Demonstrations for and against the question of abortion are going on all this week outside a clinic in Germantown, Maryland, in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Opponents of abortion have also broadened their attack to seek greater restrictions on sex education and reproductive health. They have particularly targeted government funding and services contracts for the medical charity […]
Category: US healthcare
David Kerr: Gordon Gekko and the NHS
Here in United States, the latest must have app contains software that blocks any mention of the actor, Charlie Sheen. Until recently, Sheen was the highest paid television star in the world but was fired last week after making caustic comments about his employers in public. Subsequently, he has just been awarded the Guinness World […]
David Kerr on Barack Obama’s visit to Silicon Valley
Here on the edge of Silicon Valley we have just had a visit from Barack Obama. His schedule included closed door meetings with the tsars of technology; Jobs (Apple), Zuckerberg (Facebook), and Schmidt (Google). Although the meeting agenda is unknown there is a suspicion in the technosphere that the president is hoping for substantial help […]
Vidhya Alakeson on US healthcare reform
The theatre of politics has been on full display in Washington of late. Last week, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed in March last year that, among many other things, will ensure that more Americans have health insurance coverage. The vote was largely symbolic for the […]
Elizabeth Loder on making fresh, local food available to all – one tomato at a time
“Only two things that money can’t buy, and that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes.” So sings Guy Clark in his cult country-western song. He was right about that last year, when the tomatoes in much of Massachusetts (including those in the backyard garden of yours truly) were hit with late blight. That’s the same fungus […]
Domhnall Macauley on Regina Benjamin, the Surgeon General of the US
One of her ambitions is to climb Kilimanjaro. It’s a tough climb even for a determined and committed woman like Regina Benjamin, Surgeon General of the United States. And, if the Surgeon General sets a target, people will remember. We met, appropriately, at the American College of Sports Medicine meeting in Baltimore after she had […]
Vidhya Alakeson on US anti-abortion legislation
For most of last year, a van covered in anti-abortion slogans has been parked on the corner of Independence Avenue and 3rd Street in Washington DC. Directly in front of it was the US Capitol, home of Congress, and across the street was the main building of the Department of Health and Human Services. The reason for […]
Vidhya Alakason scrutinises US healthcare legislation
The champagne glasses have been put away in Washington DC . It is now time for the hard work of implementing the pages of provisions included in the health reform bill that was passed by Congress last month. While the media coverage has rightly focused on the historic extension of health insurance to cover most of […]
Vidhya Alakeson on the snowstorm hitting US health reform
Last weekend a huge snow storm brought Washington D.C. to a standstill. The federal government is closed, supermarket shelves stand empty waiting for new deliveries and most people are stuck inside, some without electricity. Suddenly the city and its politics seem to be equally frozen. Since the election of the Republican candidate Scott Brown […]
David Kerr: Healthcare reform depends on senate race which is too close to call
Massachusetts voters go to the polls today to elect the late Ted Kennedy’s senate replacement. They also hold the fate of Obama’s healthcare reform programme in their hands. From a 30 point lead in the polls Democratic candidate Martha Coakley’s ratings have plummeted. Recent polls have put Republican candidate Scott Brown ahead. […]