Mayor Ray Nagin exceeded his authority under the New Orleans City Charter when he obligated the city to provide land for a federal hospital in Mid-City, four residents assert in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Orleans Parish Civil District Court.

Wallace Thurman, Sheila Joseph, Veda Manual and Brad Ott are asking Judge Ethel Julien to order the city not to carry out any part of its agreement with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, including the initial November 2007 deal and later amendments.

If successful, the suit would represent a major setback to the proposed 200-bed medical complex slated to open in 2012 on 34 acres bound by Tulane Avenue, South Galvez Street, Canal Street and South Rocheblave Street.

Under the signed memorandum of understanding, the state and its contractors are, on behalf of the city, conducting title searches, appraisals, negotiations for purchase and, if necessary, court-ordered takings of parcels in that area. The Nagin administration has said it has a Nov. 24, 2009, deadline to turn over the land.

Thurman and Joseph are property owners in the footprint. Manual and Ott are claiming standing as city taxpayers, patrons of the Sewerage & Water Board and regular users of the public streets in the footprint.

The 28-page complaint says Nagin assumed powers that the charter and state law grant explicitly to the City Council or City Planning Commission, entities that to date have had little official role in the hospital planning. The suit also cites Charter provisions requiring that public hearings precede certain binding actions.

In a statement released late Tuesday, City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields disputed the suit's allegations that public input had been stifled, calling review of the plan "one of the most extensive public participation processes in the city's history."

"Any attempt to revisit agreements reached in late 2007, all of which were publicized and made available to the city's citizens, cannot be said to promote better government or adherence to the City Charter," Moses Fields wrote. "Instead, the complaint seeks on behalf of four property owners only to delay the city's most important, post-Katrina public, health and safety project."

The local VA office, which is not a defendant, declined to comment.

The suit does not directly involve the state teaching hospital that would be built across Galvez Street, between Tulane and Canal Streets. But local, state and federal authorities have planned the structures concurrently, particularly since Hurricane Katrina, and both facilities are objects of protest by planning groups, health-care advocacy organizations and neighborhood associations that describe the planning process as flawed and secretive.

Acquisition of property for the state-run hospital is currently on hold while officials seek to broker a governance agreement between LSU and Tulane University.

The Nagin-VA deal calls for the city to gain control of the 34 acres, clear the land and present the VA a construction-ready site, with the city subsequently making infrastructure changes to meet the hospital's architectural and engineering specifications.

Among the relevant Charter provisions the suit argues are at odds with Nagin's actions:

-- Any cooperative endeavor agreement -- a legal term that the suit says encompasses the VA agreement -- that obligates the city for more than one year must be advertised publicly and approved by a majority of the council before it can be signed by the mayor.

-- The city cannot acquire immovable property "without the approval of the City Planning Commission as to its use."

-- Contracts obligating city finances, such as potential penalty payments to the VA should the city violate the agreement, cannot be signed before the council appropriates the money.

-- Closing city streets requires a council ordinance, after receiving recommendations from the City Planning Commission, with citizens given the opportunity for a hearing before a binding action.

The suit also asserts that the Planning Commission has not properly incorporated the hospital into the ongoing process for a Master Plan, which will carry the force of law under a charter amendment voters approved last year.

The plaintiffs are represented by the Metairie firm of Anzelmo, Milliner & Burke. Salvador Anzelmo served as city attorney under New Orleans Mayor Dutch Morial. Thomas Milliner was deputy city attorney under Morial and his successor Sidney Barthelemy.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1247635861115060.xml&coll=1&thispage=2

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Honore: Ex-La. governor halted hospital reopening

The Times-Picayune | 07.14.09

By CAIN BURDEAU

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans and worsened the medical plight of the city's poor, then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the publicly run Charity Hospital would not reopen, even though the military had scrubbed the building to medical-ready standards, the retired Army general who oversaw the work said.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Lt. Gen. Russel Honore said Blanco told him in late September 2005 the 20-story building that served the region's poor residents would not reopen.

"'Ma'am, we got the hospital clean, my people report ... if you want to use it,'" Honore recalled telling Blanco. "Her reply to me: 'Well general, we're not going to open it, we're working on a different plan.'"

Honore's revelation raises questions of whether state officials used Katrina as an excuse to leverage federal financing for a new public hospital.

It comes as state and federal officials continue squabbling over how badly the hospital was really damaged and how much federal recovery funding should be allocated to it.

