First human embryonic stem cell under Obama's policy

NIH authorizes use of first human embryonic stem cells under new policy - washingtonpost.com

The Obama administration on Wednesday approved the first human embryonic stem cells for experiments by federally funded scientists under a new policy designed to dramatically expand government support for one of the most promising but also most contentious fields of biomedical research.

The National Institutes of Health authorized 11 lines of cells produced by scientists at the Children's Hospital in Boston and two lines created by researchers at the Rockefeller University in New York. All were obtained from embryos left over by couples seeking treatment for infertility.

"This is a real change in the landscape," NIH Director Francis Collins said. "This is the first down payment on what is going to be a much longer list . . . that will empower the scientific community to explore the potential of embryonic stem cell research."

Human Embryo later stage.

What is Embryo Transfer?

Embryo transfer is one of the most important parts of the IVF process. It is during this final stage of the IVF procedure that your embryos will be transferred into your uterus, in the hopes that you will become
pregnant. Embryo transfer is completed after your eggs have been fertilized by your partner’s sperm and they have been through the embryo culture process.

When is Embryo Transfer Performed?

Embryo transfer is usually performed once your embryos have been cultured to the right stage. Typically, there are two types of embryo transfers:

Day 3 Embryo Transfer: The Day 3 embryo transfer

• is performed 72 hours after egg retrieval. Your eggs will be mixed with
  your partner’s sperm and then allowed to develop for three days. At
  this point in time, your embryos will be transferred into your uterus
  where, hopefully, they will implant.
• Blastocyst Transfer: Blastocyst transfer
  occurs when your embryos have reached the blastocyst stage. This occurs
  after five days of culturing. Some fertility specialists prefer doing
  blastocyst transfers because it is easier to choose a healthy embryo
  for transfer at this stage.

VATICAN CITY - A new Vatican
document warned that certain recent developments in stem-cell research,
gene therapy and embryonic experimentation violate moral principles and
reflect an attempt by man to “take the place of his Creator.”



The latest advances raise serious questions of moral complicity for
researchers and other biotech professionals, who have a duty to refuse
to use biological material obtained by unethical means, the document
said.

Would you refuse -- for your parent, your child or yourself -- a
treatment for a terrible ailment because it was developed with
embryonic stem cell research?
First, their is no treatment for a terrible ailment because of embryonic cell research.
Second, their is no evidence that their ever will be a cure because of embryonic cell research.
Third, if their ever is a cure for a terrible ailment because of embryonic cell research, then we will have to fram embryos to meat the great demand for the cures.
Result, we will have to create life, so we can destroy it, to cure someone who is already alive and not aborted by their mother.
Embryos for research should only be excess embryos from fertility clinics, embryos which were going to be destroyed anyway. It should be forbidden to buy, sell or create embryos expressly for research.
Researchers should show that their work could not be done with any other form of stem cell -- yet. But their goal should be to move toward using only non-embryonic stem cells.


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President Obama and Democrats hope a Split-the-Vote will force Health Care Reform

New Rx for Health Plan: Split Bill - WSJ.com

The White House and Senate Democratic leaders, seeing little chance of bipartisan support for their health-care overhaul, are considering a strategy shift that would break the legislation into two parts and pass the most expensive provisions solely with Democratic votes.

The idea is the latest effort by Democrats to escape the morass caused by delays in Congress, as well as voter discontent crystallized in angry town-hall meetings. Polls suggest the public is losing support for the overhaul plans, giving Republicans less incentive to go along.

Democrats hope a split-the-bill plan would speed up a vote and help President Barack Obama meet his goal of getting a final measure by year's end.

Angry Protester.

Democratic plan would be put to a separate vote in the Senate, including the requirement that Americans have health insurance. But in Massachusetts the program is a failure it has not achieved universal healthcare, although the reform has been a boon to the private insurance industry. The state has more than 200,000 without coverage, and the count can only go up with rising unemployment.

The program is not affordable for many individuals and families. For middle-income people not qualifying for state-subsidized health insurance, costs are too high for even skimpy coverage. For an
individual earning $31,213, the cheapest plan can cost $9,872 in premiums and out-of-pocket payments. Low-income residents, previously eligible for free care, have insurance policies requiring unaffordable
copayments for office visits and medications.

