GSK drug trials: "effectively manage the dissemination of these data in order to minimise any potential negative impact".

Drugs firms face new laws on test results | # Martin Hodgson and Nicholas Watt
# The Guardian, | # Thursday March 6 2008
...
The health minister Dawn Primarolo will tell MPs that new legislation will be introduced by the end of the year to ensure drugs companies pass on results of clinical trials as soon as the alarm is raised about one of their medicines.

The government is to intervene after a four-year investigation by the drug regulatory body into the way GSK withheld the full results of their trials of the antidepressant Seroxat on children.

The trial data, which was finally handed to the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) in May 2003, identified two problems of which the company had been aware as early as 1998:

· A higher risk of suicidal behaviour among under 18s using Seroxat rather than a placebo.

· Seroxat was ineffective in dealing with depressive illness among under 18s. ...
...
A leaked internal document from GSK, dated to 1998, said the company would have to "effectively manage the dissemination of these data in order to minimise any potential negative impact".

In the United States, GSK was sued by the New York state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, and settled for $2.5m (£1.25m) and an agreement to publish all its trial results - negative or positive - on a publicly available database. ...

Blue Cross Blue Shield Gets Ready to Game Universal Healthcare ...

Damaged Care 2008: Blue Cross Blue Shield Gets Ready to Game Universal Healthcare | Posted by McCamy Taylor in Health | Thu Mar 06th 2008, 02:10 AM
...
What we are seeing now is the industries major players---the plans that think that they will survive the shake up and emerge part of Hillarycare or Obamacare---test out methods for denying services under universal healthcare. And---no surprises here---since the problem (from the insurance companies’ point of view) is that they will be forced to insure the sick alongside the well, they are dusting off the underhanded methods they refined in the 1990s to use with HMOs.
...
At HMO, Member Services always lied . Their job was to get you to sign up, because they got paid per head. Once you were enrolled, you learned the truth. As long as you were a healthy person who only intended to use your HMO if you were in a car wreck, you and your HMO would get along just fine. But if you planned to get ongoing, state of the art, reliable medical care for a serious chronic medical condition, you were either going to have to learn to fight for your rights---or you would be better off on some other insurance.

The last is how HMOs made their money. They drove sick people off their plans. They required people to jump through hoops to get specialty care. They paid primary care doctors a flat fee out of which they had to pay the cost of medical care for sick patients so that the primary care doctors would have an incentive to find excuses to drive sick people away .

I will let you in on a secret. Remember the part in the Michael Moore film Sicko in which the insurance companies try to find reasons to cancel people’s policies after they have gotten sick or hard surgery? Doctors are way better than any insurance company at getting people to leave a practice—or an insurance plan—because they are sick and require medical care. “Your case is too complicated. “You do not need to see an oncologist to manage your lung cancer. I can do that for you.” “I don’t like the specialists you have been seeing. I am going to change your specialists to the ones I like.” “I only see HMO patients one afternoon a week, and you can only discuss one problem a visit.”

These are all real things said by real doctors to HMO patients the first and last time that the patients saw them, before they came to see me. Doctors on a capitated HMO plan can spot a money sink---a new patient who is going to accrue a lot of medical bills—the minute she or he walks in the door. An unscrupulous doctor knows just what to say to turn that patient around and send him back out to another doctor. ...
...
II. Excluding Providers

Georgia Blues is being sued. Georgia, like many states has an Any Willing Provider Law which means that any doctor or hospital or other provider of medical services who is willing to accept an insurers terms must be offered a contract.

Well, Georgia Blues has an HMO product, and like all good HMOs it has found that one of the best ways to keep costs down is to make it absolutely impossible for anyone with an actual medical condition to get medical care. You do that by limiting the number of providers and making sure that their offices are all located in out of the way places (on top of mountains would be good) and that the specialists are swamped (booked up for months would be ideal) and that the only hospitals that do necessary services are six counties away and the only pharmacy that takes your card has two hour waits and the only primary care doctors who take your insurance also see a lot of workman’s comp and “diet” patients so you have to sign in and wait your turn.

This article is in the February 16 issue of AMA News and is called Ga. Blues Sued Under any-willing provider law and describes the plight of 100s of North Georgia cancer patients who now have to drive hours to see an oncologist, because Ga. Blues terminated its contract with their doctors.