The state wants $492 million for a new hospital to replace the Depression-era building as part of a proposed $1.2 billion medical complex. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has offered $150 million for repairs. The dispute is on appeal at FEMA headquarters.

Blanco said she could not remember the conversation with Honore. She said she didn't know the military had scrubbed Charity until she was contacted by the AP.

But she said Honore's comments struck her as out of context. "I would not have made that statement because I would not have the first idea of having other plans for Charity at that moment," Blanco said.

Honore suggested that money, not medical judgment, was at the heart of the decision.

"This is about business, man," Honore said. "This is about rich people making more money. This is not about providing health care."

Keith Twitchell, president of the good-government Committee for a Better New Orleans/Metropolitan Area Committee, said "anything he (Honore) says must be given credence," but it seemed improbable that state officials hatched long-term plans so quickly.

"Two, three weeks after Katrina, it's hard to imagine anyone at the state level was thinking, 'Oh, boy, this is our chance to shut down Charity,'" Twitchell said.

Charity's closing forced needy residents to turn to the few overcrowded, private hospitals still operating, which financially stressed them.

FEMA also spent more than $90 million to open temporary facilities, including a hospital in a shopping mall.

In documents filed with FEMA, the state said a damage assessment was done at Charity within the first two weeks after Katrina. Citing floodwater in the basement, wind damage to the roof, widespread mold and human and medical waste, they claimed the hospital was destroyed.

Blanco said she was told Charity was contaminated because the air conditioning and heating systems flooded and "affected the core operations of the entire building."

She said she relied on the advice of Jerry Jones, director of State Facility Planning and Control, an office that oversees public buildings. Jones did not return repeated telephone calls seeking comment.

When the 82nd Airborne Division arrived in the ravaged city in early September 2005, Charity was identified as key. It was in the center of town and provided a lot of people care, said the division's commander, Gen. William Caldwell.

About 150 soldiers and a team of medical professionals worked to get the hospital running, Caldwell said.

Meanwhile, a German military team's pumps sucked water out of the basement. Air sampling found no contamination — a concern, considering the flooding and bodies in the flooded morgue, Caldwell said.

Caldwell recalled telling Honore the hospital was nearly ready to receive patients. "We were actually thinking of having a ribbon-cutting ceremony, give a thumbs up and turn it over to the health care professionals," Caldwell said.

But then, Caldwell said a decision came to stop the cleanup.

Dr. James Moises, a former Charity emergency room doctor who helped clean the hospital after Katrina, said Charity was made useable, and the medical staff was eager to see it back in use.

Moises said state officials used Katrina as an excuse to close Charity and ask FEMA for the money to build a new medical complex. Moises said: "It was their orchestrated plan. It was, 'How can we manipulate the disaster for institutional gains?'"

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/national-35/1247579095143040.xml&storylist=hurricane

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LSUHSC-S Medical Library staffers reach out to children

Shreveport Times | 07.15.09

By Melody Brumble

Kaylynn Armstrong got a refresher course in heart-healthy behaviors during story hour Tuesday at Shreve Memorial's Mooretown branch library in Shreveport.

The story hours are part of a grant-funded outreach program operated by the LSU Health Sciences Center-Shreveport's Medical Library staff. On Tuesday, Deidra Woodson, one of the medical librarians, read a book featuring the Cat in the Hat, then led children in an activity to identify healthy and unhealthy behavior.

Kaylynn, 10, jumped up and down enthusiastically to identify the healthy behaviors like walking and eating vegetables.

"Every day I eat a nutritious breakfast," Kaylynn said. "I do a lot of exercising. We go to a pool near us and we walk around."

The story hours will continue for the rest of the year, Woodson said. The story hours are the latest effort to bring accurate, easy-to-understand medical and health information to the public.

Grants from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine/South Central Region allowed the medical library to create partnerships with the Martin Luther King Health Center, the Multicultural Center of the South, federally qualified health centers and the Philadelphia Center.

The medical library put public-access computers at those sites and taught staffers at each location how to find health information at Healthelinks, the National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlus and other online resources, said Marianne Comegys, head of the LSUHSC-S Medical Library.

Grant money also helped the library offer outreach to youth at the Cavanaugh Center and the elderly at The Glen Retirement Center. Librarians will start another outreach project at Azalea Estates this year, Comegys said.

