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Obama Welcomes AARP and AMA Backing of Healthcare Bill

By Erica Werner and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar – (Associate Press)

President Barack Obama trumpeted two major endorsements for his health overhaul push Thursday as House Democratic leaders pushed toward a vote Saturday on the far-reaching legislation remaking the US healthcare system.

“I am extraordinarily pleased and grateful to learn that the AARP and the American Medical Association are both supporting the health insurance reform bill that will soon come up to vote in the House of Representatives,” Obama said in an unannounced visit to the White House briefing room.

AARP is “no small endorsement,” Obama said of the 40-million strong seniors’ lobby.

“We are closer to passing this reform than ever before,” Obama said. “Now that the doctors and medical professionals of America are standing with us, now that the organizations charged with looking out for the interests of seniors are standing with us, we are even closer.”

House Unveils $894 Billion Healthcare Bill

Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:30pm EDT
By John Whitesides and Donna Smith – Reuters

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled a broad healthcare overhaul on Thursday that would transform the insurance market, create a government-run insurance plan and levy new taxes on the rich.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces the Affordable Healthcare for America Act

Weeks of tough, closed-door negotiations to merge three pending House healthcare bills produced a 1,990-page measure that would cost an estimated $894 billion over 10 years — below President Barack Obama’s target of $900 billion — and reduce the deficit by $30 billion over the same period.

“Today we are about to deliver on the promise of making affordable, quality health care available for all Americans,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

But the measure faced unanimous opposition from Republicans and grumbling from Democratic liberals who wanted a stronger public insurance option and party moderates seeking assurances that federal funds would not pay for abortions under the bill.

The measure could be on the House floor for debate as early as next week.

Download the Affordable Healthcare for America Act

Former KISS Drummer: Men Get Breast Cancer Too

By Phil Wahba – Reuters

Peter Criss - Former drummer of KISS

Peter Criss, founding member of rock band KISS, knows that many of his male fans are macho, so he is making the rounds to tell them even tough rocker guys like him can suffer from a disease usually associated with women — breast cancer.

Criss, who was the New York rock band’s drummer on and off from its founding in 1972 until 2004 and the voice on some of their most beloved classics, including the 1976 Top Ten hit “Beth” and “Hard Luck Woman,” said too many men don’t seek treatment and think breast discomfort will go away on its own.

But Criss, who discovered a lump in his left nipple in December 2007, said men need to get over their perception that breast cancer is a woman’s disease.

“It can happen to you, and when it does, if you don’t deal with it right away, with your ‘dude’ and your metal and your tattoos, you’ll go in the box and we’ll see you,” Criss told Reuters during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Merck Cancer Vaccine Fails to Win Routine Use in Boys

Published on http://www.bloomberg.com

By Tom Randall and Shannon Pettypiece

Merck & Co.’s Gardasil vaccine, used to protect girls from a virus linked to cervical cancer, shouldn’t be given routinely to boys, a U.S. advisory panel said.

The committee on immunization of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted that Gardasil should be optional for boys rather than part of the approved childhood vaccination schedule. The shot is endorsed for routine use in girls 11 to 12 years old. It will be covered for boys and girls under a U.S. program for children who are uninsured or on Medicaid.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Oct. 16 cleared the vaccine for males, ages 9 to 26, to prevent genital warts. Gardasil protects against a sexually transmitted infection called human papillomavirus, or HPV, that can lead to cervical cancer in women and genital warts and cancer of the penis and anus in men. The benefits of the vaccine didn’t justify the cost of administering the vaccine to all boys, the panel said.

“Nobody knows what the private insurance plans will do,” Harrell Chesson, a CDC economist, today told the panel in Atlanta. “They may not distinguish between boys and girls, but we just don’t know.”

Decisions by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices are regularly adopted by the U.S. government.

Caringbridge Starts The Big Be There Campaign To Spread Awareness Of The Free Service

A friend of mine shared this site/service with me.  It is a avenue to create free, personalized web sites that connect friends and family during a serious health event, taking the burden off of the immediate family.  Please share the information with your patients and colleagues that may benefit from it.  Thanks MM for the info ~ JMB

CaringBridge, a Minnesota–based nonprofit providing free websites that connect loved ones during serious health events, care and recovery, today begins The Big Be There campaign, an online project that celebrates family and friends. The Big Be There invites participants to make a promise to be there for someone they care about.

Since 1997, more than one billion visits have been made to personal CaringBridge websites, connecting patients and caregivers to supportive family and friends. Still, countless other families need CaringBridge to help share love and support during a challenging, life changing event such as cancer, premature birth or a serious accident.

“When you participate in a loved one’s CaringBridge community, you’re showing that you will be there during difficult times,” said Sona Mehring, founder and executive director of CaringBridge. “But we care for one another throughout the ups and downs of life. That’s why we started The Big Be There, so people can demonstrate that they’ll be there during those difficult times, even before they happen.”

