Medical blog » Obama

Sebelius: No talks with Obama about health post

admin — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 06:24:55 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius says she has had no conversations with President Barack Obama about possibly joining his Cabinet as health secretary.
Sebelius (seh-BEEL’-yuhs) was in Washington on Sunday for the winter meetings of the National Governors Association.
Administration officials have said she is near the top of the list of people being considered to run the Health and Human Service Department. But Sebelius tells The Associated Press that “there’s really nothing to tell” about the prospects of her getting the job.
The two-term Democratic governor also is deflecting questions about whether she’ll run for the Senate next year.

Obama calls for health-care reform in 2009

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:42:50 +0000

– President Obama pledged Tuesday night to cure Americans from what he called “the crushing cost of health costs,” saying the country could not afford to put health-care reform on hold.
“This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds. By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes,” Obama said in his speech to a joint session of Congress.
Obama pointed to the increasing number of uninsured and rapidly rising health-care premiums, which he said was one reason small business closed their doors and corporations moved overseas.
Obama’s prescription for health-care reform included making “the largest investment ever” in preventive care, rooting out Medicare fraud and investing in electronic health records and new technology in an effort to reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy and save lives.
“I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process,” the president said, adding that he was scheduling a gathering next week of “businesses and workers, doctors and health-care providers, Democrats and Republicans.”
“The cost of health care has weighed down our economy and our conscience long enough. So let there be no doubt, health-care reform cannot wait, it must not wait and it will not wait another year,” Obama said to a standing ovation.
The president also said Americans would see a cure for cancer “in our time.” Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, died of ovarian and uterine cancer at 52.
Obama made health-care reform a central theme of his presidential campaign and promised not only to achieve universal health care in his first term, but also to cut the average family’s health care health-care costs by $2,500.
In his speech Tuesday, he placed health-care reform alongside education and energy reforms as central pillars of his recovery plan.
An estimated 45.7 million Americans are uninsured, and for those with coverage, and
have been rising four times faster than wages, Obama said.
The average cost of family health-care coverage more than doubled from 1999 to 2008, from $1,543 to $3,354, according to a report by the Institute on Medicine released Tuesday.
During his speech, Obama touted changes in the health-care system already passed in his month-old administration as part of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“Already, we have done more to advance the cause of health-care reform in the last 30 days than we have in the last decade,” he said. “When it was days old, this Congress passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for 11 million American children whose parents work full-time.”
Signed into law on February 17, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also includes $87 billion to bolster state Medicaid programs and offers a 65 percent subsidy for nine months to help the unemployed pay for their COBRA coverage.
COBRA allows the unemployed to pick up the payments and continue the health insurance coverage they had with their former employer. The subsidy would help an estimated seven million Americans, according to a congressional estimate.
The president’s health-care message was applauded by Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a national organization for health care consumers.
is absolutely correct that the nation’s economy and the federal budget deficit cannot be fixed without meaningful health-care reform,” Pollack said in a statement.