The ability of an insurance plan to exclude or drop providers goes way beyond simply limiting costs. It is a tool that insurers can use to get rid of whole panels of unusually sick people under universal care—by dropping a few doctors. For example, some doctors tend to treat people with more severe illness. People with chronic disease have been shown in studies to be more drawn to female physicians. Insurance companies create profiles of their providers, so they know which doctor spends how much money. They also know whether that money is well spent—i.e. if the patients that doctor sees are really sick enough to warrant those expenditures. When I was in practice, a large local HMO complained to me regularly that I was spending too much money on my patients who just happened to have a much higher illness burden than most other family physicians. The amount of money spent was actually lowish compared to their illness burden, because I kept most of them out of the hospital, but the HMO still tried to terminate me, because they wanted to save money---and getting rid of me would have meant getting rid of a bunch of my chronically ill patients who would have changed insurance plans so that they could keep seeing me. ...

have to have about $102,000 per person ($206,000 per couple) set aside just for health care expenses when they retire

Health Highlights: Feb. 19, 2008 | Tuesday, February 19, 2008; 12:00 AM

Health Care Costs Threaten Retirement Lifestyle: U.S. Study

Skyrocketing health care costs are a major reason why many American baby boomers and Generation Xers won't be able to maintain their standard of living when they retire, according to a study released Tuesday by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
..
Based on those costs, most baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) and Generation Xers (born between 1965 and 1974) would have to have about $102,000 per person ($206,000 per couple) set aside just for health care expenses when they retire. ...

Insurance Fears Lead Many to Shun DNA Tests : could face genetic discrimination from employers or insurers.

Insurance Fears Lead Many to Shun DNA Tests | By AMY HARMON | Published: February 24, 2008

Victoria Grove wanted to find out if she was destined to develop the form of emphysema that ran in her family, but she did not want to ask her doctor for the DNA test that would tell her.

She worried that she might not be able to get health insurance, or even a job, if a genetic predisposition showed up in her medical records, especially since treatment for the condition, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, could cost over $100,000 a year. Instead, Ms. Grove sought out a service that sent a test kit to her home and returned the results directly to her.

Nor did she tell her doctor when the test revealed that she was virtually certain to get it. Knowing that she could sustain permanent lung damage without immediate treatment for her bouts of pneumonia, she made sure to visit her clinic at the first sign of infection. ...
...
Some, like Ms. Grove, try to manage their own care without confiding in medical professionals. And even doctors who recommend DNA testing to their patients warn them that they could face genetic discrimination from employers or insurers. ...

Las Vegas clinic was found to be reusing syringes and vials of medication for nearly four years

Vegas Clinic May Have Sickened Thousands | By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY – 4 hours ago

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nearly 40,000 people learned this week that a trip to the doctor may have made them sick. In a type of scandal more often associated with Third World countries, a Las Vegas clinic was found to be reusing syringes and vials of medication for nearly four years. The shoddy practices may have led to an outbreak of the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus and exposed patients to HIV, too.
...
Health inspectors say they observed clinic staff using the same syringe twice to extract anesthesia from a single vial, which was then inappropriately used to treat more than one patient. The practice allows contaminated blood in a used syringe to taint the vial and infect the next patient.
...
His wife, Josephine, a registered nurse, wonders how any health care professional could be so reckless: "To maximize profit? For what? What are you going to save?"

Drug Tied to China Had Contaminant, F.D.A. Says

Drug Tied to China Had Contaminant, F.D.A. Says | By GARDINER HARRIS and WALT BOGDANICH | Published: March 6, 2008

WASHINGTON — Federal drug regulators said Wednesday that a critical blood thinner that had been linked to at least 19 deaths and whose raw components were produced in China contained a possibly counterfeit ingredient that mimicked the real drug.

Routine tests failed to distinguish the contaminant from the drug, heparin. Only sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging tests uncovered that as much as 20 percent of the product’s active ingredient was a heparin mimic blended in with the real thing. Federal officials said they did not know what the contaminant was.

