WASHINGTON — A national poll indicates that most Americans are receptive to having more government influence over their health care in return for lower costs and more coverage. Congress may take up health care reform this year. Congress may take up health care reform this year. Sixty-three percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Friday said they would favor an increase in the federal government’s influence over their own health care plans in an attempt to lower costs and provide coverage to more Americans; 36 percent were opposed. The poll also suggests that slightly more than six out of 10 think the government should guarantee health care for all Americans, with 38 percent opposed. But Americans appear to be split over raising taxes to increase coverage. Forty-seven percent of those questioned support raising taxes in order to provide health insurance to all Americans. An equal amount back the idea of keeping taxes at current levels but not providing health insurance for all Americans. ‘Will the health-care debate be different this time?’ CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider asked. ‘It does look like public sentiment has shifted. But government does not […]
OLKILUOTO, Finland - As the Obama administration tries to steer America toward cleaner sources of energy, it would do well to consider the cautionary tale of this new-generation nuclear reactor site. The massive power plant under construction on muddy terrain on this Finnish island was supposed to be the showpiece of a nuclear renaissance. The most powerful reactor ever built, its modular design was supposed to make it faster and cheaper to build. And it was supposed to be safer, too. But things have not gone as planned. After four years of construction and thousands of defects and deficiencies, the reactor’s 3 billion euro price tag, about $4.2 billion, has climbed at least 50 percent. And while the reactor was originally meant to be completed this summer, Areva, the French company building it, and the utility that ordered it, are no longer willing to make certain predictions on when it will go online. While the American nuclear industry has predicted clear sailing after its first plants are built, the problems in Europe suggest these obstacles may be hard to avoid. A new fleet of reactors would be standardized down to ‘the carpeting and wallpaper, as […]
LITTLE FALLS, N.J. — Far fewer Americans are engaging in healthy lifestyles than there were just two decades ago, researchers say. Only 8% of today’s patients engage in all five healthy behaviors — maintaining a healthy weight, eating fruits and vegetables, drinking alcohol in moderation, exercising, and not smoking — compared with 15% in 1988, Dana E. King, M.D., of the Medical University of South Carolina, and colleagues reported online in the American Journal of Medicine. The findings have implications for the overall future risk of cardiovascular disease in adults, they said. ‘These findings should provide new motivation for an increasing commitment to promoting healthy lifestyles for the public good,’ the researchers said. They compared rates of healthy lifestyle habits in patients ages 40 to 74 who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in 1988-1994 and 2001-2006. They analyzed adherence to five healthy lifestyle recommendations: eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, exercising at least 12 times per month, maintaining a healthy body weight, drinking moderately (up to one drink a day for women, two for men), and not smoking. The researchers found that over the […]
Pharmaceutical giant Aventis must pay more than 95 million dollars in an out-of-court settlement, after overcharging US and local health agencies for medications destined for indigent patients, federal prosecutors said Thursday. ‘We will continue to ensure that programs for the most vulnerable portions of our population do not pay any more for pharmaceutical products than they should under the law, Tony West, an assistant attorney general at the US Justice Department said in a statement announcing the settlement. Aventis Pharmaceutical Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sanofi-Aventis, acknowledged that it violated the False Claims Act by misreporting drug prices for patients in the Medicaid Drug Rebate program for poor patients. Under the program, Aventis was required to report to Medicaid the lowest price that it charged commercial customers, and pay quarterly rebates to the states for their Medicaid patients, based on those reported prices. But Aventis deliberately misquoted the prices, underpaying rebates to Medicaid and overcharging some public health agencies for the medications. The fraud occured between 1995 and 2000, and concerned the steroid-based anti-inflammatory nasal sprays Azmacort, Nasacort and Nasacort AQ. ‘We will continue to be vigilant in investigating and prosecuting those who scam […]
John Calvin was a Frenchman, but he is being remembered in Geneva this week because it was here that he built Calvinism. Invited to reform the city in 1541, almost as what would now be called a management consultant, he formed an alliance with the city fathers. Over the next 20 years of preaching and pastoring they turned this tiny city, with a population then of only 10,000, into a model of church government and theology which has changed the world. His followers now form the third-largest Christian grouping in the world. The world alliance of reformed churches claims 75 million members, and while this is a lower headline figure than the Anglican Communion’s 80 million, it is not inflated by 25 million nominal Anglicans in Britain. Although Calvinism is shrinking in western Europe and North America, it is experiencing an extraordinary success in China. I spent some time on Monday talking to the Rev May Tan, from Singapore, where the overseas Chinese community has close links with mainland China. The story she told of the spread of Calvinist religion as an elite religion in China was quite extraordinary. There may be some parallels with the growth of […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
