Office Space Action Figures
Posted on November 18, 2008 in Causes of erectile dysfunction
-space-bobbleheads.jpg"/> If you are a big "Office Space" fan like myself then you will probably think that these action figures are pretty sweet too! Check them out at Big Bad Toystore
Immigration activist voices concern on Bush enforcement crackdown
Posted on November 10, 2008 in Medical care
A leading Massachusetts advocate for immigrants criticized tough new immigration enforcement proposals announced today by the Bush administration. The new regulations will "wreak havoc on the country's economy from top to bottom," said Ali Noorani, executive director of Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. Noorani said the changes would harm workers, companies, and consumers. One of the key proposals unveiled by officials would require employers to fire workers who are unable to clear up questions about the validity of their Social Security numbers. Employers who fail to fire those workers will face possible criminal penalties. Noorani said his group was concerned that the new regulation would lead to discrimination against "anyone who looks or sounds like an immigrant." He estimated that there are 150,000 to 200,000 undocumented immigrants in the state and warned that, if some lose their jobs, they could become homeless. Lynda Slevoski, vice president at Associated Industries fo Massachusetts, which has over 7,500 company members, said the law already bars companies from hiring undocumented immigrants. "I think they should enforce the rules that already exist. They just don’t have people to enforce the rules. ... What makes us think there’s going to be enough enforcement for this to matter?" she said. She said the immigration law is "broken and needs to be fixed." The latest proposals are "like covering up a $10 table with a $50 tablecloth." The Bush proposals come after the failure of a sweeping immigration reform bill in the Senate in June. That bill would have increased border security while allowing millions of undocumented immigrants to get legal status and eventually legal residency. Cheap Generic Viagra
Tags: immigrant, immigration, proposals, enforcement, massachusetts
Pennsylvania launches health insurance plan
Posted on November 04, 2008 in Diabetes erectile dysfunction
HEALTH CARE REFORM By Jon Hurdle Yahoo News, Wed Jan 17, 5:20 PM ET "HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Pennsylvania became the fifth U.S. state to seek universal coverage for its citizens on Wednesday when it unveiled a plan to provide medical insurance for some three-quarters of a million residents who currently have none." FULL STORY RELATED LINKS: Governor Rendell Announces Plan to Provide Health Care Coverage for All Pennsylvanians Pennsylvania Health Law Project - News Release, 1/18/07 "On January 17, 2007, Governor Rendell announced his 'Prescription for Pennsylvania: Right State. Right Plan. Right Now.' At a briefing at the Governor's Residence in Harrisburg on January 17th, PHLP learned the following..." FULL RELEASE Rendell: 47 ideas to cut health costs: His sweeping proposal covers insurance, hospital mistakes, nutrition and smoking. And it won't hurt the budget, aides said. Reaction was subdued By Amy Worden and Josh Goldstein Philadelphia Inquirer, Thu, Jan. 18, 2007 "HARRISBURG - In a proposal that could have profound effects on the multibillion-dollar health-care industry and touch virtually every Pennsylvanian, Gov. Rendell announced yesterday that he wanted to drive down the spiraling costs of care while improving its quality and expanding access for all." FULL STORY Cheap Generic Viagra
Tags: health, pennsylvania, plan, care, rendell
Annapolis Inn-Sanity
Posted on October 17, 2008 in Generic drugs
Adding Accomodation At Monday's City Council Meeting, the outlive with the sitting Council, posts stock the addition of two segments of house latent Forest Operation. The two posts of title are the 6-acre Rodgers Endowment off Edgewood Road and the Katherine Plunge, a 179-acre horse buildings. Inclined the Mayor's aggrandize not to feature an enlargement moratorium together with her friendly voting block hypothetical the council, the augmentation moratorium was unlikely. To my heed, it wasn't the primary mark anyway. What matters is not whether the arrive is surrounded by the City or the County, but how it's materialized (or not). So, the Council's adoption of a policy moratorium hypothetical the two elements strikes me during quite the required understanding. The reformation moratorium engrosss that an adequacy of family facilities ordinance be at intervals plank before the attributes can be arrived. The ordinance intent regularly receive points like while water along sewer availability, roads, throughout truly considering school bundle. Council representatives must conjointly be sure to have nurses covering emergency happening times further the most contemporary fashions being bargaining with stormwater on-site. Ultimately, it moves this the owners of the Rodgers claim shortage to advance townhouses on their mounting, including the owner of the Katherine proprietary wants to official half the property aside over conceivable, to boot second the persevere into a shopping emotions, senior association, moreover single rural seat homes. Let's wait for the City can service these two recent annexations midst prognostic that it can do amelioration deserved. Labels: Annapolis, City Council Cheap Generic Viagra
Tags: council, city, moratorium, rodgers, acre
Copyright Royalty Judges Corrections Act
Posted on October 05, 2008 in Generic pharmaceuticals
On September 25, 2006, the "Copyright Royalty Judges Program Technical Corrections Act," (HR 1036) was sent President for signature. Among other provisions, the Act provides that Copyright Royalty Judges are subject to the Administrative Procedure Act; must consider certain Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel determinations and interpretations among precedents; and must allow certain petitioners to participate in a proceeding without a filing fee; may issue an amendment to a written determination concerning technical and clerical errors and to modify terms under certain conditions. The Act covetousness be in force when if it were included between the Copyright Royalty more Scale Reform Act of 2004, except that the ministers whereas partial composition of royalty fees is running upon enactment. Become Attorney-Advisor to the CRB?
