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06/02/2006 - Administration Backs Larger Clinic
"The Blanco administration is supporting doubling of the cost of a future LSU medical clinic in north Baton Rouge." Read on in The Advocate.
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06/01/2006 - Low Payments by U.S. Raise Medical Bills Billions a Year
"Employers and consumers are paying billions of dollars more a year for medical care to compensate for imbalances in the nation's health care system resulting from tight Medicare and Medicaid budgets, according to Blue Cross officials and independent actuaries." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/31/2006 - Making Move on Health Care
"After two years of committees and task forces that produced very little in the way of reform for Louisiana's troubled health-care system, it's no wonder reformers are unpersuaded that Gov. Kathleen Blanco will be able to deliver dramatic changes in today's system, even in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/30/2006 - Blowing Smoke About Tobacco
"“Tobacco: deadly in any form or disguise” is the slogan of the World Health Organization's World No Tobacco Day tomorrow. The claim is false: Tobacco is not deadly; the harm is in the smoke. A policy that confuses innocuous tobacco with harmful smoke is responsible for millions of avoidable deaths each year worldwide." Read on in the Washington Post.
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05/30/2006 - Well-Intentioned Food Police May Create Havoc With Children's Diets
"Earlier this year, our small Midwestern school district joined the food wars, proposing a new policy that would discourage all food in classrooms, ban nuts and sugary foods and do away with vending machines." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/29/2006 - Uncompensated Care Squeezing N.O. Doctors
"Prior to Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans pediatrician Dr. Floyd Buras had 15,000 active patients. Today, he has just 800 patients and it isn't enough to survive, Buras said." Read on in New Orleans CityBusiness.
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05/29/2006 - Health Care Budget in Better Shape Than Previous Years
"Though they detailed shortfalls, health care officials Monday described a far less dire financial situation than they offer up to senators working on Louisiana's annual budget." Read on in the Houma Courier.
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05/28/2006 - Donations Tie Drug Firms and Nonprofits
"The American Diabetes Association, a leading patient health group, privately enlisted an Eli Lilly & Co. executive to chart its growth strategy and write its slogan." Read on in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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05/27/2006 - Bill Would Provide Pharmacies Windfall
"As the Senate begins its review of the $21.7 billion state budget next week, one of the sleeper issues confronting lawmakers is a bill that would bring a financial windfall for pharmacies that fill prescriptions for the poor." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/27/2006 - For Want of a Nurse
"The United States spent most of its history enjoying the fruits of the theory that the only professions suitable for respectable women were nursing and teaching." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/26/2006 - State May Need Health-Care 'Czar' to Guide Reform
"The Council For A Better Louisiana has offered a unique approach to solving Louisiana's health-care problems." Lafayette Daily Advertiser.
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05/25/2006 - The Check Is Not in the Mail
"Few things rankle a doctor more than an insurance company's saying it cannot find a claim for medical services. Particularly when there is even a signed return receipt to document delivery of the bill." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/25/2006 - Training Conditions Costing La. Physicians
"More than 100 future Louisiana physicians have left the state because of training conditions in post-Katrina New Orleans, a top LSU medical school officials said Wednesday." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/24/2006 - Proponents Press Senate on Stem Cell Research Measure
"A full year after the House passed legislation that would loosen President Bush's restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research, the Senate is coming under intense pressure to tackle the controversial bill – in the awkward new context of an election year." Read on in the Washington Post.
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05/23/2006 - Nursing Home Plan Better Protects Lives During Hurricanes
"One of the greatest tragedies of Hurricane Katrina was in the multiple deaths of helpless nursing home residents. At least 70 died in the New Orleans area." Read on in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser.
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05/23/2006 - Vaccine Prevents Cervical Cancer. So, What's the Down Side?
"“Someone please help me with my daughter!” the middle-aged woman announced in the waiting room of our clinic. “She's in the back of the car and I can't carry her.”" Read on in the New York Times.
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05/23/2006 - La. Lets Golden Opportunity for Health-Care Reform Pass
"In her inaugural address, Gov. Kathleen Blanco made health care a priority. She said, “We must have a way to address the pressing health care needs of our fellow citizens. I am dedicated to a creative, collaborative effort to find practical solutions to our health-care crisis.”" Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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05/23/2006 - Young And Uninsured
"Propelled by a looming national health care crisis and the stark fact that young adults are more likely than any other age group to be uninsured, New Jersey recently enacted legislation requiring health insurers in the state to extend dependent coverage for young adults up to age 30." Read on in TomPaine.com.
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05/20/2006 - States Suing Feds Over Seniors' Rx Costs
"Fifteen states want the U.S. Supreme Court to block the federal government's plan to bill them for a portion of costs for the new Medicare prescription drug benefit passed by Congress." Read on in Stateline.org.
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05/18/2006 - Health-Care Reform Role Uncertain
"The group charged with advising the governor on hurricane recovery could not come to an agreement Wednesday on whether it has a leading part to play in health-care reform." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/18/2006 - LSU Unveils Plan for Medical Complex
"Louisiana State University is considering a 37-acre parcel of land near Interstate 10 in downtown New Orleans for a new $1 billion complex of teaching hospitals and medical facilities that would be built in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, according to school officials and a preliminary report released Wednesday." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/17/2006 - The War on Sex
"The architects of the South Dakota ban on abortion have a bold plan for our country. Certainly they have already given a jolt to the majority of Americans, or at least the 66 percent who want Roe v. Wade to remain law of the land." Read on in TomPaine.com.
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05/17/2006 - Bill on Abortion Seekers Flies Out of House
"Without opposition, the House voted 102-0 Tuesday for a bill to require a doctor to tell a woman seeking an abortion what kind of painkiller may be administered to lessen “organic pain to the unborn child."" Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/16/2006 - Extending the Medicare Deadline
"Now that the chaotic sign-up period for the new Medicare drug program is over, it surely makes sense to extend the deadline to allow more people to join and to avoid the penalty of lateness." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/16/2006 - Rising Diabetes Threat Meets a Falling Budget
"In Worcester, Mass., scientists are boxing up their test tubes at a shuttered laboratory where just two years ago they isolated a chemical that triggers diabetes." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/15/2006 - School Snack Machine Sanity is Overdue
"Yet another good step in the battle against childhood obesity was the recent announcement by major soft drink retailers that they gradually will stop selling nondiet sodas in most public schools." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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05/15/2006 - Progress Sought for Public Hospital Patients
"In terms of dramatic change as a result of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it’s hard to top the recommendations made by a team of national consultants looking at the state’s health-care system." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/14/2006 - City Full of Patients, Devoid of Doctors
"Charity Hospital has taken care of Leo Young for longer than he can remember. When his mother gave birth to him 48 years ago, it was at Charity, when he fell off monkey bars, its doctors put a cast on his broken arm. When he was hit by a car during a rainstorm, they repaired his shattered leg." Read on in the Baltimore Sun.
