Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Anne Schuchat, Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases acknowledged the slow production of H1N1 vaccines, but says there are nearly 50 million doses available to the States for use.

“Like everyone, I’m disappointed in the initial production,” said Schuchat during a hearing with the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “However, today we can announce there are 49.9 million doses available of H1N1 vaccine for the states to order.”

“Its not as much as we wanted to have by now, or, frankly what we needed to have by now, but every dose is being rapidly moved out,” Schuchat added.

Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) praised the initial response to the virus, but also recognized the dangers posed by the vaccine shortage.

“The hope was that a robust vaccine supply would arrive before infections began to soar and everyone worked as quickly as possible to meet that goal. These hopes were not met. The past several weeks have reminded us that the process of making flu vaccines is unpredictable and challenging,” said Waxman.

Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Nicole Lurie was grilled by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Oregon), who was diagnosed in late October with H1N1.

“We had testimony September 15 from Secretary Sebelius and everything seemed to be on track and fine. So, explain who, did the manufacturers, weren’t they straight with you?” asked Walden.

“There’s nobody to blame here, there’s no smoking gun,” Lurie said.

CDC estimates nearly 22 million Americans have been infected with H1N1. Of the 22 million infected, 98,000 were hospitalized and nearly 4,000 have dead.

By Meagan Wiseley – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to exclude a provision that exempts insurance companies from tort claims from the proposed health care bills in the House and the Senate.

Section 514 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) states, among other things, that if an insurance company improperly denies benefits to an individual, it cannot be sued for any resulting injury or wrongful death, regardless of whether it acted in bad faith in denying benefits.

“Why does a health care reform bill continue immunity to insurance companies so they can injure and kill people?” Shadegg asked during a press conference Wednesday.

The intent of the ERISA provision is to prevent the misuse and loss of pension funds to protect American retirees. Section 514 of ERISA contains a preemption that does not allow civil courts to sue insurance companies for injury or wrongful death, because 514 is a federal statute.

Standing alongside Shadegg was Florence Corcoran, who suffered the loss of her unborn baby in 1989. Corcoran took to the podium and explained that she was diagnosed with Toxemia during her 36th week of pregnancy. Her doctor had requested that she be admitted to the hospital for further monitoring of her unborn child, but her insurance company, United Health Care Inc., maintained that she would be adequately cared for while on bed rest at home. Corcoran left the hospital, and the next week her baby went into distress and died.

“Insurance companies, all they look out for is money. That’s all, it’s not the patients health that they are concerned about,” said Corcoran.

Shadegg offered an amendment to strip the immunity in section 514 in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but said the amendment was rejected by Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) The Arizona Republican said that he will offer an amendment to remove this language in the House Rules Committee.

“I hope…that the American people will rise up and demand that Nancy Pelosi fix this bill before it’s voted on in the House…or that in the conference committee it be fixed.”

By Joseph Russell- Talk Radio News Service

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) told members of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which he heads, to clear their schedules until late into the night on Thursday.

“I expect we’ll be back here tomorrow,” Waxman said. “We’re not going to close out anybody’s opportunity to offer amendments.”

The committee agreed to limit all debate for amendments to 10 minutes each for both sides in order to save time. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the mark-up will be finished before the House’s recess begins on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, a Republican amendment that would have prevented illegal immigrants from receiving Medicare benefits failed by one vote. The amendment would have required Medicare recipients to prove citizenship in order to get benefits.

An amendment that would prevent federal funding of clinical comparative effectiveness research passed overwhelmingly. Such research evaluates medical care based on cost rather than effectiveness. In England and Canada, federal comparative effectiveness research is used to ration care by preventing certain procedures based on factors such as outside patient needs and requirements.

Debate over mark-ups will continue as the committee works late into Thursday night and early Friday morning.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) says that health care amendments with high price tags will likely be removed from bill (0:31).

 

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By Michael Combier- Talk Radio News Service

The American Clean Energy and Security Act will make history by reducing the United States’ dependency on foreign oil, creating American jobs and lowering carbon emissions, said proponents of the bill at a press conference Wednesday.

Co-sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Markey, said the act is “the most important energy and environment bill in the history of the U.S…It will create a green energy revolution not only for our country but the entire world.”

Markey added that this bill reflects “the will of the American people” and has defied political expectations as well as the disbelief of experts.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the act’s other Co-sponsor, praised the support given to the bill by environmentalists, labor unions and a number of industries.