Janet Mentesane, director of the Martin Luther King Health Center, praised the medical librarians' outreach to the center's patients, who have limited access to health care and information.

"Without the collaboration of the medical library, our health information capabilities would be very limited," Mentesane said. "They have been a great partner in providing health care to our at-risk patients."

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090715/NEWS01/907150334

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LSUHSC's Bazan awarded ARRA grant to preserve vision

EurekAlert | 07.14.09

New Orleans, LA – Haydee Bazan, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, has been awarded a $710,000 grant over two years by the National Institutes of Health to advance her research on potential therapeutic approaches to heal corneal injuries. The grant was awarded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Dr. Bazan's research project explores the mechanisms of inflammation and repair during corneal wound healing. Sustained corneal inflammation may lead to destruction and corneal ulceration, but inflammation is a component of the corneal wound healing process. There is a critical balance between signaling mechanisms that promote either cellular damage or repair. This balance is fundamental to the maintenance of corneal integrity and function and extensive damage occurs when the equilibrium between chemical messengers (lipid mediators) that are released in response to tissue injury in the cornea is lost. Dr. Bazan's research will focus on several of these mediators – platelet-activating factor (PAF) which appears to play a key role contributing to tissue destruction, and the arachidonic acid (AA)- mediators that play a key role in tissue repair. AA-mediators, lipoxin A4 and the aspirin-triggered epi-LxA4, will be studied .

"If our hypothesis is correct, PAF antagonists, and the lipoxins and epi-lipoxins can become effective therapeutic tools for maintaining the transparency and integrity of the cornea," notes Dr. Bazan.

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, each year, more than 2.5 million eye injuries occur and 50,000 people permanently lose part or all of their vision.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, eye injury is a leading cause of monocular blindness (blindness in one eye) in the United States. In 2004, about 37,000 eye injuries occurred in the workplace that resulted in one or more days away from work. The majority of these eye injuries occurred in workers less than 45 years of age (74%). The majority of all eye injuries occur in persons under 30 years of age (57%). Common causes of occupational eye injury include blunt trauma, chemical burns, corneal abrasions (a scratch on the cornea, the clear dome-shaped surface that covers the front of the eye), and biological contamination (infections).

LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans educates the majority of Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's academic health leader, LSUHSC comprises a School of Medicine, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, Schools of Allied Health Professions and Graduate Studies, as well as the only School of Nursing in Louisiana within an academic health center. LSUHSC faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout Louisiana. In the vanguard of biosciences research in a number of areas worldwide, LSUHSC faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, treat, or cure disease. LSUHSC outreach programs span the state.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/lsuh-lba071409.php

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Letter: Health-care reform may be scuttled

The Advocate | 07.15.09

Pamela Behan, Ph.D.

It is not a coincidence that national health-care reform has recently been delayed, and appears on track to be scuttled entirely (again) by the powerful forces arrayed against it.

As a registered nurse, I went back to school almost 20 years ago to learn about this issue. I discovered that our political institutions are stacked against “people” issues such as this, making reform much easier to block than to pass. The result in health care is a system organized around the interests of powerful profit-making insurance and provider corporations.

They and their political allies are determined to block any changes that might threaten their interests. Yet reducing their profits and control is precisely what is necessary to reduce health-care inflation, as other nations have done.

If we don’t want to see this problem drag on forever, pulling half the population down within our economy and pulling the U.S. economy down among the nations, our senators and representatives (particularly the “blue-dog Democrats”) need to hear from us. We mustn’t let misrepresentations and fear stop us this time.

One basic fact to keep in mind: No nation has successfully controlled health-care costs without covering almost all of its citizens in large enough insurance plans to negotiate concessions from providers.

There is much more to this complex issue than I can address in this space. However, I would be happy to talk with any group seriously interested in learning more.

Pamela Behan, Ph.D.

college professor

Baton Rouge

http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/50810387.html

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EDITORIAL: Bringing doctors to disasters

The Times-Picayune | 07.15.09

Louisiana has joined a group of 10 states that will allow medical professionals to practice within each others' borders in disasters -- a sensible response to the difficulties in allowing such help after Hurricane Katrina.

"One of the things that still haunts me today was the lack of help we had post-storm," said Jullette Saussy, director of New Orleans Emergency Medical Services.

That shouldn't happen again, with passage of the Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practionioners Act during the legislative session. Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the act into law this week.

