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Obama takes reform message to New Hampshire, takes on 'scare tactics'

President Barack Obama Tuesday called out "wild misrepresentations" of a plan to reform the health care system in America, The Concord (N.H.) Monitor reports.

12 Aug 2009

Health care opposition exposed

"The opposition to health reform is a web of vested interests with major financial stakes in the status quo," say former Chief of Staff to the House Aging Committee/former White House Drug Policy spokesman Bob Weiner and Analyst Jordan Osserman in a column in today's South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

12 Aug 2009

Fact checkers: Health care myths range from untrue to open questions

Business is good for fact-checkers. Various news organizations as well as FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.org, have weeded through the rhetoric on both sides of the health reform debate.

12 Aug 2009

Transcript: President Obama Town Hall meeting in New Hampshire

President Barack Obama continued his press for public support of health reform initiatives at what the White House called a "Health Insurance Reform Town Hall" meeting at Portsmouth High School in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

12 Aug 2009

Farmer receives U.N. appointment; Fight against Malaria in Africa

"Former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who is now the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, announced the appointment Tuesday of Harvard professor Paul Farmer, a pioneer in community health treatment for the world's poor, as his deputy," the Associated Press/mlive.com reports (8/11).

12 Aug 2009

A historical look at health refom

Several news organizations offered historical looks at health reform and explainers on specific proposals.

12 Aug 2009

Global Fund Director says G20 can become donor nations

Reuters examines Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine's recent comments on the sidelines of the 9th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), that some emerging nations should consider becoming donor nations.

12 Aug 2009

Specter to oppose health reform covering illegal immigration

During a town hall meeting Tuesday on health care reform, Senator Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) stated his opposition to legislation that would cover illegal aliens. Specter has been a long-time champion of amnesty for illegal aliens, he was the author of the 2006 amnesty bill (S. 2611) that was widely rejected by the American people.

12 Aug 2009

U.S. health care system - “envy of the world”? not in Canada!

As members of Congress return to their states and districts to debate the merits of the Democrats’ proposals for health care reform, critics of the proposals may repeat the phrase used by some Republicans, newspaper editorials and bloggers that ‘the American health care system is the envy of the world.”

12 Aug 2009

Pennsylvania's first case of West Nile in 2009 confirmed

State Health Secretary Everette James today reported this year's first confirmed human case of West Nile virus in Pennsylvania. The individual is a 21-year-old woman from Luzerne County.

12 Aug 2009

Providers, patients in States face budget squeeze

Local newspapers report on health care issues in Delaware, Lousiana and Hawaii. In Delaware, The News Journal reports on a Medicaid-related agreement regarding the state and prescription drug costs.

12 Aug 2009

Many senior drivers unaware of potential impact on driving performance associated with taking medications

The findings, released today by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, indicate that 95 percent of those age 55 and older have one or more medical conditions, 78 percent take one or more medications, and only 28 percent have an awareness of the risks those medications might have on driving ability.

12 Aug 2009

Latinos wait for health care reform while illegal immigrants face care decisions

The health care needs of an estimated 6.8 million undocumented and uninsured immigrants "has become the third rail in the debate over health-care reform," The Chicago Tribune reports. Some health care advocates have proposed broadening the proposals before Congress to include this population, but "fierce opposition has kept the idea off the table."

12 Aug 2009

Alticor and Metagenics enters into joint venture agreement

Alticor and Metagenics today announced that they have entered into a joint venture agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Alticor will obtain a substantial ownership interest in Metagenics, and the current Metagenics shareholders will continue to retain a significant interest in the company. The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by Metagenics shareholders and antitrust clearance.

12 Aug 2009

Scientists discover how new drug kills roundworms

A PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases study found how a new drug developed by scientists in China effectively kills roundworms – "a parasite that lurks in the intestines and which affects nearly two billion people in tropical countries," Reuters reports. "Roundworms are particularly harmful to children and pregnant women," Reuters writes.

12 Aug 2009

Shwarzenegger’s cuts to HIV/AIDS programs to be protested

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the nation’s largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare provider, is joining a broad-based coalition of AIDS advocates and patients to protest draconian budget cuts that were blue lined out of the budget by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and that will jeopardize the public health by eliminating the vast majority of funding for AIDS prevention, care and treatment.

11 Aug 2009

Obama hopes to retake health debate with grass (and Net) roots activity

CQ Politics reports: "After enduring weeks of criticism over their efforts to retool the U.S. health system, President Obama invited all 60 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus to a White House lunch last week for a round of commiserating and chin-up encouragement ... Still, for all the rhetorical morale-boosting, some lawmakers are growing restive over the question of just what sort of big-picture health plan they’re fighting for.

11 Aug 2009

Obama pushes for health reform at New Hampshire Town Hall meeting

President Barack Obama held a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, early this afternoon to push for health care reform.

11 Aug 2009

Grassley feels the heat from interest groups, Demint becomes a leading opposition voice

The Associated Press/Chicago Tribune reports on interest group activity in Iowa. The AARP recently "announced it is launching an advertising and organizing blitz designed to 'debunk the myths' being offered by health care reform critics. 'We won't stand idle when opponents of health care reform attempt to scare or mislead the American people -- and older Americans in particular -- about what fixing the system really means,' said Bruce Koeppl, AARP Iowa director."

11 Aug 2009