By Laura Smith – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) discussed measures that are being taken to manage the spread of the H1N1 virus Wednesday during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on how the U.S. has so far dealt with the virus.

Lieberman, the committee’s chairman, said the H1N1 virus reached pandemic levels this summer and that it was impossible to accurately report how many people in the U.S. have died from the H1N1 virus because it’s hard to stay on top of the numbers.

“We do know that at least 2,300 people have died in the United States from the H1N1 flu in the last few months,” Lieberman said.

Lieberman mentioned that the Center For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that the H1N1 flu virus has spread to all 50 states in the country, and that “this particular strain of influenza has moved at an alarming speed and taken an exceptionally high toll at a time of year when we normally don’t encounter significant cases of flu.”

Lieberman also said that pregnant women are being hit hard by the H1N1 virus. He said that of 100 pregnant women who required intensive care and were treated for the flu in late August, 28 died.

The former Democrat said he is concerned that the flu is spreading so rapidly and in some cases with such intensity that it may well be getting ahead of the federal government’s ability to prevent and respond to it.

Lieberman gave three reasons for his concern: The schedule for the production and availability of the vaccine, the fact that hospitals and public health departments don’t have the capacity to care for the surge of people who may need hospitalization as a result of the virus, and the availability of intravenous antiviral medication to treat the critically ill who have contracted the virus.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) mentioned that Bates College in Lewiston, Maine issued a report showing that there was a jump in how many students at their school had the H1N1 virus, from six to 160 people in just a week.

“As of yesterday, 245 Bates students are infected with H1N1,” Collins said.

She said public health experts are learning as they go along, sometimes with the surprising results that run counter to their previous assumptions about H1N1. She added that the CDC released a report saying that 46 percent of 1400 adults hospitalized with H1N1 were healthy and did not have underlying chronic illnesses before getting H1N1.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she testified in April that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and their federal partners were addressing the situation of the H1N1 virus aggressively and collectively. She said their planning has assumed that there would be some gap period between when vaccine would be commonly available and when the flu would actually be present.

“In other words they were assuming some lag time between the flu spiking and vaccine availability,” she said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the H1N1 virus has not changed significantly since April. She also said that people are using the website flu.gov as a tool, and that the website has gotten about five million hits a week.

She also said the flu season officially started October 4th, but echoed Sen. Lieberman’s assertion that this is not a typical flu season.

“Visits to doctors are higher than expected, 41 states represent what we now call wide spread level of activity, which is just the count that they’re giving, and the remaining states are at elevated levels of flu. so this is a national issue,” Sebelius said.

She said there have been 86 reported H1N1 pediatric deaths since the virus was reported earlier this year, and that pregnant women are among those seriously affected.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked Sebelius if she thought the spread of the virus would come down in the winter months, and she said she was hoping it would after people were vaccinated.

McCain confronted Sebelius about a comment she made saying there would be many people who would not be vaccinated, and asked her if she was worried about hospital over utilization and lack of capacity in the hospitals in America, to which Sebelius stumbled to a response.

Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan said schools earlier this year closely followed school-dismissal guidance policies developed by the CDC. One example he gave occurred on April 26, 2009 when he said, “the CDC advised schools to consider closing when they had a confirmed or suspected case of H1N1 – and we found that schools adhered to that advice.”

Duncan said they learned a lesson in the spring that not only did schools follow the CDC’s advice on flu-related issues, but also that quickly closing a school is a complex undertaking that has consequences beyond the loss of valuable school time.

“For example, unplanned school closures led to the loss of school meals for some of the 31 million kids who rely on the federal school meals programs, loss of wages for parents who had to stay home from home to take care of their children, and older students left home without proper supervision,” he said.

First Lady Michelle Obama threw her hat into the health care reform debate Friday, calling the current state of health care “unacceptable” and describing the President’s reform proposal as “reasonable.”

“No longer can we sit by and watch the debate take on a life of it own,” the First Lady said during an event put on by the White House Council on Women and Girls in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. “We have to channel our passions into change.”

Obama was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

The First Lady recounted her daughter Sasha’s struggle with meningitis as an infant, explaining that while she was thankful her family had adequate coverage, she could not help but wonder what would have happened had they not.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Friday that an additional $33 million in Recovery Act funds will be allocated toward expanding the number of health care professionals in the U.S.

“65 million Americans currently can’t see a primary care provider today due to a shortage in their home community,” Sebelius said during a conference call with reporters. “We can’t wait for Congress to act to start filling the critical need that we have in the health care workforce.” (0:21)

 

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Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius denounced the rumors that health care will be rationed and medicare will be cut if health reform is carried out. Sebelius says that the concerns “could not be further from the truth.” (0:15)

 

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Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says the U.S. can’t afford not to have health reform and that the economy won’t recover if the health care system is not reformed. She also notes that the U.S. should see better results for the amount of money the American people put into health care. (0:35)

 

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By Mariko Lamb- Talk Radio News Service

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that in states across the U.S., health care costs are increasing, quality of healthcare is decreasing, and there is “an urgent need for healthcare reform.”