“At this point, we do not know whether the introduction was accidental or whether it was deliberate,” said the Food and Drug Administration’s deputy commissioner, Dr. Janet Woodcock. ...
...
The F.D.A. has now received 785 reports of serious injuries associated with the drug’s use. Forty-six deaths have also been reported to the agency, but Dr. Woodcock said that just 19 of these appeared related to the suspect heparin. Baxter executives said that the total death toll was actually four.

APP Pharmaceuticals, which previously split the heparin market with Baxter, has been ramping up production to meet demand. So far, APP’s products show no signs of similar contamination, Dr. Woodcock said, although some of APP’s production is also based in China.

Most of the world’s heparin supply originates in China, according to Baxter. The F.D.A. will soon make public the test used to distinguish between real heparin and its mimic in hopes that regulatory bodies around the world will adopt the test. “We don’t know if any of the heparin products worldwide might contain this contaminant, and that is something we are going to be looking into,” Dr. Woodcock said.

The F.D.A. has yet to prove that the heparin contaminant is the cause of the deaths and illnesses now associated with the use of Baxter’s product. But heparin batches associated with illnesses, all of which were produced with ingredients made in China, were found to contain the contaminant while batches not linked to illnesses proved to be untainted. In a written statement, Scientific Protein said that “it is premature to conclude that the heparin active pharmaceutical ingredient sourced from China and provided by S.P.L. to Baxter is responsible for these adverse events.” ...

Following the Script: How Drug Reps Make Friends and Influence Doctors

Following the Script: How Drug Reps Make Friends and Influence Doctors | Adriane Fugh-Berman*, Shahram Ahari | Published: April 24, 2007

Funding: This work was supported by a grant from the Attorney General Prescriber and Consumer Education Grant Program, created as part of a 2004 settlement between Warner-Lambert, a division of Pfizer, and the Attorneys General of 50 States and the District of Columbia, to settle allegations that Warner-Lambert conducted an unlawful marketing campaign for the drug Neurontin (gabapentin) that violated state consumer protection laws.
...

It's my job to figure out what a physician's price is. For some it's dinner at the finest restaurants, for others it's enough convincing data to let them prescribe confidently and for others it's my attention and friendship...but at the most basic level, everything is for sale and everything is an exchange.

—Shahram Ahari

You are absolutely buying love.

—James Reidy [1]

In 2000, pharmaceutical companies spent more than 15.7 billion dollars on promoting prescription drugs in the United States [2]. More than 4.8 billion dollars was spent on detailing, the one-on-one promotion of drugs to doctors by pharmaceutical sales representatives, commonly called drug reps. The average sales force expenditure for pharmaceutical companies is $875 million annually [3].

Unlike the door-to-door vendors of cosmetics and vacuum cleaners, drug reps do not sell their product directly to buyers. Consumers pay for prescription drugs, but physicians control access. Drug reps increase drug sales by influencing physicians, and they do so with finely titrated doses of friendship. This article, which grew out of conversations between a former drug rep (SA) and a physician who researches pharmaceutical marketing (AFB), reveals the strategies used by reps to manipulate physician prescribing.

...

During training, I was told, when you're out to dinner with a doctor, “The physician is eating with a friend. You are eating with a client.”

—Shahram Ahari

Script Tracking

An official job description for a pharmaceutical sales rep would read: Provide health-care professionals with product information, answer their questions on the use of products, and deliver product samples. An unofficial, and more accurate, description would have been: Change the prescribing habits of physicians.

—James Reidy [4]

...

The Value of Samples

The purpose of supplying drug samples is to gain entry into doctors' offices, and to habituate physicians to prescribing targeted drugs. Physicians appreciate samples, which can be used to start therapy immediately, test tolerance to a new drug, or reduce the total cost of a prescription. Even physicians who refuse to see drug reps usually want samples (these docs are denigrated as “sample-grabbers”). Patients like samples too; it's nice to get a little present from the doctor. Samples also double as unacknowledged gifts to physicians and their staff. The convenience of an in-house pharmacy increases loyalty to both the reps and the drugs they represent.

...

