Official Current Events: Part II

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Tweetie_bird

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I am starting what Eunice had left off on. So here is an article on medicare and what's gonna happen with republican control. Check it out.

Let's share our resources!!
Medicare Drug Plan Likely to Move (Washington Post)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61788-2002Nov15.html

Republican control of both the White House and Congress may unexpectedly offer the best chance in decades for a major expansion of Medicare to include prescription drug coverage for millions of senior citizens, according to lawmakers, pollsters and strategists in both parties.

Members don't see this ad.
 
Fix the Medicare glitch (Baltimore Sun) http://www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/bal-ed.medicare18nov18,0,7465520.story?c
oll=bal%2Dopinion%2Dheadlines
HARD AS IT may be to believe, every once in a while the federal government makes a mistake. That seems to be what happened about a dozen years ago when the formula was created that dictates how much doctors are paid for treating Medicare patients.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
as you can tell, I'm doing my reading!!

Another article on Medicare/Medicaid. Really interesting stuff, but nothing you probably don't already know. :)

Coverage & Access | Former HHS Officials Say U.S. Health System Needs Overhaul
[Nov 19, 2002]

The nation's health care system is "too costly, inefficient [and] unfair," and it needs "an overhaul," according to several former HHS <http://www.hhs.gov/> officials, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

<http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/tuesday/metro_d39dbd18b0d93159003a.html>
reports. F. David Matthews, who served under President Ford; Joseph Califano, who led the health department under President Carter; Louis Sullivan, who was President Bush's HHS secretary; Donna Shalala, HHS secretary under President Clinton; and David Satcher, surgeon general during the Clinton administation, met Nov. 18 in Atlanta to tape a public-broadcast program sponsored by the Southern Center for International Studies <http://www.southerncenter.org/>. They said the current health system has many "flaws," including an emphasis on "high-tech" treatments instead of primary care, barriers that prevent equal access to health services and a U.S. population that "smokes too much, drinks too much and grows more obese with each generation," the Journal-Constitution reports. "We need to shift the mix of physicians from specialties to primary care," Sullivan said. Califano added, "We are spending a fortune to keep old people alive for an extra year, while our children suffer terribly." The former officials indicated that the pharmaceutical industry, doctors, hospitals, insurers, Congress and the American people "share responsibility" for the problems in the health system, the Journal-Constitution reports. They added that inequities in the U.S. health system are no "closer to resolution than they were during the quarter of a century that they presided over it." Matthews said, "The big barrier to health care is cost." Shalala added, "The health care system can't survive in its present state, because we can't afford the way it is organized. But there is no agreement about what the solution should be, and all of the large steps taken in the past -- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- were possible only because there was a broad consensus." Satcher said, "We are being pennywise and pound foolish. We spend $20 billion a year to combat an epidemic of diabetes and other obesity-related diseases. And yet everywhere we look, schools are cutting physical education programs out of the curriculum because they can't afford them" (Toner, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/119).
 
Tweetie --

That book has a discussion of ethical dilemas and decision making making. It should help since the University of Washington interviews focus so much on ethics.

Best of luck!
 
It's on it's way to my house. :) I bought it used for 10 bucks! :)

Here's more stuff for you guys to read (note t he conflicting information):

Court Hears Objections To Maine Drug Plan (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49573-2002Sep21.html
In one of the most prominent health care cases that the Supreme Court will decide during its coming term, the Bush administration and the pharmaceutical industry have laid out their objections to a Maine program that poses a test of states' power to constrain the escalating price of prescription drugs.

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But Keep Health Care a Priority (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46950-2002Sep21.html
I am glad that health care has become a major political issue, because taxpayers are taking on an ever-larger role in paying for it for those without insurance. Nationwide, tax support for health care has grown from $27.6 billion in 1970 to $587.2 billion in 2000. In the District, local taxes cover about $400 million of a $1.4 billion D.C. Department of Health budget.

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Government Proposing Cuts in Many Medicare Payments (NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/22/politics/22DRUG.html

The Bush administration is proposing deep reductions in Medicare payments for a wide range of drugs and medical devices used to treat people who are elderly or disabled
 
More stuff......