On April 4th 2006 The Massachusetts legislature approved a bill that would require all residents to purchase health insurance or face legal penalties, which would make this the first state to tackle the problem
of incomplete medical coverage by treating patients the same way it does cars.

The costs of the reform for the state have been formidable. Spending for the Commonwealth Care subsidized program has doubled, from $630 million in 2007 to an estimated $1.3 billion for 2009, which is not sustainable.

We must let Congress know we want improved access to affordable healthcare for all, not more expensive private health insurance we can't afford to use when we are sick. Massachusetts healthcare reform
fails on all five Institute of Medicine criteria. Congress should not make it a model for the nation.

More post from Wag This Dog.

President Obama Grew Deficit by $181 billion in July

President Obama's Health Care Reform Bill Encourges "end-of-life" Counseling for Seniors.

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Newt Gingrich Defends Sarah Palin's "Death Panel" Comments

President Obama's Health Care Reform bill Encourages "end-of- life" Counseling for Seniors

'End-of-Life' Counseling Intensifies Health Care Debate - Political News - FOXNews.com

A provision in President Obama's health care reform bill encourages "end-of- life" counseling for seniors -- sparking euthanasia fears among some of the legislation's critics and leading others to believe that the White House is looking to save money by pressuring insurers to provide less coverage to seniors.

The provision, tucked deep within the House bill, would provide Medicare coverage for an end-of-life consultation every five years, and more frequent sessions if a person is suffering a life-threatening disease.
Health providers would be required to explain to seniors the end-of-life services available, including "palliative care and hospice."
"This provision may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich. said in a statement last month.

Senior Citizen golden years.

What could "end-of-life" counseling really mean to those over 65?

From: What Are the Potential Cost Savings from Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide?, New England Journal of Medicine, July 1998

Medicare budget is spent on the 5 percent of Medicare patients who die each year. The last month of life accounts for 30 to 40 percent of the medical care expenditures in the last year of life. To many, savings from reduced use of expensive technological interventions at the end of life are both necessary and desirable." By dying one month earlier by means of physician-assisted suicide, might save his or her family $10,000 in health care costs, having already spent as much as $20,000 in that year."


Obama encourages people to create living wills because researchers, who interviewed 603 advanced-cancer patients about whether they had end-of-life conversations with their physicians, found that
patients who did had an estimated average of $1,876 in health care expenses during their final week of life, compared with $2,917 for those who didn't. Patients also associated higher costs with a worse
quality of death during their final week and typically did not live longer if they received intensive care.
"Policies that promote increased communication, such as incentives for end-of-life conversations, may be cost-effective ways to both improve care and reduce some of the rising health care expenditures."
White House aides acknowledge it's a sensitive issue.
The 64-year-old Oregon woman, whose lung cancer had been in remission, learned the disease had returned and would likely kill her. Her last hope was a $4,000-a-month drug that her doctor prescribed for her, but the insurance company, Oregon State Health Plan, refused to pay.
What the Oregon Health Plan did agree to cover, however, were drugs for a physician-assisted death. Those drugs would cost about $50.
"What is six months of life worth?" he asked in a report in the Eugene Register-Guard. "To me it's worth a lot. This is my life they're playing with."  Remember the government wants to play with your life.

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Oregon Health Plan Denies Chemo Medicine- Assisted Suicide Offered Instead

Obama Misleading and Outlandish About Health Care Reform

Obama Addresses 'Outlandish' and 'Misleading' Claims About Health Reform - Political Punch

After a week of rowdy town halls where President Obama’s policies on health care were challenged, the president used his weekly address to debunk what he called “outlandish rumors” about what reform will mean to Americans.

As senators and representatives head home for the August recess to meet with their constituents, the president said it is important that Americans have the facts.
“So let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid or bring about a government takeover of health care," he said. "That’s simply not true. This isn’t about putting government in charge of your health insurance; it’s about putting you in charge of your health insurance. Under the reforms we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”

England has had Government Health Insurance for over 50 years. Let's see how they treat their elderly.

Age discrimination

One of the worst areas, the report found, was mental health care, where older people found services deteriorating as they passed the age of 65.

Gordon Lishman, director-general of Age Concern England, said it was "shocking" that so many social services departments were still failing to meet the needs of older people - the main users of these services.

