Medicare Widens Drugs It Accepts for Cancer

(The New York Times)- Medicare, with little public debate, has expanded its coverage of drugs for cancer treatments not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Cancer doctors had clamored for the changes, saying that some of these treatments, known as off-label uses, were essential if patients were to receive the most up-to-date care. [...]

Boomers Versus the Rest

(Newsweek) Obama says he doesn’t want to mortgage our children’s future. If he means it, he’ll have to cut retirees’ Social Security and Medicare benefits. Who wins? Probably no political platitude is more invoked or more ignored than this: let’s do it for the kids. Everyone recognizes the moral power of making sacrifices today for [...]

Report Criticizes F.D.A. on Device Testing

(The New York Times) WASHINGTON — Most medical devices have never been shown to be safe or effective, and for the riskiest devices this must change, Congressional investigators concluded in a report released Thursday. The Food and Drug Administration has promised for decades that it would fix the problem. It has not, leading the Government [...]

California Is Urged To Require Nursing Homes To Display Star Ratings

(The Los Angeles Times) L.A. County supervisors say patients would be better informed. But critics say the federal ratings can be misleading and don’t account for violations caught by the state. Los Angeles County supervisors have asked state officials to compel California nursing homes to prominently post their new federal star ratings, much in the [...]

Struggling States Slashing Health Care for Poor

(Chicago Tribune) Recession compounds woes as millions lose jobs, insurance WASHINGTON — Even as President-elect Barack Obama plans an ambitious push to expand health coverage nationwide, states around the country are slashing health services to their poorest residents amid the economic downturn. The cutbacks in public assistance come as millions of Americans are losing their jobs [...]

Obama’s Unhealthy Choices

(Newsweek) He can’t control long-term entitlement spending unless he curbs health care, which accounts for a quarter of the federal budget. Barack Obama talked somberly last week about getting the federal budget under control once the present economic crisis is past. By simple arithmetic, that means he’ll have to confront the rapid growth of health [...]