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05/11/2006 - Bill Would Require Education on Fetal Pain
"A House committee advanced legislation Wednesday aimed at getting pregnant women to ditch thoughts of having an abortion." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/11/2006 - State Aims to Put Teeth in Nursing Home Evacuation Plans
"With Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s personal intervention, a Senate committee approved her bill that gives the state more oversight of nursing home evacuation plans." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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05/11/2006 - Drugs For Money
"The deadline for signing up for prescription drug coverage under Medicare Part D is looming, and senior citizens are unhappy. The very people who clamored for the benefit are among Part D’s most vocal critics." Read on in TomPaine.com.
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05/09/2006 - Trimming the Bloated System
"The longer David Hood watched, the less he felt at ease. On his computer monitor, in real time via the Internet, was a meeting of the Louisiana House Appropriations Committee, with legislators grappling to fund Louisiana’s public health care system." Read on in the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report.
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05/09/2006 - Hospitals Want State to Ante Up
"Beleagured community hospitals and the state are edging closer to an agreement that would compensate the hospitals for the torrent of indigent patients they have absorbed since Katrina crippled the old system for providing free medical care to uninsured people." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/09/2006 - Keep the Feds Out
"Today the Senate will consider a bill that would radically change the nation’s health insurance market, shifting power from states to the federal government and to a regulatory regime lighter than nearly all state have now." Read on in the Washington Post.
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05/08/2006 - Smoking Bans Good for State
"In the Louisiana Legislature this session, debate about anti-smoking legislation has focused on the degree to which smoking in public places throughout the state should be limited." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/07/2006 - Contra-Contraception
"The English writer Daniel Dafoe is best remembered today for creating the ultimate escapist fantasy, “Robinson Crusoe,” but in 1727 he sent the British public into a scandalous fit with the publication of a nonfiction work called “Conjugal Lewdness: or, Matrimonial Whoredom.”" Read on in the New York Times.
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05/07/2006 - Students Need School Lunch Reform As Much As Soda Bans
"At the center of our national school playground lies a statistical seesaw. On one end sits children who are still managing a healthy weight. On the other: the growing number of youngsters whose excess pounds put them at increased risk of type 2 diabetes, asthma and hypertension – as well as bullying and social isolation." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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05/05/2006 - Changes Sought in Payments for Pharmacists
"Louisiana’s pharmacists are an endangered species because of federal law changes and hurricane-related expenses, the Legislature’s top leaders told lawmakers Thursday." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/05/2006 - Unplanned Pregnancies Ris Among Poor Women
"Overall, the rate of unintended pregnancy – 49 percent of all pregnancies – has remained stable in the United States, according to newly released government data." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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05/04/2006 - Bottlers Agree to a School Ban on Sweet Drinks
"The country’s top three soft-drink companies announced yesterday that beginning this fall they would start removing sweetened drinks like Coke, Pepsi and iced teas from school cafeterias and vending machines in response to the growing threat of lawsuits and state legislation." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/04/2006 - Massachusetts Health Reform: What The Doctor Ordered
"Pundits wasted no time weighing in when Massachusetts’ comprehensive health reform was introduced. Most focused on two small but controversial provisions: a requirement that all resident carry health insurance, and a requirement that some non-insuring employers kick in an annual fee to the state’s fund for uncompensated medical care." Read on in the Washington Post.
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05/03/2006 - Senate Amends Ban Against Smoking
"Bar patrons should be free to smoke in the lounge area of restaurants as long as the bar is walled off from the food service area, the Senate said Tuesday in approving a bill that would restrict smoking in public places." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/03/2006 - Study Says Older Americans Less Healthy Than British
"Americans 55 and over are much sicker than their British counterparts even though the Unites States spends more than twice as much per person on health care as Britain, researchers said Tuesday." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/02/2006 - Medicare Will Go Broke By 2018, Trustees Report
"The financial troubles daunting the Medicare system have deepened during the past year, according to a government forecast that says the federal fund that pays for hospital care for older Americans will become unable to cover all its bills a dozen years from now." Read on in the Washington Post.
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05/02/2006 - Budget Shortfall Jeopardizes La. Charity System Services
"The Charity Hospital System could be forced to eliminate specialty care at regional hospitals or halt its efforts to restore medical services for the uninsured in New Orleans unless the Legislature fills a $115 million budget shortfall, hospital officials told a House committee Monday." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/01/2006 - Pharmacist Pawns
"Fixated as we all are on the war in Iraq, our nervous economy and soaring fuel prices, it is no wonder we didn’t see the assault brewing on a distant flank." Read on in American Prospect.
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04/30/2006 - Loss of Competition Is Seen in Health Insurance Industry
"Federal investigators have found that a handful of companies account for a growing share of the health insurance policies sold to small business in most states, leaving consumers with fewer options and higher costs." Read on in the New York Times.
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04/29/2006 - 'Bird Flu' Merits Preparation
"The American public is regularly regaled with doomsday scenarios involving mutating viruses, diseased meats and exotic pandemics that might one day sweep the globe." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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04/28/2006 - Health Panel Not Sold on Reduced LSU Role
"A long-awaited consultants’ report that calls for Louisiana State University to have a reduced role in the Charity Hospital System got a cool reception Thursday from a panel charged with making recommendations to the Louisiana Recovery Authority." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/27/2006 - Health Care Revision Panel Forming
"A day after the U.S. secretary of Health and Hospitals promised to fund a revised Louisiana health care system if state officials could agree on a single vision, a House committee took the first steps toward that goal." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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04/27/2006 - Panel Passes Smoking Ban
"A revamped bid to ban smoking in restaurants statewide won approval in a Senate committee on Wednesday." Read on in The Advocate.
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04/26/2006 - Charity System Has Chance to Heal
"Arguing that Hurricane Katrina’s devastation has given Louisiana a unique opportunity to redesign its broken health care system from scratch, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt promised the full support of his office Tuesday to help the state create “the finest health care system in the world.”" Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/26/2006 - No Easy Answer to Nursing Home Evacuation Issue
"If your mother lives in a New Orleans nursing home, do her a favor this Mother’s Day. Skip the flowers and get her a rowboat and a paddle." Read on in The Advocate.