Obama signs healthcare bill

admin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:18:55 +0000

A day after he had to jettison the person he hoped would be the architect of a healthcare overhaul, President Obama this afternoon will get to claim a smaller victory.
He signed into law a bill, given final approval by the House today, to extend subsidized coverage to 4 million more children across the country. The bill on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program costs nearly $33 billion and covers children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but find it expensive to buy private insurance.
“This is good, this is good,” Obama began, as supporters applauded and cheered.
With the bill, “We fulfill one of the highest responsibilities that we have — to ensure the health and well-being of the nation’s children,” he said, First Lady Michelle Obama by his side.
But Obama also noted the reality that 8 million children lack health insurance, among an estimated 47 million Americans without health insurance, according to the Census Bureau, about 16 percent of the population..
“This is only the first step,” he said, calling it a downpayment on his commitment for universal healthcare coverage.
And, like an event during his campaign, he introduced a “real family” to illustrate the issue, vowing that he will refuse to accept” that some children do not get the basic help they need to reach their full potential.
He also noted that the legislation lifts the ban on states allowing the children of immigrants to enroll in the program, eliciting another big cheer from the invited audience.
Tom Daschle, who was nominated for health and human services secretary and for a new White House office of healthcare reform, withdrew his nomination on Tuesday over tax troubles.
Senator John F. Kerry praised the final passage of the bill, noting that the program covers nearly 100,000 children in Massachusetts.
“It’s about time we take care of our most vulnerable children. We’ve waited far too long for this day,” Kerry said in a statement. “America’s kids should be guaranteed comprehensive care whether they need dental care, mental health, medical or surgical treatment.”
The legislation also includes parity for mental health services under the program. “It’s about time we take care of our most vulnerable children. We’ve waited far too long for this day,” Kerry added. “America’s kids should be guaranteed comprehensive care whether they need dental care, mental health, medical or surgical treatment.”
Today, with one of the first bills I sign – reauthorizing the Children’s Health Insurance Program – we fulfill one of the highest responsibilities we have: to ensure the health and well-being of our nation’s children.
It is a responsibility that has only grown more urgent as our economic crisis has deepened, health care costs have exploded, and millions of working families are unable to afford health insurance. Today in America, eight million children are still uninsured – more than 45 million Americans altogether.
It’s hard to overstate the toll this takes on our families: the sleepless nights worrying that someone’s going to get hurt, or praying that a sick child gets better on her own. The decisions that no parent should ever have to make – how long to put off that doctor’s appointment, whether to fill that prescription, whether to let a child play outside, knowing that all it takes is one accident, one injury, to send your family into financial ruin.
The families joining us today know these realities firsthand. When Gregory Secrest, from Martinsville, Virginia lost his job back in August, his kids lost their health care. When he broke the news to his family, his nine year-old son handed over his piggy bank with $4 in it, and told him, “Daddy, if you need it, you take it.”
This is not who we are. We are not a nation that leaves struggling families to fend for themselves. No child in America should be receiving her primary care in the emergency room in the middle of the night. No child should be falling behind at school because he can’t hear the teacher or see the blackboard. I refuse to accept that millions of our kids fail to reach their full potential because we fail to meet their basic needs. In a decent society, there are certain obligations that are not subject to tradeoffs or negotiation – health care for our children is one of those obligations.
That is why we have passed this legislation to continue coverage for seven million children, cover an additional four million children in need, and finally lift the ban on states providing insurance to legal immigrant children if they choose to do so. Since it was created more than ten years ago, the Children’s Health Insurance Program has been a lifeline for millions of kids whose parents work full time, and don’t qualify for Medicaid, but through no fault of their own don’t have – and can’t afford – private insurance. For millions of kids who fall into that gap, CHIP has provided care when they’re sick and preventative services to help them stay well. This legislation will allow us to continue and build on these successes.
But this bill is only a first step. The way I see it, providing coverage to 11 million children through CHIP is a down payment on my commitment to cover every single American. And it is just one component of a much broader effort to finally bring our health care system into the twenty-first century. That’s where the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that is now before Congress comes in.
Think about this – if Congress passes this recovery plan, in just one month, we’ll have done more to modernize our health care system than we’ve done in the past decade.
We’ll be on our way to computerizing all of America’s medical records, which won’t just eliminate inefficiencies, save billions of dollars and create tens of thousands of jobs – but will save lives by reducing deadly medical errors. We’ll have made the single largest investment in prevention and wellness in history – tackling problems like smoking and obesity, and helping people live longer, healthier lives. And we’ll have extended health insurance for the unemployed, so that workers who lose their jobs don’t lose their health care too.
Now, in the past few days I’ve heard criticisms of this plan that echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis – the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can address this enormous crisis with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges like the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive.
I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. So I urge members of Congress to act without delay. No plan is perfect, and we should work to make it stronger. But let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the essential. Let’s show people all over our country who are looking for leadership in this difficult time that we are equal to the task. Let’s give America’s families the support they need to weather this crisis.
In the end, that’s really all that folks like the Secrests are looking for – the chance to work hard, and to have that hard work translate into a good life for their kids. I’m pleased to report that their story had a happy ending – it turned out that Gregory’s two sons were eligible for CHIP, and they are now fully covered, much to his relief. I think Gregory put it best when he said: “Kids look at us and think ‘they’ll take care of us.’ That is our job – to keep them safe and healthy.”
That’s what I think about when I tuck my own girls into bed each night. That is what I want for every child – and every family – in this nation. That’s why it is so important that Congress passes our recovery plan – so we can get to work rebuilding America’s health care system.
It won’t be easy – and it won’t happen all at once. But the bill I sign today is a critical first step. So I want to thank all the state and local officials, advocates and ordinary citizens across America who’ve fought so hard to pass it. I want to thank all the members of Congress who have worked so tirelessly, for so long, so that we could see this day. And I want you all to know that I am confident that if we come together, and work together, we can finally achieve what generations of Americans have fought for and fulfill the promise of health care in our time.
Thank you.

