Funding for cancer research?

An interesting article caught my attention today, and it made me question the some of the current methods the healthcare industry is using today.  Dr. James Salwitz of the health care blog wrote how it might be beneficial to stop funding cancer research.  The amount of money we have spent funding cancer research is tremendous, and yet with all the effort that we have put in over the years, the actual gain is extremely minimal.  An interesting fact from the article states that between the years 2000 to 2010 drugs that were produced to help cancer patients actually did very little.  As a matter of fact the drugs did little to extend the life of terminally ill patients, they did however increase the risk of death and or increase side effects.  At the beginning of the 20^th century cancer was not nearly an issue as what it is today.  The reason being is that the average life span lasted till only 47 years of age.  So the main concern during that time was to cure different types of serious infection, medical researchers sought out to make birth safer, and to treat different types of injuries.  Thus by doing this, researches inadvertently almost doubled the life span of the average human being.  After this came a whole new set of issues due to the extended life a person could expect.  Dementia was now prevalent, diabetes and cancer too.  This was now a major issues for medical professionals because with the population living longer these diseases were now popping up more frequently.

            The research that has been funded for cancer the past few decades focused mainly on treatment, and prevention.  That is where the bulk of funding has gone, not that it is a bad thing, but I believe that in this time that we live in now we desperately need a cure, not preventative care, we have many different forms of treatment already.  And while this may extend the life of a person 5,6, maybe 7 years, they are miserable years in which families spend ghastly amounts of money, and the patient is exposed to many different toxins.  Many of us know the destructive nature of cancer and what it can do to not only an individual, but their family as well, so without question I believe that since we already have found the needed treatments, we need to find a cure.  The billions of dollars spent on cancer research needs to be heavily focused on cures, not prevention.  There needs to be a major over hall on cancer research, priorities need to be set and the top priority needs to be to end the suffering of the cruel doings of cancer.  I offer a few suggestions at this point.  Simple and straightforward ideas that can offer better results.  First is getting priorities in order, the money that is being given to cancer research needs to be given to focused more on a cure, than whatever money would be left over can be used for further preventative care, and medicine.  Giving up funding for cancer would be ridiculous, and is in no way an option, however fixing our priorities and focusing on our priorities is how we can and will find a cure.

Birth Control

Julie Rovner from NPR news had an interesting piece on what Governor Mitt Romney's take on birth control was following the debate on October 16th. According to President Obama, Romney wants to get rids of the planned parenthood program. She goes on to say that Obama's claim, that Romney wants to get rid of the program is false and misinterpreted. Romney fires back saying, "the presidents statement of my policy is completely and totally wrong."

In Julie's article she states that Obama's plan for the past few months has been to win the female vote by making Romney seem like he doesn't care about women. "He has been using the birth control issues and abortion issues to sway female votes," says Julie. Obama has actually been succeeding according to this recent poll from swing states. As a counter in her argument she goes to a different source that says Romney is in fact in favor of the abortion issue and thinks its alright only during certain situations, such as rape or incest. So the truth is Romney doesn't hate females as his opponent President Obama would like people to think.

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Ryan's Plan

Representative Paul Ryan is now Mitt Romney's running mate, which many seniors may have a problem with. Although he has since softened his stance, Ryan's original 2011 Medicare reform plan has remained a powerful Democratic attack target and a policy deeply unpopular among the nation's seniors.Both Romney and Ryan now support a kinder, gentler version of Ryan’s original, polarizing plan, which would have eliminated the government run insurance program in favor of a fixed-value voucher plan for seniors. Is this the right choice for our families?

The proposal would preserve traditional Medicare as a choice, but encourage seniors to shift to private plans that offer lower premiums by forcing traditional Medicare to compete on price. The most detailed proposal came last month from Ryan himself, who agreed to soften his original plan, and Senator Ron Wyden, who said that a voucher system with Medicare as a choice could be an important first step toward managing Medicare’s projected cost growth without taking benefits for seniors. Will this plan work now becomes the question? Will competition for health care do anything or will it leave us worse than where we are?

In a post from the National Journal, Judy Foster had this to say, “The case that competition works is just not there,” she also said that it would be impossible to reap major savings from a premium-support plan without shifting costs to seniors or significantly reducing benefits. “The case for market share does work.” If this plan takes effect it will mean more costs for us.

This plan will have different plans in which seniors will have an option to choose from.According to Kate Pickert from Time.com if the Ryan plan takes effect 59% percent of seniors will have to pay higher premiums in order to have the same medicare plans they currently have now. So what is going on? Well they are making different packages that seniors wont have to pay more for, but those packages are worse than what they already have. There’s no way for the government to spend less on the existing Medicare program without asking seniors to pay more than they already are. President Obama knows this and that why the Affordable Care Act includes a trigger for a board to suggest cuts to providers if Medicare spending exceeds certain targets.

What does this mean for seniors if the Ryan plan takes effect? Well you will either have to pay more for the same plans you already have or you will have to drop to a cheaper and worse plan to stay at what you already pay. I believe the Ryan plan is not going to do much helping at all.

For more on this topic and other news about our health care check out the related sites and blogs on the right.

Confusion with Obamacare?