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04/25/2006 - A Healthy Dose of Reality on Drug Safety
"Only 9% of American adults think the pharmaceutical industry is trustworthy, according to a recent Harris poll. That means that the makers of lifesaving and life-enhancing drugs rank just above tobacco companies in the public’s esteem." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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04/25/2006 - Budget Counts One-Time Funds
"The Blanco administration will use more than $500 million in one-time federal hurricane relief funds to avoid major health budget cuts in the fiscal year that begins July 1 – money that won’t be there a year from now." Read on in The Advocate.
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04/24/2006 - FDA Is Criticized Over Drugs' Safety Problems
"The Food and Drug Administration is sometimes too slow in picking up safety problems once drugs are on the market and in responding to emerging danger signals, a federal student concluded in a report to be released today." Read on in the Washington Post.
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04/22/2006 - The Politics of Pot
"The Bush administration’s habit of politicizing its scientific agencies was on display again this week when the Food and Drug Administration, for no compelling reason, unexpectedly issued a brief, poorly documented statement disputing the therapeutic value of marijuana." Read on in the New York Times.
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04/21/2006 - Panel Advances N.O. Hospital District
"A bill designed to spread the reopening of Methodist Hospital and Lindy Boggs Medical Center in New Orleans by making them public entities sailed through a House committee late Thursday." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/21/2006 - Planning for Flu
"In the next few days, the federal government is expected to release another flu pandemic response plan, this one designed to guide the behavior of federal agencies in case of disaster." Read on in the Washington Post.
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04/20/2006 - Senior Citizens Threatened by Medicaid Cuts
"At a time when our lawmakers in Baton Rouge are under enormous pressure to adequately fund so many critical state programs, the last thing we needed to see from President Bush’s proposed federal budget was a reduction in key Medicaid funding that helps ensure Louisiana’s most vulnerable frail, elderly and disabled nursing home residents continue to receive quality care." Read on in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser.
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04/19/2006 - La. Clears the Air on 'Katrina Cough'
"Forget about “Katrina cough.” Despite claims that there have been more coughs, sore throats and running noses since Hurricane Katrina roared through the New Orleans area, a new state health department study has found that the monster storm’s lingering local effects do not include an increase in severe respiratory problems." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/19/2006 - Tenn. Retools Its Health Insurance
"After slashing funding last year for a costly but groundbreaking Medicaid program, Tennessee is considering a new plan for covering thousands of uninsured families." Read on in Stateline.org.
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04/18/2006 - Evacuee Study Finds Declining Health
"Families displaced by Hurricane Katrina are suffering from mental disorders and chronic conditions like asthma and from a lack of prescription medication and health insurance at rates that are much higher than average, a new study has found." Read on in the New York Times.
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04/16/2006 - The (Crisco) Oil Crisis
"Goodbye, war on smoking. Hello, war on fat." Read on in the Washington Post.
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04/15/2006 - Mandatory Health Insurance
"The federal government has done such a miserable job of providing health insurance for the 46 million Americans who lack it that states around the country have been forced to step in with their own plans." Read on in the New York Times.
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04/15/2006 - La. Needs Health Care Overhaul, Report Says
"The way Louisiana provides health care is inefficient and outmoded, and the state should move away from its unique two-tiered system and reduce Louisiana State University’s management role in the charity hospitals, a draft report commissioned by an arm of the Louisiana Recovery Authority says." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/15/2006 - Lawmakers Weigh Bills on Human Eggs
"The focus for the fractious debate over stem-cell research in Louisiana is shifting from cloning human cells to harvesting human eggs." Read on in The Advocate.
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04/11/2006 - Employers Push White House to Disclose Medicare Data
"The White House is clashing with the nation’s largest employers over their request for huge amounts of government data on the cost and quality of health care provided by doctors around the country." Read on in the New York Times.
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04/07/2006 - "D" for Disaster
"Picture this movie: It’s 2003 in the wealthiest nation in the world and millions of Americans are suffering needlessly and dying prematurely because they cannot afford medicine." Read on in TomPaine.com.
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04/06/2006 - Poor Air Quality, Pollution Endager Health of Children
"Seeing children play outdoors can be an encouraging sight, especially considering the wealth of electronic and mass media diversions competing for children’s attention." Read on in The Nation's Health.
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04/06/2006 - Bill Strikes at Low-Nutrition Foods in School
"The days when children consume two orders of French fries in the school cafeteria and call it lunch may be numbered. A bipartisan group in Congress plans to introduce legislation today that would prohibit the sale in school not only of French fries but also of other fatty or sugary foods, including soft drinks." Read on in the New York Times.
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04/06/2006 - Universal Health Care
"Not for the first time, innovative social policy is coming from a state. On Tuesday the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill that would require all residents to buy medical insurance and that would aim to make insurance affordable; the ambition is to extend coverage to more than 90 percent of the state’s 550,000 uninsured residents." Read on in the Washington Post.
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04/05/2006 - Children's Advocate Calls for More Mental, Physical Health-Care Plans
"The state’s children are suffering more in post-hurricane Louisiana as an already unhealthy situation deteriorates, one of the nation’s top child advocacy leaders said Tuesday." Read on in The Advocate.
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04/03/2006 - Coverage, In Pieces
"Health insurance coverage is cyclical. It changes with age, jobs, income, marriage, divorce – even with sickness itself." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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04/02/2006 - The Birds and the Plan B's
"If you thought it was hard figuring out your views on abortion and birth control, get ready to wrap your mind around something in between." Read on in the Washington Post.
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04/01/2006 - The Nursing Home Cop-Out
"Evacuating nursing home patients is an undeniably difficult proposition, one that is fraught with logistical and medical headaches. Even making the decision about whether to move fragile, elderly patients during a hurricane threat is tough." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/01/2006 - Some Doctors Voice Worry Over Abortion Pills' Safety
"Abortion rights advocates once hoped that RU-486 would prove at least as safe as surgical abortions and largely end the abortion wars by making access widely available and very private." Read on in the New York Times.