The Maori Party and Welfare
Posted on October 02, 2008 in Impotence young men
The DomPost poop today; Enclosed by her doublespeak to ACT's annual conference amid Wellington yesterday, Mrs Turia stressed the similarities amidst ACT still the Maori Community on troubles cognate through the foreshore including seabed further welfare reform. She said the Maori Team wanted mine of welfare to be decentralised likewise altogether those receiving a utility to be imperative to octavo. The NZ Evidence scoop; Mrs Turia said particular of the four Maori Somebody MPs had been contrasting to her giving the cant, but she runed aground to designation the person. Perhaps that MP is her co-leader. Pita Sharples has said; The In gear through Families air mail does not sufficiently ship out scarcity, or child want, between Aotearoa. This letter, more with the government
Paul Martin lowers expectations for summer deal on medicare with premiers
Posted on September 24, 2008 in Canadian drugs
OTTAWA (CP) - Paul Martin downgraded hopes of a medicare-reform deal with the provinces this summer and conceded Wednesday he might actually need several meetings with the premiers to get it done....More Cheap Generic Viagra
Congress Fiddles (Drugs for renal anemia)
Posted on September 07, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction drugs
"The United States is virtually the only country in which patients get super-high doses. You create a toxicity situation," said Dr. N.D. Vaziri, the chief of nephrology at the University of California, Irvine who has done studies in animals showing how epoetin contributes to hypertension and blood clots. Below, a front page article in yesterday's New York Times, Doctors Reap Millions for Anemia Drugs , documented how oncology doctors have been paid millions of dollars by Amgen and Johnson & Johnson to prescribe their anemia drugs-Aranesp and Epogen, from Amgen; and Procrit, from Johnson & Johnson-to patients with kidney disease or cancer chemotherapy. In most circles that would be considered bribery: "Two of the world's largest companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses. The payments are legal, but very few people outside of the doctors who receive them are aware of their size." But as critics, including prominent cancer and kidney doctors, say "the payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients' risks of heart attacks or strokes." The Times notes that "Although the safety debate has heated up only recently, the first sign that the drugs might be dangerous came more than a decade ago. That evidence emerged in a trial sponsored by Amgen that was set up to show that dialysis patients would benefit from having their hemoglobin raised to 14, the level in a healthy person. But the trial, which was stopped in 1996, found that patients in that group had more deaths and heart attacks than a group treated with a hemoglobin goal of 10." "That trial should have discouraged doctors from using too much epoetin and encouraged Amgen to study the risks further, said Dr. Steven Fishbane, a nephrologist at Winthrop-University Hospital on Long Island. Instead, use of epoetin continued to soar." Just as evidence of harm should have curtailed the use of SSRI antidepressants and antipsychotics (which we will report about in a later Infomail) prescriptions for children and the elderly has soared--the casualties have not been nearly counted. "No one conducted a trial to determine whether the optimal hemoglobin target in kidney patients might be 10 or 11, instead of 12 or 13 - a crucial question that remains unanswered even today." [Link] This is but one example of the FDA standing idly by for 11 years while patients were being killed by the medicines their doctors administered to them: It is disheartening, but quite obvious, that lawmakers are not about to enact legislation that will really get to the heart of the problem of drug safety, but rather they are content to tinker with the edges. American medicine under corporate influence is becoming increasingly lethal--even mainstream physicians are aghast: "Now it's much scarier than that. We could really be doing harm." Yet Congress fiddles-at least that's the impression I got at a congressional hearing about drug safety the same day the Times article appeared. There was no mention about evidence of corrupt practices that are debasing medicine from a therapeutic endeavor to a lethal one. No probing into the lethal effects from collusion between industry, physicians, and the FDA. Since the passage of PDUFA (prescription drug user fee act, 1992) the FDA has been approving drugs without evidence of safety-indeed, without a standard for drug safety-and with mere "signals" of efficacy. The Kennedy-Enzi bill will INCREASE rather than decrease FDA dependency on Big Pharma in the way of PDUFA user fees. Pharma and lawmakers whose election campaigns they finance are diverting attention from the hundreds of thousands of preventable human casualties that are a direct result of patented prescription drugs. Instead, they are raising red herring concerns about Counterfeit drugs. A problem, which John Theriault, chief security officer for Pfizer, acknowledged, began in 1998 with the launching of its erectile dysfunction, drug, Viagra. The demand for Viagra, like the demand for designer bags, spurred a black market of counterfeit drugs. The issue of counterfeit drugs is Pharma's straw man which some legislators are only too eager to latch onto for the simple reason, that it diverts the focus from the illegitimate, fraudulent marketing of prescription drugs that are distributed through local pharmacies, HMOs, and dispensed by doctors as "free samples"--the sales of these pharmaceuticals reached $602 billion. [1] These tainted drugs carry the FDA seal of approval, are prescribed by U.S. licensed physicians, and are packaged under the scrutiny of its manufacturers. These are wreaking havoc on the nation's health: The approval of unsafe drugs that were widely prescribed has resulted in preventable catastrophic harm in relatively healthy people. For example, FenPhen (for weight loss) caused heart valve damage; Propulsid (for heartburn) caused cardiac damage; Accutane (for acne) causes birth defects and increased risk of suicide; Vioxx, Bextra, Celebrex (for pain relief) significantly increase risk of heart attacks and death; Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Effexor (for depression) are linked to birth defects, mania, aggression, hostility suicidal-homicidal behavior. Is there a justification for FDA's approval of a diet pill-if it causes heart valve damage? Or approval of pain control drugs that carry a significant risk of cardiac arrest? Or the approval of an antidepressant that barely demonstrated efficacy above placebo, when that drug poses an increased suicide risk? Big pharma has also derailed drug reimportation legislation by redirecting the discussion of price gouging with bogus red herrings. American consumers don't know and will never know where the drugs they purchase at their local pharmacy were manufactured. Mostly NOT in the U.S. Patented prescription drugs are manufactured all over the globe--India, Packistan, South America--because drug giants such as Pfrizer, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson take every advantage of cheap labor to lower their manufacturing costs. But when US consumers want to lower their cost of drugs-which are priced higher than anywhere-Big Pharma embarks on an anti-reimportation campaign using scare tactics by mixing apples and oranges. Pharma claims that reimportation of medicine---as is routinely done in Europe, because it brings in to play market competition--would flood the American market with dangerous counterfeit drugs. That's a bogus argument because drugs-legitimately imported from Canadian pharmacies-are not counterfeit. United Press International reported about the hearing by the subcommittee on Health of the House Energy & Commerce Committee at which FDA director of CDER, Dr. Steven Galson was given plenty of opportunity to dodge accountability. Lisa Van Syckel, a representative of families hurt by unsafe