Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius apologized today for a 1940s U.S. government program that intentionally infected Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases without their consent. “The sexually transmitted disease inoculation study conducted from 1946-1948 in Guatemala was clearly unethical,” they said in a joint statement. “Although these events [...]
The final leg in the health reform debate marathon may seem like a distant memory. The media has been focused on financial reform, immigration reform and most recently, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the man who tried to bomb Times Square. But some recent health care news provides good reason to [...]
On Thursday, Reuters ran a story describing a policy at insurance company WellPoint of automatically reviewing any customer who contracted breast cancer for possible fraud, leading to some patients losing their coverage. The company is contesting the story, with a lengthy, rather legalistic statement on its website. The story . . . misstates the role [...]
Policy can never be separated from politics and this morning we got another reminder. After the New York Times reported yesterday that insurers might try to avoid issuing policies for kids with pre-existing conditions – despite that the reform law meant to prohibit this – the AP reports this today: After nearly a year battling [...]
It was an odd scene. There was Karen Ignagni, head of the health insurance lobby, introducing President Obama’s Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Before the two women shook hands today at the insurance industry’s annual conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington DC, Ignagni said to Sebelius, “It is a delight to welcome you [...]
* The Obama Administration will post its own health care plan online by Monday morning. It will reportedly include at least an outline of what could be passed via reconciliation in the Senate. * I remain very skeptical that a final Democratic bill, even one passed via reconciliation, will include a public option. For some [...]