Doctors, nurses and mental health counselors in the participating states can sign up to participate ahead of time or after an emergency has begun. Those who do so will be legally certified to help in a disaster, with limited exposure to lawsuits for 30 days, a period that can be extended by the state's governor.

Another nine states have introduced the legislation, which was devised by the Uniform Law Commission.

Louisianians know first-hand how important it is to get enough medical help during an emergency -- and how difficult it is during chaotic conditions to make sure that the helpers are qualified. This act addresses both concerns.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1247635811115060.xml&coll=1

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House Democrats vow healthcare plan by August

Boston Globe | 07.14.09

By Donna Smith

REUTERS/Lee Celano

Beds lie empty in the emergency room of Tulane University Hospital in New Orleans February 14, 2006.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's plans to overhaul the $2.5 trillion healthcare industry got a boost on Tuesday in the House of Representatives where Democrats predicted passage on schedule by August.

House leaders from Obama's Democratic party were set to release the final proposal in the afternoon with a planned tax on the wealthy to raise an expected $540 billion over 10 years to help pay for expanded care.

Health insurance is a top priority for Obama, who took office in January. Millions of Americans are without health insurance, even though the country spends more on healthcare per capita than anywhere else.

"The president made it very clear that this was his Number One priority," and wanted it done prior to the congressional August break, House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer told a weekly news conference.

"We believe this can be done," he said.

In the face of criticism from Republicans who typically oppose tax increases, House Democratic leaders said the tax on the wealthy was "only one option" to help lower costs and ensure coverage for more of the 46 million uninsured.

The proposal includes a government-run health insurance plan that will compete with private insurers and changes in the government's Medicare program for the elderly and seeks savings from drug companies, hospitals and health insurers.

Hoyer promised to address concerns of fiscally conservative Democrats about an expected $1 trillion cost and to ensure no increase in the federal deficit.

Democratic Representative Jason Altmire insisted: "This is not a government takeover of healthcare."

Obama has pressed lawmakers to work swiftly. Rapidly rising costs of care and coverage for the uninsured are the major forces behind the healthcare drive.

Government-paid programs account for about one-third of total U.S. spending on healthcare, which overall makes up nearly 17 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product.

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to debate its version next week, and once both bills clear the chambers, lawmakers aim for passage of a final compromise bill by October.

TAXES, MEDICARE

The income tax on the wealthy would be imposed on individuals whose income begins at $280,000 and for couples starting at $350,000, rising in two steps to $1 million, lawmakers have said.

Initially lawmakers were looking at taxes ranging from 1 percent to 3 percent, but congressional sources said the top rate for millionaires would be 5.4 percent.

The House committees' legislation is expected to include $500 billion in savings from the Medicare health program for the poor and elderly over 10 years, at the same time trying to improve care.

The bill will include a blue-ribbon commission through the U.S. Institute of Medicine that will have a year to recommend changes in Medicare reimbursement rates, said Representative Ron Kind of the House Ways and Means Committee, one of three committees writing the healthcare bill.

Lawmakers will look for additional ways to save money within the current healthcare system.

Studies have shown that costs of care vary in the United States, with little link to quality of care. Low-cost areas have been shown to have the same or better health outcomes from treatment than high-cost areas.

Drug companies, health insurers and hospitals have all been asked to commit to helping save money in government-run health programs.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/07/14/house_health_bill_surtaxes_in_2011_medicare_changes/

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La. Looks to Congress For Medicaid Relief

WDSU | 07.14.09

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration hopes the health care debate in Washington will help Louisiana resolve a looming $1 billion Medicaid problem.

That's the amount of money the state will have to come up with in two years to keep its Medicaid program operating at current levels unless it can get some relief from Congress.

Louisiana Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine met with members of Congress in Washington last week and says he's optimistic a deal can be struck to help Louisiana.

Medicaid costs are shared between states and the federal government, tied to the state's per-capita income. The federal government's share of Louisiana's Medicaid costs is expected to shrink from 80 percent to 63 percent in 2011 because the state's post-hurricane economic surge temporarily boosted per-capita income.

http://www.wdsu.com/news/20051815/detail.html

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House Democrats finalize health care bill; floor debate could begin a week from Monday

The Times-Picayune | 07.15.09

by Erica Werner, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democratic leaders, pledging to meet the president's goal of health care legislation before their August break, are offering a $1.5 trillion plan that for the first time would make health care a right and a responsibility for all Americans. Left to pick up most of the tab were medical providers, employers and the wealthy.