Obama and the lethal war on drugs

admin — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:22:39 +0000

the global economy collapsing all around us, the last issue US President Barack Obama wants to talk about is the ongoing War on Drugs. But if he doesnвЂ™t, and fast, he may well have two collapsed and haemorrhaging countries on his hands. The first lies in the distant mountains of Afghanistan. The second is right next door, on the other side of the Rio Grande.
HereвЂ™s a starter for 10 about where this war has led us. Where in the world are you most likely to be beheaded? Where are the severed craniums of police officers being found week after week in the streets, pinned to bloody notes that tell their colleagues, “this is so that you learn respect”? Where are hand grenades being tossed into crowds to intimidate the public into shutting up? Which country was named recently by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff as the most likely after Pakistan to suffer a “rapid and sudden collapse”?
Most of us would guess Iraq. The answer is Mexico. The death toll in Tijuana today is higher than in Baghdad. The story of how this came to happen is the story of this war, and why it will have to end, soon.
When you criminalise a drug for which there is a large market, it doesnвЂ™t disappear. The trade is simply transferred from chemists and doctors to gangs. In order to protect their patch and their supply routes, these gangs tool up, and kill anyone who gets in their way. You can see this any day on the streets of London or Los Angeles, where teen gangs stab or shoot each other for control of the 3,000 per cent profit margins on offer. Now imagine this process on a countrywide scale, and you have Mexico and Afghanistan today.
Drugs syndicates control 8 per cent of global GDP, which means they have greater resources than many national armies. They own helicopters and submarines and they can afford to spread the woodworm of corruption through poor countries right to the top.
Why Mexico? Why now? In the past decade, the US has spent a fortune spraying carcinogenic chemicals over ColombiaвЂ™s coca-growing areas, so the drug trade has simply shifted to Mexico. ItвЂ™s known as the “balloon effect”: press down in one place, and the air rushes to another.
When I was last there in 2006, I saw the drug violence taking off and warned that the murder rate was going to rocket, but I didnвЂ™t imagine it would reach this scale. In 2007, more than 2,000 people were killed. In 2008, it was more than 5,400 people. The victims range from a pregnant woman washing her car, to a four-year-old child, to a family in the “wrong” house watching television. Today, 70 per cent of Mexicans say they are frightened to go out because of the cartels.
The cartels offer Mexican police and politicians a choice: plato o plomo. Silver or lead. Take a bribe, or take a bullet. Juan Camilo Mourino, the interior secretary, admits the cartels have so corrupted the police they canвЂ™t guarantee the safety of the public any more. So the US is trying to militarise the attack on the cartels in Mexico, offering tanks, helicopters and hard cash.
The same process has happened in Afghanistan. After the toppling of the Taliban, the countryвЂ™s bitterly poor farmers turned to the only cash crop that earns them enough to keep their kids alive: opium. It now makes up 50 per cent of the countryвЂ™s GDP. The drug cartels have a bigger budget than the elected government, so they have left the young parliament, police force and army riddled with corruption and virtually useless. The US reacted by declaring “war on opium”.
The German magazine Der Spiegel revealed that the Nato commander has ordered his troops to “kill all opium dealers”. Seeing their main crop destroyed and their families killed, many have turned back to the Taliban in rage.
What is the alternative? Terry Nelson was one of AmericaвЂ™s leading federal agents tackling drug cartels for over 30 years. He discovered the hard way that the current tactics are useless. “Busting top traffickers doesnвЂ™t work, since others just do battle to replace them,” he explains. But there is another way: “Legalising and regulating drugs will stop drug market violence by putting major cartels out of business. ItвЂ™s the one sure-fire way to bankrupt them, but when will our leaders talk about it?”
Of course, the day after legalisation, a majority of gangsters will not suddenly join the Hare Krishnas and open organic food shops. But their profit margins will collapse as their customers go to off-licences and chemists, so the incentives for staying in crime will largely end. We donвЂ™t have to speculate about this. When alcohol was legalised, the murder-rate fell off a cliff, and continued to drop for the next 10 years. (Rates of alcoholism, revealingly, remained the same.) No, Obama doesnвЂ™t want to spend his political capital on this. He is the third consecutive US president to have used drugs in his youth, but he knows this is a difficult issue, where he could be tarred by his opponents as “soft on crime”.
Yet remember: opinions are febrile in a depression. At the birth of the last great downturn, support for alcohol prohibition was high; within five years, it was gone. The Harvard economist Professor Jeffrey Miron has calculated that drug prohibition costs the US government US$44.1 billion (RM159 billion) a year, and legalisation would raise another US$32.7 billion (RM117.8 billion) on top of that in taxes if drugs were taxed like alcohol. (All this money would, in a sane world, be shifted to drug treatment.)
Can the US afford to force this failing policy on the world, especially when it guarantees the collapse both of the country they are occupying and their own neighbour?
Drug addiction is always a tragedy for the addict, but drug prohibition spreads the tragedy across the globe. We still have a chance to take drugs back into the legal regulated economy, before itвЂ™s too late for Mexico and Afghanistan and graveyards-full of more stabbed kids on the streets of Britain. Obama, and the rest of us, have to choose: controlled regulation or violent prohibition? Healthcare or warfare? вЂ“ The Independent