During the The Big Be There, CaringBridge is asking its supporters to:

• Tell loved ones you will be there for them, should they encounter a serious health event.
• Tell someone who needs to know now, that CaringBridge is there for them to help support hope, healing and connection
• Tell others in your life that CaringBridge will be there for them, whenever it might be needed.

For more information or to join The Big Be There, visit www.BigBeThere.com.

About CaringBridge

CaringBridge is a charitable nonprofit organization providing free websites that connect family and friends to share information, love and support during a serious health event, care and recovery. Its mission is to bring together a global community of care, powered by the love of family and friends, in an easy, accessible and private way. CaringBridge saves time and energy by centralizing communication and easing the burden of updating everyone during a health event.

October is American Pharmacists Month 2009

American Pharmacist Month (APhM) 2009 will be celebrated in October. This month-long observance is a time to recognize the significant contributions to health care and the commitment to patient care by pharmacists in ALL practice settings from around the country. “Know Your MEDICINE, Know Your PHARMACIST” will serve as the theme and core message of the month.

APhA continues to promote your role on the health care team during a time when health care reform is in the national spotlight.  YOU provide solutions that the system and our patients are looking for. NOW is the time to begin planning your APhM 2009 celebrations to help reinforce this message within your communities. You can do that by hosting events in your practice setting, promoting your patient care services, participating in community activities or health fairs, and by getting the attention of your local media. This Web site will provide you with tools and information you need to get your APhM celebrations going.

SIDS Awareness Month: Balancing Tummy Time With Back Time

Pathways’ Tummy Time Video Shows Parents “The Moves” To Help Babies Get More Time On Their Tummies And Prevent Early Motor Delays

This October for SIDS Awareness Month, Pathways Awareness is focusing on helping parents learn to balance back sleeping with tummy time when babies are awake.  Back sleeping is critical for preventing SIDS, and “tummy time” – safely positioning babies on their stomachs when awake – helps prevent early motor delays.  To help parents learn to safely integrate tummy time into their baby’s day, the Medical Round Table at Pathways Awareness developed a free, online video and guidelines for parents on the Pathways “Tummy Time Central” Web page (http://www.pathwaysawareness.org/?q=tummytimecentral).

“Back sleeping prevents SIDS – that is the safest way for a baby to sleep,” says Gay Girolami, physical therapist and member of the Pathways Awareness Medical Round Table.  “However, because babies spend so much time on their backs during sleep, awake-time positioning is even more critical because it can help prevent early motor delays.”

Pediatric therapists have noticed a dramatic increase in early motor delays in the past six years.  Back sleeping, coupled with more awake time babies spend on their backs in car seats and bouncers, has contributed to the trend: babies are spending so much time on their backs that they aren’t able to develop their neck and back muscles, leading to conditions such as a flat head (plagiocephaly), tilted neck (torticollis) and other speech and fine motor delays as well as the inability to meet critical physical milestones in the first months and years of life.  Children’s Health magazine recently named torticollis as the number-one commonly missed medical problem in babies.

Parents have enough to worry about with a new baby, but the Pathways Awareness materials show parents how “tummy time” doesn’t have to be difficult and can be easily and safely integrated into a baby’s day.

National Children’s Health Survey Report Finds Autism Prevalence Now 1 in 91

Autism Society Calls for Answers to Crisis Now

A national report released in the journal Pediatrics reveals that 1% of US children ages 3-17 have an autism spectrum disorder, an estimated prevalence of one in every 91 children. This is a dramatic increase from the one in 150 prevalence rates currently reported.

“This national study charts a dramatic rise in the prevalence of autism in the United States and we applaud this administration’s recognition that autism is an urgent public health priority,” said Autism Society President and CEO Lee Grossman. “But families today are asking: how high must these prevalence rates rise before the nation responds? Significant resources must be directed toward screening and diagnosis, affordable interventions that treat the whole person and comprehensive education plans to foster lifelong skill development so that people with autism will have the ability to work and live independently.”

Effort to Restrict Abortion Coverage in Healthcare Bill Fails

Senate Committee Also Looking to Lighten Package’s Tax Burden on Nation’s Seniors

By Ceci Connolly, Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery – Washington Post Staff Writers

Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee defeated an attempt Wednesday to add further restrictions on abortion coverage to a sweeping healthcare reform bill.

On a 13-10 vote, the panel rejected an amendment by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would have required women participating in a new insurance market known as an exchange to purchase a separate policy covering abortion services.

Also Wednesday, aides to committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said he was looking to revise a key provision of his health reform package in light of a new analysis showing that it would impose a particularly heavy tax burden on people over 65.