What Young Women Don’t Know Can Hurt Them

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) announced the EARLY Act, designed to educate younger women regarding the risks of breast cancer and the value of regular self-examination.

Wasserman Schultz spoke frankly, and at times emotionally, of her very recent fight with the disease. She learned through screening that she carried a significant risk factor. "I would never have known that. I thought I thought I knew all my risks," she said.

She also learned that 10,000 women under 50 are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, that they tend to have more advanced disease, and that the tumors tend to be more aggressive. The net effect is higher mortality in younger women, who are often still raising a family, Wasserman Schultz said.

The bill, named for "Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young Act" promotes public awareness, preventive research, and support for those with the diagnosis, as well as health care provider awareness of the realities of breast cancer in younger women.

21st Century House Calls

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News


In a statement echoed by several subsequent speakers at the “The Wireless Future of Health IT” panel discussion, Craig Barrett, Ph.D, Chairman, Intel Corp., said, “Most of the focus on Health Information Technology (HIT) has been on the Electronic Medical Record (EMR), but it can be much more than that.”

The President’s budget includes $36 Billion over ten years, “but how will it be spent?” Barrett asked.

He said that HIT can expand access to medical care, allow for more home monitoring, and allow greater computing power.

Access can be expanded by “e-visits,” which allow the physician and patient to visit over the web. It can allow a local physician to consult with a regional expert, or an expert on some exotic disease, or permit consultation with a specialist who cannot immediately come in person.

Home monitoring can allow medicine to be more pro-active, and thus prevent much more expensive hospitalizations. Devices like blood pressure cuffs, glucose meters, and blood oxygen monitors, among many others, can communicate with medical computers, generating automated patient advice, a provider call-back, or other responses. The equipment needed to make this available would typically cost less than a single hospital admission.

Computing power is increased in a number of ways. As HIT becomes more integrated databases can be shared. Off-site computing could, for example, allow a more powerful remote computer to process cat scan images, or a more specialized program to help analyze an EKG.

Hit can coordinate ambulances with road closures, emergency department diverts, and other resource changes.

These were among many examples Barrett and other experts used to show that the point of HIT is not a bigger, better, faster form of a paper medical record, but a whole new approach to medicine.

“However,” Barrett said, “These things all require policy changes.” Right now, Medicare and Medicaid tend not to cover any of the computer adjuncts, or wellness care in general. Patients would like to remain at home as much as possible. “Over 90 percent of diabetic care is already self-care,” he said.

Truly integrated electronic healthcare, from the ubiquitous cell-phone to international expertise, to automated prompts and triggered responses, to coaching for best self-care and adherence to complex regimens, could keep more patients better cared for in the comfort of their own homes, he finished.

Is Cap-and-Trade the Answer?

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News


At the Washington Post Company Conference on "Planning for a Secure Energy Future," Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) said, "We are the Saudi Arabia of coal." It's harmful, he acknowledged, but we have it in abundance and we’re dependent on it. If we don't use coal, China and India will. We should have committed to alternative energy 30 years ago, "but American attention to these matters goes on and off like the light when you throw the switch," he said.
Clean coal is a relative term. We can substantially reduce emissions, but how and at what cost will involve serious debate, he said.
"The Europeans have had at least two fine messes" applying cap-and-trade, Dingell said, adding that there are many options, all having flaws, and Congress will have a huge fight over them.
Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) said coal is a great energy source, "but it has one bad feature: if we burn the coal reserves that we know exist in this country and in China, the planet will cook." He said the coal industry needs cap-and-trade, because if it does not become clean, it becomes unsustainable. Cap-and-trade revenue could fund the necessary research. "The future of this industry depends on the existence of that research," he said. "These are job-creating opportunities."
We have overestimated the cost and difficulty of such projects, according to Inslee. We had to commit to the Apollo project, and then we succeeded. "We are on the cusp of enormous technological transformation, but it cannot happen at the pace it has to happen unless we have (the pressure that cap-an-trade would exert),” he said. “As long as we can burn coal that is not sequestered, it strangles in the bed all of these new companies that are champing at the bit to start getting going." "This pace of global warming is not Al Gore's schedule,” he said, adding that it is a fact of nature and it is happening much faster than had been predicted even one year ago.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said, "By the year 2020, our country is expected to need 40 percent more electricity generation than we're using today. Coal has to be part of that picture." It's about 53 percent of total national energy generation.
We are not building new coal plants, and China is building many, he said, “and they're not using carbon capture.”
Pointing out that efficient carbon capture is 10-15 years away, but cap-and-trade starts immediately and benchmarks begin in 2012, Upton says that the technology should precede the regulations.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) agrees: "This is like (anesthetizing) the patient while the researchers are still trying to figure out how to operate." He characterized cap-and-trade as a redistribution of wealth from businesses to individuals. "Far from being a job creator, I think this could be a huge job killer."
He said that when cap-and-trade decreased sulfur dioxide emissions, circumstances were different.
All of the participants at the conference agreed on the reality and the danger of climate change, but debated whether various alternative energies are practical, and whether cap-and-trade should drive the reduction of carbon emissions or await more cost-effective technology.