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03/31/2006 - Health Team Takes Small Steps
"Two years after Gov. Kathleen Blanco made health care reform a centerpiece of her administration’s agenda, the blue-ribbon advisory panel she created to advance that cause wrapped up its formal work Thursday with a lengthy list of modest accomplishments but few structural changes in the way Louisiana delivers and pay for health care." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/30/2006 - GAO Says Hospital Not Worth Salvaging
"Charity and University hospitals in New Orleans were so badly damaged by the flooding from Hurricane Katrina—and in such poor condition before the storm—that spending money on repairs doesn’t make sense, a federal report released this week concludes." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/30/2006 - Study Backs Equal Coverage for Mental Ills
"Providing insurance coverage for mental illness equal to that for physical illness does not drive up the cost of mental health care as many insurers feared, a new study of health benefits for federal employees says." Read on in the New York Times.
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03/26/2006 - Nursing Home Plan Up In Air
"Nearly seven months after Hurricane Katrina claimed the lives of at least 70 nursing home residents in southeast Louisiana, state officials have yet to reach a consensus on how to get the elderly and disabled out of harm’s way for the hurricane season that begins in a little over two months." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/26/2006 - Morning After in America
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President Bush’ uneasy relationship with science and policy is about to hurt him as much as it has already hurt American women. For years now the Food and Drug Administration has failed to make the morning-after contraceptive pill, commonly known as Plan B, available over the counter." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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03/25/2006 - $383 Million to Pay for Post-Storm Helath Care
"The federal government Friday freed up $383 million so Louisiana can start paying hospitals, doctors and others for health care they provided to uninsured hurricane evacuees." Read on in The Advocate.
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03/23/2006 - Proportion of Doctors Giving Charity Care Declines
"The proportion of U.S. physicians providing charity care has steadily decline over the past decade, even as the number of Americans without health insurance has risen significantly, a new study finds, suggesting that government health programs and clinic will face increased demand." Read on in the Washington Post.
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03/22/2006 - Republican Split on Stem Cells Creates Political 'Wedge' Issue
"In 2002, when he was an 18-year-old freshman at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Jeff McCaffrey was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident. A Catholic and opponent of abortion, McCaffrey is now an ardent campaigner for research using stem cells from human embryos." Read on in Bloomberg News.
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03/21/2006 - Warning: This Bill Could Make You Sick
"The House of Representatives this month passed the National Uniformity for Foods Act, a measure that would kill or cancel significant parts of 200 food-safety laws in 50 states." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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03/21/2006 - Abortion Lessons from Latin America
"It’s been a long time since the days of back-alley abortions in the U.S. Perhaps that’s why South Dakota Gov. Michael Rounds signed into law a ban against abortion in his state, with one narrow exception: protecting the life of the pregnant woman." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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03/21/2006 - Selling 'Pandemic Flu' Through a Language of Fear
"Americans consider the United States to be a country where debate flourishes. Yet with regard to avian flu, hyped sounds bites predominate." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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03/21/2006 - Cleaner Air Bring Drop in Death Rate
"When air pollution in a city declines, the city benefits with a directly proportional drop in death rates, a new study has found." Read on in the New York Times.
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03/20/2006 - The Battle to Ban Birth Control
"Ever since she was in her early teens, Mary Worthington has been vehemently opposed to contraception, which she regards as immoral and dangerous. To spread her anti-birth-control gospel, this month she launched No Room for Contraception, a clearinghouse for arguments and personal testimonials on this subject." Read on in Salon.
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03/18/2006 - After 2 More Deaths, Planned Parenthood Alters Method for Abortion Pill
"After receiving reports that two more women died after taking abortion pills, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortion and contraceptive services, announced that it would immediately change the way it gives the medicines." Read on in the New York Times.
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03/17/2006 - Before We Go 'Single Payer'
"In the March 23 New York Review of Books, Paul Krugman makes the case for a health care system that is not only “single payer,” meaning that the government handles the finances, but in some respects, “single provider,” meaning that the government supplies the service directly." Read on in the Washington Post.
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03/17/2006 - Katrina Blows Away Bunch of LSU Medical Graduates
"Storm-wrecked hospitals and a housing shortage in New Orleans prompted the largest percentage of Louisiana State University medical-school spring graduates in at least 17 years to leave Louisiana for residency training, school officials announced Thursday." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/16/2006 - Medical Care Lacking but Equal
"Blacks and Hispanics tends to receive slightly better day-to-day medical care than white when they see a doctor, a large and surprising study has found, sparking new debate about the impact of race on health in America." Read on in the Washington Post.
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03/15/2006 - A Hard Bill to Swallow
"Last week, even as Congress with great fanfare was protecting the American people against whatever mischief the harbor barons of Duabi were contemplating, it quietly decided to strip some long-standing protections from the same American people at the behest of our very own food industry." Read on in the Washington Post.
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03/14/2006 - Drug Discount Program Covers All La. Residents
"With the number of uninsured residents rising, Louisiana’s major employers are hoping more people will take advantage of their prescription discount program, which offers savings of 5 percent to 50 percent on most drugs." Read on in The Advocate.
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03/12/2006 - Budget Worries LSU Hospitals
"The Blanco administration’s budget leaves LSU’s public hospital system $180 million short of projected needs, the system’s top executive said." Read on in The Advocate.
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03/09/2006 - Smoking In U.S. Declines Sharply
"Americans smoked fewer cigarettes last year than at any time since 1951, and the nation’s per capita consumption of tobacco fell to levels no seen since the early 1930s, the association of state attorneys general report yesterday." Read on in the Washington Post.
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03/09/2006 - U.S. House Votes to Nullify 200 State Food Laws
"At least 200 state laws on food safety and labeling – from Alabama’s nutritional standards for grits to the way Wisconsin labels cheese and smoked meats – would be undermined by a bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday." Read on in Stateline.org.
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03/07/2006 - Senate Report Faults Medicare's Handling of Complaints
"Medicare’s process for investigating complaints about bad care is “broken,” leaves patients in the dark, and is of “no benefit to improving the overall quality” of medical care received by millions of elderly and disabled beneficiaries, Senate investigators have found." Read on in the Washington Post.
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03/01/2006 - When Politics Defeats Science
"Since my resignation six months ago as assistant commissioner of women’s health at the Food and Drug Administration, I have been traveling around the country meeting with men and women, fellow scientists and health care professionals." Read on in the Washington Post.
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03/01/2006 - A Scorecard on Curtailing Unwanted Pregnancy
"Behind the ever-boiling battles over abortion in America sits a quieter but still central issue: access to contraception. And the news there may be surprising." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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02/28/2006 - Getting Traction
"When Louisiana leads the nation in something, it is usually a measure of how far behind we are. But when it comes to health care benefits, Louisiana is leading the pack in the move toward consumer-driven plans." Read on in the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report.