Funding Friendship

While it's the doctors' job to treat patients and not to justify their actions, it's my job to constantly sway the doctors. It's a job I'm paid and trained to do. Doctors are neither trained nor paid to negotiate. Most of the time they don't even realize that's what they're doing‥

—Shahram Ahari

Four makers of artificial hips and knees paid doctors more than $800 million in royalties and fees in four years to influence their choice of implants

Orthopedic-Device Makers Accused of Paying Doctors | Congress Told Practice Is Deep-Seated | By Avram Goldstein | Bloomberg News | Thursday, February 28, 2008; Page D08

Four makers of artificial hips and knees paid doctors more than $800 million in royalties and fees in four years to influence their choice of implants, a U.S. investigator told Congress.

The unidentified companies control about three-quarters of the $9.4 billion worldwide market for hips and knees, said Gregory E. Demske, an assistant inspector general at the Health and Human Services Department, at a hearing yesterday of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

"Illegitimate" payments, the extent of which is unknown, influence orthopedic surgeons' medical judgment and are so common that it will be difficult to eliminate the practice, Demske and other witnesses said. The fees have enriched doctors and distorted the market by bolstering sales of lower-quality devices, they said.

"Industry and physicians are equally culpable," said Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), chairman of the panel. "Some physicians make it known to the companies that they will be loyal to the highest bidder. Where does the patient's well-being fit into the equation?"

The hearing followed a probe of the orthopedic-device industry by U.S. prosecutors that was settled in September for $311 million. The government said the companies handed out excessive consulting agreements, lavish trips and other perks to reward surgeons who used their products. ...

Massachusetts May Ban Drug Industry Freebies for Docs

March 4, 2008, 8:29 am | Massachusetts May Ban Drug Industry Freebies for Docs | Posted by Jacob Goldstein

We’ve been wondering when we’d see our first swag-free doctor’s office. A trip to Massachusetts may soon do the trick. The president of the state’s senate is proposing a ban on all drug industry freebies for docs — from travel to pens, the Boston Globe reports.

A bill filed yesterday by Democrat Therese Murray would also require the state’s doctors to adopt electronic medical records by 2015, to be funded at least in part by cigarette taxes. The bill would also force public reviews of any insurance company that wanted to raise premiums by more than 7%. Drug reps would still be allowed to give doctors free drug samples for use by patients.

Murray argues that drug industry gifts drive up health care costs by persuading some docs to prescribe more expensive, branded drugs. An official with the industry group PhRMA, which opposes the ban, told the Globe that she was “not aware of any kind of evidence or studies that link promotional or marketing materials with the cost of healthcare.”

Skepticism of drug industry promotion has been rising lately. Some medical centers have banned drug rep trinkets. Minnesota has capped drug industry gifts at $50. But if Murray’s bill goes through, Massachusetts would be the first state to ban the gifts outright, the Globe reports. ...

When considering tax fairness, we should ask: What exactly is a tax?

Mon, Mar. 03, 2008 10:15 PM | 'Individual mandate' in health-care proposals might as well be called a tax | By JON HALL | Guest columnist

When considering tax fairness, we should ask: What exactly is a tax?

Government mandates businesses to pay for their employees’ unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation and other benefits. These payments burden businesses just as surely as if the payments were made directly to the government — a tax by another name. And if businesses fail to comply with government mandates, they can be dealt with like any tax scofflaw. ...

Nearly 50 million Americans chronically suffer from sleep problems and disorders that affect their careers ... relationships, safety ...

Long work hours leave Americans drowsy, off sex | AFP | Published: Monday March 3, 2008

One in five Americans has lost interest in sex -- and not because they have a headache, a study released Monday showed.

The culprit for the loss of libido is lack of sleep due to excessively long work hours and too much overtime, according to a study by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF).

"Longer work days and more access to the workplace through the Internet and other technology appear to be causing Americans to get less sleep," said Darrel Drobnich, head of the NSF, in a statement.

"Nearly 50 million Americans chronically suffer from sleep problems and disorders that affect their careers, their personal relationships and safety on the roads," Drobnich said.

The study showed that more than one-third of Americans -- 36 percent -- have fallen asleep at the wheel, and nearly two-thirds report having sleep problems, such as waking at night or difficulty falling asleep.

Americans sleep on average six hours and 40 minutes a night, or less than the seven hours, 18 minutes they said they needed, the study showed.

"Studies show that habitually getting inadequate sleep -- less than seven or eight hours each night -- creates long-lasting changes to one's ability to think and function well during the day," said Thomas Balkin, the deputy head of the NSF. ...

