a question on the co-op, Pelosi said: ""Not instead of a public option. In our caucus, our members have been very clear about what their concerns might be about a public option, and I agree it should be sound, it should be administrative, it should be self sufficient, it should be a competitor with the private sector and not have an unfair advantageň€¦ When you say public option, you have to say right next to it -- level playing field"" (Russert, 6/11). Meanwhile, CQPolitics writes that Republicans are warning Democrats who continue to insist on a public plan. ""If a government-run plan is a competitor, pretty soon you"ll have no other competition," said Roy Blunt of Missouri, who heads the party"s House health care working group. He said the federal government will always have an unfair advantage over the private sector. Such a plan "will drive people away from the coverage they have now" and lead to rationing of health care and medical decisions made by government bureaucrats, he said" (Epstein, 6/11). Problems also persist inside the Democratic party itself regarding the public plan: "A coalition of more than 100 moderate House Democrats is hoping to unify as they attempt to limit the size and scope of a government-sponsored health insurance option - a key sticking point as health reform enters a delicate phase of negotiations," Politico reports. "Members of the New Democrat Coalition have organized a meeting with their counterparts in the Blue Dog Coalition on Friday morning in a bid to show some strength in numbers as they haggle with party leaders and the three chairmen drafting the bill. ... Moderates want to ensure that that government-backed health care plan doesn"t undermine the private market" (O"Connor and Brown, 6/12). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009