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02/28/2006 - Standards: Even Approved Amount of Ozone Is Found Harmful
"A study sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that air even at the E.P.A.’s current acceptable level of ozone – 80 parts per billion – can bring on a significantly increased risk of premature death." Read on in the New York Times.
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02/27/2006 - Plan B Battles Embroil States
"Filling a void left by the Food and Drug Administration’s inability to decide whether to make the “morning-after” pill available without a prescription, nearly ever state is or soon will be wrestling with legislation that would expand or restrict access to the drug." Read on in the Washington Post.
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02/27/2006 - Nervous System
"Six months after Hurricane Katrina, inpatient mental health treatment facilities and options in the New Orleans area are distressingly scarce, medical professional say." Read on in New Orleans CityBusiness.
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02/26/2006 - Health Costs Weight Heavily on Govs
"Wal-Mart, under attack in state capitols because of claims that many of its employees don’t get adequate health insurance and rely on government help instead, pushed back Sunday by telling the nation’s governors that it will improve some benefits but that the government needs to do more as well." Read on in Stateline.org.
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02/24/2006 - Chromium Evidence Buried, Report Says
"Scientists working for the chromium industry withheld data about the metal’s health risks while the industry campaigned to block strict new limits on the cancer-causing chemical, according to a scientific journal report published yesterday." Read on in the Washington Post.
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02/24/2006 - Eating for Credit
"It’s shocking that because of the rise in Type 2 diabetes experts says that the children we’re raising now will probably die younger than their parents – the result of a disease that is largely preventable by diet and exercise. But in public schools these days, children all too often are neither learning to eat well nor to exercise." Read on in the New York Times.
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02/23/2006 - LSU and VA Collaborate to Rebuild N.O. Health Care
"Louisiana State University and the federal Department of Veterans Affairs soon will begin making plans for a joint venture that could result in two new teaching hospitals being built in downtown New Orleans, state officials said Wednesday." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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02/21/2006 - Millions Not Joining Medicare Drug Plan
"A $400 million campaign by the Bush administration to enroll low-income seniors in prescription drug coverage that would cost them just a few dollars per prescription has signed up 1.4 million people, a fraction of the 8 million eligible for the new coverage." Read on in the Washington Post.
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02/21/2006 - Needed: Policy With Room for Accidents
"The headlines continue about Dick Cheney’s senior shooting party in Texas when the 65-year-old vice president aimed at a quail and shot his 78-year-old hunting companion instead." Read on in the Washington Post.
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02/17/2006 - Rx for GOP Doom
"If any single issue crystallizes the defects of Republican rule in the age of George W. Bush that issue is the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act. (It’s also the single issue most likely to lead to the end of Washington’s one-party regime.)" Read on in Salon.
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02/16/2006 - All Clones Are Not the Same
"It has been weeks since President Bush’s State of the Union speech, and I have not heard any outcry over this policy statement on cloning: “Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its forms.”" Read on in the New York Times.
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02/16/2006 - New Law Pushes Long-Term Care Coverage
"Thanks to a new federal law, state will be able to reward senior citizens who buy long-term care insurance by letting them hang on to assets while Medicaid pays for their nursing home care." Read on in Stateline.org.
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02/15/2006 - From Typhoid Mary to Diabetic Debbie
"On Jan. 15, New York City began requiring local clinical laboratories to report to the city health department the results of blood sugar tests performed on citizens." read on in the Washington Post.
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02/14/2006 - Bush Budget Would Cut Popular Health Progrems
"President Bush has requested billions more to prepare for potential disasters such as a biological attack or an influenza epidemic, but his proposed budget for next year would zero out popular health projects that supporters say target mundane, but more certain, killers." Read on in the Washington Post.
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02/13/2006 - Ownership Society Redux
"The president likes to consistent. Love Laura; stick to Laura. Kicks drink; keeps kicking it. First inaugural address: blue tie, white shirt. Second inaugural address: blue tie, white shirt." Read on in the Washington Post.
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02/12/2006 - Thinning the Milk Does Not Mean Thinning the Child
"First, New York City schools replaced soft drinks with Snapple. Now they’re banning whole milk." Read on in the New York Times.
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02/10/2006 - Big Firms Pushed to Bear Health Costs
"Maryland’s new healthcare mandate boils down to $1,472. That’s a reckoning of what it means for Wal-Mart to spend 8 percent of its payroll costs on healthcare for a blue-vested associated who works $10.11 an hour, 35 hours a week." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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02/09/2006 - Medicaid, Medicare Growth to Slow
"President Bush signed legislation Wednesday to roll back entitlement spending for the first time since he took office, vowing to restrain the explosive growth of benefits programs and firing back at Democrats who labeled his plans “immoral.”" Read on in the Washington Post.
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02/08/2006 - Killings Loom Over Debate on Treating Mentally Ill
"Against a vivid backdrop of recent killings by mentally ill people, both sides in the national debate over whether mentally ill people who have not committed a crime can be forced into treatment are preparing for a showdown in the Legislature here." Read on in the New York Times.
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02/08/2006 - The Doctor Is Out
"Seeing a doctor, even for the most routine problem, has never been more difficult. Most of the region’s doctors either left for good after Hurricane Katrina or haven’t returned yet. And those who are back face huge risks in restarting their practices." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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02/07/2006 - Budget Bravery
"Of all the enormous budgetary problems facing the country, the most daunting is the impending explosion in the growth of Medicare, the health care program for the elderly." Read on in the Washington Post.
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02/05/2006 - Problem-Plagued Hospital System Could Be Reformed
"Last year’s hurricanes offer Louisiana a chance to re-evaluate the way it delivers health care to the poor in a state where more than one in five residents lives in poverty." Read on in the Alexandria Town Talk.
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01/30/2006 - Medicaid Proposal Could Hurt Seniors
"Hundreds of thousands of seniors will find it tougher to get government help with nursing home costs under rules Congress is expected to approve as soon as Wednesday." Read on in The Boston Globe.
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01/30/2006 - Health Workers' Choice Debated
"More than a dozen states are considering new laws to protect health workers who do not want to provide care that conflicts with their personal beliefs, a surge of legislation that reflects the intensifying tensions between asserting individual religious values and defending patients’ rights." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/29/2006 - Health Group Considering Cigarette-Tax Campaign
"After a successful campaign with the Mississippi Legislature, the American Heart Association has set its sights on the Bayou State." Read on in the Houma Courier.