Tight state budgets are forcing Medicaid cuts (Reuters) http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2002/09/20/eline/links/20020920elin018.html
More than half the states in the US are planning to reduce eligibility for the Medicaid health program for the poor or to reduce benefits, according to a survey of state Medicaid directors released Thursday.

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Americans for Insurance Reform Asks State Insurance Commissioners for Immediate Action on Insurance Rates (US newswire)

http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/prime/0919-125.html
Americans for Insurance Reform (AIR), a coalition of over 85 consumer and public interest groups representing more than 50 million people, sent letters today to insurance commissioners in all 50 states, asking what they "plan immediately to do to help those who are being gouged now and need your assistance right away."

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Health Coverage Falls (Washington Post)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20669-2002Sep29.html

The number of Americans who lack health coverage has begun to increase again after a two-year decline, according to federal figures to be released today, which suggest that the faltering economy propelled another 1.4 million people last year into the ranks of the uninsured.

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Bush to Extend Health Care Benefits to Fetuses New Rule Stirs Abortion Debate (Washington Post)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13562-2002Sep27.html
Starting in November, "unborn children" will qualify for government health benefits under a new rule that the Bush administration announced yesterday. The change, designed to promote prenatal care, represents the first time that any federal policy has defined childhood as beginning at conception.

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Premera proposes for-profit status; state may get windfall if it gives health insurer OK (Seattle Times) http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/healthscience/134545343_premera30m0.ht
ml
The state's largest health insurer wants to shed its nonprofit status, saying it needs cash from investors so it can grow and improve service.

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Gore Favors Single-Payer Health Care (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56932-2002Nov14.html
Al Gore says he now favors "single-payer" national health coverage, a proposal that would require a massive change in the nation's health insurance system.

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State moves to limit Medicaid drugs (Baltimore Sun) http://www.sunspot.net/news/health/bal-bz.medicaid15nov15,0,5098126.story?co
ll=bal%2Dhealth%2Dheadlines

The state health department is launching an effort to save money by issuing a list of preferred prescription drugs for Medicaid beneficiaries, and opposition to the plan began to surface this week.

----------------------------

whew!!
 
Doctors examine ethics of drug industry gifts (Houston
Chronicle) http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/business/1643704

Lauren Oshman prepares for battle against the influence of the pharmaceutical industry every morning before she goes to medical school. Her
weapons: a 12-pack of Bic pens and an organic burrito.

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States, alone, can't cure ills (USA Today) http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2002-11-07-edit_x.htm
Oregon has long been known for its radical health-care ideas. In 1989, the state was the first to expand its Medicaid program for the poor by rationing medical services. In 1997, its voters led the nation by allowing doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication for the terminally ill. In 1998, they approved the medicinal use of marijuana.

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Maryland wisely has avoided malpractice-insurance crisis (Baltimore Sun) http://www.sunspot.net/business/bal-bz.hancock06nov06,0,4077047.column?coll=
bal%2Dbusiness%2Dindepth
HOW IS IT that Maryland, home of Angelos, Saiontz, Kirk, Miles and 39 members of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, which calls itself "the most prestigious group of trial lawyers in the United States," has avoided the malpractice-insurance blowup?

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Some seniors struggle under Medicare (Baltimore Sun) http://www.sunspot.net/news/health/bal-te.medicare07nov07,0,1685662.story?co
ll=bal%2Dhealth%2Dheadlines
With its excellent public services, rich cultural offerings and fall afternoons that glisten like gold in a prospector's pan, it is no wonder that this outdoor-recreation mecca has also become a retirement paradise.

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ugh!!! that's a lotta reading. and depressing stuff to read too. :(
 
Hey Tweetie, just wanted to say thanks for all this info. I have some interviews coming up and I'm (very, very shamefully) not as informed on current event stuff as I should be. Looks like I have lotsa reading to do! Thanks again! :) :) :)
 
come on people!! why no response??

Here's another interesting reading for you. This time about Cloning.

Scientists Try to Create New Life (LA Times)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/ats-ap_health11nov21,0,2
459694.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dtophealth

Scientists say a government grant will help them try to create a new form of life in the laboratory in an effort to develop new sources of energy and detect biological weapons.
 
bumping this up for Chieka.

Don't let this thread die again. :(
 
bumping this up for a friend.
 
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