Monday Musings

Why is it that week days are so long and week-ends are so short? Unfair, if you ask me. But it is what it is, so time to get to work. Here's the news:

It seems like a fitting start to ask what science knows about Adele's Someone Like You and why it produces tears.

Meanwhile, week-end talks about the payroll tax cut extension have gotten us nowhere. But President Obama is releasing his 2013 budget today, intended as an homage to the middle class. The budget includes a cut of $360 billion in health care -- mostly medicare provider cuts.

We're still focused on contraception. On Friday, President Obama announced a compromise that would allow religious employers to have no part in offering contraception to their employees -- but the Bishops are still not happy because they still have concerns about the overall policy. "[T]hey still had "grave" objections to the overall mandate, which includes the morning-after pill and sterilization." Read some more of their quotes. So then it wasn't about religious freedom, allowing religious employers a way out? It was about the Church trying to control women's bodies and choices? Yeah, I thought so. Despite the fact that there have been contraceptive coverage laws in many states for years, the GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says this is government meddling, and he pledges to reverse the President's policy of universal and free coverage of contraceptives.

Health reform cannot work without adding a whole lot of primary care providers. There's been talk about how to entice med students to primary care for a long time. There are increases, but not enough. How do we encourage med students to go for something that's against their financial interests?

Medicare finds that teaching hospitals are more prone to complications, although that study is disputed.

A shortage of methotrexate could spell disaster for a lot of people -- not just childhood leukemia, but plenty of IBD patients and, I'm sure, other off-label uses.

Hospitals with funding for charity care still pursue aggressive collections -- as we know.

Is it bad to be a workaholic even if you love your work?

And that's it for this morning. Have a great day. Jennifer