"We cannot allow this issue to be delayed. We cannot put it off again," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee, said Tuesday. "We, quite frankly, cannot go home for a recess unless the House and the Senate both pass bills to reform and restructure our health care system."

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid said he wanted floor debate to begin a week from Monday. With the Senate Finance Committee still struggling to reach consensus, that timetable could slip. Even so, it underscored a renewed sense of urgency.

Obama himself was driving the action, going off-script to push the issue during a speech in Michigan and scheduling a Rose Garden news conference for Wednesday to make more comments on the topic.

"There's going to be a major debate over the next three weeks," Obama said in Warren, Mich., deviating from his prepared text on new spending for community colleges. "And don't be fooled by folks trying to scare you saying we can't change the health care system. We have no choice but to change the health care system because right now it's broken for too many Americans."

Obama's political organization is launching a series of 30-second television ads on health care, which will begin airing Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and on cable TV nationally. A version will run on local stations in eight states -- Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, North Dakota, Nebraska and Ohio -- to prod senators to back the health care effort. They will run for two weeks.

In the ads, private citizens describe problems they've had with the medical system and say it's time for action. The sponsor is Organizing for America, Obama's campaign organization, which has become part of the national Democratic Party. The group would not reveal the cost.

All involved were mindful of the dwindling days before Congress leaves town. Obama wants legislation through the House and Senate before then to slow rising costs and extend coverage to some 50 million uninsured Americans.

Under the House Democrats' plan, the federal government would be responsible for ensuring that every person, regardless of income or the state of their health, has access to an affordable insurance plan. Individuals and employers would have new obligations to get coverage, or face hefty penalties.

The legislation calls for a 5.4 percent tax increase on individuals making more than $1 million a year, with a gradual tax beginning at $280,000 for individuals. Employers who don't provide coverage would be hit with a penalty equal to 8 percent of workers' wages, with an exemption for small businesses. Individuals who decline an offer of affordable coverage would pay 2.5 percent of their incomes as a penalty, up to the average cost of a health insurance plan.

The liberal-leaning plan lacked figures on total costs, but a House Democratic aide said the total bill would add up to about $1.5 trillion over 10 years. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private calculations.

Three House committees will begin voting on the bill Thursday. Changes in the legislation are likely to satisfy a group of moderate and conservative Democrats who are withholding support.

The 1,000-page bill is unlikely to attract any Republican backing, and business groups and the insurance industry immediately assailed it as a job-killer.

The business groups also warned that the U.S. health care system could be damaged by adding a government-run insurance plan and a federal council that would make some decisions on benefits, as called for in the legislation. Thirty-one organizations signed the letter, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable representing top corporate CEOs and the National Retail Federation.

The House bill seemed unlikely to win broad backing in the Senate, where the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was expected to finish its version of the legislation Wednesday in what was looking to be a party-line vote.

The Finance Committee was striving to produce a bill by the end of the week, though the committee's chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., acknowledged it would be a challenge to meet Obama's timeline.

"I think it's a lift but one we could accomplish, one we could handle," Baucus said. "I'm not going to guarantee that it's going to happen."

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/house_democrats_finalize_healt.html

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House bill would make health care a right

Associated Press | 07.15.09

By ERICA WERNER

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democratic leaders, pledging to meet the president's goal of health care legislation before their August break, are offering a $1.5 trillion plan that for the first time would make health care a right and a responsibility for all Americans. Left to pick up most of the tab were medical providers, employers and the wealthy.

Obama himself was driving the action, going off-script to push the issue during a speech in Michigan and scheduling a Rose Garden news conference for Wednesday to make more comments on the topic.

Obama's political organization is launching a series of 30-second television ads on health care, which will begin airing Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and on cable TV nationally. A version will run on local stations in eight states — Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, North Dakota, Nebraska and Ohio — to prod senators to back the health care effort. They will run for two weeks.

Three House committees will begin voting on the bill Thursday. Changes in the legislation are likely to satisfy a group of moderate and conservative Democrats who are withholding support.

The 1,000-page bill is unlikely to attract any Republican backing, and business groups and the insurance industry immediately assailed it as a job-killer.

The Finance Committee was striving to produce a bill by the end of the week, though the committee's chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., acknowledged it would be a challenge to meet Obama's timeline.

