In Washington, "healthcare reform" has degenerated into a sick joke. The House bill will launch this country into a new phase of healthcare apartheid.

The insurance industry is the major problem in health care and Americans know it, but the Democrats are on the verge of forcing Americans to buy insurance while failing to solve America's health care crisis.

Health insurers have just made the best argument yet about why a public insurance option is necessary.

Lobbyist out, lobbyist in. It's why they always win. They're been plowing this ground for years, but with the broad legislative agenda of the Obama White House - health care, energy, financial reform, the Employee Free Choice Act and more - the soil has never been so fertile.

These are literally people who are paying off our government to make sure they don't have to compete, whether it's the too-big-to-fail banks or in this case the health insurance companies...

The Democratic supermajority fails to pass a public option, but don't worry. Senator Max Baucus will pay for your medical bills from the $3.2 million he's received from the health care industry.

The president's health care plan is designed to preserve the parasitic private insurance industry a little while longer. In this context, the public option is a cruel and cynical hoax, an excuse not to abolish the role of private insurance death panels and toll collectors in the nation's health care system.

The essential information Americans need to become knowledgeable participants in healthcare reform.

The only obstacle to passage of the president's health care -- or health insurance legislation is the White House itself.

These next several weeks and months are critical in redirecting our country away from Common Destruction and towards the Common Good. Decisions will be made which could send hopes for health care, education, living wage jobs, a new environmental policy crashing upon the shoals of never ending war.

In a post last week, we noted that David Koch, an American businessman and philanthropist, has given millions to cancer research while his company, Koch Industries, lobbied against formal recognition of formaldehyde as a carcinogen. In a post today, Think Progress’ Wonk Room pointed out another seeming contradiction: Today, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the “first round of applicants accepted into the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program,” a $5 billion program established by the new health care law to help employers and states “maintain coverage for early retirees age 55 and older who are not yet eligible for Medicare.” According to the agency, “nearly 2,000 employers, representing large and small businesses, State and local governments, educational institutions, non-profits, and unions” applied and have been accepted into the program and “will begin to receive reimbursements for employee claims this fall.” Tags: Health care Economic Death Squad

The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a ballot initiative that sought to amend the state’s constitution to establish that Florida residents have a right to refuse to purchase mandatory health insurance – including under President Obama’s reform effort. The state high court voted 5 to 2 to exclude the referendum issue from the November ballot." Tags: Health care Obama Illusion

Obama administration on Tuesday appealed a ruling that blocked federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, asking the judge who issued the injunction to put it on hold pending the appeal. The Justice Department asked Judge Royce Lamberth to lift the injunction he imposed last week after two doctors sued over the administration's policy, saying it violated U.S. law because it involved destroying embryos and that it also made it more difficult for them to win federal research grants." Tags: Stem Cells

There’s a plague sweeping across the United States, and this one has nothing to do with sparkly vampires. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just confirmed – bed bugs are back! Bed bugs are small insects that feed on sleeping animals – namely, us. They are expert hiders and tend to live within eight feet of where people sleep. The intrepid little suckers are making a comeback and it is leading to heightened levels of scratching and anxiety. The blood-sucking insects were more common in the mid-twentieth century and were mostly eradicated by the end of the century. But experts think world travel and the lack of effective pesticides have led to their resurgence. DDT and its cancer-causing agents were credited with the initial demise of bed bugs. But DDT was banned in 1972, and so the bugs have returned." Tags: pollution Personal Health

One of FDA report, for Wright County Egg, found "excessive amounts of manure" blocking the entrances to some henhouses -- "approximately 4 feet high to 8 feet high" in several areas. The report documented live mice in the egg-laying houses, and "live and dead flies" and "live and dead maggots too numerous to count." Another report, for Hillandale Farms, noted unsealed rodent holes and manure problems. It also reported that the water used to wash eggs tested positive for salmonella. Wright County Egg told The Wall Street Journal that the company has "worked around the clock [6]" to address the FDA's concerns; Hillandale farms said it was "in the process of responding to the FDA's written report to provide further explanation and clarification of what was observed." " Tags: FDA Animal Rights Personal Health food crisis

Autism among U.S. children has reached epidemic proportion. And it's getting worse by the year. Since the '70's, there has been a 60-fold increase in American children with autism. Currently one in every 100 U.S. children and one in every 58 boys are being diagnosed with autism. That's over 2.6 percent of all male children in America. The number of autistic children expected to reach adulthood in the next 10 years along with their caregivers will exceed the population of Rhode Island and cost an estimated $27 billion in additional care beyond the almost $60 billion being spent on current autism-related costs. (1,2)" Tags: Autism pollution