House members are expected to vote on the bill Friday.

By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service
The World Heath Organization has raised the alert level for the swine flu pandemic of the phase 5, one step away from the highest level.

The CDC continues to evaluate information to determine the potential impact of an outbreak on an international level.

In Mexico more than 2,000 people have been hospitalized and 149 people have died from the flu. In the United States there are 66 confirmed cases in six states; New York, California, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Indiana. Globally there are 39 confirmed cases in six other countries including New Zealand, Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, and Israel.

Today, the House Sub-Committee on Health heard testimony from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to understand the full impact of the virus.

U.S. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) said that, “We should not wait for public health emergencies to come up with ad-hoc responses. Not even counting this recent flu outbreak, about 35,000 Americans die of regular seasonal flu each year.”

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has determined that the swine flu is highly contagious and contains genetic pieces from four different virus sources. There is no evidence that the illness comes from pork products, but it seems to come from human to human contact. Symptoms include high fever, body aches, coughing, and sore throats, all similar to regular seasonal flu, but the regular flu shot is not preventative of this new virus.

Anne Schuchat, M.D., acting director for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that “it’s a very unusual virus and we don’t believe that humans have experienced it before.”

U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) , M.D. said that America needs to be careful “not over reacting to the point that we create a pandemic of panic.” Gingrey said that although it is reassuring that Americans are prepared for an outbreak, he said that “I fear we are getting ourselves in a frenzy.”

Coffee Brown University of New Mexico for Talk Radio News Service

Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Henry Waxman, D-Calif. tells Health Action 2009 that compromise will be needed to satisfy all stake-holders on healthcare reform.

“The list of regulatory mistakes and misjudgments is long, and the cost to taxpayers and our economy is staggering,” Chairman Henry Waxman said at the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the financial crisis and the role of federal regulators.

Testifying was Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, Christopher Cox, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and John Snow, former Secretary of the Treasury under President George W. Bush.

Greenspan highlighted that in 2005 he had raised concerns that the protracted period of underpricing of risk would have dire consequences. Greenspan went on to say that even though he raised concerns about possible financial problems, he could not have imagined it to be as broad as it was. “The financial landscape that will greet the end of the crisis will be far different from the one that entered it little more than a year ago. Investors will be exceptionally cautious. Structured investment vehicles and other exotic financial instruments are not now, and are unlikely to ever find willing investors. Subprime mortgages will also be on that list, this market for which has virtually disappeared,” Greenspan said.

Greenspan flip-flopped on issues surrounding regulations in banking institutions and what he had previously stated. In previous interviews, Greenspan had stated that he believed it should be left up to the banks to regulate and not the government. Waxman asked Greenspan if he still thought it was a good idea to let the banks regulate instead of having the government step in. “I was partially wrong with saying that banks should regulate themselves. The problem I’m having is that I still don’t understand fully how this crisis happened and why it happened. When the facts change, I will begin to change my view,” Greenspan said, commenting on Rep. Waxman’s questioning.

Cox said that he thinks one of the reasons why the crisis happened was because a lot had changed since 1999 and the time of the Clinton Administration. “Credit default swaps were just emerging in 1999, but now they are between 10 to 15 percent of the financial institutions, and one of the main issues surrounding the financial crisis,” Cox said.

Snow believes that if Congress would have done more in 2005, the financial crisis may be completely different. He said that with a “stronger regulatory set in place back then, and if our Government would have gotten more involved with the issues surrounding credit default swaps, taxpayers would be looking at the economy differently today.”

One statement all three panelists and Chairman Waxman agreed on was that the crisis will pass and America will reemerge with a far sounder financial system. Chairman Waxman concluded with the statement that he hopes to further these investigations, and find a “clear cut reason why all of this happened.”

Talk Radio News Service staffer Tim Herchenroeder breaks down a government investigation into electrocution deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan in a special report from Washington.

 

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An Inspector General interim report released on July 28 found that the Department of Defense investigation of the accidental electrocution of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth revealed that Kellog, Brown, and Root (KBR) did not know about the electrical hazards prior to Maseth’s death. However, at a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing, Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Cali.) disclosed documents obtained by the Committee which show that a soldier notified KBR of the electrical problems well before Maseth’s death. (more…)