I applaud FDA’s decision to make label changes to three Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents (ESAs) manufactured by Amgen. Beginning last year, a steady stream of negative ESA study findings prodded FDA to take a series of remedial actions to protect the American people from these dangerous drugs. FDA’s recent action ordering Amgen to include additional safety related information to the drug label is commendable.

Early last year, Rep. Stupak and I opened an investigation into the safety of ESAs after learning of alarming reports indicating that ESAs, when used at higher than recommended doses, appeared to increase blood clots, stimulate tumor growth, and produce significantly higher mortality rates than placebos. Last week, under new enforcement authority in the FDA Amendments Act of 2007, FDA ordered Amgen to make additional safety-related labeling changes for Aranesp, Epogen and Procrit — three drugs approved to reduce the need for blood transfusions in cancer and dialysis patients suffering from anemia.

Which major health policy issue should the next President and Congress tackle first: addressing Medicare’s long-term financial challenges or reforming the U.S. health care system?

Both.

The same forces that are driving up Medicare spending — increases in the cost and use of medical services — are also driving up spending by private health plans. For several decades, increases in Medicare costs per beneficiary have mirrored the increases in costs in the health system as a whole. Read the rest of this entry »

My colleagues and I at the Guttmacher Institute have just released the first-ever study looking specifically at the impact of the nationwide network of family planning clinics. We found that by providing contraceptive services to approximately seven million women each year, these clinics help couples prevent 1.4 million unintended pregnancies and 600,000 abortions each year. Without these services, the annual number of unintended pregnancies and abortions in the United States—and the number of unintended pregnancies to teenagers—would be almost 50% higher than it is.

In addition to the clear benefits for individual women and their families in helping them avoid the pregnancies they do not want and plan the pregnancies they do, we found that the services provided by these clinics save $4.3 billion in public funds each year. Nationally, for every $1.00 spent to provide services in the nationwide network of publicly funded family planning clinics, $4.02 in Medicaid expenses for births are averted.
Read the rest of this entry »

Fitness expert and celebrity Richard Simmons testifies at a House Education & Labor Committee hearing on the benefits of physical education in America’s schools. He also leads a fitness routine on Cannon Terrace.

CBS Foreign Correspondent Kimberly Dozier talks with The Hill’s Erica Wisniewski about the injuries she sustained covering the war in Iraq and how she has used her experience to educate Congress on recovering from war injuries.

Picture this. While everyone’s attention is focused on the upcoming presidential election, President Bush tries to slip in a new regulation that undermines women’s access to health care. And before you know it, millions of women can’t get the basic health care they need.

Unfortunately, the New York Times reveals that the Bush administration is considering a new Health and Human Services rule that would compromise women’s access to health care and information.

This proposed rule will put women’s access to birth control and the information they need to make health care decisions at risk. It radically redefines abortion to include some of the most common and effective methods of birth control. As a result, women’s ability to manage their own health care is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology. And it will limit the rights of patients to receive complete and accurate health information and services. Read the rest of this entry »

Congress’ override of President Bush’s veto is a victory for America’s seniors, disabled patients, military families and the physicians who care for them. The AMA thanks the bipartisan majority in Congress who voted to put patients first, especially those whose commitment to an 18 month fix to the problem never wavered. We also commend those senators who listened to the voices of their constituents and gave the support needed to override the veto.

This year’s 10.6 percent cut in payments to physicians who treat Medicare patients would have been devastating to seniors and the disabled who rely on Medicare for the health care they need, as well as to military families who rely on TRICARE for their health care. A full 60 percent of physicians said this year’s cut would force them to limit the number of new Medicare patients they could treat. Read the rest of this entry »

Through his misguided veto of the Medicare bill, President Bush once again reflexively sided with the special interests of the big insurance companies, rather than with seniors struggling to afford quality health care.

This veto, had it held up, would have prompted an exodus of physicians from treating Medicare patients and made it even harder for low-income seniors to afford their medical care – all in the name of preserving the excessive taxpayer subsidies to the Medicare Advantage programs run by large insurance companies.  This hardly sounds like the work of a self-described “compassionate conservative.”

Medicare Advantage programs, on the average, cost 13 percent more than if Medicare directly provided these same services.  Moreover, the rapidly-expanding fee-for-service plans are overpaid by 17 percent.  This egregious example of corporate welfare siphons valuable money from the Medicare Trust Fund, taking from those with the least and giving to those with the most.

President Bush’s veto of H.R. 6331 continues his legacy of sacrificing older Americans’ health care needs for the profits of large corporations.  Thanks to all of the members who voted to override his veto yesterday, physicians will continue to treat Medicare patients, low-income seniors will receive extra assistance with their health care costs, and Medicare Advantage programs will be reformed so that more money goes to seniors and not large corporations.

Planned Parenthood is gravely concerned that the Bush administration is days away from an attack on women’s healthcare that would limit the rights of patients to receive complete and accurate health information and services. At a time when more and more families are uninsured and under economic assault, we find our health care system is in crisis and our president taking steps to deny access to basic care. Read the rest of this entry »

In recent weeks, Congress chose to play a dangerous game that could limit patients’ access to doctors under Medicare.  Democrats in Washington failed to move past short-sighted planning, partisan ideology and accounting gimmicks, while neglecting to protect Medicare beneficiaries’ long-term ability to see the doctor of their choice.

Congress must reverse the most recent double-digit Medicare cut permitted by the Senate Majority Leader, and we should do so without taking popular Medicare coverage options away from rural and low-income seniors. More importantly, Congress has a duty to move beyond a quick fix and change the formula that requires the annual cuts. Read the rest of this entry »