Latest California Healthline Stories
Federal Task Force Expected To Recommend Newborn Screening for 30 Rare Diseases
A federal health task force this week is expected to recommend that all U.S. newborns be screened for at least 30 “rare but life-threatening genetic disorders” based on the findings of a three-year study by the American College of Medical Genetics, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Los Angeles County Officials Discuss Proposal To Close King/Drew Medical Center Trauma Unit
Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke on Monday urged fellow supervisors to research the possible impact that closing the trauma unit at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center could have on the community before voting on the plan Tuesday, while county Department of Health Services Director Dr. Thomas Garthwaite provided the department’s “most detailed public rationale to date for the proposal,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Ballot Measure To Fund Sonoma County Hospital Faces Obstacles
Palm Drive Hospital in Sebastopol “faces some challenges” in winning voter approval of a ballot measure that would increase property taxes to fund hospital operations, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Democratic Presidential Nominee Sen. John Kerry Focuses on Health Care in Colorado Campaign Speech
Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) on Friday in a speech at a Colorado high school “blasted Bush as siding with the pharmaceutical industry” in the debate over prescription drug importation and said that he would support a program that “would allow Americans to buy cheaper prescription drugs from abroad,” the Denver Post reports.
Christian Science Monitor Examines Recent Criticism of Pharmaceutical Industry
The Christian Science Monitor on Monday examined the “slew of revelations [that] have stung drug makers in recent months,” putting the pharmacy industry in “danger of joining Big Oil and Big Tobacco as one of the bad boys of American industry.”
Vote on Proposal To Close King/Drew Medical Center Trauma Unit To Proceed
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors likely will vote as scheduled on Tuesday on a measure that would close Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center’s trauma unit, despite Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke’s request that the board postpone action until hospital consultants can recommend reforms, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The Washington Post on Saturday looked at the inclusion of more than 150 measures on November ballots in more than 30 states, including health-related ballot measures on the California ballot.
Senate Not Likely To Vote on Prescription Drug Reimportation Bills This Year
Several Senate Republican leaders have said that they will not hold a vote this year on legislation to allow the reimportation of lower-cost prescription drugs from other nations, despite a bipartisan group of senators that “threatens to sidestep the leadership, push the legislation through and force lawmakers to act,” Long Island Newsday reports.
Proposition 63, a measure on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot to fund state mental health programs, would generate $275 million in 2004-2005, increasing to $750 million the next year and $800 million in subsequent years, according to an estimate by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the AP/San Jose Mercury News reports.
Medicare Law Could Cost $42 Billion More Than Estimated, Office of Management and Budget Says
Over the next decade, spending related to the new Medicare law could be $42 billion higher than previously estimated, according to an estimate of the program’s projected spending by Office of Management and Budget officials and Medicare actuaries, the Washington Post reports.