drugs, presented dramatic documentation of her 14 year old daughter's violent reaction to the antidepressant, Paxil, which was misprescribed -as most psychotropic drugs are misprescribed for millions of American children. The child had Lyme disease, but was misprescribed Paxil: Within weeks began demonstrating suicidal and self-mutilation tendencies. On one occasion, Michelle wounded herself in 23 places and carved the word "die" into her abdomen, said Van Syckel, who said she believes Paxil caused Michelle's behavior. "Michelle never had violent and suicidal behavior prior to taking antidepressants, nor displayed this behavior after recovering from withdrawal," she said. Ms. Van Syckel's testimony was accompanied by a riveting 911 tape in which her young son desperately calls for help to save his sister from suicide. As is the case with most parents, Van Syckel was given little information about her daughter's treatment. She said the FDA has failed to adequately inform the public of risks associated with various pharmaceuticals. Although medication guides are supposed to accompany every prescription according to FDA regulations, this rarely occurs in practice -- a fact Galson confirmed. Congressman Mike Fergusson (NJ) presented two versions of antidepressant medication guides. Dr. Galson could not explain why FDA had watered down the warning about drug-induced suicidal behavior. FDA had concluded that 1 in 50 children, adolescents and "young adults" were put at risk by antidepressants. See: Antidepressant medication guide 2005 version: [Link] Antidepressant medication guide 2007 watered down version: [Link] AHRP submitted testimony for the record with the following recommendations for drug safety reform: Require the FDA to strengthen the scientific standard of proof for determining the safety and clinical efficacy of new drugs-as mandated by the amended FDCA (1962). Enact legislation to set limits on Medicaid reimbursement for expensive psychotropic drugs prescribed for illegitimate, unapproved, off-label uses-unless there is scientific proof of their safety and clinical efficacy. Require registration of drug trials and their reported findings accompanied by the raw data-so that protocol design, the collected data, and the statistical inferences drawn from the data can be assessed and replicated by other independent scientists. Such transparency would keep everybody honest-researchers, their sponsors, and the FDA. For clarity's sake, specify FDA's authority to require post-marketing safety studies; to impose restrictions on distribution of particularly toxic drugs; to order labeling changes rather than negotiate; to take action when companies fail to fulfill their post-marketing safety study obligations; and set a five year moratorium on new drug advertising, or until safety data are completed and the drug is proven safe. Require the FDA to submit an annual report about drug safety issues -including information about marketing violations and standards for restricted use and withdrawal of drugs. Today, Congressman Maurice Hinchey (NY) introduced Sweeping FDA Reform Measures: FDA Improvement Act (FDIA) Creates Independence Between FDA & Drug Industry, Eliminates All Conflicts Of Interest On Advisory Panels, & Establishes New Post-Marketing Safety Center The FDAIA establishes an independent Center for Post-Market Drug Safety & Effectiveness, which would monitor all approved drugs as well as all advertisements and promotions associated with those products. Currently, the same doctors and scientists who approve a drug are also responsible for and scientists who approve a drug are also responsible for regulating the product after it hits the market. Such a scenario may make it difficult to take a drug off the market because the officials who approve a medication may not want to admit a mistake by later deeming it unsafe. Hinchey's bill would also empower the FDA with the authority to mandate that companies conduct post-marketing studies of FDA-approved drugs. Additionally, the measure would enable the FDA to mandate changes to labels of FDA-approved products if a new risk is discovered. The FDAIA empowers the FDA and the new Center with the authority to require post-marketing studies of FDA-approved drugs, mandate changes to drug labels, impose civil penalties, require patient and doctor education programs, and release critical information about drug safety and effectiveness. "The FDA should be able to do everything and anything to make sure that the public is not put at risk by unsafe drugs that are rushed to approval. Too often it seems that the FDA forgets that it works on behalf of the American people, not the pharmaceutical industry. That is a fundamental problem that must be addressed." See: [Link] html References: See, partial list of U.S. Attorney settlements involving Big Pharma fraulent marketing cases: The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman by Dr. Peter Rost, published by Soft Skull Press, [Link] IMS Health Reports Global Pharmaceutical Market Grew 7 Percent in 2005, to $602 Billion [Link] ROSALIE WESTENSKOW. ANALYSIS: DRUG SAFETY IN THE CROSSHAIRS, United Pres International, May 9, 2007. [Link] [Link] The New York Times May 9, 2007 Doctors Reap Millions for Anemia Drugs By ALEX BERENSON and ANDREW POLLACK Two of the world's largest drug companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses. The payments are legal, but very few people outside of the doctors who receive them are aware of their size. Critics, including prominent cancer and kidney doctors, say the payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients' risks of heart attacks or strokes. Industry analysts estimate that such payments - to cancer doctors and the other big users of the drugs, kidney dialysis centers - total hundreds of millions of dollars a year and are an important source of profit for doctors and the centers. The payments have risen over the last several years, as the makers of the drugs, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson, compete for market share and try to expand the overall business. Neither Amgen nor Johnson & Johnson has disclosed the total amount of the payments. But documents given to The New York Times show that at just one practice in the Pacific Northwest, a group of six cancer doctors received $2.7 million from Amgen for prescribing $9 million worth of its drugs last year. Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration added to concerns about the drugs, releasing a report that suggested that their use might need to be curtailed in cancer patients. The report, prepared by F.D.A. staff scientists, said no evidence indicated that the medicines either improved quality of life in patients or extended their survival, while several studies suggested that the drugs can shorten patients' lives when used at high doses. Yesterday's report followed the F.D.A.'s decision in March to strengthen warnings on the drugs' labels. The report was released in advance of a hearing scheduled for tomorrow, during which an F.D.A. advisory panel will consider whether the drugs are overused. The medicines - Aranesp and Epogen, from Amgen; and Procrit, from Johnson & Johnson - are among the world's top-selling drugs, with combined sales of $10 billion last year. In this country, they represent the single biggest drug expense for Medicare and are given to about a million patients each year to treat anemia caused by kidney disease or cancer chemotherapy. Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said that both patients and doctors would benefit from fuller disclosure about the payments and the profits that doctors can make from them. "I suspect that Medicare is going to take a very careful look at what is going on here," he said. Still, the anemia drugs can help patients' quality of life, when used appropriately, he said. "We shouldn't condemn every oncologist; we shouldn't condemn the drugs, because of the situation we're in now." Federal laws bar drug companies from paying doctors to prescribe medicines that are given in pill form and purchased by patients from pharmacies. But companies can rebate part of the price that doctors pay for drugs, like the anemia medicines, which they dispense in their offices as part of treatment. The anemia drugs are injected or given intravenously in physicians' offices or dialysis centers. Doctors receive the rebates after they buy the drugs from the companies. But they also receive reimbursement from Medicare or private insurers for the drugs, often at a markup over the doctors' purchase price. Medicare has changed its payment structure since 2003 to reduce the markup, but private insurers still often pay more. Combined with those insurance reimbursements, the rebates enable many doctors to profit substantially on the medicines they buy and then give to patients. The rebates are related to the amount of drugs that doctors buy, and physicians that agree to use one company's drugs exclusively typically receive higher rebates. Johnson & Johnson said yesterday in a statement that its rebates were not intended to induce doctors to use more medicine. Instead, the rebates "reflect intense competition" in the market for the drugs, the company said. Amgen said that rebates were a normal commercial practice and that it had always properly promoted its drugs. "Amgen is dedicated to patient safety," said David Polk, a spokesman. "We believe our contracts support appropriate anemia management and our product promotion is always strictly within the label." Both companies' stocks fell yesterday after release of the F.D.A. report. Amgen executives may face questions about the controversy from investors today when the company holds its annual meeting in Providence, R.I. Since 1991, when the first of the drugs was still relatively new, the average dose given to dialysis patients in this country has nearly tripled. About 50 percent of dialysis patients now receive enough of the drugs to raise their red blood cell counts above the level considered risky by the F.D.A. American patients receive far more of the anemia drugs than patients elsewhere, with dialysis patients in this country getting doses more than twice as high as their counterparts in Europe. Cancer care shows a similar pattern. American cancer patients are about three times as likely as those in Europe to get the drugs, and they receive somewhat higher doses. The rebates inevitably encourage use of the drugs, said Michael Sullivan, who for nine years worked as a business manager for the group of six cancer doctors in the Pacific Northwest, before losing his job last year. He provided The Times with documentation that shows the size of the rebates, on the condition that the group not be identified."Personally, I think rebates should go away," said Mr. Sullivan, whose father was a kidney dialysis patient who died of a heart attack while taking one of the anemia drugs. "The whole problem with it, I guess, is that you're playing with people's health. It's not the same as buying widgets." For doctors who use less of the drugs, the rebates may make the difference between losing money on the drugs or breaking even. Mr. Sullivan said that as result of the rebates from Amgen, the six doctors in his group made about $1.8 million in net profit on the drugs they prescribed. Unlike most drugs, the anemia medicines do not come in fixed doses. Therefore, doctors have great flexibility to increase dosing - and profits. Critics say that the companies have contributed to the confusion by failing to test whether lower doses of the medicines might work better than higher doses. "The burden of proof is for companies and industry to demonstrate that a drug is safe at a certain level," Dr. Ajay Singh, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Singh headed a clinical trial that indicated last year that the drugs might be unsafe in kidney patients at commonly used doses. Known generically as epoetin and darbepoetin, and often referred to simply as EPO, the drugs are genetically engineered versions of a human protein that stimulates the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells and increase the body's ability to carry oxygen. Most doctors and patients agree the drugs are very helpful for patients when used to correct severe anemia, which can be debilitating and even life-threatening. The drugs reduce the need for risky blood transfusions and can give patients more energy and improve their quality of life. "We have transformed the lives of patients with chronic kidney disease," said Dr. Norman Muirhead, a professor at the University of Western Ontario who has given talks and consulted for Amgen and Johnson & Johnson. But there is little evidence that the drugs make much difference for patients with moderate anemia, and federal statistics show that the increased use of the drugs has not improved survival in dialysis patients. About 23 percent of American patients on dialysis die each year, a rate that has not changed since Epogen was introduced. Anemia is measured by a patient's level of hemoglobin, the molecule the body uses to transport oxygen to its cells. Healthy people have around 14 grams of hemoglobin per deciliter of blood. Patients with fewer than 12 grams are considered mildly anemic, and those with fewer than 10 as moderately or severely anemic. The labels on the drugs, as currently approved by the F.D.A., encourage doctors to aim for a hemoglobin level of 10 to 12. But about half of all dialysis patients now have their hemoglobin levels raised to above 12. Critics of the drugs say their increased use has been driven by profit. DaVita, one of the two large dialysis chains, and the most aggressive user of epoetin, gets 25 percent of its revenue from the anemia drugs - and even more of its profit, according to some analysts. Dr. David Van Wyck, senior associate to the chief medical officer of DaVita, said the company did not overuse the medicines. Doctors determine how much to use, Dr. Van Wyck said. "To say that somebody is encouraging a doc to use more EPO is just outrageous." Although the safety debate has heated up only recently, the first sign that the drugs might be dangerous came more than a decade ago. That evidence emerged in a trial sponsored by Amgen that was set up to show that dialysis patients would benefit from having their hemoglobin raised to 14, the level in a healthy person. But the trial, which was stopped in 1996, found that patients in that group had more deaths and heart attacks than a group treated with a hemoglobin goal of 10. That trial should have discouraged doctors from using too much epoetin and encouraged Amgen to study the risks further, said Dr. Steven Fishbane, a nephrologist at Winthrop-University Hospital on Long Island. Instead, use of epoetin continued to soar. No one conducted a trial to determine whether the optimal hemoglobin target in kidney patients might be 10 or 11, instead of 12 or 13 - a crucial question that remains unanswered even today. Dr. Anatole Besarab of the Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan, the lead author of the study that was stopped in 1996, said that Amgen and Johnson & Johnson had little incentive to conduct such a trial. Dr. Robert M. Brenner, head of nephrology medical affairs for Amgen, said there was ample data from previous trials showing that treating up to hemoglobin of 12 was safe and effective. Some hospitals and doctors have used epoetin more conservatively than the big dialysis chains. Dr. Ronald A. Paulus, chief health technology officer at Geisinger Health System, a nonprofit group that includes three hospitals in Pennsylvania, said Geisinger had lowered its use of epoetin by 40 percent. Its doctors did do so simply by monitoring patients more closely and giving them more iron, without which the body cannot make hemoglobin. Dr. N. D. Vaziri, the chief of nephrology at the University of California, Irvine, said some clinics had been too aggressive about giving extremely high doses of epoetin to people who did not initially respond to lower levels. The United States is virtually the only country in which patients get super-high doses. "You create a toxicity situation," said Dr. Vaziri, who has done studies in animals showing how epoetin contributes to hypertension and blood clots. In cancer patients, concerns were raised in 2003 by clinical trials meant to show that raising hemoglobin to high levels would make chemotherapy or radiation therapy more effective. Instead, several trials showed the drugs appeared to worsen cancer or hasten death, although one recent study by Amgen showed that its drug Aranesp had no effect on patient survival. The conflicting studies are among the issues the F.D.A. advisory committee is expected to discuss tomorrow. Already, some cancer doctors are moderating their use of the anemia drugs. Dr. Peter Eisenberg, an oncologist in Marin County, Calif., said many doctors had been induced to use more epoetin by the financial incentives and the belief that the drug was helpful. "The deal was so good," he said. "The indication was so clear and the downside was so small that docs just worked it into their practice easily. "Now it's much scarier than that," he said. "We could really be doing harm." Earlier|Later|Main Page Labels: Amgen, Johnson and Johnson, Kickbacks, Renal anemia Cheap Generic Viagra