Brand Name Drug Prices Gorw ... about 2.5 times overall inflation, continuing a long-standing trend

Mar 4, 7:14 PM EST | Brand-Name Drug Prices Continue to Grow | By KEVIN FREKING | Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Drug makers increased their prices last year by an average of 7.4 percent for brand-name medicines most commonly prescribed to the elderly, according to the advocacy group AARP.

The increase was about 2.5 times overall inflation, continuing a long-standing trend.

The advocacy group has tracked drug prices going back to 2002. Specifically, it looks at the prices charged to wholesalers. It noted that the price increases have been slightly greater since the Medicare drug benefit kicked in Jan. 1, 2006.

In the four years before the benefit's startup, wholesale prices rose between 5.3 percent and 6.6 percent a year, according to AARP's tracking.
...
All but four of the 220 brand-name prescriptions in the study had price increases during 2007. Nearly all exceeded the rate of general inflation. Among the top 25 drug products, the sleep aid Ambien had the largest price increase, 27.7 percent. Ambien is manufactured by Sanofi-Aventis. On the other end of the spectrum, Merck's cholesterol drug Zocor had no price change in 2007. Also, Bristol-Myers Squibb's blood thinner Plavix had a price increase of 0.5 percent.

Vietnamese victims of wartime “agent orange” were disappointed by a U.S. court’s dismissal of a lawsuit

February 23, 2008 by Reuters | US “Agent Orange” Ruling Disappoints Vietnamese; Pleases Monsanto, Dow Chemical | by Grant McCool and Nguyen Nhat Lam

HANOI — Vietnamese victims of wartime “agent orange” were disappointed by a U.S. court’s dismissal of a lawsuit against chemical companies but believe they have gathered more support for their cause, an official said on Saturday.

“We anticipated this because it is not easy suing big and powerful U.S. companies on U.S. soil and under the U.S. court system,” said Nguyen Trong Nhan, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin.
...
The lawsuit contended agent orange caused ailments, including birth defects and cancer.

Studies have shown the compound of dioxin, a component of “agent orange” herbicides sprayed during the war, is still present in so-called “hot spots” at levels hundreds of times higher than would be accepted elsewhere.

The United States has maintained there is no scientifically proved link between the wartime spraying and the claims of dioxin poisoning by more than 3 million people in Vietnam. ...

provide health care coverage for virtually every American while generating huge cost savings

Lewin Group: 'Health Care for America' Works | Study Finds Hacker Plan Covers All for Less

"Health Care for America," developed for the Economic Policy Institute by Yale University Political Science Professor Jacob Hacker, would provide health care coverage for virtually every American while generating huge cost savings — more than $1 trillion over 10 years, according to the Lewin Group, a nationally respected, nonpartisan consulting firm. (Read the full Lewin Group report. ) Their report offers the most detailed analysis of the reform proposal to date. ...

[Arbitrator] blasted the company for tying employee bonuses to the number of policies canceled and the amount of money saved.

Health Net ordered to pay $9 million after canceling cancer patient's policy | Fri Feb-22-08 | Source: Los Angeles Times | http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-insure23feb23,1,5...

A breast cancer patient whose medical coverage was canceled by her insurer was awarded more than $9 million today in a case against Health Net Inc., one of the state's largest for-profit insurers.

The award issued by an arbitration judge was the first of its kind and prompted Health Net to announce it was scrapping its cancellation practices that are under fire from state regulators, patients and the Los Angeles city attorney.

Arbitrator Sam Cianchetti, a retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, found that Health Net violated numerous state laws in canceling Patsy Bates' policy and declared the company's actions "despicable."

Cianchetti also blasted the company for tying employee bonuses to the number of policies canceled and the amount of money saved. ...

between 2004 and 2006, median real income levels rose ... number of uninsured Americans increased by 3.4 million ...

CQ HEALTHBEAT NEWS | Feb. 20, 2008 – 4:37 p.m. | Study Finds Health Benefits, Not Wages, Key to Increasing Coverage | By Jesse Stanchak
...
The study found that the average number of Americans who lost their insurance each year increased faster during the economic recovery of 2004-2006 than the recession years of 2000-2004. The study concludes this is because the number of Americans receiving coverage from their jobs continued to decline, while wage increases failed to match growing insurance premiums.

