Health Care Reform Articles - December 7, 2010

December 6, 2010

Aspirin Helps in Reducing Cancer Deaths, a Study Finds

By RONI CARYN RABIN

Many Americans take aspirin to lower their risk of heart disease, but a new study suggests a remarkable added benefit, reporting that patients who took aspirin regularly for a period of several years were 21 percent less likely decades later to die of solid tumor cancers, including cancers of the stomach, esophagus and lung.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/us/07aspirin.html?pagewanted=print

MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2010

What Would Happen If You Were To Pass a Big Health Care Bill Without Bipartisan Support?

During the recent health care debate I heard many people on both sides of the debate worry out loud about passing a heath care bill that did not enjoy broad support.

I guess this question is no longer a theoretical one.
http://healthpolicyandmarket.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-would-happen-if-you-were-to-pass.html

Deal reached to fix Medicare doc pay By: Jennifer Haberkorn December 6, 2010 07:56 PM EST

Senate leaders have reached a tentative, one-year deal on the Medicare “doc-fix,” sources close to the negotiations say. The deal pays for the must-pass patch to prevent a deep cut in Medicare doctors’ payments with changes in the tax subsidy program that some consumers will use after 2014 to buy health insurance on the new exchanges. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=BE53D4B2-9B93-CF80-83C2B8E32AFFCCEF HHS woos GOP governors-elect By: Jennifer Haberkorn December 7, 2010 04:36 AM EST Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is reaching out to the newly elected governors who will have to implement health care reform — including the many Republican governors who won by campaigning against the new law. Since Election Day, Sebelius has been contacting the new governors personally — by phone calls and letters, and in face-to-face meetings — to try to quickly build productive relationships. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=BD9753AD-943B-460E-C1B13FA7B2949E65 Health care bill does not fix health care system Analysis of health care reform Commentary by Peter Shapiro |  April 6, 2010 Read more articles in Healthcare Passage of President Obama’s health care reform in late March made for great political theater. Here was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, skillfully maneuvering the bill through Congress after many had given it up for lost. Here was House minority leader and Republican point man John Boehner, reduced to ranting about ‘Armageddon’ and predicting the end of civilization as we know it if the bill passed. Here were Republican legislators egging on the mob of teabaggers who massed outside the Capitol, hurling racist and homophobic slurs at Representatives John Lewis and Barney Frank as they went inside. I'll admit the scene worked on my emotions. The Republicans' tactics were ugly and cynical and I was happy to see them fail. Now that the dust has settled, however, a hard look at the legislation that prompted all the fuss suggests that, far from ‘fixing our broken health care system,’ it merely reproduces some of its worst features. http://www.fightbacknews.org/2010/4/6/health-care-bill-does-not-fix-health-care-system