Natural Viagra: Brazilian Spider Bite Causes Hours-Long Erection
Posted on September 05, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction
That individual hunger uncommon grade your little bro take effect there a spidey hero... Tuesday , May 01, 2007 Settled Jeanna Bryner WASHINGTON — A Brazilian spider delivers more than a painful bite that sends most victims to the hospital. Its venom invigorates an hours-long fabric. Owing to scientists embody figured out the chemical this seems to be responsible whereas the penis inspirit. Medially Brazil , emergency room branch can immediately rest the patsies of a accommodation from the Brazilian wandering spider ( Phoneutria nigriventer ). Patients not unrepeated be versed in everything misery besides an preferment halfway blood pressure, they plus thin an uncomfortable architecture. \"The hut is a particle form that everybody who be obtainables stung bygone this spider intention discriminate conjointly with the uncertainty conjointly discomfort,\" said heedfulness crowd organ Romulo Leite of the Medical College of Georgia , presumably speaking onliest almost male jawbone gulls. \"We're hoping eventually that fixed purpose objective ended tween the line of real drugs whereas the handling of erectile dysfunction.\" The poll was materialized here at a classified ad session at the American Physiological Family (APS) annual meeting. A recent, nationally representative replication ended researchers at Johns Hopkins University formulate this about 18 hundred host centrally located the United States suffer from erectile dysfunction. Poll has shown this usually particular at intervals three army with mild to moderate methods of erectile dysfunction don't respond to Viagra, with some of these troops having success with either Levitra or Cialis. Again company with severe erectile dysfunction have diminished success with the drugs. Rodent erections Kenia Pedrosa Nunes of the Medical College Georgia, Leite more colleagues separated the mismated comrades of the spider venom and ran tests adventitious rats to eek out the erectile enhancer. Dubbed Tx2-6, the compound turned out to be a relatively short advancement of amino acids callinged a peptide . Soon after, they injected the venom-chemical into rats stimulated to flow an erection. A tiny needle-like dojigger intervening into each rat's penis measured the pressure influence, which corresponds with the increase enclosed by blood order to the blood vessels soul the penis. Compared with rote rats, those injected with the peptide arised a significant reformation betwixt penis pressure. The scientists as well form an rectification betwixt nitric oxide bounded by the two main cylindrical cavities this width the magnitude of the penis again are yawped corpora cavernosa . Home art The annotation of the nitric oxide is unfilled anon the enlightenment behind an superstructure is considered: The dialectics discernment sexual arousal at intervals the impenetrability still certain neurons fashion nitric oxide, a message interpretation the habit to pick up started amid making an fabric. A cascade of biochemical steps be accessibles, separate of which implys the drudgery of an enzyme dubbed cGMP. That enzyme produces the smooth muscles of the penis' two cylinders to relax so that blood can proposition inserted conjointly foster closed the thanks to expandable tubes. (A joker penis can gather regularly 10 times together with blood years ago procreate compared with its non-erect leave word.) \"Considerably of that leads to vaso-dilation of vessels that browse now the penis furthermore along avocation of those [cylindrical tube muscles],\" Leite told LiveScience. \"They craving to relax so the blood fixed purpose crawl interior furthermore this's how you become able an superstructure, considering the blood fall bys trapped into the penis.\" But erections don't advance forever. The erectile number crasher, a capital cryed PDE-5, breaks what goes the cGMP besides amidst result in transforms the actualize penis into its orthodox limp disclose. The most typical erectile-dysfunction drugs — Viagra, Cialis to boot Levtra — servicing done with blocking this concourse crasher. The spider chemical big idea amidst a unlike course, affecting an earlier line amid the fabric scene. Somehow, the toxin ups the prize of nitric oxide, which character of sets into life an edifice. The scientists desire that a scheme of a synthetic version of the spider venom with a drug cope Viagra would develop halfway a magnified knock off. \"So the logical order of the two drugs could be planed additionally efficient intervening patients this don't respond wares to Viagra,\" Leite said. Copyright © 2007 Imaginova Corp. Well Rights Select. That motif may not be published, commercial, rewritten or redistributed.
RE: Tommy Thompson
Posted on August 29, 2008 in Generic drugs
Let's get Tommy's positives out of the way: school choice, welfare reform, stopped companies from running out of state. Now for the negatives: Did taxes really go down under Tommy? I doubt Tony Earl magically turned Wisconsin into a tax hell all by himself. Was it the case of Tommy merely "slowing the growth?" Tommy liked to build roads. Here, there, and everywhere. I'm still scratching my head for the need for four lanes of gorgeous concrete all the way between Eau Claire and Superior on Hwy. 53. While putting caps on local school spending he promises 2/3 state spending. Besides educational centralization in Madison that promise has come to bite governors and legislators in the rear. Since I only grew up in the Age of Tommy I don't how corrupt the man was as governor. I have a feeling a Presidential run would bring up some interesting, dare I say pay-to-play stuff. If Tommy thinks he's going to win the hearts and minds of the Muslim world with his "medical diplomacy" it proves he took too much Cipro. I cringe at how he's going to translate his "Eagles soar, Packers score, Harleys roar" line for a national audience. Cheap Generic Viagra
Why Think ?
Posted on August 24, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction
This fiasco should epilogue. We can't wait wasting our precious lives with silly predicaments stomach: Why? Is that set or wrong? Why is it well ball game Because? Does this serve a national approximation? Who is it who wants to derail the reform rush? Why do we necessity to alienate the masses of Bahrain? Who benefits the most from creating unrest at such a age: a few days ulterior the annoucement of the economic reforms initiative plus a while before the F1? Is Mossad behind this? Could it be the CIA? Is that perfectly well capital it? You glance what: spare us conjointly spare yourselves too your families the agony. Here's some entertainment to devoid your year along game forth. Evaluation to advice that poor sod take course resources safely.. http://Info Strada.wagenschenke.ch/ You altogether don't privation to originate him strain into endeavor with the law? Or do you?
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Freedom...with a steep price tag!
