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7483. robertjayb - 5/22/2009 5:51:08 PM Krugman reports health industry double cross
That didn’t take long. Less than two weeks have passed since much of the medical-industrial complex made a big show of working with President Obama on health care reform — and the double-crossing is already well under way. Indeed, it’s now clear that even as they met with the president, pretending to be cooperative, insurers were gearing up to play the same destructive role they did the last time health reform was on the agenda.
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The medical-industrial complex has called the president’s bluff. It polished its image by showing up at the big table and promising cooperation, then promptly went back to doing all it can to block real change. The insurers and the drug companies are, in effect, betting that Mr. Obama will be afraid to call them out on their duplicity.
It’s up to Mr. Obama to prove them wrong.
7484. arkymalarky - 5/31/2009 6:35:15 PM Well, Robert, finally getting the nose surgery in early August, so I have the whole summer to dread it. 7485. Wombat - 6/1/2009 3:08:51 PM Is this the deviated septum surgery? 7486. arkymalarky - 6/2/2009 1:02:28 AM Yep. If I don't chicken out. 7487. Wombat - 6/3/2009 10:18:55 PM Don't chicken out. if your problem is anything like Wombette's, there will be a noticeable benefit. 7488. arkymalarky - 6/3/2009 10:30:39 PM That's what everyone who's had it says, as I sit here with my humpteenth sinus infection of the year. I'm sick of being sick. The doc told me if I were a relative of his he'd say get it. He thinks it may reduce my migraines also, since they're so connected to weather. He's older (over 70, I think) and his son will do the surgery. He also made it clear that I have to keep my allergies under control or I will continue to have problems, even with the surgery. He's a very straight-up guy who was recommended by a friend at work, and I'd feel fine if he did the surgery, but he doesn't any more. 7489. arkymalarky - 6/4/2009 12:34:07 AM I've got to say that this school year is what did me in. I've had more down days at work and at home than any other year of my 28 by far. A baby and surgery were things to go through and miss school for, but I've felt far worse this past year than either of those times, and this wasn't a good year for that. I've missed out on a lot. I've enjoyed our exchange students immensely, but I'd have been more fun and have done more stuff with them if I'd felt decent. Feeling like that next year is not an option if I'm going for National Board.
So thanks for that encouraging info, Wombat. I know you've posted about how it helped Ms. Wombat before, but it helps a lot to hear it again. I've talked to a number of people who had it and not one felt it wasn't worth it, but every single one said it was a miserable experience. 7490. Wombat - 6/4/2009 3:31:02 PM Arky:
It doesn't make allergies go away, but it eases breathing and virtually eliminated Wombette's sinus infections. What surgery is pleasant, anyway? 7491. arkymalarky - 6/4/2009 5:24:16 PM Very true. That's why I try to avoid them! ;-) Bro said that about the sinus infections as well. I'm just ready to get past it. I was disappointed they wouldn't do it this month, but he wants me as clear as possible first. 7492. robertjayb - 6/11/2009 6:42:37 PM WHO says flu pandemic is here...
GENEVA — The World Health Organization declared a swine flu pandemic Thursday — the first global flu epidemic in 41 years — as infections in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere climbed to nearly 30,000 cases.
The long-awaited pandemic announcement is scientific confirmation that a new flu virus has emerged and is quickly circling the globe. WHO will now ask drugmakers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine. The declaration will also prompt governments to devote more money toward efforts to contain the virus.
WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan made the announcement Thursday after the U.N. agency held an emergency meeting with flu experts. Chan said she was moving the world to phase 6 — the agency’s highest alert level — which means a pandemic, or global epidemic, is under way.
“The world is moving into the early days of its first influenza pandemic in the 21st century,” Chan told reporters. “The (swine flu) virus is now unstoppable.”
Sounds grim. Wash your hands. 7493. robertjayb - 6/11/2009 8:35:03 PM Kristof compares bad old Canadian-style health care to glorious U.S. free-market system...
...Back in the election campaign, some people spread rumors that Barack Obama might be a secret Muslim conspiring to impose Sharia law on us. That seems unlikely now, but what if he’s a covert Canadian plotting to impose ... health care?
7494. robertjayb - 6/20/2009 9:53:25 PM Be wary of breakthroughs...(The Independent)
Two patients with inoperable prostate cancer have made dramatic recoveries after receiving one dose of an experimental drug that is creating excitement among cancer specialists.
The results were so startling that researchers decided to release details of the two cases before the drug trial – in which the patients took part – was complete. Doctors said their progress had exceeded all expectations. The men were treated at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in the US, one of the top medical centres in the world.