He said: "Sadly, too many older people in need of public services are currently treated as second-class citizens." Liberal Democrat health spokesman Steve Webb said: "The needs of older people are not a priority for this government."


Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said the report highlighted the possibility that government targets for assessing patients in Accident and Emergency departments had led to the rushed discharge of older people. He also highlighted concerns about inconsistencies in community rehabilitation of stroke patients.

You would think after 50 years of Government Health Care the English government would have gotten it right. No! After 50 years the needs of older people are not a priority for this government.

In the debate about health care reform, France is often held up as an exemplar. The French get excellent outcomes on every measure, and they achieve them at far lower cost than the United States.
Why is this so? Their freedoms of diagnosis and therapy are protected in ways that would make their managed-care-controlled US counterparts envious. However, the average American physician earns more than five times the average US wage while the average French physician makes only about two
times the average earnings of his or her compatriots. But the lower income of French physicians is allayed by two factors. Practice liability is greatly diminished by a tort-averse legal system, and
medical schools, although extremely competitive to enter, are tuition-free. Thus, French physicians enter their careers with little if any debt and pay much lower malpractice insurance premiums.
Maybe we should follow France example. Introduce tort reform and make medical schools tuition free and keep the greatest health systems in the world.
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Dirty Little Secret - Universal Healthcare? Social Security?

Doctor Shortage big Obstacle to President Obama Healthecare Goals

Shortage of Doctors an Obstacle to Obama Goals - NYTimes.com

Obama administration officials, alarmed at doctor shortages, are looking for ways to increase the supply of physicians to meet the needs of an aging population and millions of uninsured people who would gain coverage under legislation championed by the president.

The officials said they were particularly concerned about shortages of primary care providers who are the main source of health care for most Americans.

One proposal — to increase Medicare payments to general practitioners, at the expense of high-paid specialists — has touched off a lobbying fight.

Public Hospital

The need for more doctors comes up at almost every Congressional hearing and White House forum on health care. “We’re not producing enough primary care physicians,” Mr. Obama said at one forum. “The costs of medical education are so high that people feel that they’ve
got to specialize.” New doctors typically owe more than $140,000 in loans when they graduate.

In March of 2005 it was reported that many Americans may soon face: a shortage of physicians that makes it hard to find convenient, quality health care. The shortage will worsen
as 79 million baby boomers reach retirement age and demand more medical care unless the nation starts producing more doctors, according to several new studies.

Unless more medical students begin training soon, the supply of physicians will begin to shrink in about 10 years when doctors from the baby boom generation retire in large numbers. It takes 10 years to train a doctor, the nation will have a shortage of 85,000 to 200,000 doctors in 2020 unless action is taken soon. This was reported in 2005. It takes a long time to train a doctor.

America's rural and inner-city poor already are suffering the most. For example, there are 280 doctors for every 100,000 people in the U.S. But there are only 103 for every 100,000 in the 18-county area of the Mississippi Delta, according to the Mississippi State University Social
Science Research Center.

Is this shortage of doctors only in the United states? No. In Canada a doctor shortage at the Saint John Regional Hospital forced the Sussex Health Centre to close its emergency room over the weekend, and that is prompting anger from the town's mayor.

Doctors weren't able to staff the overnight weekend shifts at the Saint John hospital's emergency room, so the Sussex clinic had to send over its doctor to fill in.That left the Sussex Health Centre without its emergency department during those overnight hours on Friday and Saturday.

Esther Pacione regular doctor suffered a stroke a years ago, and all the local doctors she has contracted say they cannot take new patients, now Pacione, a retired bookkeeper. goes to a walk in clinic whenever she has an emergency. At the clinic, she waits hours and sees a different doctor each time, and no one there is familiar with her medical history and what drugs she has been taking.

During the recent closely fought election campagin, Prime Minister Paul Martin promised to fix Canada's health care system for a generation. Is this the system that President Obama is looking at?

Will President Barack Obama ruin our health care system by making it harder to see your doctor? Will your doctor have so many patients that he or she won't have enought time for you? Oh yes, there is also a shortage of nurses. President Obama this will not work.

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Technorati Tags: Health Care

France: 'Best' Health Care?