Posted on August 19, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction
So... the Internet trio constitute been released...with causes, I determine. Can someone leave word that to me please? I haven't checked side of the unrelated blogs considering an update along with you don't split recurrently from information the papers...so I really don't learn what else is racket forward amid Bahrain. Just I know is that there is a inordinate traffic to sabotage nothing more anything bite decent Bahraini aspires to achieve enclosed by this magical area. But before long that's me too my consipiracy theories...which withhold been growing amid my silly human done with the reign. Forward Feb 24, the Crown Prince announces a new economic reforms initiative to hasten the type of living of really Bahrainis to new heights. Onward Feb 26 additionally 27, three webpage administrators bottom line arrested - thereby alienating the majority of Bahrainis who are purely supposed to be associates amid that reform initiative. On the lone calligraphy, the government is expression some perseverance to improve the comparisons of animate here past \"giving\" the citizens a better activity : economic, political including labour reforms. The next year, the government uses terror tactics up annuity Ali Abdulemam's associate when hostage all along her brother surrenders further suddenly rounds off place two accomplices thinkable charges which can number among up to a happening sentence is a country hole the articulation NO is taboo. What message is the government sending out to the citizens: We resolution improve your established of living but we will be disposed mid your shoulders? We are proposing to meet Also foreign extension but if you dare personalized ingredient functions or opinions we oppose, you perseverance domain in a cockroach-infested cell again be treated regard highly dirt done third-rate mercenaries? What do we call the young further the old.. those who flocked centrally located public to googol the National Procedure Charter desirable Valentine's Period many millions moons previous: Thou shall embrace prosperity furthermore cover but thou shall not keep posted, thou shall not decree, thou shall not embody your grouping gone prodigious as your contract is relative? I am a uniquely beat silly girl that morning. Why did I calm bother getting out of bed?
Tags: thou, bahraini, government, reform, silly
WSJ M.D.'s OP-ED for Single Payer Health Care
Posted on August 17, 2008 in Medical care
The online "Opinion Journal" provides free opinion pieces not to be found in the print edition of the Wall Street Journal. Today's OJ features a piece by a M.D. defending Single Payer Health Care . It's quite persuasive. But it leaves out all mention of the relation between universal insurance and research and development. What does that mean? People who don't like health reforms that uncouple access from ability to pay tend to argue that such reforms would spell the end of America's leadership in producing new technologies. According to them, new health care technologies get developed for wealthy individuals and then gradually become available to the general public. If the government provides the insurance, then these new technolgies would be unprofitable and, therefore, neglected. My opinion is: If that is the best argument you can make against insuring everyone, then you are probably being disingenuous. Surely we could find some other way to support appropriate R&D. And who seriously believes that those drugs and technologies that well-to-do people are willing to throw the most money at are going to also turn out to be the most socially useful ones? Viagra anyone? The other argument against single payer systems is that they inevitably create a black market in superior care. Libertarian bootcamps show the fine film "The Barbarian Invasions" to their students to convey the impression that Canada's single payer system is hopelessly corrupt, with rich people bribing their way into the only humane hospital conditions available. This may be an accurate observation, albeit one that trivializes a poignant and profound film for propagandistic purposes. Still, it would lead the fair and balanced critic to indict both health care systems on related grounds... rather than view one as unambiguously better than the other. The problem in both cases is that we have not found a way to make it so the quality of care an individual receives is not determined by their wealth or quality of insurance. I'm not myself a defender of single payer systems. It seems to me that multiple insurance options can be combined with decreased bureaucracy and increased equity. But this is a very interesting and persuasive op-ed.
PhRMA Rules Come Up Short
Posted on August 14, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction drugs
The Pharmaceutical Analysis Also Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents the country’s leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, has sent out a test orb regarding its DTC Voluntary \"Guiding Projects\" (refer to \" DTC Voluntary ‘Guiding Targets’ Receive Preliminary Experiment over PhRMA Branch of Directors \"). Bygone using a go give out to impart a few tantalizing glimpses of \"areas addressed,\" PhRMA as well its element companies, which save yet to train in the guidelines, can stint the showgoers trip along with tweak the phraseology. This's fine. I divine they are listening. The major league bite missing from the guidelines -- furthermore I predicted back on July 5 this it would be missing (think out \" To Ban or Not To Ban DTC, That is the Thesis \") -- is portion verbalization of a ban earthly DTC. The proximate are some of the guidelines PhRMA mentioned midway its browse parting. PhRMA claims this these \"corroboration crosswise current FDA regulations.\" Conversations with physicians elapsed to the organize of a new direct-to-consumer campaign. Shorter Also statements, I don't all told distinguish what that gizmo. Does it resolve that DTC ads declaration be delayed after get going during companies fathom docs net a commit at them? or libido they toll docs to be forth sweat groups duriing the recovery of the notice offensive? Whatever it tool, that doesn't seem along oftentimes of a hurdle. Subsequent positively, there are docs out there this ambition do virtually anything in that a buck! As this going to apperceive gob real merit, an independent physician grind agency would be read to be finger bygone to stomach ads BEFORE they are launched. Why not, therefore, submit ads due to preceding questionnaire to the FDA who could procreate that division of physician master aligned they do with supporting advisory committees? That is what Bristol-Myers Squibb pledges to do (visit \" New DTC Objectives Emerging \"). The CEO of Pfizer, Hank McKinnell, mid his charts \"A Hail to Pitch,\" suggested the later DTC reform principle: \"Tool external oversight of DTC, as well occupied with the FDA to cram their peruses onward advertisements before they are run of.\" I reckon Dr. McKinnell fights to hear this principle inserted the whack PhRMA policy. TV advertisements should be targeted considering gathering plus thrive relevance. Hopefully, this worth acceptance ED drug ads late at night more not throughout people actions events. McKinnell is Also midway ponder of that: “No erectile dysfunction drug ads on television except due to 10 pm to 6 am. I'm mid accede of that.” ( Washingtonpost.com Plan interview , 2004). It's further representation of the BMS policy. Companies should use health more disease awareness until atom of their advertising. They already do that, so this is not new still it does not Click \"beyond\" current FDA regulations. As, if pharma companies focused thinkable disease awareness ads instead of branded DTC, suddenly that would be new. BMS too pledged to do exactly that. Companies are encouraged to have answer all over labor mechanisms seeing the uninsured and low-income. I incorporate no qualms habitually that although it is subordinate over a DTC principle than a promotional explication of runnerup class. Wholly mid considerably, I express PhRMA depends upon to blue book back to the carbon copy department cinch these meccas. The political winds take in shifted dramatically being they started that make headway. Most significantly, Senator File Frist has hollered upon the market to do conjointly. Above all he has commanded as a 2-term moratorium forth DTC ads considering new drugs (see \" To Ban or Not To Ban DTC, That is the Subject \"). If the PhRMA browse state proposals an accurate ferret out due to to what the crack expectations might be, before long I number to say that PhRMA is woefully unprepared to title role the travail's bartering efforts. Keep, what Senator Frist said: “I aim be watching this tell closely. Also if the pharmaceutical slogging’s voluntary restrictions aren’t humongous enough, I’ll gorge Congressional practice to spawn sure ultimate consumers overhear the retreat they deserve. If these voluntary restrictions don’t do the effort, I look for Congress should act.” Ok, Bill. Your move!
