National Health Policy News
Will states require cancer vaccine?
On June 29th, a federal panel of scientists recommended that all 11-
and 12-year-old girls get a vaccine that could prevent 70 percent of
cervical cancer cases. Now discussion moves to state capitols, where
legislators will decide whether to make the three-shot treatment
mandatory before girls enter certain grades. Read more.
Federal Government Should Ensure All U.S. Residents Have Basic Health Insurance,
Report Says
The federal government should ensure that all U.S. residents have basic health insurance that is "portable and independent of health status, working
status, age (and) income," according to a interim report recently released by the Citizens' Health Care Working Group. Read
more.
Bills to Share Health Data Introduced, Stalled
While members of Congress in June introduced legislation that would create nonprofit institutions charged with managing patients' electronic health
records for a lifetime, a separate House bill to make health information systems interoperable has stalled. Read more.
AMA Calls for Using Tax Incentives To Implement Mandatory Health Insurance
Law
The American Medical Association's House of Delegates recently voted to support a proposal to require U.S. residents with annual incomes greater than
five times the federal poverty level to have health insurance, the Chicago Tribune reports. Read
more.
Senate Hearing Considers Health Court Model To Help Reduce Medical Malpractice
Insurance Costs
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee recently held a hearing on a bill (S 1337) sponsored by Sens. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Max
Baucus (D-Mont.) that would test a number of proposals to reduce medical malpractice insurance costs, CQ HealthBeat reports. Read
more.
Recent Opinion Pieces
Support of FDA Critical Path Initiative Needed To Speed Approval Process for New
Medications
If lawmakers want to "close the gap between the development process and the promise of
unprecedented progress" in finding new cures for diseases, they should support the Critical Path Initiative by FDA, Robert Goldberg, vice president
for strategic initiatives for the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, and Peter Pitts, president of the CMPI and former associate
commissioner for external affairs for FDA, write in a Washington Times opinion piece. Read
more.
Caution Needed in Helping the FDA
The top Republican and Democratic members of the Senate committee dealing with health, Sens.
Michael Enzi of Wyoming and our own Ted Kennedy, have begun preparing a bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration new powers over drug
safety. Read
more.
