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Senate Finance Committee Discusses Funding For Health Reform In Final 'Walk Through' Meeting
The Senate Finance Committee met Wednesday to discuss potential funding mechanisms for health reform legislation but indicated that no concrete decisions had been reached, The Hill reports. The meeting was the third of three scheduled to "walk through" various aspects of health reform. Previous talks focused on the care delivery system and coverage. Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has said that he hopes for a bill to be approved for full Senate consideration by the end of July. He said of the talks so far, "We"ve got a lot of work ahead of us," adding, "Soon we have a mark up, soon we have a bill, and that realization is forcing us to make decisions." He also said, "Nothing"s pushed off the table. We"re looking at it all." Funding mechanisms discussed Wednesday included taxes on sugary and alcoholic beverages, as well as a limit on the tax-exempt status of employer-provided health insurance (Young, The Hill, 5/20). One proposal would raise the federal alcohol excise tax by 145% for beer, 233% for wine and 20% for hard liquor (Hurt, New York Post, 5/21). The committee also mulled a three-cent tax per 12-ounce container of sugary drinks, which would raise an estimated $50 billion over 10 years (Alonso-Zaldivar, AP/Houston Chronicle, 5/21). Baucus said he supports placing a cap on the employer coverage tax exemption based on income or the cost of premiums, or both. Congress estimates that about $194.2 billion in revenue is passed up each year by forgoing taxes on the insurance plans. The committee also discussed decreasing Medicare spending on home care, durable medical equipment, medical imaging and prescription drugs, as well as addressing regional disparities in health care costs (The Hill, 5/20). Members also brought up the possibility of charging higher-income seniors higher premiums for the Medicare prescription drug benefit (Wayne, CQ Today, 5/20). Members also discussed introducing new standards for not-for-profit hospitals that would require them to provide more no-cost care and serve more low-income patients in order to keep their tax-exempt status. In addition, they discussed cutting special Medicare payments to teaching hospitals, as well as requiring drugmakers to give larger discounts to state Medicaid programs (Pear, New York Times, 5/21).Baucus noted "convergence" on some issues, such as the need to include complete funding in a reform package, as well as the need to establish insurance exchanges that would facilitate the purchase of public or private insurance (The Hill, 5/20). Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said, "There was a greater understanding of the issues we have," but there are "a lot of members who still want some more understanding." Grassley also said, "There"s just a lot of questions; there are -- I wouldn"t say misunderstandings, but there"s got to be a lot of understanding about what you"re talking about" (CQ Today, 5/20). Chances of Bipartisan Bill Buy arimidex to treat cancer.

Capturing Kinetic Energy To Turn A Soldier's March Into A Charge
Engineers at the University of Leeds (UK) are developing a way to capture the kinetic energy produced when soldiers march and use it to power their equipment.

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News of the day
Players' Positions, Not Prior Injuries, Predict NFL Career Length
Although professional football players typically experience an injury during their career, their longevity in the league is more affected by position than their history of injuries. According to a study presented today at the 56thAnnual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), punters, kickers and long snappers are more likely to have the longest careers in the NFL.
Diagnostics

High Blood Pressure May Lead To 'Silent' Strokes

"Silent" strokes, which are strokes that don"t result in any noticeable symptoms but cause brain damage, are common in people over 60, and especially in those with high blood pressure, according to a study published in the July 28, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "These strokes are not truly silent, because they have been linked to memory and thinking problems and are a possible cause of a type of dementia," said study author Perminder Sachdev, MD, PhD, of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. "High blood pressure is very treatable, so this may be a strong target for preventing vascular disease." The study involved 477 people age 60 to 64 who were followed for four years. At the beginning of the study 7.8 percent of the participants had the silent lacunar infarctions, small areas of damage to the brain seen on MRI that never caused obvious symptoms. They occur when blood flow is blocked in one of the arteries leading to areas deep within the brain, such as the putamen or the thalamus. By the end of the study, an additional 1.6 percent of the participants had developed "silent" strokes. People with high blood pressure were 60 percent more likely to have silent strokes than those with normal blood pressure. Also, people with another type of small brain damage called white matter hyperintensities were nearly five times as likely to have silent strokes as those without the condition. The study was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 21,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care through education and research. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as stroke, Alzheimer"s disease, epilepsy, Parkinson"s disease, and multiple sclerosis. American Academy of Neurology


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