One of the most contentious issues in the vast literature about alcohol consumption has been the consistent finding that those who don't drink actually tend to die sooner than those who do. The standard Alcoholics Anonymous explanation for this finding is that many of those who show up as abstainers in such research are actually former hard-core drunks who had already incurred health problems associated with drinking. But a new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that — for reasons that aren't entirely clear — abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one's risk of dying even when you exclude former drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers' mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers. " Tags: alcohol

Federal health inspection reports released Monday show numerous violations at the egg factories involved in the massive egg recall this month. There was considerable evidence of rodent infestations and other unsanitary conditions. The Food and Drug Administration said it's unclear whether the level of violations was greater than what might be expected at a large operation like this. Tags: food crisis

With a little luck, this summer’s massive egg recall could be the last of its kind in the United States, and a Lenexa company will play a big part in making that happen. That’s because more farms are vaccinating their poultry against salmonella, and Ceva Biomune is the biggest of three U.S. companies making salmonella vaccines for egg-laying hens. Since the salmonella outbreak and the recall of nearly 550 million eggs, the Food and Drug Administration has been criticized for not ordering use of the vaccines years ago. After a similar crisis in 1997, Great Britain pushed the vaccines and says it has now virtually eliminated the problem." Tags: food crisis

For one thing, the man at the heart of the recall is an utter criminal with a record spanning longer than I’ve been alive. And the egg industry itself has faced intense pressure to consolidate and to have larger and larger egg farms over the years. And, for their success at making eggs cheaper and cheaper, egg farmers have been rewarded with roughly NOTHING. Egg prices to the farmers have stayed flat. But egg prices to the consumer have gone up over time. Who’s taking the extra money? The retailer. So this isn’t a simple case of "you get what you pay for." If you adjusted for inflation, you’ve probably been paying about the same price for eggs over the years, but the farmer has been getting less and less, and at the same time, the farmer’s made the costs of production go down to stay in business. But meanwhile, the retailer is taking a larger chunk of the money. Fair? I say no." Tags: Personal Health

United States federal agencies delayed action for weeks after becoming aware of a salmonella outbreak that has thus far infected thousands of people, while the companies involved were allowed to continue operations. The recall demonstrates how the government agencies supposedly ensuring the safety of the food supply are both woefully ineffective and beholden to the profits of the companies they are tasked to regulate. The state of California was most likely the first to identify salmonella illnesses linked to the two Iowa egg producers. The Santa Clara County Public Health Department states that on May 28 and 29 several people became sick after attending two catered events. A common link among those who fell ill was consumption of a custard filling made with shell eggs. Tags: Personal Health food crisis

It was enough to make the nation put down their Egg McMuffins. Almost a billion "government-inspected" eggs were recalled because they might harbor salmonella, a bacterium that causes bloody and mucoid diarrhea, fever and vomiting. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg warned people that if they ate their eggs runny and over-easy, something else could become runny and over-easy -- not to mention sunny-side-up. It's hard to believe a nation so concerned with cardiovascular disease -- 33.5 million take statins -- would eat the "strokes in a shell" known as eggs, the highest cholesterol food known to man. And there are even more reasons to remove eggs from your diet. Here are eight of them. Tags: Personal Health food crisis

A study released finds that 39 sites in 21 states where coal-fired power plants dump their coal ash are contaminating water with toxic metals such as arsenic and other pollutants, and that the problem is more extensive than previously estimated. The analysis of state pollution data by the Environmental Integrity Project, the Sierra Club and Earthjustice comes as the Environmental Protection Agency is considering whether to impose federally enforceable regulations for the first time. An alternative option would leave regulation of coal ash disposal up to the states, as it is now. The EPA will hold the first of seven nationwide hearings about the proposed regulation Monday in Arlington, Va. A public comment period ends Nov. 19. " Tags: pollution water Personal Health

Male rats exposed before birth to low doses of the weedkiller atrazine are more likely to develop prostate inflammation and to go through puberty later than non-exposed animals, finds a new study conducted by federal government scientists. One of the most common agricultural herbicides in the United States, some 80 million pounds of atrazine are applied across the country every year to control broadleaf and grassy weeds in crops such as corn and sugar cane. It is the main ingredient in about 40 name-brand herbicides. "Atrazine is a staple product for producers, who use it as a critical tool for weed control in growing the vast majority of corn, sorghum and sugarcane in the United States. Use of atrazine fights weed resistance, reduces soil erosion and increases crop yield," according to the Triazine Network, an association of growers and researchers. " Tags: Sexual Health Personal Health

