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House Education-Labor Panel Passes Health Reform Bill, Rejects Amendments To Ban Abortion Coverage
The House Education and Labor Committee on Friday voted 26-22 to approve the House health reform bill (HR 3200) after adopting 20 amendments, many of which sought to expand the scope of coverage and increase the number of U.S. residents eligible for purchasing coverage through a health insurance exchange, CQ Today reports. The panel voted 19-28 to reject two amendments offered by Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) that would have precluded plans participating in the health insurance exchange -- including the proposed public insurance plan -- from covering abortion services. The committee agreed to allow some existing state and federal programs to obtain waivers from the bill"s requirements. Among the approved amendments was a 400-page amendment by committee Chair George Miller (D-Calif.) that would open the exchange to more small businesses, certain retirees, and families whose premiums and out-of-pocket costs total more than 11% of their income. The amendment was adopted by voice vote (Demirjian, CQ Today, 7/17).
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Memory Impairment Predicts Alzheimer's Disease
Self perceived memory impairment is an indicator of pending Alzheimer dementia but not of vascular dementia, according to results of the LADIS (Leukoaraiosis and Disability) study which explores the impact of brain white matter changes on the functioning of independent elderly individuals over a 3 year period. The study is being presented at the current meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS), a major meeting in European neurology that is gathering more than 2,900 experts from all over the world in Milan.
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Redefining How A Chronic Auto-Immune Disease Is Diagnosed
New research from Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience (JHN) may redefine how Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP) is diagnosed. Eduardo De Sousa, M.D., assistant professor of Neurology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, and director of the Electrodiagnostic Neuromuscular Lab at JHN, led the study which looked at the number of demyelinating features that are needed to differentiate between CIDP, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig"s disease) and diabetic neuropathy. His research suggests a minimum number of three demyelinating features can be used to positively identify CIDP in a patient. CIDP is a neurological disorder characterized by progressive weakness and impaired sensory function in the legs and arms. It affects about 50,000 people in the United States. The study, available in the current edition of the Journal of Clinical Neuromuscular Disease, may help doctors more effectively diagnose and treat CIDP.
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Opinion: Humanitarian Messaging; Maternal Health

Changing Humanitarian Messaging Could Save More People In a New York Times opinion piece, columnist Nicholas Kristof says G8 leaders are "collectively so far behind in meeting humanitarian aid pledges," and asks why it is easier "to try to assist a stranger before us" than "to donate to try to save strangers from malaria half a world away." Kristof writes, "There"s growing evidence that jumping up and down about millions of lives at stake can even be counterproductive. A number of studies have found that we are much more willing to donate to one needy person than to several." Humanitarians are "abjectly ineffective at selling their causes," he writes, arguing that "toothpaste is peddled with far more sophistication than the life-saving work of aid groups." Although there are "no easy answers here," Kristof writes, pointing out that if a toothpaste company had the same "miserable results in its messaging" as aid groups do, "it would go back to the drawing board." He concludes, "That"s what bleeding hearts need to do as well" (7/8). New Promise To Ensure Maternal Health Worldwide Needed Although the decision for President Obama and the first lady "to visit Ghana on the heels of the G8 summit in Italy this week" demonstrates the administration"s commitment to "develop a healthy and prosperous Africa," a new promise "must be made to provide highly cost-effective solutions to ensure that women are healthy before, during and after pregnancy," Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) writes in an opinion piece in the Hill. According to Moore, it is "unacceptable" that "[m]ore than 500,000 women worldwide die from pregnancy each year, and millions more endure life-threatening complications." "The president has said, "We will not be successful in our efforts to end deaths from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis unless we do more to improve health systems around the world, focus our efforts on child and maternal health, and ensure that best practices drive the funding of these programs,"" writes Moore, who adds that she is looking "forward to hearing from the president and first lady on this very issue following their trip to Ghana." She writes, "Improving impoverished women"s chances of survival before, during and after pregnancy is an issue of rights and social justice. It is also a sound economic and social investment, given the importance of women to the well-being of their children, families and societies" (7/7). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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