G.I.V.E. for Volunteerism

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

The legislative stars were out for H.R. 1388 – Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act, which supports volunteerism, partially with a stipend or grant toward higher education.

Backed by phalanx of representatives from Be the Change, AmeriCorps alums, Experience Corps, Serve Next, Survivor Corps, DC Central Kitchen, the court-appointed special advocates of DC, and the Young Marines, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) thanked everyone who worked on the bill and compared Obama’s effect on this generation with the way John Kennedy had inspired her and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

Hoyer said, “In one year, the millions of Americans (who volunteered) generated in excess of $150 billion. Every dollar we invest in AmeriCorps gives anywhere from $1.50 to $3.90 in return. Boy, oh boy, wouldn’t we like to have a lot of companies who did as well as that.” He cited several volunteer home-weatherizing projects around the country.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) said volunteerism is for everyone: young, retired, and those displaced from their jobs.

Perriello, who has spent his entire career working for non-profits in Africa and the U.S., said, “What we’ve all found is that service isn’t just a matter of giving back to our community, it was a matter of forming our very character. Every American feels a call to service, this cannot be something that only rich young people can afford. This is a bill that is not about anything other than enabling young people to answer that call.” He also pointed out the expertise that volunteers gain doing this work, and the need to bank those skills against emergencies and disasters. “We’ve found that once people have volunteered a little bit, they become a volunteer for life.“Volunteerism is addictive,” he finished.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) introduced Survivor Corps US Program Manager Capt. Scott Quilty. While leading a patrol in the Sunni Triangle in Oct. ’06, he was a victim of a roadside bomb,losing his right arm and leg.

“Service saved my life twice. Veterans and their families will be given the chance to continue serving their community, by this legislation,” Quilty said. “ Service doesn’t have to end when we take of the uniform, and it shouldn’t end.”

Miller predicted strong bipartisan support in Congress today and tomorrow.

Addendum: H.R. 1388 passed the House 03/18/09

Read My Lips: No New Bailouts

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News


Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) said President Obama’s budget “taxes too much” and presented an outline of their alternative.

The President's budget would add up to $3,100 per year per family in increased energy costs via the cap and trade policy, which their statement referred to as “cap-and-tax.” Both representatives also said that many small businesses would pay more in direct taxes. Pence acknowledged that that was so only if the business owner files as an individual and is making over $250,000, but that is commonly done in order to avoid the higher corporate rate. In effect, those small business owners whose personal profits exceed a quarter million dollars per year would be forced to choose between the already higher corporate or the now higher personal tax bracket.

Roskam said that many of the small businesses in his area were “in survival mode.” It was unclear whether he was including those whose personal profits would create such a tax dilemma.

Pence was emphatic that the “first principle is no new bailouts.” He repeated three times that the majority of Republicans had opposed bailouts even when their leadership supported the strategy.

The other principles outlined were: no tax hikes, limiting the federal budget from growing faster than family budgets, reforming the financial system, controlling energy costs with increased exploration, as well as developing new energy sources and supporting long-term price stability.

The nuts and bolts of how to do those things will be the topic of several subsequent presentations, Pence finished.