California became the first state in the nation to pass the bills setting up insurance exchanges through the legislature. The exchanges would not come online until 2014, but the state now has four years to codify the rules. An excerpt: Many aspects of the exchange are mandated under the federal law, so many features of California’s model will be included in those adopted by other states. The exchange is expected to offer insurance through a website that will provide standardized and detailed information about plans, so consumers can compare them. It will have a toll-free number, and will set up a program of live helpers, or navigators, to help explain plans to consumers. The exchanges aren’t required to be fully up and running until January 2014, when key provisions of the new federal health law kick in, although some exchange operations may start earlier. Following federal requirements, the California exchange will sell insurance in five categories, ranging from rich “platinum”-level benefits to a plan for young people offering catastrophic coverage." Tags: Health care

While scores of brands have been recalled, they all can be traced back to just two egg farms. Our food supply is increasingly in the hands of larger and larger companies, which wield enormous power in our political process. As with the food industry, so, too, is it with oil and with banks: Giant corporations, some with budgets larger than most nations, are controlling our health, our environment, our economy and increasingly, our elections. The salmonella outbreak is just the most recent episode of many that point to a food industry run amok. Patty Lovera is the assistant director of the food-safety group Food & Water Watch. She told me: “Historically, there’s always been industry resistance to any food-safety regulation, whether it’s in Congress or through the agencies. There are large trade associations for every sector of our food supply, starting from the large agribusiness-type producers all the way through to the grocery stores.” Tags: Personal Health food crisis Economic Death Squad

An experimental therapy that targets the protein that feeds certain types of advanced skin cancer has successfully shrunk tumors in up to 80 percent of test patients, a study has indicated. The orally-administered medication, called PLX4032, "shuts off" tumors by neutralizing a mutated gene called "BRAF" that feeds the cancerous growths. "We have never seen an 80 percent response rate in melanoma, or in any other solid tumor for that matter, so this is remarkable," said Paul Chapman, senior author of the study and a doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "Metastatic melanoma has a devastating prognosis and is one of the top causes of cancer death in young patients," said Keith Flaherty of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and a lead author. Tags: Cancer Personal Health

Stimulus Help for Health Insurance Program Ended May 31, Leaving Many Families Without Affordable Options for Health Care. The change has gone little-noticed, both by the press and by the laid-off persons impacted by it. But a popular stimulus provision, the federal subsidy of COBRA benefits, expired for newly unemployed workers as of the first day of June. That means, for the average worker who has lost her job since May 31, the cost of COBRA has tripled. COBRA — a provision created in the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 — gives workers the option of buying into their old health-care plan when they lose their job. Before the recession, COBRA let workers who lost their job through no fault of their own pay the entire health-care premium plus a two-percent administrative fee to keep coverage, about $8,800 per year for the average enrollee. (Generally, COBRA lasted 18 months.) As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or the 2009 stimulus, Congress subsidized this coverage, given the massive number and economic hardship of laid-off workers. The subsidy paid for 65 percent of health-care premiums for up to 15 months, meaning an average enrollee paid less than $3,000 a year." Tags: Health care Economic Death Squad

One of the most critical functions of government is to protect our health from hidden dangers in our homes, schools, and workplaces. In particular, we rely upon our government to protect us from dangers that we, as individuals, are powerless to address. Major milestones in the field of public health improvements in the last century include vanquishing threats like botulism, smallpox, and polio, as well as protecting people and the environment by tackling chemical contamination left over from decades of unregulated dumping of hazardous wastes. Today, we face another urgent call for our government to step in and protect future generations from a serious health threat that lurks in schools and homes. " Tags: Personal Health water pollution

American scientists have reacted with anger at a court ruling that strikes down Barack Obama's decision to greatly expand medical research using stem cells taken from human embryos. Scientists described the order by a federal judge in Washington, who said that the president had overstepped a law barring the government funding of research in which human embryos are destroyed, as "deplorable" and "a serious setback" in the search for cures to major diseases. Lawyers for an alliance of Christian groups who brought the case, which tied opposition to experiments on embryonic stem cells to the anti-abortion campaign, said the ruling appeared to go further than restrictions under President George Bush and bar all government funding for such research. It also pushes the ever-contentious issue of abortion to the fore again in the runup to November's mid-term elections and presents Obama with the difficult choice of whether he wants a battle in the courts and in Congress to repeal the legislation." Tags: Stem Cells