"I think it's a lift but one we could accomplish, one we could handle," Baucus said. "I'm not going to guarantee that it's going to happen."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlMpJGn28kqCcgU-aGcYE_ZHW-ywD99EQPSG2

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Obama group airing TV ad touting health overhaul

Associated Press | 07.15.09

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's political organization is running its first television ads boosting his drive to revamp health care.

The 30-second ads will begin airing Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and on cable TV nationally. A version will run on local stations in eight states to prod senators to back the health care effort. They will run for two weeks.

The ads will run in Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, North Dakota, Nebraska and Ohio.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hzuhAzIdTurhqxb3wILlH1RtaFzQD99EQMM03

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Obama May Rely on Partisan Vote for Health-Care Bill

Bloomberg.com | 07.15.09

By Edwin Chen

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama may rely only on Democrats to push health-care legislation through the U.S. Congress if Republican resistance doesn’t eventually give way, two of the president’s top advisers said.

“Ultimately, this is not about a process, it’s about results,” David Axelrod, Obama’s senior political strategist, said during an interview yesterday in his White House office. “If we’re going to get this thing done, obviously time is a- wasting.”

Both Axelrod and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said taking a partisan route to enacting major health-care legislation isn’t the president’s preferred choice. Yet in separate interviews, each man left that option open.

“We’d like to do it with the votes of members of both parties,” Axelrod said. “But the worst result would be to not get health-care reform done.”

House Democrats yesterday unveiled legislation that would expand health care to millions of Americans over the next decade by raising taxes on the wealthiest households. The Senate has yet to agree on a bill, as Democratic lawmakers struggle to get Republican support.

“This is nothing but a job-killing, tax-raising measure that will actually take away the quality of care we’ve been used to,” said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia in an interview today with CNBC.

Cantor, the second-ranking House Republican, criticized a provision of the bill that would penalize employers who don’t offer benefits.

Republican Ideas

Emanuel, making a theoretical case for a party-line vote, offered a definition of bipartisanship based not on roll-call votes but on whether Democrats have accepted Republican ideas during the process of negotiations.

He said Democrats already have passed that test, pointing to Republican amendments that the Democratic-controlled Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has adopted.

“That’s a test of bipartisanship -- whether you took ideas from both parties,” Emanuel said. “At the end of the day, the test isn’t whether they voted for it,” he said, referring to Republicans. “The test is whether the final product represented some of their ideas. And I think it will.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a statement last night that “Americans want us to work together on proposals that are likely to garner strong bipartisan support --- not rush through bills like the stimulus with little scrutiny and predictable results.”

McConnell referred to the Obama-backed economic stimulus bill that was passed into law in February with no Republican support in the House and three Republican votes in the Senate.

Dole, Daschle

Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, said in a statement he was “very disappointed to hear recent reports that the administration may give up on a bipartisan solution to health-care reform.” Health care “is not a Democrat or Republican issue, it is an American issue, but, from the start of this health-care debate, Democrats have shut us completely out the process,” he also said.

Two former Senate majority leaders -- Robert Dole, a Republican from Kansas, and Tom Daschle, a Democrat from South Dakota who is a White House adviser on health-care policy -- are among those who have inveighed against a partisan approach on such a contentious issue.

‘Couldn’t Agree More’

During a joint appearance in June as they unveiled their own bipartisan health-care proposal, Dole said he believed Democrats could pass a bill by a party-line vote, even as he expressed disapproval of such a tactic.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Dole said. “If there’s not a Senate Republican vote for the package, then the American people are going to be very skeptical.

The Democrats have 60 votes in the Senate to 40 for the Republicans, and have a 255-178 advantage in the House, with two vacancies.

Daschle at the joint appearance said he “couldn’t agree more” with Dole’s warning about the political fallout from a partisan vote.

Moreover, he expressed doubt that Democrats alone could prevail, because that scenario “assumes unanimity” among the party’s lawmakers, and that isn’t the case.

Senate Democrats

Obama has yet to secure the support of a pivotal group of Senate Democrats, which includes Evan Bayh of Indiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. In addition, Senators Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Robert Byrd of West Virginia may miss votes because of poor health.

In the Senate, it takes 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.

Time is running short for the House and Senate to pass versions of the legislation before their August recess, a deadline Obama set for each chamber to act.

In entertaining the possibility of a party-line vote on health care, Emanuel cited “reconciliation,” a parliamentary procedure that a dominant party can use to prevent the other party from blocking legislation in the Senate. Invoking reconciliation would allow Senate Democrats to pass a health- care bill with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes needed to overcome stalling tactics.

