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Health Care Reform Debate Renews Focus On Insurance Coverage Of Abortion Care
The issue of whether government-subsidized health care programs should include coverage for abortion procedures is gaining attention as Congress continues drafting health care reform legislation, Time reports. Currently, the Hyde Amendment -- a legislative provision attached annually to major spending bills since 1976 -- prohibits states from using federal Medicaid funds to pay for abortion. All but 17 states have similar restrictions on their own funds. Although current versions of health reform legislation do not yet address the issue of abortion, congressional s involved in the process say that an explicit ban on abortion coverage could have "much further-reaching implications" than the Hyde Amendment. According to Time, the restrictions could deny abortion coverage to women whose private insurance plans currently cover the procedure. A 2002 Guttmacher Institute survey found that nearly 90% of private insurers cover abortion procedures. Under the legislation being worked on in three House committees, U.S. residents with incomes up to 400% of the poverty level -- about $88,000 annually for a family of four, or $43,000 for an individual -- would be eligible for government subsidies to help purchase coverage. However, antiabortion-rights lawmakers are pushing to prohibit those subsidies from being used to purchase health insurance policies that include abortion coverage, Time reports. Such restrictions would mean that women who currently have abortion coverage in their private plans would have to give up the benefit. According to Time, such a provision also "would raise all sorts of other questions if insurers were allowed to discriminate among their customers based on whether or not they are using federal dollars to pay for their policies."Pelosi Negotiating With House Dems Over ConcernsLast week, 19 House Democrats sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stating that they "cannot support any health care reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan." They also said that abortion "must be addressed clearly in the bill text" of the legislation. The signers of the letter include Reps. Bart Stupak (Mich.) and Charlie Melancon (La.), both members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the three panels with jurisdiction over health care reform. According to Time, Pelosi"s office is attempting to address the concerns through negotiations.Poll Shows Support for Reproductive Health CoverageMeanwhile, abortion-rights advocates are "pushing back" against those seeking to specifically exclude abortion coverage in health care reform legislation, Time reports. The National Women"s Law Center on Monday released results of a nationwide poll of 1,000 likely voters showing that 71% of respondents favor including reproductive services like birth control and abortion in health care reform (Tumulty, Time, 7/8). The poll also found that 72% would oppose exclusion of abortion coverage from any national health care plan (Eaton, Plain Dealer, 7/7). In addition, 75% of respondents said that an independent commission, not Congress, should determine what medical services are included in the basic benefits offered under health reform. Congress also is weighing giving that power to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (Time, 7/8).Judy Waxman, NWLC vice president, said that 80% of employer-based insurance plans provide coverage for abortion services, adding that "people will be angry if they don"t get to keep what they already have" under any public insurance option (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/7). Waxman said Congress should "refrain from practicing medicine and instead let medical professionals determine what health care services will be included in a benefits package" (Time, 7/8).
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AARP On Medicare Trustees Report: "Medicare's Accelerating Insolvency. Will Only Be Fixed By Comprehensive Reform In 2009."
AARP Executive Vice President John Rother issued the
News of the day
Risk Of Discrimination For Individuals With Family History Of Genetic Disease
A research published on bmj.com reports that individuals with a family history of genetic disease are frequently discriminated by their relatives, friends and also by insurance companies.
Sexual Health

Binge Drinking In Childhood And Adolescence, Germany

German adolescents are top at boozing! In the current edition of Deutsches Arzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2009; 106 (19): 323 - 8), Martin Stolle et al. of the German Center for Addiction Research in Childhood and Adolescence in Hamburg report that the main change has been the increase in the number of intoxicated girls. In their article, the authors present motivating short-term interventions to counteract secondary problems. According to the German Federal Commissioner for Narcotic Drugs, the number of adolescents admitted to hospital for alcohol poisoning has more than doubled, increasing from 9500 in 2007 to more than 23 000 in 2007. About 3800 of these patients were between 10 and 15 years old. Teenagers who start drinking alcohol regularly before the age of 15 have a 4-fold increased risk of becoming alcohol dependent. The German Federal model project "Hart am Limit"("Close to the Limit/On the Edge") even starts in the emergency ambulance. The authors consider that it would be desirable to supplement this with a brief motivational intervention, based on the principle of motivational interviewing. Drinking motivation will be discussed in short individual sessions of maximally 60 minutes. Topics will include the negative consequences of drinking, such as accidents or violence. The objective is to make it clear to the adolescents that they bear responsibility for changing their own consumption behavior. Studies in the USA show that as few as one to four sessions can yield a lasting effect. Deutsches Aerzteblatt International


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