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Opposition To Abortion Rights 'Purity Test For Remaining In GOP Inner Circle,' Opinion Piece Says
People "will not be surprised" by the recent Republican "purge" and "un-eulogies" of several conservative abortion-rights supporters -- including retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, former Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn.) and former Secretary of State Colin Powell -- given that "abortion is the purity test for remaining in the GOP inner circle," syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman writes in a Memphis Commercial Appeal opinion piece. The U.S. is "in for another battle centered, again, on Roe v. Wade" as President Obama nominates a replacement for Souter, she writes, adding that the "purge has led me to wonder what would have happened if the first abortion case to arrive at the Supreme Court" were Struck v. Secretary of Defense, rather than Roe. "What if it had been brought by the woman who did not want an abortion?" Goodman writes, noting that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has recently "mused out loud about the case that got away -- the one she would have liked to argue before the court back when she was a women"s rights litigator."According to Goodman, Susan Struck was a captain in the Air Force who became pregnant in 1970 and was told by her commanding officer that she could either resign or have an abortion. "Struck picked a third choice: a lawsuit," and Ginsberg -- a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union -- "argued that the regulation prohibiting pregnant women from military service was sex discrimination," Goodman writes. Ginsberg also argued that Struck"s choice to carry her pregnancy to term was a personal one and that government intervention was a violation of her liberty. However, as the case was heading to the Supreme Court, the defending lawyer "figured that he was going to lose. So the savvy solicitor advised the armed services to change the rules and the case became moot," Goodman writes."It is mind-bending to think about how different the whole debate might have been if the first Supreme Court case arguing for the right to decide had been brought by a woman wanting to have a baby," Goodman continues. She asks if the U.S. would "have better understood this reality: a government that can force a woman to have an abortion is the same government that can force a woman to continue the pregnancy? Would it have changed a Republican Party that was traditionally so wary of government power-grabs?" (Goodman, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 5/14).
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House Dems To Open Hearings Amid Controversy Over Finances, Public Plan
"House Democrats are pushing forward with a partisan health care bill even as a key Senate Democrat labors to achieve an elusive bipartisan compromise on President Barack Obama"s top legislative priority," The Associated Press reports. "The draft legislation, written without Republican help, would require all Americans to purchase health insurance and would put new requirements on employers, too." The House bill was unveiled last week and "is to be weighed in hearings beginning Tuesday."
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For Doctors And Even Patients, Rationing Health Care Is An Everyday Occurrence

In an essay in The Washington Post, an infectious disease specialist writes that "the unspoken truth among doctors is that we objectively or subjectively ration care, and often don"t tell patients or their families." Organs, for example, "are a precious commodity, their donation strictly regulated by national guidelines. ò€¦ Because donors are scarce, it seems appropriate to ration their organs on the basis of need and other ethical and medical considerations." Medical care is also rationed through long wait times to see physicians (ranging from 11 to 50 days in major cities, according to a 2009 survey by Merritt Hawkins & Associates) or shortages of beds in a hospital. "In its broad definition, rationing is... one of the strategies for cost containment. The paradox of rationing is that it seems fair, just and equitable, and it makes sense when applied to a population. But when it applies to my patient or my mother, it makes me uncomfortable. That said, rationing is necessary and inevitable." Allocation of the H1N1 vaccine this fall will provide a practical experience of rationing: "If the demand for the vaccine exceeds the supply, we will have to allot and prioritize, as we decide who will receive the first 100 million doses available for the first mid-October round of vaccinations. That is rationing, but we are better off calling it "appropriate allocation of res"" (Jain, 8/4). In its "Informed Patient" feature, The Wall Street Journal reports on a program that helps patients make difficult treatment decisions. For example, the Decision Services unit at the UCSF Breast Care Center gave Mary Bianchi information on different treatment options for breast cancer. It also "offered her a personal coach to help brainstorm questions and concerns, accompany her on doctor visits and make audio recordings of medical consultations. ... For patients like Ms. Bianchi, the current health-policy debate comes down to a very personal issue: how to make ever-more-complex decisions when faced with multiple options, each with no clear advantage and with risks and harms that patients may value differently." "Though decision-aid programs cost money to deliver, they appear to save money in the long run. Studies show that when patients understand their choices and share in the decision-making process with their doctors, they tend to choose less-invasive and less-expensive treatments than they would have otherwise received. A number of states and policymakers in Washington are considering legislation that would provide funding to study the use of shared-decision-making programs and in some cases require such programs to be offered to patients as part of the informed-consent process" (Landro, 8/4). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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