Leaders of the Church of Christ, Scientist, are pushing a proposal that would help patients pay a spiritual healthcare specialist for prayer by having insurers reimburse the $20 to $40 cost. The provision was stripped from the bill the House passed this month, and church leaders are trying to get it inserted into the Senate version. And the church has powerful allies there, including Sens. John F. Kerry (D-MA), who represents the state where the church is based, and Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT), who said the provision would "ensure that healthcare reform law does not discriminate against any religion." But opponents of spiritual care coverage—a coalition of separation-of-church-and-state advocates, pediatricians, and children's health activists—say such a provision would waste money, endanger lives, and, in some cases, amount to government-funded prayer.
The role of public hospitals in America has been remarkably consistent over the decades, in spite of healthcare policy debates, insurance trends, and shifting medical advice. They were centers of last resort, where the quality of care could be inconsistent and the finances often a disaster, but where the poor could always be served. But a deal struck last week between Los Angeles County and the University of California to rescue the Martin Luther King Jr. hospital followed a pattern set by many other public centers across the nation that have found that teaming with outside help can lead to more efficient operations, and often improved care. The Martin Luther King Jr. hospital, which cared for patients in the severely underserved South Los Angeles area, was closed in 2007 after a series of errors, some of them fatal. But under a proposal approved by the University of California Regents, the hospital, previously known as Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, will no longer be run by the county, but will be a nonprofit organization governed by a seven-member board of directors.
Anxious that Saturday's party-line Senate vote to open debate on a healthcare overhaul gives them little maneuvering room, Obama administration officials and their Congressional allies are stepping up overtures to select Senate Republicans in hopes of winning their ultimate support. The two moderate Republican senators from Maine, Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, say Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, reached out to them after he unveiled the Senate measure, encouraging them to bring forward their ideas and concerns. After the party-line vote of 60 to 39 on Saturday night to move to a full healthcare debate, including votes on significant amendments, both sides are acutely aware of the wavering in their ranks and are trying to figure out how to play the numbers.
Buoyed by their weekend victory on a vote beginning the healthcare debate, several Senate Democrats expressed optimism they could find a way to keep a government-run insurance plan in the sweeping bill. The public insurance option in the Senate's healthcare overhaul is so modest that it "will, at the end of the day, be where we end up,'" predicted Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat who is working with moderates to find a compromise. He spoke on CBS's "Face the Nation.'" Democratic leaders need to win over a handful of skeptical Democrats and Republican moderates, as they did on Saturday night to proceed with debate, to get the required 60 votes to end the debate sometime in coming weeks and get to a vote on final passage.
Worries that widespread screening for breast and cervical cancers can yield limited benefit and lead to unnecessary harm prompted decisions by two medical organizations to recommend less preventive testing. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announced revised recommendations for Pap tests, saying young women should begin getting the cervical-cancer screening test at a later age and at less frequent intervals than previously recommended. The news followed breast-cancer guidelines announced last week by a federally funded task force that created an uproar by saying women could wait until they are older to begin routine mammography screenings and have them less frequently than currently recommended. Critics said the changes may have been driven by efforts to control healthcare costs. Both organizations denied that notion, and rejected assertions they timed their announcements to coincide with the healthcare debate in Congress.
The current wave of swine flu may have peaked in most of the U.S., but the illness remains widespread and the threat of another wave remains, officials said. The news came as officials in Norway reported a mutation of the flu virus in two patients who died and one who became severely ill. The mutation, while seen before, appeared to make the H1N1 virus cause infection deeper in the respiratory system than the regular swine flu virus, a possible explanation for the more-severe cases, Norwegian scientists said. Swine flu cases appear to be declining in most of the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Flu activity is widespread in 43 states now, down from 46 last week, and 48 two weeks ago.