Dr Eugene Kwon, the urologist who was in charge of their treatment, compared the results to the first pilot breaking the sound barrier.
"This is one of the Holy Grails of prostate cancer research. We have been looking for this for years," he said.
7495. judithathome - 6/21/2009 6:58:32 AM When my son was ten he had experimental chemotherapy for Hodgkin's Disease Stage 4. It worked on him and after 23 years of testing him, they deemed him cured...not in remisson but cured. He was the only one of that group who lived long enough to follow his progress...which they did, year after year.
Today when children get Hodgkin's, that very treatment they tried on my son is the one now being used on them.
His neurologist did an experimental technique on the artery in his brain last year and it was successful for nine months, at least. So the doctor told me that the things he learned from that surgery will help others down the line...he also said he had hoped for more time to study my son's case because he thinks this particular technique will be really helpful to others in situations like my son's.
So I think my kiddo did his part in helping others...something of which I'm extremely proud. 7496. arkymalarky - 6/21/2009 7:48:14 AM Absolutely. And do you remember Spook's nephew's wife who came to the gathering with her son several years ago and was terminal with cancer in her organs? She's still alive and getting experimental treatment as part of some study. 7497. judithathome - 6/21/2009 1:33:07 PM Yes, I do remember her and am happy to hear about that! 7498. robertjayb - 6/29/2009 9:16:39 PM Aussies using "trojan horse" cancer therapy...
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian scientists have developed a "trojan horse" therapy to combat cancer, using a bacterially-derived nano cell to penetrate and disarm the cancer cell before a second nano cell kills it with chemotherapy drugs.
The "trojan horse" therapy has the potential to directly target cancer cells with chemotherapy, rather than the current treatment that sees chemotherapy drugs injected into a cancer patient and attacking both cancer and healthy cells.
7499. judithathome - 6/30/2009 2:19:05 PM That would be an amazing breakthrough! 7500. msgreer - 7/5/2009 5:09:27 AM It is late on the Fourth of July. I am looking for anyone who might be awake and roaming theMote. 7501. robertjayb - 7/6/2009 10:12:14 PM Yes we can! Krugman says so...
...last week the congressional budget office scored the full proposed legislation from the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). And the news — which got far less play in the media than the downbeat earlier analysis — was very, very good. Yes, we can reform health care.
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...fundamental health reform — reform that would eliminate the insecurity about health coverage that looms so large for many Americans — is now within reach. The “centrist” senators, most of them Democrats, who have been holding up reform can no longer claim either that universal coverage is unaffordable or that it won’t work.
7502. robertjayb - 7/21/2009 10:59:37 PM Canuckistanian's Journal
Words you'll never hear in the Canadian health care system
Tue Jul 21st 2009, 02:29 PM
As a Canadian I marvel at all of these terms that are so common to Americans, but are virtually unknown to us.
Here's a partial list off the top of my head:
1. "Out of network"
There are no "networks" in Canada. Doctors and hospitals are not affiliated with private insurance companies. Doctors are private business entities and hospitals are usually run by non-profit boards or regional health associations.
2. "COBRA"
Health coverage is NOT tied to your place of employment in any way. So any COBRA-like scheme is unnecessary.
3. "Co-Pay"
The government pays 100% of basic care, 100% of the time. Drugs are not covered, but are subsidized by government to a point. And because of mass buys, discounts are obtained from the drug companies. That's why our prices are so much lower. Most employers offer a drug plan that pays for 100% of drug cost coverage.
4. "monthly premiumdeductible"
Wazzat? We don't consider our health to be the same as our possessions.
5. "waiting for approval"
Doctors are the sole decision makers for health care. NOBODY influences or delays their decisions, warns them of costs or prevents them from giving treatment for any reason.
6. "Government interference"
The provincial government in each province PAYS for whatever services doctors provide. No questions asked. Unless the procedure is experimental, not medically necessary or unwarranted, doctors cannot deny basic care - by law.
7. "Health insurance lobby"
There are NO insurance companies for basic care, only companies for providing insurance for travelers. No money to be made here.
8. "bureaucracy"
When we visit a hospital or doctor's office, we walk in, get treated, walk out. No "applications", "registrations" or any other kind of paperwork is required. We NEVER have to talk to a single "government official" or wait for a "judgment".
9. "PRE-EXISTING CONDITION"
This is such a foreign concept to us. A Canadian's usual reaction to the explanation of this term is astonishment.
I'm glad to see that a sane health care system is within reach in America. Fight for it. It's WORTH it.
(via Democratic Underground)
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