Tuesday Tidbits

Blogger is acting weird again, so I don't know if this post will ever see the light of day, but here goes nothing:

A tornado isn't bad enough, but to have it hit a hospital -- I can't imagine the terror. Thoughts here for our own dear friend Susan Campbell, whose family home is near Joplin. Her family is safe, but she doesn't know about all of her friends, so she's flying home on Friday. Stay safe, Susan.

Scott Brown (R-MA) will oppose the Ryan Medicare gutting. Here he is in his own words. And the GOP is feeling the consequences of the Ryan plan to eliminate Medicare as we know it and replace it with vouchers. And the Dems are keeping Medicare front and center for 2012.

Meanwhile, VP Biden is leading a bipartisan group on debt reduction. And the GOP are going after domestic and foreign food programs. Yup, you read that right. Cutting the food program for women and infants, for a start. Or let's cut the FDA budget. And if we can't cut Medicare, how about cutting Medicaid for the poor and the elderly in nursing homes? And before anybody asks me how we're going to get the budget under control if we can't cut all of these programs, I'll answer you: raise taxes on the rich (reverse the Bush tax cuts) and get us the heck out of Iraq and Afghanistan, for starters.

Accountable care organizations are complex, created by 127 pages of regulations, and providers are nervous about some of the provisions. But this is one of the main vehicles for bringing down health care costs (I wonder if that has something to do with why providers are nervous?), so it's important that we get it right.

And now there are attacks on medical malpractice reform -- from the right!

A drug to cure hepatitis-C. Fabulous news.

More employers are offering health care in the workplace. Still, why do unhealthy people fail to take steps to get healthier? And yet, they do all kinds of things to LOOK better!

Childhood cancer. Two words that should never be uttered together.

A price break for AIDS drugs in 70 of the world's poorest countries.

A scary story about a device that's not FDA approved being implanted when a patient is unconscious.

Gastric bypass surgery not only helps lose weight, but it also may rid you of diabetes.

If you're the doctor onboard a plane when a passenger needs help, do you come to the rescue? Please say yes. And if you're a doctor who gets cancer, maybe a hug will help?

A group of doctors lists the top 5 ways to improve primary care.

A fitness test to measure heart health. Or better yet, a blood test that will reveal your health risks.

And that's today's news. Have a great day! Jennifer