“In good economic times and bad, the dominant factor behind the growing number of uninsured was the decline in employer-sponsored health coverage,” study lead author John Holahan says.

During the recession of 2000-2004, when real median household wages fell from $49,163 to $47,323, the poverty level rose from 11.3 to 12.7 percent and the number of uninsured rose by 6 million.

In contrast, between 2004 and 2006, median real income levels rose by nearly $800 and the poverty rate fell by 0.4 percent, two common indicators of a robust economy. Yet the number of uninsured Americans increased by 3.4 million during those years, to an annual average rate of 1.7 million newly uninsured persons during 2004-2006, versus an average of 1.5 million during the recession years of 2000-2004.
...
Population increases also are a factor in rising rates of the uninsured. The U.S. population rose by 10 million people between 2000 and 2004 and by another 10 million people between 2004-2006. The study also concludes that illegal immigrants are a factor in the rising number of uninsured persons, comprising about 20 percent of the newly uninsured. The study found that the biggest decline in employer coverage came in the southern and western parts of the country, where population levels are rising faster and there are fewer manufacturing jobs.

“many [poor] children ... experience unhealthy levels of stress hormones, which impair their neural development.” ... yet poverty increasing ...

Monday, February 18, 2008 by The New York Times | Poverty Is Poison | by Paul Krugman

“Poverty in early childhood poisons the brain.” That was the opening of an article in Saturday’s Financial Times, summarizing research presented last week at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

As the article explained, neuroscientists have found that “many children growing up in very poor families with low social status experience unhealthy levels of stress hormones, which impair their neural development.” The effect is to impair language development and memory - and hence the ability to escape poverty - for the rest of the child’s life.

So now we have another, even more compelling reason to be ashamed about America’s record of failing to fight poverty.

L. B. J. declared his “War on Poverty” 44 years ago. Contrary to cynical legend, there actually was a large reduction in poverty over the next few years, especially among children, who saw their poverty rate fall from 23 percent in 1963 to 14 percent in 1969.
...
Mainly, however, excuses for poverty involve the assertion that the United States is a land of opportunity, a place where people can start out poor, work hard and become rich.

But the fact of the matter is that Horatio Alger stories are rare, and stories of people trapped by their parents’ poverty are all too common. According to one recent estimate, American children born to parents in the bottom fourth of the income distribution have almost a 50 percent chance of staying there - and almost a two-thirds chance of remaining stuck if they’re black.

That’s not surprising. Growing up in poverty puts you at a disadvantage at every step.
...
Poverty rates are much lower in most European countries than in the United States, mainly because of government programs that help the poor and unlucky.

And governments that set their minds to it can reduce poverty. In Britain, the Labor government that came into office in 1997 made reducing poverty a priority - and despite some setbacks, its program of income subsidies and other aid has achieved a great deal. Child poverty, in particular, has been cut in half by the measure that corresponds most closely to the U.S. definition. ...

Cardiac arrest: avoid nights and weekend: study ... at least partly because of inadequate staffing ...

Cardiac arrest: avoid nights and weekend: study | Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:16pm EST | By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - People who have a cardiac arrest in the hospital at night or on the weekend are far less likely to survive than those who suffer one during the day, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Studies suggest this may be at least partly because of inadequate staffing at off-peak hours.

The researchers found only 14.7 percent of people whose hearts stop pumping during the night survive, compared with nearly 20 percent of people during the day. ...

Music helps stroke patients recover faster ... 60% better improvement in verbal memory

Music helps stroke patients recover faster | Agencies via Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2008

A new Finnish study has revealed that listening to music can help stroke patients recover faster, according to the journal Brain as quoted by media reports Wednesday.

Researchers said that stroke patients who listened to music for a couple of hours each day were able to recover faster than those who did not listen to music.
...
The stroke patients who listened to music showed a 60 percent better improvement in verbal memory. ...

Bush threatens to veto bill to improve health care for American Indians -- get 50% less than felons and Medicaid

Vetoing History’s Responsibility | Published: January 28, 2008

President Bush’s threat to veto a bill intended to improve health care for the nation’s American Indians is both cruel and grossly unfair. Five years ago, the United States Commission on Civil Rights examined the government’s centuries-old treaty obligations for the welfare of Native Americans and found Washington spending 50 percent less per capita on their health care than is devoted to felons in prison and the poor on Medicaid. ...