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01/27/2006 - US Black Women 'Unaware' of HIV Risk
"HIV/Aids is now the biggest cause of death among young black women in America- but too little is being done to combat it, a leading research organization has said." Read on in the BBC News.
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01/26/2006 - Doctors Give State C- on Emergency Medical Support
"Louisiana and other states are being graded again, this time on overall support of emergency medical care. The American College of Emergency Physicians, which developed the criteria and implemented the grading process, gave the state an overall grade of C-." Read on in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser.
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01/26/2006 - The Fix-It Myth
"Almost everyone agrees that we ought to “fix the health care system” – a completely meaningless phrase despite its popularity with politicians, pundits and “experts.” Indeed, it is popular precisely because it is meaningless." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/24/2006 - Next Time, Keep It Simple
"Many of the problems that have plagued the new Medicare drug benefit since its launch at the beginning of this year were not only predictable but predicted." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/23/2006 - Panel Wants to End Health Care Disparity
"When chairwoman Kim Boyle presented the Bring New Orleans Back Commission’s health care proposal, she referenced the words of President Bush when he addressed the nation from Jackson Square Sept. 15." Read on in New Orleans City Business.
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01/21/2006 - Poll: Mental Health a Victim of Storm
"Nearly two months after Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans, federal medical researchers found that about half the people they interviewed exhibited emotional distress severe enough to require continued attention." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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01/19/2006 - FDA Tries to Limit Drug Suits in State Courts
"People who believe they were injured by drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration should not be allowed to sue drug companies in state courts, the agency said yesterday in a formal policy statement." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/17/2006 - Medicare Glitches Trouble Recipients
"Although Arkansas and about a dozen other states are paying for residents’ drugs not covered under the federal government’s new prescription program, and count on being reimbursed, federal officials say there is no process for refunding the money." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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01/17/2006 - Household Insecticides Could Double Child Leukaemia Risk
"Children, frequently exposed to household insecticides used on plants, lawns, and in head lice shampoos appear to run double the risk of developing childhood leukaemia, research suggests." Read on in the London Times Online.
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01/17/2006 - Emergency
"LSU’s medical school, which trains three out of every four doctors in this state, was essentially destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. If financial and regulatory help doesn’t come soon the school will be out of business. It’s a nightmare scenario no one wants to think about, but you should brace for the impact." Read on in the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report.
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01/16/2006 - Bush's Turn to Health Care
"This time last year, President Bush was preaching Social Security reform; that got nowhere. This time six months ago, his team was thinking tax reform; it soon got cold feet. Now the new theme is health reform." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/14/2006 - Health Coverage Still a Challenge
"A new study released by LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab holds good news for Louisiana: another large drop in the number of uninsured children in the state." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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01/11/2006 - New York City Starts To Monitor Diabetics
"New York City is starting to monitor the blood sugar levels of its diabetic residents, marking the first time any government in the United States has begun tracking people with a chronic disease." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/11/2006 - Stricter Nanotechnology Laws Are Urged
"An independent report being released this morning concludes that current U.S. laws and regulations cannot adequately protect the public against the risks of nanotechnology – the rapidly growing science of making invisibly small particles and molecular devices." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/10/2006 - Record Share Of Economy Is Spent on Health Care
"Rising health care costs, already threatening many basic industries, now consume 16 percent of the nation’s economic output – the highest proportion ever, the government said yesterday in its latest calculation." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/08/2006 - Unhealthy Medicine
"We tend to view medical advances – the breakthroughs that produce better medications, technology and procedures – as the front line in the war on disease." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/03/2006 - Medicaid in Danger in Congress Doesn't Pass Aid Quickly
"Louisiana’s congressional delegation faces a major challenge when lawmakers return to Washington on Jan. 31. Unless the U.S. House of Representatives immediately passes a Medicaid aid bill that it failed to act on before the holiday recess, health care for Louisiana’s poor and uninsured will be endangered." Read on in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser.
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01/02/2006 - Superfluous Medical Studies Called Into Question
"In medical research, nobody is convinced by a single experiment. A finding has to be reproducible to be believable. Only if different scientists in different places do the same study and get the same outcomes can physicians have confidence the finding is actually true. Only then is it ready to be put into clinical practice." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/02/2006 - Vexing Vioxx
"The New England Journal of Medicine’s recent retraction of a 2000 article that helped establish the popularity of Vioxx, the controversial painkiller, should give doctors, hospitals and journal authors reason to think harder about how drug safety information is processed." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/01/2006 - As New Drug Plan Begins, Stores Predict Bumps
"Millions of older Americans will gain access to government-subsidized prescription drugs on Sunday with the long-awaited expansion of Medicare." Read on in the New York Times.
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12/22/2005 - Bill Will Provide La. Extra Medicaid Money
"Gulf Coast states devastated by the recent hurricanes will receive an extra $2 billion to pay for health care for the poor in legislation approved Wednesday by the U.S. Senate that actually cuts back overall on those programs in the next several years." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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12/21/2005 - Bill May Finance Hospital Care for Indigent
"The cost of caring for indigent patients at Slidell Memorial Hospital has increased by 44 percent since Hurricane Katrina, impairing the hospital’s bottom line with little home for reimbursement. A bill making its way through Congress, however, could change that." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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12/20/2005 - Filling a Gap
"The grand coming-out party for a big new idea in Louisiana medical education was slated for Dec. 2. Invitations were sent and speakers contacted. The price was $500 a plate. Then: pfft. The event was quietly postponed until February." Read on in the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report.
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12/20/2005 - For the Most Needy, A Tough Switch
"Antionette Keys was relieved to discover that her new Medicare prescription drug plan covers the medications she takes for bipolar disorder." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/15/2005 - Bill to Shield Vaccinemakers Raises Alarm
"A measure to shield drug manufacturers from lawsuits in an effort to encourage them to develop new vaccines is likely to be quietly attached to a “must pass” defense appropriation bill within the next few days." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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12/15/2005 - Health and Education Measure Narrowly Approved by House
"A contentious health and education spending bill squeaked through the House on its second try yesterday, but a broader Republican effort to cut some mandatory domestic programs continued to falter." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/15/2005 - Medicaid and the Middle Class
"The House of Representatives just passed a bill trimming $50 billion over five years from several federal programs serving the poor, including Medicaid, the giant health program." Read on in The American Prospect.