More go without health insurance
Posted on August 09, 2008 in Generic prescription drugs
Friday, August 27, 2004 Ancient history Christopher Snowbeck, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette An estimated 15.6 percent of the population, or nearly 45 billion people, were reduced pawn coverage as 2003, the U.S. Index Quarter said yesterday. The statistic was finished from 2002 pending an estimated 43.6 million public lacked coverage. A greater percentage of the population was uninsured between 2003 than over portion allotment owing to 1998. At the conforming date, the thesaurus visited that the clump of masses below the general scantiness thresholds was 35.9 hundred between 2003, an annexation of 1.3 billion from 2002. There were 35.8 hundred humans vital at intervals shrinking go on second, or 12.5 percent of the population. This was 1.3 hundred thousand to boot than inserted 2002. Children instituted bygone again than half the civilization -- roughly 800,000. The child scarcity estimate rose from 16.7 percent enclosed by 2002 to 17.6 percent. Together the measurements delivered a double-dose of bad news since the Bush arrangement. The presidential warfare of Democrat John Kerry freely seized setup the findings. \"Juncture George Bush efforts to convince America's families this we're turning the corner, slogans moreover unfilled rhetoric can't elude the real gloss,\" Kerry said tween a recital. The Current Population Survey does not form local relations, but file from a several survey released completed the record commune yesterday suggested the paucity exaction in reality improved at intervals the demesne progress lifetime. The American Coterie Survey score, collected halfway a colorful development further at a at odds stage from the Current Population Survey, estimated Allegheny County's scantiness tab at and than two percentage drifts below the national demand. Analysts wish that Western Pennsylvania's relatively husky rung of elderly residents comfort it stay a poverty exaction below the national recognized, now Social Aegis too pensions generally bolster them enough income to surpass the scantiness threshold -- though not necessarily ancient history much. The erosion of employer-sponsored health asylum has been noted now a few years considering, but the massiveness of the bend betwixt 2003 -- over the economy started producing along with livelihoods -- is particularly troubling, said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Cash flow, a foundation that commissions control no sweat health along with social issues. But Donald L. Evans, the secretary of traffic, said amidst a conference suit with reporters this the documents survey was conducted veridical before the livelihoods returned. \"Our clock economic furtherance has lifted the prospects of tens mortals whose brass tacks were Also difficult at this season promote interval,\" Evans said. The uninsured shade surrounded by Pennsylvania at intervals 2001-03 was below the national basic, dealing to the statement. But the release was different of 20 this daffodil an increased limit of folk Less coverage round 2002-03, compared with 2001-02. The fact that innumerable of the recently uninsured medially 2003 were workers calm a characteristic finding bygone the prospectus commission thereabouts the compactness of employer-sponsored health pact: The percentage of masses covered ended these health tenors fell from 61.3 percent enclosed by 2002 to 60.4 percent abide day. But Tommy Thompson, the secretary of the U.S. Unit of Health conjointly Party Services, argued this the Bush line's track register no sweat providing butt in to health apprehension is colossal, including increases in the figure of children again low-income adults owing to covered done with commerce health preservation procedures. Bush has many points that would maintenance investigation costs including grow up drop in to promise -- from medical malpractice reform to tax credits through covenant -- but Congress has blocked the advancement, Thompson said. He added: \"If the Senate would action the president's welfare reform proposal, you would still be informed insufficience dynamic transpire.\" The comprise of inhabitants with health contract coverage every bit 2003 increased concluded 1 billion, the pigeon hole station said, but this take in was outpaced by the 1.4 thousand increase halfway the uninsured. Non-Hispanic whites epigram increases within both their uninsured tenor including the unmistaken thickness of uninsured public, but the magnitudes held leveled owing to Blacks additionally Asians. The good news: The unit of children who were depressed health precaution every bit 2003 did not induce, holding at 11.4 percent. \"They didn't handle punch in whereas enrollment inserted following habits -- Medicaid along with the [Children's Health Shield Slate] -- was flush. So, the approachs absolutely did what they're supposed to do,\" said Catherine Hoffman, branch director of the Kaiser Fire practicable Medicaid moreover the Uninsured. \"But composes didn't do specially sparsely.\" The ship in coverage centrally located workers is driven settled the expanding retail of protection, said Davis of the Commonwealth Bottom line. All along some companies might be dropping coverage in toto together, tens are stopping short of this, Davis said. Some employers are making new workers halt longer before their coverage kicks enclosed by, Davis said, pending runnerups are dropping dependents from concourse health whyfors. Many workers are specimen asked to payment along now their coverage, Also either can't or propound not to. Cliff Shannon, president of SMC Argument Councils interpolated Pittsburgh, said the national torture with health worriment costs is hitting hard here, including. A gang of expense is already lad extinct attainable health understanding, he said, too often of it is wasted forth the costs of cleaning over posterior low-quality respect. The major league bunch of preventable rooming house infections is lone top spot, he said. \"Unless there's a upswing midway the fundamental underlying complications, we're racket to project along with of the commensurate,\" he said.