FDA pick coming soon, Obama spokesman says

admin — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:39:33 +0000

FDA pick coming soon, Obama spokesman says
President Barack Obama will announce his nominee for FDA commissioner in the next few days, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. The agency faces mounting pressure to address product safety, including recent cases of salmonella contamination in peanuts. Obama’s choice, who would take over for interim chief Dr. Frank Torti, has to be confirmed by the Senate.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009

Obama reverses Bush abortion-funds policy

admin — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:56:16 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Friday struck down the Bush administration’s ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information — an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century.
Obama’s move, the latest in an aggressive first week reversing contentious Bush policies, was warmly welcomed by liberal groups and denounced by abortion rights foes.
The ban has been a political football between Democratic and Republican administrations since GOP President Ronald Reagan first adopted it 1984. Democrat Bill Clinton ended the ban in 1993, but Republican George W. Bush re-instituted it in 2001 as one of his first acts in office.
“For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House. “I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate.”
He said the ban was unnecessarily broad and undermined family planning in developing countries.
“In the coming weeks, my administration will initiate a fresh conversation on family planning, working to find areas of common ground to best meet the needs of women and families at home and around the world,” the president said.
Obama issued the presidential memorandum rescinding the Bush policy without coverage by the media, late Friday afternoon. The abortion measure is a highly emotional one for many people, and the quiet signing was in contrast to the televised coverage of Obama’s announcement Wednesday on ethics rules and Thursday’s signing of orders on closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and banning torture in the questioning of terror suspects.
His action came one day after the 36th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.
The Bush policy had banned U.S. taxpayer money, usually in the form of Agency for International Development funds, from going to international family planning groups that either offer abortions or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion as a family planning method.
Critics have long held that the rule unfairly discriminates against the world’s poor by denying U.S. aid to groups that may be involved in abortion but also work on other aspects of reproductive health care and HIV/AIDS, leading to the closure of free and low-cost rural clinics.
Supporters of the ban say that the United States still provides millions of dollars in family planning assistance around the world and that the rule prevents anti-abortion taxpayers from backing something they believe is morally wrong.
The ban has been known as the “Mexico City policy” for the city a U.S. delegation first announced it at a U.N. International Conference on Population.
Both Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will oversee foreign aid, had promised to do away with the rule during the presidential campaign.
Clinton said Friday evening that for seven years Bush’s policy made it more difficult for women around the world to gain access to essential information and health care services. “Rather than limiting women’s ability to receive reproductive health services, we should be supporting programs that help women and their partners make decisions to ensure their health and the health of their families,” Clinton said.
In a move related to the lifting of the abortion rule, Obama is also expected to restore funding to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), probably in the next federal budget. Both he and Clinton had pledged to reverse a Bush administration determination that assistance to the organization violated U.S. law known as the Kemp-Kasten amendment.
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, said: “The president’s actions send a strong message about his leadership and his desire to support causes that will promote peace and dignity, equality for women and girls and economic development in the poorest regions of the world.”
“Access to reproductive health is at the core of all of these issues,” she said.
“We are confident that under the new president’s direction, the U.S. will resume its leadership in promoting and protecting women’s reproductive health and rights worldwide,” Obaid said in a statement issued at U.N. headquarters in New York.
“President Obama’s decision could not have come at a more critical time,” she said. “If women are to stop dying in childbirth and if reproductive health for all is to become a reality, we need increased political and financial commitment at all levels to implement strategies that we know will work. With the renewed U.S. support to women and to UNFPA, the odds of that happening are greatly improved.”
Obama, in his statement, said he looked forward to working with Congress to fulfill that promise: “By resuming funding to UNFPA, the U.S. will be joining 180 other donor nations working collaboratively to reduce poverty, improve the health of women and children, prevent HIV/AIDS and provide family planning assistance to women in 154 countries.”
UNFPA’s executive director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, said: “The president’s actions send a strong message about his leadership and his desire to support causes that will promote peace and dignity, equality for women and girls and economic development in the poorest regions of the world.”
“Access to reproductive health is at the core of all of these issues,” she said.
“We are confident that under the new president’s direction, the U.S. will resume its leadership in promoting and protecting women’s reproductive health and rights worldwide,” Obaid said in a statement issued at U.N. headquarters in New York.
“President Obama’s decision could not have come at a more critical time,” she said. “If women are to stop dying in childbirth and if reproductive health for all is to become a reality, we need increased political and financial commitment at all levels to implement strategies that we know will work. With the renewed U.S. support to women and to UNFPA, the odds of that happening are greatly improved.”
The Bush administration had barred U.S. money from the fund, contending that its work in China supported a Chinese family planning policy of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization. UNFPA has vehemently denied that it does.
Congress had appropriated $40 million to the UNFPA in the past budget year, but the administration had withheld the money as it had done every year since 2002.
Organizations and lawmakers that had pressed Obama to rescind the Mexico City policy were jubilant.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the move “will help save lives and empower the poorest women and families to improve their quality of life and their future.”
“Today’s announcement is a very powerful signal to our neighbors around the world that the United States is once again back in the business of good public policy and ideology no longer blunts our ability to save lives around the globe,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Population Action International, an advocacy group, said that the policy had “severely impacted” women’s health and that the step “will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, abortions and women dying from high-risk pregnancies because they don’t have access to family planning.”
Anti-abortion groups and lawmakers condemned Obama’s decision.
“I have long supported the Mexico City Policy and believe this administration’s decision to be counter to our nation’s interests,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
“Coming just one day after the 36th anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade decision, this presidential directive forces taxpayers to subsidize abortions overseas — something no American should be required by government to do,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., called it “morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans to promote abortion around the world.”
“President Obama not long ago told the American people that he would support policies to reduce abortions, but today he is effectively guaranteeing more abortions by funding groups that promote abortion as a method of population control,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee.
AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.

