Medicine on the Move
By GAIL COLLINS
Sometimes you really do want to tell the medical profession to just make up its mind.
We got word this week that estrogen therapy, which was bad, is good again. Possibly. In some cases.
This was not quite as confusing as the news last year that calcium supplements, which used to be very good, are now possibly bad. Although maybe not. And the jury’s still out.
Or the recent federal study that suggested women be told to stop checking their breasts for lumps. Or the recommendations on when to get a mammogram, which seem to fluctuate between every five years and every five minutes.
We certainly want everyone to keep doing studies. But it’s very difficult to be a civilian in the world of science.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/opinion/07collins.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
Virginia Lawmakers Limit Insurers’ Abortion Coverage
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
RICHMOND, Va. — Lawmakers in Virginia approved an amendment Wednesday that would ban private insurance plans from covering abortions if they participate in a state health care exchange under President Obama’s new health care law.
The amendment, proposed by Gov. Bob McDonnell and passed by both the State House and Senate on Wednesday, states that no insurance plan sold as part of the state health care exchange could cover abortionexcept in cases of rape, incest and danger to the mother’s life.
GOP’s 2012 budget proposal reshapes Medicare, Medicaid
Op-Ed
Doyle McManus: The choice between low taxes vs. Medicare benefits
Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal makes it clear that you have to make a choice: low taxes or guaranteed Medicare coverage.
Doyle McManus
April 7, 2011
Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, won praise from his fellow Republicans this week for proposing a federal budget that would reduce the deficit by slashing spending in almost every domestic program.
Some of the praise was exaggerated; Ryan's plan has holes in it, just like President Obama's budget. Ryan proposes an overhaul of the tax code, but doesn't offer any specifics except for lower tax rates. It doesn't suggest any fixes for Social Security, even though he says fixes are needed.
But on one major point, Ryan has done a great service. He has made it clear that if you're serious about cutting the federal deficit, you have to make a choice: low taxes or guaranteed Medicare coverage. You can't have both.
Some of the praise was exaggerated; Ryan's plan has holes in it, just like President Obama's budget. Ryan proposes an overhaul of the tax code, but doesn't offer any specifics except for lower tax rates. It doesn't suggest any fixes for Social Security, even though he says fixes are needed.
But on one major point, Ryan has done a great service. He has made it clear that if you're serious about cutting the federal deficit, you have to make a choice: low taxes or guaranteed Medicare coverage. You can't have both.
Medical errors in hospitals go undetected, study suggests
By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times5:30 AM PDT, April 7, 2011
A 1999 study from the Institute of Medicine reported that avoidable medical errors contributed to tens of thousands of deaths in U.S. hospitals each year.
A dozen years later, quality of care remains a problem, according to a new study.
In the April issue of the journal Health Affairs, which focuses on medical error, a team of researchers affiliated with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a think tank in Cambridge, Mass., report that the number of "adverse events" in hospitals -- injuries caused by medical error rather than patients' underlying conditions -- might be 10 times greater than previously measured.
http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-hospital-errors-20110407,0,1298247,print.story
Is GOP Medicare Ploy a Gift, or a Trap?
How Democrats could win the battle—but lose the war—on entitlements.
| Tue Apr. 5, 2011 12:01 AM PDT
For Democrats, it seems like a gift from above. On the very day that President Obama officially launches his reelection bid, House budget guru Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) announces a plan to privatize Medicare. This latest GOP cost-cutting scheme amounts to a medical voucher system: Rather than paying for care directly, the government would help elderly Americans purchase private insurance. "It's going to end Medicare as we know it," says Nadeam Elshami, communications director for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), repeating [1] the new Democratic talking point.
http://motherjones.com/print/107341
http://motherjones.com/print/107341
