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The American Legion applauds the Senate for the passage of Caregiver bill

The national commander of The American Legion applauds the Senate for their overwhelming support of the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009 with a resounding 98-0 vote yesterday. “This legislation will improve the lives of so many veterans and their families,” said National Commander Clarence E. Hill. “Especially those with serious health care challenges.”

20 Nov 2009

Senate health care reform bill disappointing: National Retail Federation

The National Retail Federation today expressed disappointment in the Senate health care reform bill introduced by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

20 Nov 2009

The Economist examines attention to world's food supply

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20 Nov 2009

UNICEF report highlights gains in child health, while 1b still lack essential services

A special edition of UNICEF's annual State of the World's Children report, released 20 years after the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, shows that "fewer youngsters are dying and more are going to school - but an estimated 1 billion still lack services essential to their survival and development," the Associated Press reports.

20 Nov 2009

Children with kidney disease likely to have "masked" hypertension

Spot blood pressure readings in children with chronic kidney disease often fail to detect hypertension - even during doctor's office visits - increasing a child's risk for serious heart problems, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children's Center and other institutions. A report of the findings appears online in the Journal of American Society of Nephrology.

20 Nov 2009

5% tax on cosmetic surgery opposed by AAFPRS

The United States Senate is about to consider health system reform legislation which contains a 5% tax on cosmetic surgery deemed unnecessary for medical purposes. The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) announces it strongly opposes the inclusion of this tax as it is discriminatory and has already failed in other states.

20 Nov 2009

USAID nominee visits Capitol Hill

President Barack Obama's nominee to head USAID, Rajiv Shah, "made the rounds" on Capitol Hill Thursday, which included a meeting with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair John Kerry (D-Mass.), Politco's Laura Rozen reports on her foreign policy blog. Rozen also examines this week's markup of the Kerry-Lugar foreign aid reform bill and quotes a Hill staffer saying that there is a "fundamental disagreement between what USAID should look like and what it should do between the administration and Congress."

20 Nov 2009

Nelson says he'll vote to allow debate, others still up in the air

With the Senate's test vote fast approaching, some lawmakers are disclosing where they stand. For instance, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said Friday he will vote with Democrats to advance to debate on a health care reform bill but that he's reserving the right to vote down the bill on final passage.

20 Nov 2009

Lancet examines Uganda's child-health volunteers

A Lancet World Report examines how a small group of village volunteers trained in basic health care are helping to improve the health of Ugandan children. "In a country where government spending on health is US$39 per person and 13% of children younger than 5 years die, trained volunteer health workers can make a substantial difference in remote rural areas," said Jerome Kabakyenga, dean of Medicine at the Mbara University of Science and Technology (MUST).

20 Nov 2009

Evidence does not connect H1N1 vaccine to patient deaths, WHO says

The deaths of 41 people from six countries who had received the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine were not directly linked to the vaccine, the WHO said Thursday, the Associated Press/MSNBC reports (11/19).

20 Nov 2009

Antibiotic resistance a growing problem, particularly in southern, eastern Europe

Antibiotic resistance is increasing throughout the world because of excessive use, Agence France-Press reports. The news service writes, "Experts at the 2nd annual European antibiotics awareness day held by the Stockholm-based European Centre for Diseases Prevention and Control (ECDC) said new, hyper-resistant bacteria were emerging, threatening the pillars of global health."

20 Nov 2009

News outlets examine malaria drug resistance, hope for malaria eradication in Africa

Experts at an American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting this week said that resistance to the best available drug to treat malaria "is more widespread in Southeast Asia than previously reported," Science News/Wired Science reports. Researchers have been monitoring drug resistance along the Thailand-Cambodia border where patients taking artemisinin combination therapy - the most potent treatment for malaria - have been clearing the parasite from their bodies more slowly.

20 Nov 2009

Plastic surgeons cry foul over Senate health bill's cosmetic surgery tax

Kaiser Health News staff writer Phil Galewitz writes about the so-called "botax."

20 Nov 2009

Lawmakers at health reform crossroads

As Senate health bill consideration approaches a critical point, Majority Leader Harry Reid has taken ownership of it, The New York Times reports. "Should Mr. Reid shepherd the measure successfully through the Senate and meld it with the House version into final legislation that President Obama can sign, it would be the biggest accomplishment of his career." If he fails it would be a hard defeat for Democrats and him, especially when he faces a tough re-election campaign at home in Nevada (Hulse, 11/19).

20 Nov 2009

It's Saturday night for Senate test vote on health reform

The New York Times: "The Senate is expected to vote Saturday on whether to take up the legislation. The majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, refused to say Thursday whether he had the 60 votes needed to clear that procedural hurdle."

20 Nov 2009

Spending to treat obesity's health effects will quadruple in next decade

Spending to treat the health effects of obesity, $86 billion last year, will quadruple over the next decade, and almost half of U.S. adults will be obese by 2018, according to the annual America's Health Rankings study.

20 Nov 2009

Guidelines on cancer screenings spark debate

New guidelines on mammograms and pap smears set off a fierce debate.

20 Nov 2009

White House and Bishops at odds over abortion

"The White House is on a collision course with Catholic bishops in an intractable dispute over abortion that could blow up the fragile political coalition behind President Barack Obama's health care overhaul," the Associated Press reports.

20 Nov 2009

A selection of today's opinions and editorials

These bills will provide a bedrock sense of security and stability for Americans who have health insurance, and quality, affordable options for Americans without it (Peter R. Orszag, 11/20).

20 Nov 2009

Poll: Majority of Americans support medical malpractice reform

The Associated Press further analyzed its poll from earlier this week, with an eye on medical malpractice limits: "54 percent favor making it harder to sue doctors and hospitals for mistakes taking care of patients, while 32 percent are opposed. The rest are undecided or don't know. But congressional Democrats are reluctant to press forward on the issue. They don't want to upset a valuable political constituency — trial lawyers — even if President Barack Obama says he believes that fear of being sued leads doctors to practice defensive medicine, driving up costs for everyone."

20 Nov 2009