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Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries
"Blog Watch" offers readers a roundup of health policy-related blog posts.Bloggers are tentatively reacting to a report and blog post released by the Congressional Budget Office that summarizes the agency"s approach to estimating the cost of any health overhaul bills. At issue is how CBO will count different stipulations of legislation -- like an individual mandate or a public plan -- and whether their conclusions will result in a heftier price tag. Douglas Elmendorf explained on the Director"s Blog: "In CBO"s view, the key consideration is whether a proposal would be making health insurance an essentially governmental program, tightly controlled by the federal government with little choice available to those who offer and buy health insurance -- or whether the system would provide significant flexibility in terms of the types, prices, and number of private-sector sellers of insurance available to people. The former -- a governmental program -- belongs in the federal budget (including all premiums paid by individuals and firms to private insurers), but the latter -- a largely private-sector system -- does not." Janet Adamy of the Wall Street Journal"s Washington Wire notes that the report doesn"t address the cost estimates of the scenarios. Alan Katz on his Health Care Reform Blog concludes, "the message is clear: the looser government"s hand grips the new health care system the smaller its budgetary impact." Liberal bloggers had a variety of reactions -- some found the report too vague, while others saw it as good news. The New Republic"s Jonathan Cohn says, "you may need a Talmudic scholar to figure out what those implications are." Cohn continues, "Other passages in the briefing are [similarly] vexing and, for what it"s worth, the reactions I"ve gotten from insiders familiar with the report have ranged from sighs of relief to statements not suitable for a family blog." Ezra Klein agrees the report lacks specificity, but says, "Even so, I"m cheered by the simple existence of this ruling. The fact that CBO is explaining its thinking before legislation arrives [is] yet more evidence that CBO appears, insofar as it can, to be trying to help out on health reform. ... That"s an important change from past years." Interesting Elsewhere:
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Louisiana Senate Committee Narrowly Approves Provider 'Conscience' Bill
The Louisiana Senate Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday approved a bill (H.B. 517) that would expand the ability of health care workers to refuse to provide services for moral or religious reasons, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports. The bill passed by a 3-2 vote after the addition of amendments to narrow the scope of the legislation. According to the Advocate, the bill would allow a medical worker to choose not to participate in any service "that violates his conscience," which it defines as a religious belief or moral conviction. Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) supports the legislation, as do conservative groups like the Louisiana Family Forum and the Louisiana Right to Life Federation. Several groups oppose the bill, including Planned Parenthood, the Forum for Equality, Louisiana Agenda for Children and the American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU of Louisiana"s Marjorie Esman said that the bill could "lead to all kinds of unintended consequences," based on assertions of moral and religious objections (Blum, Baton Rouge Advocate, 6/11).
News of the day
More Than Half Of Texas Physicians Do Not Always Recommend HPV Vaccine To Girls
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends the human papillomavirus vaccination for all 11- and 12-year-old girls, but results of a recent survey showed that more than half of Texas physicians do not follow these recommendations.
Oncology

Prestigious French Award For Heart Research Won By Olson

Dr. Eric Olson, chairman of molecular biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has been awarded the Institut de France"s prestigious Lefoulon-Delalande Foundation Grand Prize for his work on gene regulation in the cardiovascular system. The prize has an international reputation as the most prestigious award in cardiovascular research. The award of about $664,000 (500,000 euros) will be presented June 10 in France by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and the president of the Institut de France. "I consider this award one of the highest honors of my career," Dr. Olson said. "It"s a wonderful recognition of the many scientists in my lab from throughout the United States and around the world who have contributed to this effort. They really deserve the credit." Much of what is known regarding cardiac gene regulation can be traced directly to Dr. Olson"s pioneering work. His research is regarded as a major step in finding genetic targets for treatment of congenital heart defects and adult heart disease, and it has illuminated the fundamental principles of organ formation. Equally important is his demonstration that many of the genes that control heart formation are called into play in the adult heart under pathological stress. "Dr. Olson"s discoveries have provided profound new insights into cardiac development and substantially advanced our understanding of altered cardiovascular function in disease," said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, president of UT Southwestern. "Dr. Olson exemplifies the scientific creativity of our faculty which serves as the foundation for UT Southwestern"s international reputation as a center of research, discovery and innovation." Dr. Olson studies how the heart and blood vessels form, how they rebuild themselves after injury, and how genetic mutations and stress can cause heart disease. He and his team have discovered networks of genes that orchestrate the formation of the heart and have shown how inherited genetic mutations in these genes cause congenital heart disease, the most frequent form of birth defect. Most recently, Dr. Olson has turned his attention to distinctive forms of ribonucleic acid called microRNAs, chemical cousins of DNA, which are increasingly recognized to activate, turn off or fine-tune various functions in cells. Several novel therapeutics based on Dr. Olson"s research are currently in development. Dr. Olson is director of the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Basic Research in Cancer and the Nearburg Family Center for Basic Research in Pediatric Oncology. He holds the Pogue Distinguished Chair in Research on Cardiac Birth Defects, the Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Science and the Annie and Willie Nelson Professorship in Stem Cell Research. Dr. Olson is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He serves as a consultant to miRagen Therapeutics, a biotechnology company that he co-founded. His numerous honors and awards include the Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research and the Pasarow Award in Cardiovascular Medicine. In addition, he received the Outstanding Investigator Award from the International Society for Heart Research and an inaugural Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Heart Association. He also was awarded the AHA"s National Research Achievement Award for work that the organization described as having "redrawn battle lines in the fight against disease." t: Aline McKenzie UT Southwestern Medical Center


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