Does Obama Have Control of the DEA?

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:27:30 +0000

Does Obama Have Control of the DEA?
Perspective by Tim King Salem-News.com
Has the time arrived for Obama to take his gloves off and overhaul the DEA from top to bottom, or is it even an option?
(SALEM, Ore.) – The DEA is defying President Barack Obama’s word that the Department of Justice would no longer be used to harrass and arrest owners and operators of medical marijuana dispensaries.
“I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana dispensaries; it is not a good use of our resources,” then Presidential Contender Obama said, on August 21st 2007.
The group Americans for Safe Access reports that on Thursday, the Drug Enforcement Administration, still mostly comprised of officials from the Bush Administration, raided a medical cannabis dispensary in South Lake Tahoe, California.
“They did so knowing full well that President Obama has repeatedly pledged to end federal threats, arrests, and prosecutions of patients and their providers in medical cannabis states,” the ASA’s George Pappas said.
Obama has stated on more than one occasion that he is not interested in locking up non-violent drug offenders as felons which leads to no good prospects except drug dealing and other criminal activity. Obama said in September 2007, that he believes when it comes to offenders, “they become more locked into crime from being in prison.”
We have included video below of President Obama making the quoted statement above, and more. Why is the DEA so intent on carrying on what many call “thuggish behavior”? I find it interesting, especially when considering recent statements made by Courtney Love about a Hollywood actor/alleged illegal drug supplier who she claims led Kurt Cobain to his death and also nearly led actor Owen Wilson to his.
In August 2007,
and other sources including the NY Times, reported accusations from Courtney Love over a supply of drugs coming from an actor she once dated, Steve Coogan.
Courtney Love blames this British comedic actor, her ex-boyfriend, for leading buth Kurt Cobain
Owen Wilson down a path of drugs and self-destruction.
One almost has to wonder if Coogan has been hanging around with Joaquin Phoenix lately; it would possibly explain his recent, bizarre behavior. (see my article:
Socialite Life reported Love claiming that Coogan,
“a close friend of Wilson’s, encouraged Owen’s hard-partying lifestyle, which ultimately led to the actor’s recent attempt to take his own life.”
Love may know a thing or two about Coogan, it was reported in August 2005 that Love was furious with herself for allowing Coogan to talk her into having unprotected sex.
Prior to the affair with Love, Coogan had married a woman named Caroline Hickman, who divorced him on the grounds of unreasonable behavior. Then a 39-year old father of one, Coogan had married Hickman in December 2002. They had just got back together after splitting up over a fling he had with a lap dancer, metro.co.uk reported. (see:
Apparently the habitual drug use that Love ties to Coogan became so bleak for Owen Wilson, celebslam.buzznet.com reported, that his pal Woody Harrelson even tried to stage an intervention at his home in Maui.
“And itвЂ™s all Steve CooganвЂ™s fault.” Love was quoted saying.
“I went through it with Steve. I was just out of rehab, and he was right there with the drugs. I tried to warn Owen. I tried to warn his friends. I hope from the bottom of my heart that Owen stays the hell away from that guy.” (see:
, denying Love’s accusations and offering support to Wilson. “My thoughts are with my friend Owen at this difficult time, but I do want to set the record straight and say that the allegations…are completely and utterly false,” he said. (see:
Of course some will find irony in Harrelson, well-known for his marijuana use and advocacy, being the one trying to save a friend who is on
. Until the “Reefer Madness” paranoia of the 1930’s, marijuana had always been a top remedy among doctors for helping drug addicts kick their habits. The DEA today considers it to be in a class roughly with heroin.
Regardless of their record, it is still confounding that the DEA would act so quickly to undermine and disregard the statements made by President Obama about legal medical cannabis, while allowing the rich movie star set’s hard drug dealers to roam free.