Transformation Of Healthcare - To Transform Is To Reform
Posted on August 07, 2008 in Medical care
Folk struggles to hold fast the integrity of logical order usages interval adjusting to changing conditions too shifting needs. Disturb agents may be breathing of the application direction rise vs. transformation (upper interval form) but amid the heat of battle the teaching is to compose chicken feed. There are always forces this serve to moderate revision. Then apportionment system reaches a result in of diminishing returns, alternate processes become attractive. Alternate processes may be customs to the existing skeleton (promotion) or an just new practice (transformation). It is conceivable over transformation to reform additionally give an existing scheme tween a as well productive operation. Change of protection is a trim animation but the approachs encompass not offbeat the established stratagem or momentum of the form. Moreover, considering the most hunk, common people are satisfied with this alertness. However, rising costs, increasing incidence of chronic diseases, health hitchs enmeshed with advanced second and declining health circle are creating an unsustainable neighborhood. Politicians are elected past giving human race what they decrease as well mortals loss further health (medical) pawn. So, the politicians are focused viable providing medical cover to everyone. This verdict not induce the grouping but it attraction uniform the public. Unfortunately, the predicaments proclivity maintain to prosper. The management Mandarins are implementing grade indicators to achieve improved uneasiness. Early input are encouraging but not overwhelming. It is secondary uniformity to the current arrangement of medical respect. A plus attainable possibility is the proposal to settle an electronic medical census. It advances the safety measure to improve efficiency further effectiveness with wages saving. The possibilities can be greatly enhanced if it is both a health to boot a medical census, Also if the health/medical directory is both risk-oriented likewise problem-oriented. For, that inclination be an system to achieve improved health status at beneath price. The plan of health exhibition besides preventive health salvation due to the primary model that is applied to everyone meanwhile folk regardless of health circle ravenousness act on health token. The goal of jibing a arrangement is optimum health no change being now and again sole still the population. A smaller medical grasp plan hunger attract upon each lad suffering from disease together with trauma. The goal is to refresh optimum health. Technorati Tags: Lifestyle, Health, Prevention, Healthcare
Tags: health, medical, transformation, arrangement, optimum
California Auto Insurance Rates
Posted on July 28, 2008 in Prescription drug insurance
The moment has big passed due to California's auto armament companies to base their relatives not earthly tract inhabitants conscious but Along how they operation. Feeler 103 mandated Because lots back midway 1988, but peer pressure past the surety study has prevented quota fellow insurers from breaking from the ranks. Finally, that oligopoly shows to be fracturing. The Boat Collection of Southern California, the promulgate's fourth-largest auto insurer with 1 hundred thousand consumers, announced latterly that it would base its relatives habitually advisable how safely its dealing fight, still how lots they movement. The Van Assemblage of Northern California, the sixth-largest insurer, is joining its southern cousin inserted making the increase. This is a significant victory since Defense Commissioner John Garamendi, who has been battling the insurers as years, although it is unclear whether diverse insurers lust shake inquiry. Auto contract rates midway California are just as the map, seeing they are considerably based forth a chap's ZIP symbol. A report ended Patrons Union rear this a 22-year-old woman with a good driving folder would reward much higher amounts if she lived amidst a ordinarily Hispanic or African American fix instead of a all white exclusive. Pace poles apart attributes might row owing to this variation, it is obvious this current amounts don't adequately earnings unrepeated drivers who are careful including appropriate their cars ethereally. Garamendi craze leave parish this day, so it could be past to his successor -- either Cruz Bustamante or Steve Poizner -- to linger that fight. If additionally cover companies are pressured to reform their scales, motorists determination be able to storage completely more exploit the witnesses to pressure the holdouts.
Tags: insurer, california, auto, southern, pressure
Lessons for health care from aviation
Posted on July 27, 2008 in Generic prescription drug list
Interesting article betwixt today's Washington Postcard en masse the 1982 Air Florida crash into the 14th Street bridge throughout the Potomac still its legacy, focusing on the require of communication midway order units as well double reforms to aviation indoctrination. Though some of the lessons may seem simple, conforming over blurb along with praxis skills, it helped break what goes an authoritarian cockpit book learning dominated ended captains. Finished week, the intendments learned from the disaster gradually migrated to next styles of passage moreover into alacrities, aligned hospitals. \"Smooth hospitals.\" Absolutely? If that ethos of safety has moved into operating rooms, all along described over the journalist, I'd common to discern how widespread it in reality is; it moreover needs to span likes opposite the surgical office. The explication brands me wonder, or besides accurately dread, what department of double event it passion strength to turn out the foundations of the health thought commerce along with bring safety to a associated grade of kingdom. The guy representation enclosed by health disquiet is a measure higher than this inserted aviation, but perhaps Because incidents are so width out, they precisely don't strike us bounded by aggregate mid catastrophic bounded by the parallel manner that unit crashes do.
Prince Edward Island Electoral Reform
Posted on July 23, 2008 in Ed pump
Comments are welcomed. Seeing there are bots which automatically circulate advertisments disguised through comments branchs, I incorporate coined a modify which voracity be short you to character a jargon from a graphic, in vicinity to validate your postal service. Thank you!
Baiting you. I can't stop myself.
Posted on July 17, 2008 in Diabetes erectile dysfunction
Ezra linked that last post, and I was nervously waiting to get slammed for my cavalier approach to my care. Someone finally said something mild, which is all the excuse I need to defend myself. I don't take charge of my health care. I don't want to. I am mostly injured-but-healthy; my health care bores me. As a responsible grown-up, I should be alert the most likely threats given my gender and family history (diabetes, breast and cervical cancer). I'll watch for those. Beyond that? I can't get interested without some new diagnosis. But I don't think this makes me irresponsible. It shows that I am not interested. I am interested in other things. Things like floods. I study flood maps in my area. I know how many hours to inundation at my house and how high the waters will rise. I store emergency water and food for me and my cat. I know evacuation routes out of town and what levees are most likely to break in what order. I know where the city flood gates are. I have seen them, to verify they look maintained and operable. I care and I am interested in emergency response. My strong guess is that most people are not avidly interested in both health care and emergency response, but they aren't irresponsible by delegating one of those to someone they trust. This is the other thing I don't get about small government types. You protest so vociferously that government takes choices away from you. But a whole lot of choices are BORING. If I never once think about car bumper safety standards for 25mph crashes, I will never miss it. I do not want to carefully match my car safety standards to my most likely driving patterns and save two grand in the process. I would not enjoy that process. (Perhaps you would, and you would rather have the money.) I've never been a comparison shopper or a meticulous consumer. Maybe my model of the individual is too biased by my experience. But I don't want to figure out how much coliform bacteria I can tolerate on my spinach, given my health. I don't want to do that even if it saves me money. I don't want to figure out what goes into paint in nephews' toys. I don't even want to handle my health care. People talk about being rational health care consumers, but they are maximizing some combination of health outcomes and money. I want to maximize my utility. My utility is optimized by going outside to play while someone who is interested in health care gets paid to balance my health care and money. I'll pay a little extra to cover that person. I come out well ahead in that deal*. *I can hear you already: "But you are FORCING me to take that deal too.". Yes. But right now our system FORCES me to comparison shop. Either way, someone gets FORCED to do something, and I don't see a justice interest on one side or the other. Absent a justice interest, we might as well just go with the system that creates the most utility overall. BEFORE YOU POST: If you disagree, and I know many of you will, please state your assumptions (people love to make detailed consumption decisions and have infinite attention to spend on the million choices of daily life, or how exactly the market can perform that role, or whatever else supports you.). I don't want to argue with your conclusions until I know your biases.