Healthcare

The past few days haven't been good for vaccine-autism conspiracy theorists.

Earlier today, the Special Court of Federal Claims ruled that no evidence existed that the MMR vaccine contributes to autism. One of the judges said that the parents had been misled by physicians pushing the theory, who were guilty of "gross medical misjudgment."

The ruling comes on the heels of The Times of London’s report that Andrew Wakefield, M.D, the chief charlatan behind the anti-vaccination movement, fudged his data to reach his discredited conclusion. Read more...

The Hill's A.B. Stoddard answers viewer questions about President Obama's lack of political experience and his ability to govern effectively, as well as arts funding written into the stimulus package.

If former Sen. Tom Daschle’s (D-S.D.) mistake on his taxes was unintentional (as President Obama expressed last night), then he should have become the next secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Reasonable people could make the mistake Daschle made. He didn't create an elaborate leasing tax shelter to hide income. He said it was a mistake and apologized. That does not excuse Daschle from paying his back taxes or some sort of penalty (“Ignorance of the law is no excuse”), but it also doesn’t mean Daschle should be prevented from serving in the Cabinet.

Politicians aren’t perfect. They aren’t saints, and they make mistakes like the rest of us. Read more...

It’s a damned shame to see Tom Daschle drop out of the running for HHS secretary.

Yes, he made a mistake, a dumb mistake, by not paying his taxes. But, as President Obama says, who hasn’t made a mistake?

Besides, given the president’s goal of making sure every American has quality, affordable healthcare — and given the fact that nobody is better qualified than Daschle to lead the fight — wouldn’t it have been better to stick with Tom Daschle than let him loose over a mistake on taxes? Absolutely!

I admire Obama for nominating Daschle. I just wish he had stuck with him until the end, or that both Obama and Daschle had chosen to stay and fight, rather than cut and run. Read more...

A divided Congress is likely to pass a stimulus package in the coming weeks. The resulting law will almost certainly be an imperfect construction by imperfect alliances. Further, the effect of the stimulus package will take years to measure and longer to pay back. Despite that prognostication, at least there is a reasonable chance that the bill will have a net positive impact on the economy (this is the deflating reality of governing).

Still, if you thought a trillion-dollar stimulus package was difficult to pass and painful to swallow, then wait for the second large project the Obama administration is considering: either Social Security or healthcare reform. Both efforts require President Obama putting much of his political capital on the line with no guarantee of success. To make matters worse, he is essentially faced with either touching the third rail of American politics or reliving the most traumatic policy failure of the Democratic Party. Read more...

At first, he seemed like the perfect candidate. He’s the most popular TV doc ever: CNN’s handsome, articulate, energetic, personable Sanjay Gupta. He’s both a noted neurosurgeon and a media star. Who better to serve the nation as surgeon general?

I admit, when I first heard that he was Obama’s choice for surgeon general, I had a heart flutter. Perfect choice! But then other voices, who knew Sanjay Gupta better than I, started speaking out. Read more...

The Consumers Union (CU) protects consumers' interests effectively and with exceptional integrity, not just with Consumer Reports, but also as advocates.

Jim Guest, who heads CU, presents his Top 10 wish list regarding consumer matters. Good, affordable healthcare is one we all share. Here are two that are less obvious: Read more...

Doctors will have less and less time to see their patients, as the medical crisis continues to dismantle primary care. The problem lies in insurance reimbursements: doctors’ offices get paid by insurance companies, and insurance companies pay for volume of visits, not for time spent with patients. So offices pack as many patients as they can into one day, and doctors are left with an average of six to eight per patient. That’s not nearly enough time to cover all the things that could be wrong with the patient, both obvious and not-so-obvious.

They also don’t get paid for talking to patients, they get paid for ordering things — tests, procedures, etc. But a test is not worth anything if the doctor does not have the time to talk to the patient and figure out what's wrong. Read more...

I don't know if we can do enough for returning veterans and their families, but we can try to get the word out.

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America are doing the heavy lifting.

This is a week for veterans, and if you want to see what you can do, check out iava.org/veteransweek2008. Read more...

In the days after yet another major defeat for Republicans, there will be a lot of soul-searching within the party's leadership and I, for one, am content in knowing that they will probably take away all the wrong lessons from this momentous occasion. I'm just pleased-as-punch to see social conservatives looking for every chance to get in front of the television cameras to gloat about how their party dropped the ball by ignoring traditional values. I can barely suppress a grin when they trot out the line that we're still a "center-right" country. Read more...