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Schwarzenegger vetoes universal health care
Sacramento Bee - 10-01-2008 - For the second time in three years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday vetoed legislation that would have established a government-run universal health care system. Senate Bill 840 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, would have set up a single-payer system in which the state would assume the role that private insurance companies now play.
Schwarzenegger vetoes health insurance bill
San Diego Union-Tribune - 09-30-2008 - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have cracked down on health insurance companies that cancel policies of people who make expensive claims... “The governor's veto betrays the promise he repeatedly made to Californians to protect them from insurance companies canceling their health insurance when they need it most,” said Dr. Richard Frankenstein, president of the California Medical Association, which represents more than 35,000 doctors.
Medicare won’t pay for medical errors
New York Times - 10-01-2008 - Beginning today, Medicare will stop paying hospitals for the added cost of treating patients who are injured in their care. Medicare has put 10 "reasonably preventable" conditions on its initial list, saying it will not pay when patients receive incompatible blood transfusions, develop infections after certain surgeries, or must undergo a second operation to retrieve a sponge left behind from the first. Serious bed sores, injuries from falls, and urinary tract infections caused by catheters are also on the list. Officials believe that the regulations could apply to several hundred thousand hospital stays of the 12.5 million Medicare covers annually. The policy will also prevent hospitals from billing patients directly for costs generated by medical errors.
Marketing for Medicare drug plans begins
Chicago Tribune - 10-01-2008 - As of today, insurance plans are free to start marketing Medicare drug plans to seniors across the country. So, if you're 65 or older, you'll probably start getting pitches from companies eager to win your business. You're got plenty of time to evaluate companies' claims. Open enrollment for Medicare's drug benefit - the period when seniors can elect to change plans for 2009 - begins Nov. 15 and lasts through the end of December.
McCain, Obama agree: health care needs fixing
San Francisco Chronicle - 10-01-2008 - John McCain and Barack Obama agree that our current health care system isn't working. They say the country needs to reduce the ranks of the 46 million uninsured and provide alternatives to job-based insurance.
Court upholds legality of San Francisco health care plan
San Jose Mercury News (AP) - 10-01-2008 - San Francisco's landmark universal health care program can continue to operate, after a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that it does not violate federal law.
Campaign calls for Mexicans to lose 2 million pounds
USA Today (AP) - 10-01-2008 - A national campaign is trying to get Mexicans to collectively trim about 2 million pounds. The project is one of several new efforts to fight obesity in Mexico, which is on track to catch up with the United States within a decade as one of the world's fattest countries. Nearly half of Mexico's 110 million people are overweight, and the number of fat children has climbed 8% a year in the last decade.
Lack of medical workers plagues developing countries
Reuters - 10-01-2008 - In developing countries, a scarcity of doctors and trained nurses means there is often no helping hand in times of healthcare need. The health crisis in developing countries is being exacerbated by the West as countries relax stringent immigration regulations to attract doctors and nurses from less developed countries to boost their own flagging health systems while saving money on expensive training, some experts say. This "brain drain" leaves gaping holes in the healthcare systems of developing countries where diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria run rampant and children die daily from diarrhea.
'Superbugs' That Strike the Sickest Patients
Wall Street Journal - 10-01-2008 - In hospitals' war against drug-resistant superbugs, a class of bacteria once thought to be fairly benign is emerging as a deadly threat to the sickest and most vulnerable patients. The scourge -- known as gram-negative bacteria -- is throwing a new wrench into efforts to contain the spread of deadly infections.
Emergent BioSolutions Agrees
To Supply More Anthrax Vaccine
Wall Street Journal - 10-01-2008 - Emergent BioSolutions Inc. said it will supply another 14.5 million doses of its anthrax vaccine to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in a multiyear contract valued at $364 million to $404 million.