I can appreciate that these are only allegations from Love, and Coogan may be guilty of nothing at all, but I would feel better personally if there was at least some reference somewhere to an investigation.
The raid in California is simply another response from the pharmaceutical companies that exercise control over groups like the DEA. They dread seeing medical marijuana advance and as a natural effective medicine, they know its increasing legality threatens to potentially
their treasured “bottom line”, says Medical Marijuana Expert Dr. Phillip Leveque who also writes for Salem-News.com.
and progress in this world, and the Drug Enforcement Agency, still insistent on raiding legal cannabis dispensaries, needs to swallow that bitter pill of understanding.
ASA bemoans the fact that this latest raid took place, “We are shocked and awed! For DEA to act with such brazen arrogance and in direct conflict with the new PresidentвЂ™s pledge to end federal raids is deeply concerning. With only weeks left in office, it is clear that top DEA officials are using this transitional period to exploit the differences in policy between the old and new administration.”
It seems hard to believe that high level people from the entertainment world can expose drug dealers on the Internet and in major newspapers and nothing happens, but places where sick people get their medicine are regarded as lawless organzations by the DEA, even though voters in California specifically elected to make it legal.
Cheryl Aichele, a vocal medical cannabis activist in Los Angeles, says “I don’t like it when the DEA comes in fully armed into our beautiful state with their paramilitary-style raids on medical cannabis patients and providers. I’m angry that they raid with masks, helmets, shields, and automatic weapons forcing injured people to the ground with the DEA’s feet on patient’s backs and DEA guns to patient’s heads.”
She says it is disappointing to see a federal agency waste so much time, energy, and resources to ruin the lives of Americans when the cannabis itself could do no comparable damage.
“I feel sad that they don’t seem to care about the sick and injured, like me. I feel hurt because I have seen first-hand the kind of damage the federal government can cause in the lives of honest people. I feel worried when I hear about them raiding yet another medical cannabis location. I feel scared because if they are successful, I will be forced to buy my medical cannabis on the “black market” from real criminals instead of safely accessing medical cannabis from compassionate providers.”
Aichele concluded by saying she is embarrassed that our government has taken this war on cannabis this far.
“I’m sorry that Obama hasn’t already told the DEA to leave us alone. I feel ashamed because my own tax money is going to their actions. I don’t want good people to suffer because of bad laws.”
Cannabis advocates say it’s time for Obama to take his gloves off and overhaul the DEA from top to bottom. It is true that we need maximum integrity from federal cops and they have to work in sync with the will of the American people in order to be most efficient.
The video with the next clip is bad for the first 15-seconds, but it clears up after that:
Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim majored in journalism at California’s Cuesta College. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com’s Executive News Editor.
Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 in Afghanistan with Oregon troops. Tim recently returned from Iraq where he covered the war there while embedded with an Oregon Guard aviation unit. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation’s only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.
stephen January 23, 2009 4:15 pm
Thanks for the article Tim.
I have decided to try and hold back my opinions for awhile, no promises tho because “time” is the best truth teller. We will let time tell. I am already finding in the blogs, that many strong supporters of obama are discouraged and feel let down. Just a short opinion, dont expect changes.
The agenda was written long ago by people much more powerful than obama.
Keep up the good work, I like ya.

