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California Official Details Proposed Health Care Cuts In Schwarzenegger's Budget Plan
California Department of Finance Chief Deputy Director Ana Matosantos on Tuesday discussed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger"s (R) plans to address the state budget deficit in part by cutting Medi-Cal spending and eliminating Healthy Families, the Sacramento Bee reports. Medi-Cal is California"s Medicaid program, and Healthy Families is the state"s version of CHIP. Matosantos spoke at a Joint Legislative Budget Committee hearing (Yamamura, Sacramento Bee, 5/27).The suggested cuts to health care programs are part of the governor"s proposal to address the state"s projected $24.3 billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2009-2010 (Wiegand, Sacramento Bee, 5/23). Schwarzenegger last week outlined two budget proposals to address the state"s budget problems. One of the proposals addressed the situation if California voters approved a set of special ballot measures intended to provide funds for FY 2009-2010 (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 5/18). However, voters last week rejected five of the six measures on the May 19 statewide ballot, including three propositions that would have let the state use special accounts for mental health services and early childhood education (Yi/Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle, 5/20). The state would have faced a $15.4 billion budget deficit if voters had approved the measures (Ellis/Schultz, Fresno Bee, 5/20). Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders were scheduled to begin closed door budget negotiations on Tuesday, and a small group of state senators and Assembly members will hold a series of public sessions on the budget on Wednesday (Bailey, Los Angeles Times, 5/20). Democrats scheduled a press conference for Tuesday to announce their timeline for passing a budget, and Republicans also are set to release their plans for advancing a budget agreement.The San Francisco Chronicle reports that California will not have sufficient cash on hand to make some payments by late summer if a budget agreement is not reached quickly (Wildermuth, San Francisco Chronicle, 5/20).

Climate Change, Hunger, Economy G8 Summit Top Priorities; France's First Lady Calls On G8 To Expand On Global Health 'Achievements'
President Barack Obama joined world leaders in Italy on Wednesday for "three days of intense talks on threats to global security and stability" at a G8 summit "where climate change, the continuing global economy crisis and world hunger got top billing," AP/Google.com reports (Babington, 7/8).
News of the day
Intraoperative Radioguidance With A Portable Gamma Camera: New Technique For Laparoscopic Sentinel Node Localisation In Urological Malignancies
UroToday.com - Our first results of sentinel node mapping with intraoperative radioguidance in urological tumors are described in our abstract. We selected this movie to show the whole imaging procedure. In a patient with prostate cancer, the radiopharmaceutical is injected in 4 depots into the prostate. After tracer administration, planar lymphoscintigraphy is performed after 15 minutes and in 2 hours is followed by a SPECT/CT. After fusion of corresponding SPECT and CT slices, the two-dimensional fusion images show the location of the sentinel nodes.
Mental Health

MDA Cancels Remainder Of Nationwide Summer Camp Program To Protect Children From Swine Flu

Due to overriding concern for the health and safety of Jerry"s Kids, the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) announced today that it is immediately canceling the remainder of its annual summer camp program because of the H1N1 virus. "These children are much more vulnerable because of their weakened respiratory muscles, so we are taking this preemptive action to protect them from possible exposure to the swine flu," said Dr. Valerie Cwik, MDA medical director. Approximately 1,800 children have attended 33 MDA summer camps in the past month, with another 2,500 scheduled to attend the remaining 47 camps that have now been canceled. An equal number of volunteer counselors also attend each camp. Out of 1,800 children who"ve attended MDA camps this year, 11 cases of swine flu were reported after the children left camp. Six suspected cases have been reported at the MDA Summer Camp in Worcester, Pa., which ends tomorrow. One child from the Pennsylvania camp has been hospitalized and is in stable condition. Another child, who attended camp in Utah, was hospitalized, treated and released. In Minnesota, 10 cases of swine flu were reported after camp ended there June 12. On Friday, MDA conferred with officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, who concurred with the decision to cancel the camps as being "the prudent thing to do" based on the fact that these children are at such high risk for complications from the flu virus. All children registered for camp as well as camp counselors, medical staff, paramedics and other volunteers are screened for any possible exposure to swine flu, as recommended by the CDC. Some volunteers were turned away based on this screening. However, a person may be infected with the virus and be contagious before actual symptoms appear, according to Cwik. MDA mobilized its entire staff nationwide today to notify family members and volunteer counselors concerning the decision to cancel the camps. "We know how much summer camp means to Jerry"s Kids and their families who look forward to this happy week all year long. But with 11 confirmed cases and six suspected cases in three states, we can"t risk the health of the children who would be attending the camps," said Gerald C. Weinberg, MDA president and CEO. "We have an obligation to the parents of these children to ensure that safety is our top priority." The MDA summer camp program began in 1955 with one camp in New Jersey. Today, it serves more than 4,300 children. Muscular Dystrophy Association


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