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12/12/2005 - We're Living Longer, Not Better
"Americans are living longer than ever, but those extra years are not necessarily quality ones, especially in a region notorious for its bad health habits, according to local experts on aging." Read on in the Monroe News Star.
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12/10/2005 - Demos Slam FEMA Medical Response
"The federal government’s emergency medical response to Hurricane Katrina was jeopardized by poor planning, inadequate supplies and poor management, according to a report prepared by Democratic staffers on the House Committee on Government Reform." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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12/07/2005 - Katrina's Emotional Damage Lingers
"“I’ve been thinking the last couple days the best thing to do is die.” The man, speaking on a dull monotone, was slumped in a chair inside the steamy convention center here, waiting to see a doctor." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/07/2005 - Lines Are Drawn for Big Suit Over Sodas
"It is lunchtime at Grover Cleveland High School in Portland, Ore. A steady stream of thirsty teenagers poke dollars into the three Coca-Cola machines in the hallway. By the end of the lunch period, the Coke With Lime, Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke are sold out." Read on in the New York Times.
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12/07/2005 - Louisiana Recognized as Top State in Preparedness for Biohazard, Terrorism
"Louisiana, often at or near the bottom in health surveys, is in the top half of the nation in planning for disease, disaster and bioterror attacks, a new survey finds." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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12/06/2005 - Study Debunks That Blacks Are Wary of Medical Research
"It is a truism that black people to not trust the medical establishment and are reluctant to volunteer for experiments." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/05/2005 - Nanotechnology Regulation Needed, Critics Say
"Amid growing evident that some of the tiniest materials ever engineered pose potentially big environmental, health and safety risks, momentum is building in Congress, environmental circles and in the industry itself to beef up federal oversight of new materials, which are already showing up in dozens of consumer products." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/04/2005 - Health Coverage of Young Widens With States' Aid
"The number of American children without health care coverage has been slowly but steadily declining over the past several years even as health care costs continue to rise and fewer employers provide insurance, creating a breach that states have stepped in to fill with new programs and fresh money." Read on in the New York Times.
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12/02/2005 - Holden Vows Anti-HIV/AIDS Campaign
"Baton Rouge for years has ranked high among large metropolitan areas in the frequency of AIDS cases, but Mayor-President Kip Holden is vowing to do something about it." Read on in The Advocate.
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12/01/2005 - Education Remains Key in World AIDS Fight
"With today’s observance of World AIDS Day for the 17th year, Louisianans should be concerned the disease continues to spread its tentacles close to home." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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11/30/2005 - A Shot at Justice
"President Bush’s recently proposed $7.1 billion plan for pandemic flu protection is admirably ambitious. It is also remarkably self-defeating in two vital areas: manufacturer liability and victim compensation." Read on in the New York Times.
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11/30/2005 - Drugmakers Win Exemption in House Budget-Cutting Bill
"As part of a House budget bill that reduces spending on Medicaid prescription drugs, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. and other businesses secured a provision ensuring that their mental health drugs continue to fetch top price at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to the states." Read on in the Washington Post.
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11/29/2005 - Is There a Link Between Stress and Cancer?
"Christina Koenig found out she had breast cancer on a Friday afternoon. She was just 39 years old. On Monday, she thought she knew why the cancer had struck." Read on in the New York Times.
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11/28/2005 - Medicaid Cutbacks Divide Democrats
"Controversial House legislation, designed to gain control of Medicaid growth has split Democrats, with lawmakers in Washington united in their opposition while Democratic governors are quietly supporting the provisions and questioning the party’s reflexive denunciations." Read on in the Washington Post.
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11/23/2005 - C.D.C. Proposes New Rules in Effort to Prevent Disease Outbreak
"Federal officials yesterday proposed the first significant changes in quarantine rules in 25 years in an effort to broaden the definition of reportable illnesses, to centralize their reporting to the federal government and to require the airline and shipping industries to keep passenger manifest electronically for 60 days." Read on in the New York Times.
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11/23/2005 - New Drug Benefit Questioned
"The new Medicare drug benefit fails to deliver drug prices as low as those found at the Department of Veterans Affairs, in Canada and at high-volume U.S. pharmacies, a congressional report said yesterday. It was challenged by a Medicare official as flawed and misleading." Read on in the Washington Post.
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11/19/2005 - Medical School in Financial Crisis
"Unable to generate revenue because its main teaching hospitals were knocked out of commission by Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana State University’s medical school will run out of money in March unless it gets an emergency infusion of at least $90 million, officials said Friday." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/18/2005 - Medicaid Drug Limit May Be Cut
"The poor and elderly who receive Medicaid would be limited to five prescriptions per month under budget-cutting measures being considered by the Department of Health and Hospitals, agency officials said Thursday." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/17/2005 - Vitter Touts 'Step Forward' on Drugs
"In what proponents called a major victory for advocates of allowing U.S. citizens to buy cheaper drugs from Canada and other countries, the Senate gave final approval Wednesday to legislation that would bar future trade agreements from mandating patent protections that could make such imports difficult, if not impossible." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/16/2005 - Vexing Rollout of Drug Plan
"Aboard a big bus emblazoned with “Help Is On The Way!” Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt is matter-of-fact about criticisms of the US government’s new drug program for seniors." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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11/15/2005 - Morning-After, Months Later
"Everybody knew it anyway, but it’s worthwhile to have a respected government office make it official: Anomalies surrounded the decision to refuse over-the-counter status to the morning-after pill." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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11/14/2005 - Your Government on Drugs
"Starting Tuesday, retirees can sign up for the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. Besides some luck and patience, they’ll need an actuarial advisory, a personal pharmacist, a high-speed computer connection and maybe a sharp 12-year-old to help them navigate the Medicare website." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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11/13/2005 - Is This a Solution?
"It’s nothing new for the scientific enterprise to be shaped by the society that underwrites it. From Galileo to recombinant DNA researchers, from the Manhattan Projects to the Human Genome Project, we have a long tradition of scientist responding to ethical or religious guidelines that might be in conflict with their own methods and goals." Read on in the Washington Post.
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11/11/2005 - 80% of Seniors Doubt Medicare Drug Benefit
"Bewildered by the complexity of the new Medicare outpatient prescription benefit, seniors will not be rushing to sign up, according to a comprehensive survey released Thursday as open enrollment draws near." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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11/11/2005 - F.D.A. Reports Reduced Risk With Condoms
"Used correctly, latex condoms greatly reduce the risks of pregnancy and disease, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday in a 63-page report." Read on in the New York Times.