“The time for reform is now,” said Sebelius during a conference call with reporters, “The American people have been calling for reform, and they should not have to wait any longer.”

Sebelius addressed concerns about business owners possibly “dumping” employee health benefits and mandating that their employees pursue the federally provided health care option. Sebelius stated that the bill was crafted to ensure that employers would not be able to exploit the public option.

State-by-state reports on the current status of the percentage of residents without health insurance, quality of health care, and costs of premiums are available at www.healthreform.gov.

By Justin Duckham-Talk Radio News Service

In its first 100 days, $500 million of the $787 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been allocated to improve and expand the operations of Community Health Centers across the country. The allocation of the funds was praised today by Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services.

“The Recovery Act grants and the funding we have released are key investments that will help deliver care to millions of Americans,” said Sebelius during a telephone conference with reporters.

An additional $300 million is set to be alloted toward the National Health Service Corps, a segment of HHS, with the goal of increasing the available workforce in Community Health Centers across the Country. HHS expects the amount of available clinicians to double by 2011.

$2 billion was initially provided by ARRA to be spent on Community Health Centers over the next two years. The remaining funds will go toward updating medical technology, renovating equipment and constructing additional centers.

By Jonathan Bronstein, Talk Radio News Service

The recent release of the Social Security Board of Trustees report illuminated the dire straits that these two bastions of liberal democracy, Medicare and Social Security, are in, as they are to run out of money much sooner than expected.

“This year’s trust Social Security Report projects that the Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2037, four years earlier than the Trustees report last year,” said Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner at a press conference, in which he addressed the future of this program.

But these two entitlement programs will be consuming a disproportionately large amount America’s GDP in the near future, and need to be reformed now to stave off their demise, according to the report.

The main problem with these programs is that they are too expensive and will consume a disproportionately large part of America’s GDP.

“Medicare’s annual costs were 3.2 percent of GDP in 2008, or nearly three-quarters of Social Security’s,” said Geithner, “but are projected to surpass Social Security expenditures in 2028 and to reach 11.4 percent of GDP in 2083, compared with 5.9 percent of Social Security.”

As a result, Geithner stated that “the sooner action is taken the more options for reform will be available and the fairer reforms will be to our children and grandchildren.”

Some of the steps Geithner proposed involved lessening healthcare costs, which President Obama recently did by negotiating a $2 trillion reduction in costs, rehabilitating the economy so that more taxes can be placed into the fund, and to reform Social Security in a “responsible and bipartisan” manner.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius echoed Geithner’s need for reform. “The (Social Security Trustees) report was not a government report, but a wake up call,” said Sebelius.

Sebelius bluntly stated that the Medicare fund is spending more than it takes in, and uses assets accrued in the past to make-up the difference, but all of these excess assets will be exhausted by 2017.

Both Geithner and Sebelius stressed that reform of these two entitlement program need reform, and that the Obama Administration is dedicated to making this important change.

“Reform cannot wait,” said Sebelius.
But this change cannot come soon enough for Social Security and Medicare because the longer it takes for change, the more radically different the form will take, according to Geithner.

By Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service

The nominee for Health Secretary, Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kan.), was told by members of the Senate Finance Committee that the job of reforming America’s healthcare system would not be easy.

Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) told Sebelius, “The time for incremental change has passed. It is increasingly difficult to fix the system one step at a time. We cannot add 46 million uninsured to a broken system, but we also cannot bend the growth curve of health spending without covering the uninsured.”

Sebelius noted the challenges she faces if confirmed, stating, “Health care costs are crushing families, businesses, and government budgets. Since 2000, health insurance premiums have almost doubled and an additional 9 million Americans have become uninsured. Since 2004, the number of “under-insured” families – those who pay for coverage but are unprotected against high costs – rose by 60 per cent.”

In order to tackle the rising costs associated with health reform, Sebelius told the committee she will work with both sides to explore all options in an attempt to reduce costs. She said, “should I be confirmed, healthcare reform would be my mission.”

Taking on a more light hearted tone, former Senator Robert Dole (R-Kan.), asked that the committee work hard to get Sebelius confirmed quickly to get the work started. He said, “It would really help if you could get her confirmed before the recess. She can’t even get into the building and we are a little behind anyway and this is the issue of the year. So if you guys can all, you know, do something.”

Chairman Baucus laughing, at Dole’s comments, said, “You are absolutely right and that’s why we are having this hearing. So we can get her confirmed this week.”

All members of the committee commended the president’s selection of Sebelius as Health Secretary nominee and commended, also, her record on fighting health care inequality as Governor of Kansas.