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Top Six Summer Dangers: ER Doctor Offers Tips For Keeping Kids Safe
As the temperatures rise, so do trips to pediatric emergency rooms. Severe cuts, broken bones and head injuries are the most common causes for trips to the emergency room during the summer, says Tony Scalzo, M.D., professor of pediatric emergency medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Cancer May Be Stopped In Its Tracks By MicroRNA Replacement Therapy
A new study suggests that delivering small RNAs, known as microRNAs, to cancer cells could help to stop the disease in its tracks. microRNAs control gene expression and are commonly lost in cancerous tumors. Researchers have shown that replacement of a single microRNA in mice with an extremely aggressive form of liver cancer can be enough to halt their disease, according to a report in the June 12 issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication.
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Montana Abortion-Rights Opponents Renew Attempts At 'Personhood' Ballot Initiative
The Montana ProLife Coalition last week launched a campaign seeking a state ballot initiative that would propose defining "personhood" in the state constitution as "from the beginning of the biological development of that human being," the Great Falls Tribune reports. A required 48,674 signatures are needed to place the initiative on the November 2010 ballot. Abortion-rights opponents failed to collect enough signatures for a similar proposal last year. Former state Rep. Rick Jore, a member of the Constitution Party, on Wednesday submitted three versions of the proposal to the Montana Secretary of State"s Office. Jore also authored last year"s proposal.Allyson Hagen, executive director for NARAL Pro-Choice Montana, said, "Whether or not they get it on the ballot, I think that the vast majority of Montanans are going to oppose an extreme initiative like this one." She added, "I think Montanans believe very strongly in the right to privacy and [that] the decisions regarding pregnancy should be between a woman and her doctor, not with the Legislature or the government."Abortion-rights opponents last year tried and failed to put similar proposals before voters in Georgia and Oregon, and Colorado voters rejected a similar measure by a 3 to 1 margin. Hagen said that because the president supports abortion rights and Democrats have a majority in Congress, "antiabortion groups are looking to make movements in the states, feeling powerless at the federal level." Earlier this year, two bills (SB 406, SB 46) in the Montana Legislature that sought to grant constitutional rights to embryos failed to make it out of committee. The North Dakota Legislature recently rejected a similar proposal (Adams, Great Falls Tribune, 7/2).
Endocrinology

The Obama Administration Ramps Up Push For Health Care Reform

The Obama administration ramps up efforts to promote health care reform and reacts to a sobering announcement by the Congressional Budget Office about the scoring of a health care bill. CBS News/Associated Press reports on the president"s presence at a New Jersey rally: "President Barack Obama returned to campaign-style rhetoric on Thursday, telling a political rally that inaction is not an option and urging allies to push for his overhaul of the nation"s health care system. ... Obama told the gathering, which drew more than 17,000 people on a sweaty afternoon - the president"s first political rally since taking office - that he is confident Congress will take action on health care before they leave on an August recess. The lawmakers" action, however, is only the first step toward the president"s goal. ... Obama said recession is linked with the burden of the health care system on the economy. He said the nation"s fiscal future depends on changing the health care system: "Health care reform is deficit reform"" (7/16). The Star Tribune/Associated Press puts the president"s action in context: "Up one day. Down the next. Sometimes legislation to remake the nation"s health care system moves in both directions at once. President Barack Obama"s top domestic priority is on an unpredictable, midsummer trajectory as the White House and Democrats struggle to bring the complex, controversial issue to a vote in both houses before lawmakers leave town for their August break." The AP also reports on the administration"s reaction to CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf announcement"s that there were not any net federal savings for the health bill. "But a few hundred miles away, all was not well for the president and his allies. Elmendorf"s remarks gave ammunition to Republican critics of the bill" (Espo, 7/17). NBC"s Today Show interviewed the President who began by saying: "The American people have to recognize that there"s no such thing as a free lunch, right? So we can"t just provide care to everybody, it has no cost whatsoever, you don"t end up having to make any decisions." Obama talked about self-responsibility, business responsibility and an individual mandate. He said: "I have changed my mind on this, because what I was persuaded of was that if we can phase this in so that we know there"s affordable insurance out there -- and, in fact, a lot of the uninsured are relatively young people who can be insured fairly cheaply -- that that actually will drive down the costs for everybody." (Snyderman, 7/16). Meanwhile, The Associated Press reports on the appearances of Vice President Joe Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at a health care forum in Alexandria, Va., on Thursday. "Biden says there has never been a better time to overhaul the nation"s health care system because the industry now recognizes that helping the uninsured will ultimately bolster its bottom line.... he said drug companies recognize the potential profits in extending coverage to nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance" (7/16). 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.


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