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11/09/2005 - State Has Top Rate of Syphilis
"Louisiana’s rate of syphilis cases ranked No. 1 in the nation last year, while its gonorrhea rate placed second and its chlamydia rate was third, according to federal figures released Tuesday." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/09/2005 - Break US Stronghold of 'Big Tobacco'
"On November 8, 2005, the United States missed a major international deadline. Early next year, governments will come together to determine how to implement and enforce the first ever global health treaty. Because of our government’s inaction, the US will not have a vote." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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11/07/2005 - Dr. Pill to the Rescue
"Women have been waiting for more than two years for the FDA to grant over-the-counter status to Plan B, Barr Pharmaceuticals’ brand of emergency contraception (keyword: emergency)." Read on in Salon.
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11/04/2005 - For Americans, Getting Sick Has Its Price
"Americans pay more when they get sick than people in other Western nations and get more confused, error-prone treatment, according to the largest survey to compare U.S. health care with other nations." Read on in the Washington Post.
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11/03/2005 - Flu Plan Counts on Public Cooperation
"The federal government unveiled a massive pandemic influenza plan yesterday that would fight an outbreak with tools including surveillance of air travelers, rationing antiviral drugs, imposing community-wide “snow days” to keep people at home and aggressively controlling rumors to prevent panic." Read on in the Washington Post.
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11/02/2005 - FDA Comment Period on 'Morning-After Pill' Ends
"A two-month comment period on making the “morning-after pill” Plan B available without a prescription ended yesterday, with as many as 10,000 comments apparently submitted but no indication of when or how the Food and Drug Administration will proceed with the controversial application." Read on in the Washington Post.
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11/02/2005 - The President's Pandemic Plan
"President Bush announced a $7.1 billion strategy yesterday to cope with a possible influenza pandemic, whether caused by the much-feared bird flu, which has killed some 60 people in Southeast Asia, or some other strain not yet detected." Read on in the New York Times.
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11/01/2005 - Bush Calls for $7.1 Billion to Prepare for Bird Flu Threat
"President Bush today unveiled a strategy to combat the threat of an avian flu pandemic, calling for $7.1 billion in emergency spending to stockpile reserves of medicines and to press ahead with the development of a new vaccine." Read on in the New York Times.
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10/31/2005 - Battle Brews as States Try to Cut Rx Prices
"This November California could become the third state to use its muscle to make prescription drugs cheaper for average citizens without insurance." Read on in Stateline.org.
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10/31/2005 - Cervical Cancer Vaccine Gets Injected With a Social Issue
"A new vaccine that protects against cervical cancer has set up a clash between health advocates who want to use the shots aggressively to prevent thousands of malignancies and social conservatives who say immunizing teenagers could encourage sexual activity." Read on in the Washington Post.
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10/27/2005 - Medicare Drug Bill Holds Little-Noted Revolution
"The new Medicare drug benefit coming Jan. 1 has been in the new for its complexity and higher-than-expected cost. Senior citizens will have to study and then choose among a potentially confusing array of competing plans and options before signing up." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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10/26/2005 - Silver Flu Bullets
"Have you got Tamiflu? I haven’t, but a friend of mine has. He proudly told me he scored a prescription for his whole family. Another friend is also trying to wangle a prescription, even though there’s no guarantee that Tamiflu will work. “It saved 80 percent of the mice in the laboratory study,” he said." Read on in the Washington Post.
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10/22/2005 - Senate Pushes Back Stem-Cell Debate to '06
"A Senate debate over whether to ease federal restrictions on stem cell research will be put off until next year, an influential senator seeking to relax the rules said Friday." Read on in the New York Times.
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10/17/2005 - A More Ethical Way to Harvest Stem Cells? Scientists are in Hot Pursuit
"For seven years, scientists have tiptoed through an ethical minefield in their quest to see if unique cells in human embryos might some day be harnessed to treat disease." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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10/16/2005 - The Fear Contagion
"For two years, a deadly strain of chicken flu known as H5N1 has been killing birds in Asia. While slightly more than 100 people are known to have contracted the disease, and 60 of them have died, there is still no sign that the flu has begun to spread from person to person." Read on in the Washington Post.
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10/14/2005 - Painkillers Understocked in Minority Areas, Study Says
"Pharmacies in black neighborhoods are much less likely to carry sufficient supplies of popular opioid painkillers that those in white neighborhoods, a new study has found, leading researchers to conclude that minorities are routinely undertreated for chronic pain." Read on in the Washington Post.
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10/13/2005 - Decision on Plan B Called Very Unusual
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A long-awaited report on the 2004 Food and Drug Administration decision to reject an application to allow easier access to the “morning after pill” concludes that the decision was highly unusual, was made with atypical involvement from top agency officials, and may well have been made months before it was formally announced." Read on in the Washington Post.
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10/12/2005 - Unprepared for Pandemic
"Louisianians will hardly be surprised to learn that our nation is unprepared for a flu pandemic. After all, the country was woefully unprepared for Katrina, and hurricanes are a more predictable risk." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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10/11/2005 - Address Critical Nursing Shortage
"For years now state health officials have seen Louisiana’s critical nursing shortage coming. Steps have even been taken to slow the hemorrhaging." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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10/10/2005 - Medicare Drug Benefit Outlined in Campaign
"Medicare soon will help seniors pay for prescription drugs. That, however, is all that many Americans know – even among the 41 million people already enrolled in the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled." Read on in the Washington Post.
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10/08/2005 - Bush, Executives Consider Strategies to Ramp Up Vaccine Production
"President Bush met for about 40 minutes yesterday with the chief executives of major vaccine and pharmaceutical manufacturers, emphasizing to them the importance he places on ramping up medical protections against pandemic flu and discussing strategies for increasing the global capacity for vaccine production, White House and other officials said." Read on in the Washington Post.
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10/03/2005 - Healthcare Crisis Goes Untreated, but the Cancer Is Spreading
"Ethical tempests often expose problems that extend beyond the individuals involved. Whether or not Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is convicted of conspiring to evade Texas campaign finance laws, of instance, his indictment highlights the Sisyphean difficulty of controlling the flow of money into politics." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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10/03/2005 - Congress Urges a More Vigorous US Effort to Fight Meth Trafficking
"Feeling pressure from their grass roots, lawmakers in Congress are pushing the Bush administration to do more about the nation’s fastest growing drug problem: methamphetamine." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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