“It’s not the first priority, or the second priority, or the third priority. We think we can get it done without it,” Emanuel said.

Yet reconciliation “exists as an alternative vehicle,” he said. “That’s what it was created for.”

Obama Involvement

With time running out, some Democrats have urged Obama to get more deeply involved in the nitty-gritty of legislative negotiations.

Axelrod said the president is likely to do that.

“I can’t guarantee whether his sleeves will be rolled up or not,” he said. “Obviously, as this process evolves, I think he will be very clear about things.”

The White House and Congress are trying to agree on ways to cover the estimated 46 million uninsured Americans and rein in health-care costs.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=apB.0D3v37as#

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Study Cites Hormones as Cancer Risk

The New York Times | 07.14.09

By REUTERS

CHICAGO (Reuters) — Women who took hormone replacement therapy after menopause had a sharply increased risk of ovarian cancer, researchers in Denmark are reporting.

In a study of more than 900,000 Danish women ages 50 to 79, the scientists found 140 extra cases of ovarian cancer linked to hormone treatment over eight years. That translated to a 38 percent greater risk of contracting the disease, compared with women who did not receive the therapy.

Hormone therapy accounted for 5 percent of the cases of ovarian cancer in the study period, the researchers reported in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Even though this share seems low, ovarian cancer remains highly fatal, so accordingly this risk warrants consideration,” wrote the researchers, led by Lina Steinrud Morch of Copenhagen University.

The findings were similar to those in the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative study, which was stopped early because it found an increased risk of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, strokes and other health problems from hormone therapy.

Use of the treatment plunged after those findings were reported, and sales of Prempro, the combined estrogen-progestin therapy sold by Wyeth, have fallen 50 percent since 2001, to around $1 billion a year.

Wyeth’s director of global medical affairs, Dr. Corrado Altomare, who was not involved in the Danish study, said that for women considering hormone therapy, family history and personal medical history “certainly” come into play.

The risks of ovarian cancer were about the same from hormone therapy regardless of the duration of use, the formulation of the hormones, the estrogen dose or how it was administered, according to the study.

As in earlier studies, the recent one found that the cancer risk diminished about two years after therapy was stopped.

Ovarian cancer is diagnosed in roughly 18 out of 100,000 women in the United States each year, according to government statistics, and it killed 15,000 Americans in 2007.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/health/research/15cancer.html

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Swine Flu Is Confirmed in 67 Cadets at the Air Force Academy

The New York Times | 07.14.09

By DAN FROSCH

Mark Reis/The Gazette, via Associated Press

Cadets were tested for flulike symptoms after a march Monday

DENVER — Sixty-seven Air Force cadets have tested positive for swine flu and are being isolated at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, a spokesman for the academy said Tuesday.

The outbreak is the single largest in Colorado, which up until last week had 146 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, according to the State Public Health and Environment Department.

Academy officials first became concerned last week when a growing number of incoming freshman cadets, who began basic training in June, started falling ill with flulike symptoms.

One hundred cadets have been isolated in a dormitory, and test results from an Air Force epidemiology laboratory in Texas found that 67 had contracted swine flu. Results are still pending for dozens of cadets, said John Van Winkle, a spokesman for the academy. Seventy who fell ill were cleared to return to training.

None of the sick cadets have been hospitalized so far, and Mr. Van Winkle described all of the cases as “moderate.” Nonetheless, academy officials said they would not take any chances and called off the annual “Doolie Day Out,” in which freshman cadets, who are known as doolies, are allowed to leave campus.

Mr. Van Winkle said it was nearly impossible to determine the source of the outbreak because some cadets had fanned out across the world for various Air Force-related programs. There are 1,341 cadets in the incoming freshman class.

“Our priority right now is treating those that are ill, limiting the spread and educating our entire base population about what we have done and will continue to do,” Mr. Van Winkle said.

Joe Quimby, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said the centers were working with the Defense Department to investigate the outbreak.

In Colorado, which has seen a relatively low number of swine flu cases until now, a summer youth camp at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley was stopped after 10 students and three staff members exhibited flulike symptoms over the weekend.

There have been about 37,000 confirmed cases of swine flu so far in the United States and its territories. Earlier this month, the Obama administration warned that the illness could resurge in the fall and announced plans to start vaccinations in October.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/us/15flu.html

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