вЂњSince I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the U.S., in the field of commerce and manufacturing, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.вЂќ Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) 28th President of the United States.

(I have many of these quotes from very prominent people)
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Despite Daschle, Health Reform To Be a ‘Central Focus’ of Obama Budget

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:47:14 +0000

A good percentage of the premiums or catastrophic health insurance amounts is going to health care fraud every year. GAO est of minimum fraud have consistently been in 10% to teens. Comment by Comment by patient – January 27, 2009 at 11:01 pm
This comment leads in a direction mentioned several times here between us: FRAUD. I served on a Federal Grand Jury for 18 months and became intimately involved with details of Medicare/Medicaid Fraud. Most of the comments here are top down, restructure of healthcare. Id like to shine some light on a bottom up aspect in as brief a fashion as I am able. There will be no grand scheme for major change in the short run in the US due to complexity but there are many approaches suggested between us that have short-term, immediate merit. Congratulations. Heres mine.
The Medicare/Medicaid program in its current form as administered by Center for Medicare Services (CMS) pays $342 billions in benefits per year. This number is inclusive of about $60 billions paid out to private insurance companies. According to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) over $13 billions annually is paid out to fraudulent providers. That is a 2001 figure. (Robert Hast, Assistant Comptroller General for Special Investigations before the Sub Committee on Government Management of the House of Representative -
The truth about the system, in its current form, is that the billions of taxpayer dollars in fraud the program leaves in its wake, is due to the compartmentalization of its active participants from one another, the outsourcing of its duly authorized regulatory function to private contractors, the Justice Departments pursuit of the lowest hanging fruit in prosecutorial endeavors, and reliance on the infirm, elderly and aged recipients of its benefits for enforcement by actually reporting CMS/Medicare fraud. The vast amount of fraud I saw here in South Florida – the fraud capital of the U.S. – is attributable to (a)authenticating UPINs (Unique Personal Identification Numbers) issued doctors — the supposed gatekeepers of Medicare/Medicaid — by AHCA (Agency for Health Care Administration here in Florida) are publicly displayed on internet sites and are easy to obtain and therefore rendered not unique, (b) Certificates of Medical Necessity are received by billing services bundling invoices (often fraudulent) that require only that UPINs and doctors signatures be present on the certificates without authenticating them before sending such certificates with invoices to federal bill-paying subcontractors, (c) those bill paying subcontractors do not verify the legitimacy of UPINs or doctors signatures on Certificates of Medical necessity or prescriptions by affirmation with cited doctors, (d) doctors are not required to disavow their signatures on fraudulently submitted prescriptions, CMNs or other documents legitimizing cross consultations, excess testing, excess surgeries, etc. under oath in front of the Grand Jury, (e) no depositions or other forms of sworn testimony by doctors disavowing those signatures and UPINs are offered by district attorneys to Grand Juries and instead doctors are taken at their word which is then entered into the recorded grand jury testimony as fact by District Attorneys, (f) AHCA does not conduct timely site inspections as required under their purview of laboratories performing HIV/infusion therapy (still considered legitimate treatment here in Florida) nor DME (durable medical equipment providers) storefront operations to verify inventories nor the legitimacy of those supposed businesses, (g) doctors are not copied upon issuance of EOBs (Explanation of Benefits) from AHCA/CMS payment subcontractors detailing medical expenditures on behalf of Medicare/Medicaid to beneficiaries as a means of ascertaining the existence of actual doctor/patient relationships as detailed on the EOBs, (h) Service provider numbers issued by AHCA to DMEs and other medical service providers used for billing Medicare/Medicaid are bought and sold as part of existing, uninspected (by AHCA) storefront operations/businesses without any required renewal process by AHCA to re-license the provider, (i) billing services bundle fraudulent invoices for service providers with legitimate invoices for submission to federal payment subcontractors for fees (5 – 9% of submission values) based on dollar volumes submitted without authenticating UPINs, doctor/patient relationships nor the legitimacy of the services nor providers invoicing prescribed excess testing, surgeries and so forth, (j) even when AHCA or CMS suspects fraudulent activity on the part of a service provider they do not alert billing services to require more stringent oversight of suspected service provider requests for payment, (k) service provider gross claim amounts are not monitored by federal payment subcontractors in relation to time resulting in waves of claim volumes in the millions($$) being submitted for payment within a span of weeks and paid without investigation, (l) doctors can use their UPINs as service providers under provisions know as Reassignment of Benefits which accommodates doctors forming businesses by prescribing treatments in one part of a building while those treatments are administered in another part of the building offering doctors — the supposed gatekeepers of the Medicare system — opportunities for collusion with those administering treatments and, at the same time, cushioning doctors from first hand knowledge of how such treatments are supplied, charged and promoted (kickbacks to patients and patient brokers), (m) there appears to be no mandate for CMS, HHS, or ACHA to authenticate whether UPINs used on invoices along with doctor signatures are legitimate by contacting doctors to see if the beneficiaries are actually even the doctors patients and (n) successful prosecutorial outcomes (convictions) are not publicized throughout the community to prevent the word-of-mouth propaganda that circulates among the impoverished, Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries of this lucrative fraud; no billboards, no TV spots on Univision, no convicted posters – NOTHING!
HHS, CMS, and other federal agencies and their ombudsmen are remiss in their duty to protect we taxpayers from these theft loopholes in Medicare/Medicaid procedures. What is clear is that none of these federal agencies want to disturb the doctors represented by the American Medical Association lobby nor compel them to fulfill the oversight role gatekeeper implies. What is also suspect is that federal subcontractor payment services are compensated for their service based on volumes of invoices processed and amounts distributed leaving oversight, which should be a condition of their contractual responsibilities, behind.

