The Senate Finance Committee’s health-overhaul bill leaves in place a planned 25% cut in Medicare payments to doctors in 2011. Congress probably won’t allow this to happen; lawmakers will likely swoop in, as they’ve done repeatedly in recent years, and block the planned cuts. But when CBO does its projections, it doesn’t take into account what Congress is likely to do — it looks only at the laws as written.

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Medicare Payments to Doctors, the Senate Finance Bill and CBO

Shares of a small New York drug maker plunged today after FDA staff raised concerns about its multiple sclerosis drug, the first pill intended to help those suffering from the chronic condition to walk faster.

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FDA Talks, Wall Street Listens and MS Drug Maker’s Stock Plunges

As we’ve noted before , it’s tough to know just how much medical malpractice contributes to health-care spending. Not only do you have direct costs like malpractice premiums, you also have the harder-to-quantify indirect costs of defensive medicine, like extra tests doctors order out of fear of lawsuits. But its the job of the number crunchers at CBO to put a number on that sort of thing, and they’ve just come out with their latest figures on the subject

Link:
Medical Malpractice: How Much Money Would an Overhaul Save?

Some of Queen Victoria’s sons and grandsons had a mysterious disease that caused them to bleed and bleed. The Royal Disease spread through the high-born generations as her descendants married into royal families around Europe.

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DNA Proof, in the Bones of a Murdered Crown Prince

It’s legal to sell herbs to sick people. It’s not legal to go on TV and say that the herbs you sell cure cancer, if their alleged curative powers haven’t been proved to the satisfaction of the FDA. So: A California doctor was arrested yesterday on federal fraud charges for allegedly selling more than $1 million of herbs to cancer patients between 2001 and 2004

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Doctor Arrested on Charges of Selling Herbs as Cancer Cure

Most people who get swine flu get better on their own after a few days, but a small percentage become severely ill. Two papers published online yesterday by the New England Journal of Medicine take a close look these patients.

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Swine Flu: Who Is Most Vulnerable?

If you are looking for the best anti aging cream, you may have your work cut out for you. There are just dozens on the market, and it may be quite a task to find the one that is suited to you. Fortunately, there are ways you can check out the quality of the various products on offer before you plunk down a small fortune.

When shopping for the best anti aging cream, be sure to eliminate products from consideration if they are not made with natural ingredients. Chemicals are not good for your skin. Be sure to read and understand the list of ingredients of any product you are considering buying. If you skin is sensitive, this is doubly important since harsh ingredients could cause you to have a negative reaction.

One very good way to be absolutely certain that your skin care products are made of only the finest ingredients is to make them yourself! You can find lots of good recipes on the internet that will enable you to create cleansers, toners, moisturizer, scrubs, and masks, among other things. When you make your own skin care products, you are in complete control and can adjust ingredients as you need to in order to make your products perfectly suited to your needs. In this way you will ensure that you have the very best anti aging skin cream for you!

Of course, you may decide that you would prefer to use a commercial product. Go to your computer to find reviews of all kinds of skin care products that are available on the market today. By reading reviews you can find out what others have learned about skin care products. By benefiting from their experience, you will be able to choose the best anti aging cream.

Of course, the best anti aging cream for one person may not be the best for another. We each have our own unique skin. What works for you may not work for your friend or even your sibling. People who have sensitive skin have to be extra careful to find products that will not cause irritation. In this case, the best anti aging cream will be a hypoallergenic product.

It may seem rather hit and miss when you are searching for the best anti aging skin cream, but if you do your research and shop carefully, you will find that your efforts are not in vain. Once you find the right product, you should be able to stick with it for a long time. So take all of the factors in mind and find the product that is just right for you in every way. Especially bear in mind your skin type. If you have extra dry skin, look for a formula that is designed specifically to meet your needs. If you have oily skin, you may want to seek an oil free formula.

When you have found the best anti aging cream to suit all your criteria, you will want to stay with it and maintain a regular skin care routine. By being gentle to your skin and avoiding sun exposure, you will protect it from damage. Be sure to cleanse and moisturize your skin daily. If you take good care of your skin, it will be far less likely to show signs of aging.

A post from Kristina Peterson of WSJ’s Washington Wire blog: The inventor of the recently much-maligned MRI machine said today his creation has taken enough abuse in the national debate over how to reduce health care costs. “Naturally it annoys me,” said Raymond Damadian, who built the first magnetic resonance imaging machine prototype in 1977. “We’re saving lives the world over.” Using the machines isn’t cheap, and in the war to whittle down the price of health care, politicians have targeted diagnostic imaging machines

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MRI Inventor Refutes Lawmakers’ Calls to Cut Costly Scans

For a few years now, researchers have been looking at what role a virus called XMRV plays in prostate cancer. A study published today in Science suggests the virus may also be linked to chronic fatigue syndrome. But the picture is still cloudy, and it’s not clear whether the virus actually causes prostate cancer or CFS

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The Virus That Links Prostate Cancer & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Now that you’ve had a chance to read every page of yesterday’s CBO estimates of the Senate Finance bill , here’s a roundup of what’s happening in the Washington health-care debate. Today’s familiar theme: The public option. The United Auto Workers and the Teamsters say they’ll fight the Senate Finance bill unless it’s changed from its current form, Bloomberg News reports .

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Washington Update: Pelosi, Labor and the Public Option