A Washington Post blogger made some interesting points regarding the popular topic of Obamacare and what Mitt Romney thinks about it.  Interestingly enough Romney stated over and over again that the uninsured in this country can always get care in emergency rooms.  Of course most of us have already heard that if elected one of the first things he would do is repeal Obamacare.  Greg Sarget the blogger for this particular article points out that the very thing Romney wants to do for uninsured and preexisting conditioned people is the same exact thing Obamacare is made to do, yet Romney is going full throttle on promoting his ideas on a repeal.  Greg Sarget is providing some great information here, especially with the election closing in.  Details like this about are necessary for the public to really make an educated decision.  It really makes a person think why Romney is pushing for this when in all reality his proposal is nearly identical.

 A company blog who is against Obamacare came out with some interesting facts. True or not, for a person who does not read both sides to a story this might seem very convincing.  The claim made by The Foundry blog group states that poor and middle class Americans are going to front the bill for the new tax that Obamacare requires.  The blog makes a claim that the very people who have to pay this tax are supposedly the people that Obamacare was intended to help.  Interestingly enough, the charts and numbers that are provided here have been created by the very investment group that is sponsoring this conservative blog.   Obviously there is major biased here, and it can be extremely convincing especially since it looks professionally done.

A Few Good Thoughts

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/10/01/162089697/medicare-rolls-out-carrots-and-sticks-for-hospital-quality
- This blog is written and reported by NPR's science desk.
- This Blog talks about different medical aspects. In the blog I read they are talking about medicare and its efforts to reward hospitals.
- The producers interest in this blog is deliver news, information, and music programming to various listeners.
- The topics they are blogging about relate closely to my topic because they have a lot to do with health care in this country.
- Some of the comments on the blog stray a bit off topic, but they always say something about health care.
- There are various links to Twitter and Facebook.


http://blogs.wsj.com/health/
- This blog is written by the the Wall Street Journal.e
- This blog expresses many different concerns about health care. They include different surveys to get the reader involved in the discussion.
- I believe the producers interest in creating this blog is to inform and stir up debates and conversations about health care.
- These topics are very similar to my topic because not only do they relate, but they get people involved.
- I enjoyed reading some of the topics because like I said the topics are getting the reader involved, so the comments are pretty much answering the questions from the blog.
- There is a ton of links on this site from Google + to Four Square.


http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com/
- This blog was created by a man named Jack Friday.
- The blog talk about the pharmaceutical companies. They are expressing the pros and cons about various drugs and the companies who represent them.
- The producers interest in this blog is to educate people on the pharmaceutical industry.
- They have been publishing posts daily, but really too much about the health care issue in this country.
- As shocking as this might sound I scrolled through two pages of posts and didn't see any comments. Must not be that interesting.
- There are various links to Twitter and Facebook.


http://healthcare.nationaljournal.com/
- The blog is written by health care experts.
- The Blog is discussing health care reform as well as different health care issues, such as aids.
- The producers interest in this blog is to educate on policies and politics.
- They publish posts what seems to be every few weeks, but they are dead on with the health issue i am relating to.
- The comments are actually very informative as well.
- There are various links to many social networks.

Ideas and Thoughts on Health Care

Alan Katz Health Care Blog

-An individual created this blog website

-The content is specific to our social issue as it does have commentary on health care reform.  It has personal opinions on the issue as well as serving as a news source.  The individual does provide news however there is a certain bias when it comes to commentary.

-Alan Katz has a long standing history in health care and health care insurance, it is for personal interest, but serves as a public good as well.

-Last commentary was done in June 2012, but prior to that he would leave commentary about 3 times a month on our specific social issue.

-There is commentary left by visitors to his blog.  Mainly people are providing positive feedback to what Alan is saying.

-There are no other social media links to this blog.

The Health Care Blog

-An organization created the blog.

-The content is specific to our social issue, however it does cover other topics in health.  It does have blogs on health care reform, but issues like health insurance and taking care of certain health issues are also prevalent.  The blog does seem to be a little biased, but it does have many many different people contributing.

-The website has many people in different areas of health care contributing to the blog. It serves as a public service.

-Last blog was created in July, People are posting blogs about once every 3 weeks.

-There is commentary on the blogs, mainly people who want to contribute to the discussion. 

-There are other social links to this blog such as a face book, and a twitter.

Beyond Health Care Reform

-A company law firm created the blog.

-The content is more news related, it does not serve biased opinions.  It has many different blogs on what is going on in the world of health care.  It does cover issues on what our social issue is, but not as prevalent as some of the other sites.

-Each blog has room for commentary, however each one that I glanced at did not have commentary.  I believe that this is mainly due to the fact that this blog serves more as a news source.

-Last blog was created September, Blogs are appearing about a few times a week.

-There is no commentary left on these blogs.

-There are no other social links to this blog.

Health Reform Government

-The United States Government created this blog.

-This blog does act as a news source, however there is personal opinion in  some of the blogs.  It is closely related to the social issue we have chosen.

-Each blog has that I checked does not have room for commentary, my guess is that it is because it is a government funded web page.

-The blogs are very prevalent, because they provide news feeds almost on a weekly basis.

-There is no commentary.

-There are many different social links such as Facebook, and twitter, and Google