Blue Cross wrote last week asking doctors to rat out their patients with undisclosed prior medical conditions so the insurer can dump them ...

Blue Cross letter brings outrage | Julia Prodis Sulek | Mercury News | Article Launched: 02/12/2008 06:21:15 PM PST
...
Doctors, patient advocacy groups, small business associations - and even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton - piled on the outrage. It came in response to a letter Blue Cross wrote last week asking doctors to rat out their patients with undisclosed prior medical conditions so the insurer can dump them from its rolls.

The move comes just months after Blue Cross was fined $1 million by the state for unfairly revoking coverage to scores of its policy holders.

"For a company that has gotten a real black eye over the issue of rescinding coverage over the past year - to actually be more aggressive rather than less is simply stunning," Anthony Wright, executive director of HealthAccess California, a health care advocacy organization. ...

Baghdad drowning in sewage: Iraqi official

Baghdad drowning in sewage: Iraqi official | Sun Feb 3, 1:56 PM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Baghdad is drowning in sewage, thirsty for water and largely powerless, an Iraqi official said on Sunday in a grim assessment of services in the capital five years after the US-led invasion.

One of three sewage treatment plants is out of commission, one is working at stuttering capacity while a pipe blockage in the third means sewage is forming a foul lake so large it can be seen "as a big black spot on Google Earth," said Tahseen Sheikhly, civilian spokesman for the Baghdad security plan.

Sheikhly told a news conference in the capital that water pipes, where they exist, are so old that it is not possible to pump water at a sufficient rate to meet demands -- leaving many neighbourhoods parched.

A sharp deficit of 3,000 megawatts of electricity adds to the woes of residents, who are forced to rely on neighbourhood generators to light up their lives and heat their homes. ...

Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee—may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, ...

Great Lakes | Danger Zones? | By Sheila Kaplan

Here’s the report that top officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thought was too hot for the public to handle—and the story behind it.

For more than seven months, the nation’s top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states, reportedly because it contains such potentially “alarming information” as evidence of elevated infant mortality and cancer rates.

The 400-plus-page study, Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern, was undertaken by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the request of the International Joint Commission, an independent bilateral organization that advises the U.S. and Canadian governments on the use and quality of boundary waters between the two countries. The study was originally scheduled for release in July 2007 by the IJC and the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

The Center for Public Integrity has obtained the study, which warns that more than nine million people who live in the more than two dozen “areas of concern”—including such major metropolitan areas as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee—may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, pesticides, lead, mercury, or six other hazardous pollutants.

In many of the geographic areas studied, researchers found low birth weights, elevated rates of infant mortality and premature births, and elevated death rates from breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer. ...

Mythbusting Canadian Health Care -- Part I

Mythbusting Canadian Health Care -- Part I | By Sara Robinson | February 4th, 2008 - 4:23pm ET
...
I'm both a health-care-card-carrying Canadian resident and an uninsured American citizen who regularly sees doctors on both sides of the border. As such, I'm in a unique position to address the pros and cons of both systems first-hand. ...
...
1. Canada's health care system is "socialized medicine."
False. In socialized medical systems, the doctors work directly for the state. In Canada (and many other countries with universal care), doctors run their own private practices, just like they do in the US. The only difference is that every doctor deals with one insurer, instead of 150. ...

2. Doctors are hurt financially by single-payer health care.
True and False. Doctors in Canada do make less than their US counterparts. But they also have lower overhead, and usually much better working conditions. ... One unsurprising side effect of all this is that the doctors I see here are, to a person, more focused, more relaxed, more generous with their time, more up-to-date in their specialties, and overall much less distracted from the real work of doctoring. You don't realize how much stress the American doctor-insurer fights put on the day-to-day quality of care until you see doctors who don't operate under that stress, because they never have to fight those battles at all. Amazingly: they seem to enjoy their jobs. ...

