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Insurers ‘spinning’ some data to shape health reform

Insurers sometimes cherry-pick facts to make their case against certain aspects of reform efforts, including a public plan, The Washington Post reports.

22 Jul 2009

Health care overhaul could include changes to doctor payments

The Wall Street Journal reports that "Democratic centrists said they won a tentative commitment from the White House to back a proposal to curb the growth of Medicare costs. ... One proposal pushed both by President Barack Obama and some centrists is to give the executive branch the authority to implement cuts to Medicare spending that would be recommended by independent experts. Congress could stop the cuts, but only if it acted swiftly. Fiscal conservatives say that under the current system, which gives Congress more power, lawmakers shy away from politically tough votes to restrain Medicare costs."

22 Jul 2009

Six finance Senators strive for bipartisan compromise

As the public face of health reform devolves into a partisan fight - with one GOP Senator [Jim DeMint, S.C.] saying the reform push is President Obama's "Waterloo," and Democrats retorting that Republicans would derail the overhaul for political gain - a group of legislators in the Senate Finance Committee has continued to strive for a compromise behind closed doors, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

22 Jul 2009

Blue Dogs: We have agreement with House Dems on health bill

Work on the House health care reform bill is slowing as Rep. Henry Waxman of California and fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats have come to an agreement on Medicare payments, The New York Times reports.

22 Jul 2009

Costly biologics drugs prompt exclusivity debate

"A bitter Congressional fight over the cost of superexpensive biotechnology drugs has come down to a single, hotly debated number: How many years should makers of those drugs be exempt from generic competition?" The New York Times reports.

22 Jul 2009

Some health groups increase lobbying spending, but only a slight rise overall

"Drug makers, advocacy groups, biotechnology firms and insurance companies have ratcheted up efforts to offer their two cents - and in most cases much, much more - in influencing the health care legislation now working its way through Congress," The New York Times reports.

22 Jul 2009

Young adults face tough time getting health insurance

Young adults are facing tough times with limited job prospects and no health insurance. The Associated Press reports on recent college graduate Emily Weinstein as being representative of the many young uninsured Americans: "Like millions of other uninsured adults in their 20s, Weinstein is watching Congress as it advances legislation to overhaul health care.

22 Jul 2009

Admin, Dems face challenge in showing voters what reform means for them

As health reform proposals emerge from congressional committees, partisan fighting boils and the president wades into the debate with a series of televised addresses, news reports turn to an unanswered question. "What's in it for me?" asks David Leonhardt, the New York Times business columnist. "On the subject of health care reform, most Americans probably don't have a good answer to the question. And that, obviously, is a problem for the White House and for Democratic leaders in Congress," he writes.

22 Jul 2009

More than half of primary care doctor graduates are immigrants

"Nationally, about a quarter of all residency graduates began their medical training abroad. And in primary care - where there is a national shortage of physicians - more than half of all graduates are immigrants," The Concord Monitor reports.

22 Jul 2009

Health care experts examine top performing, low cost communities

Talk about health care reform efforts has focused largely on all that is wrong with the current system. In contrast, an event Tuesday in Washington, D.C., examined best practices in ten top performing communities where they spend less and have better quality of care.

22 Jul 2009

Small businesses fear reform could worsen rising health costs

"Many small businesses are worried that rising health insurance costs are choking their growth and hindering the creation of new companies, and they fear health care reform plans being debated in Congress and by the Obama administration could end up costing them even more in taxes, according to business advocates," the Baltimore Sun reports.

22 Jul 2009

Massachusetts proposal to end fee-for-service could be national model

A proposal in Massachusetts to end the practice of paying doctors for individual procedures could prove a model to hold down costs for U.S. health care reform, Reuters reports.

22 Jul 2009

American confidence in access to care is growing

"Americans are showing more confidence in their ability to get and afford the health care they need, according to a poll released Tuesday," The Associated Press reports on Cleveland.com.

22 Jul 2009

Prevention, vaccines addressed at IAS conference

During the 5th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, scientists "renewed the call for more immediate and urgent effort to be directed towards HIV prevention amid the dominance of treatment interventions and the world-wide search for a quick fix vaccine, which many agree, is years away," Health-e/allAfrica.com reports (Thom, 7/22).

22 Jul 2009

Increased fighting makes humanitarian work, health situation more difficult in Somalia, U.N. says

Despite increasing danger posed by "al Qaeda-linked militants," U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said Tuesday U.N. aid workers "were not backing away" from the country, Reuters reports.

22 Jul 2009

Camera-phone uses blood, saliva samples to diagnose disease

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a "prototype camera-phone mounted with a microscope" that can "magnify and photograph blood or saliva samples" for diagnosing diseases, the Canadian Press/Google.com reports.

22 Jul 2009

U.N. reports $4.8 billion 'record' aid funding shortfall

The U.N. on Tuesday said "it is running a record funding-shortfall of $4.8 billion for its aid operations in 16 crisis-ridden countries" and has received "less than half of the $9.5 billion it needs to carry out it humanitarian operations this year," VOA News reports (Schlein, 7/21).

22 Jul 2009