Poll Shows Strong Support for Obama Health Care Reforms

admin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:47:30 +0000

By E.J. Mundell
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 11 (HealthDay News) — A broad swath of Americans support President Barack Obama’s anticipated overhaul of the U.S. health care system, especially such key proposed elements as government negotiation with drug companies to lower drug prices, or some form of a national health insurance exchange, a new
poll finds.
In fact, half of the 2,491 adults surveyed in the nationwide poll said they either “strongly” or “somewhat” supported the president’s plan to overhaul health care. Twenty-nine percent said they were still not sure about the plan, while 20 percent expressed opposition to the Obama proposals.
While Obama’s exact blueprint has not been laid out, he has indicated, both from the Oval Office and on the campaign trail, that the nation’s health care system needs to better serve more people at a lesser cost.
Support for certain reforms appeared especially high in the poll. For example, 78 percent of those polled said that allowing Medicare to directly negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies was a “good idea.” And, six out of 10 respondents were also positive about the formation of a “national health insurance exchange” that would allow both employers and individuals to choose from a much wider pool of private plans. Both of these initiatives were key parts of the Obama health care policy platform during the campaign.
Humphrey Taylor, chairman of the Harris Poll, said he was “not surprised” by the results of the poll, which was conducted online from Jan. 27-29.
“There’s an overwhelming desire to fundamentally change the system, not only from the public but also from doctors, employers, insurers, everybody,” he said. “Of course, different people want to see different things. But very few people think that the system as we have it now is even close to what we ought to have.”
The poll shows that as Americans learn more about Obama’s anticipated reforms, they seem better able to make up their mind about them — either pro or con. For example, 62 percent of those surveyed who said they knew “a lot” about the new president’s ideas expressed support for the initiatives, with 36 percent opposed and only 2 percent saying they were “not sure.” Among those who said they knew nothing about the Obama proposals, 66 percent remained unsure, 23 percent were supportive, and 11 percent opposed.
A majority of respondents said the reforms, if carried out, would improve the health care system. Sixty-one percent felt reforms would deliver adequate health insurance to more people, and 54 percent thought health care would be made more cost effective. But a fifth of respondents thought the changes would make the quality of medical care worse, not better.
Support for the proposals did not vary significantly based on income. Fifty percent of people making between $15,000 and $25,000 annually approved of the Obama plan, compared to 51 percent of those making $50,000 or more. But the gap widened as respondents looked at specific issues, such as the plan’s ability to boost the quality of care or strengthen the economy.
Predictably, support split along party lines, with three-quarters of Democrats supporting Obama’s overall plan, compared to 26 percent of Republicans. Many Republicans appeared to favor specific elements of the plan, however. For example, 70 percent supported the notion of having Medicare negotiate drug prices, and more than half (53 percent) agreed with offering subsidies to low-income families to ensure universal child health coverage.
Taylor noted that the poll is only the first of a planned series to gauge the public’s attitude toward the new administration’s approach to health care, so it’s too early to spot trends. One poll, conducted a year ago by Harris Interactive and Harvard University while the election campaign was underway, did find a big partisan gap when it came to the notion of “socialized medicine,” with 70 percent of Republicans saying that such a system would be worse than the current model and the same percentage of Democrats believing it would be an improvement.
But the Obama proposals are not looking toward a government-run “single-payer system,” such as those in Canada or the United Kingdom, Taylor noted. “Nobody here is proposing a government-run system,” he said. “They are proposing an expansion of both the private and public sector.”

Children’s health care bill expected to be one of Obama's first …

admin — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:42:24 +0000

WASHINGTON – Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA) last week joined a majority in the House of Representatives in support of bipartisan legislation to provide health care to 11 million children from working families.
The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (H.R. 2) was approved by a vote of 289-139.
The bill is very similar to the legislation that President Bush vetoed twice in the 110th Congress.
“Investing in children’s health care is one of the wisest choices our federal government can make,” Thompson said during a speech on the House of Representatives floor. “Children have to be healthy to get an education and achieve their full potential as adults. When kids see the doctor more regularly, they receive the preventive services that keep them healthier longer – and they are less likely to end up in the emergency room, which saves everyone money.”
Thompson said almost a million and a quarter children in California are uninsured, which he called “simply unacceptable.”
He said that, in contrast to President Bush’s multiple vetoes of similar bills, President-elect Obama gave his enthusiastic support to providing coverage for 4 million additional children. “That is truly change we can believe in,” Thompson said.
SCHIP was created in 1997 to provide health care coverage for children in families that earn too little to afford health insurance for their children but too much to qualify for Medicaid.
The bill passed last week by the House of Representatives reauthorizes SCHIP through 2013 and preserves the coverage for all 7.1 million children currently covered by SCHIP, including 1,538,416 children in California.
Thompson's office has previously estimated that 1,600 Lake County children will receive coverage under the legislation.
The bill also extends health care coverage to 4.1 million additional low-income children, who are currently uninsured. The bill is fully paid for.
This bipartisan bill has been endorsed by dozens of organizations, representing millions of Americans – ranging from business groups such as the National Federation of Independent Businesses and Business Roundtable to the American Hospital Association, AARP and Families USA.