3. Wait times in Canada are horrendous.
True and False again -- it depends on which province you live in, and what's wrong with you. ... When I lived in California, I had excellent insurance, and got my care through one of the best university-based systems in the nation. Yet I routinely had to wait anywhere from six to twelve weeks to get in to see a specialist. Non-emergency surgical waits could be anywhere from four weeks to four months. After two years in the BC system, I'm finding the experience to be pretty much comparable, and often better. The notable exception is MRIs, which were easy in California, but can take many months to get here. ...

4. You have to wait forever to get a family doctor.
False for the vast majority of Canadians, but True for a few. ... It is, absolutely, harder to get to a doctor if you live out in a small town, or up in the territories. But that's just as true in the U.S. ...

5. You don't get to choose your own doctor.
Scurrilously False. Somebody, somewhere, is getting paid a lot of money to make this kind of stuff up. ... For the record: Canadians pick their own doctors ...

6. Canada's care plan only covers the basics. You're still on your own for any extras, including prescription drugs. And you still have to pay for it.
True -- but not as big an issue as you might think. The province does charge a small monthly premium (ours is $108/month for a family of four) for the basic coverage. However, most people never even have to write that check: almost all employers pick up the tab for their employees' premiums as part of the standard benefits package; and the province covers it for people on public assistance or disability. ... "The basics" covered by this plan include 100% of all doctor's fees, ambulance fares, tests, and everything that happens in a hospital -- in other words, the really big-ticket items that routinely drive American families into bankruptcy ...

7. Canadian drugs are not the same.
More preposterious bogosity. They are exactly the same drugs, made by the same pharmaceutical companies, often in the same factories. The Canadian drug distribution system, however, has much tighter oversight; and pharmacies and pharmacists are more closely regulated. If there is a difference in Canadian drugs at all, they're actually likely to be safer. ...

8. Publicly-funded programs will inevitably lead to rationed health care, particularly for the elderly.
False. And bogglingly so. ...

9. People won't be responsible for their own health if they're not being forced to pay for the consequences.
False. ... Third, there's a somewhat larger awareness that stress leads to big-ticket illnesses -- and a somewhat lower cultural tolerance for employers who put people in high-stress situations. Nobody wants to pick up the tab for their greed. ...

10. This all sounds great -- but the taxes to cover it are just unaffordable. And besides, isn't the system in bad financial shape?
False. On one hand, our annual Canadian tax bite runs about 10% higher than our U.S. taxes did. On the other, we're not paying out the equivalent of two new car payments every month to keep the family insured here. When you balance out the difference, we're actually money ahead. When you factor in the greatly increased social stability that follows when everybody's getting their necessary health care, the impact on our quality of life becomes even more signficant.

And True -- but only because this is a universal truth that we need to make our peace with. Yes, the provincial plans are always struggling. So is every single publicly-funded health care system in the world, ...

[Vietnam and Agent Orange] 800,000 people continue to suffer serious health problems and are in need of constant medical attention

Agent of suffering | A third generation of Vietnamese are suffering deformities caused by US chemical warfare and still Washington refuses to accept responsibility | Tom Fawthrop, Guardian | February 10, 2008

Not only are Vietnamese still maimed from treading on unexploded bombs, they are also victims of this insidious scourge that poisons water and food supplies, causing various cancers and crippling deformities. Eighty million litres of Agent Orange were sprayed on the jungles of Vietnam, destroying swathes of irreplaceable rainforest through massive defoliation and leaving a toxic trail of dioxin contamination in the soil for decades. The legacy of this chemical warfare can even be inflicted on the unborn, with Agent Orange birth deformities now being passed on to a third generation.

In the 3,160 villages in the southern part of Vietnam within the Agent Orange spraying zone, 800,000 people continue to suffer serious health problems and are in need of constant medical attention. Last month, members of a US Vietnamese working group reported that it will cost at least $14m to remove dioxin residues from just one site around the former US airbase in Danang. The cost of a comprehensive clean-up around three dioxin hotspots and former US bases is estimated at around $60m. The $3m pledged by US Congress last year is a pathetically inadequate amount set against the billions spent in waging war and deploying weapons of mass destruction.

The recent study of one Agent Orange hotspot, the former US airbase in Danang, found dioxin levels 300 to 400 times higher than internationally accepted limits. The study confirmed that rainwater had carried dioxin into city drains and into a neighbouring community that is home to more than 100,000 people. ...