Living in Japan vs living in U.S.A.

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Living in Japan vs Living in the U.S.A.

Nevada woman dies of superbug resistant to all available US antibiotics

Is this an example of another growing trend how mother nature controls the destiny of earth.

Biology teaches us how biological systems control their own growth based upon available resources and disposal of waste products.

Are we synchronized with earth's biome ?  Are some politicians ignorant or uninformed about how basic laws of nature work ?  Are business interests and corporations more than insensitive about climate change, pollution and the dangers of extracting earth's minerals and carbon sources for energy ?

This "superbug" is another example of signs that humanity may self-extinguish in the next 100 years, as poverty increases in the developed nations with growing disparities between wealth and poor even in highly developed nations.

The superbugs are winning the battle against us

SoundCloud Audio

Witness major refugee and forced emigration events increasing during the last ten years. Populations are risking certain death to escape inhospitable political regimes, famine.

Climate change due to known and unknown cycles plus increased waste with carbon cycle disruption. Ocean rise, coupled with intensifying meteorologic events, tornadoes, hurricanes, cyclones, disrupted weather cycles and extreme temperature variations.

Past events evidenced in archeological  excavations show mass extinctions and migrations for unknown reasons and infectious epidemics. (Vikings, Aztec Indians, and more)

Outbreaks of new diseases, Zika, Ebola,









Nevada woman dies of superbug resistant to all available US antibiotics

The Mighty

Share Your Story or a Loved One's Health Story

How does an illness effect you when another member of the family has a chronic or fatal illness ?

The Mighty offers a platform where you can share  your experiences with others.  The site contains stories of diseases from A-Z.

If you are looking for a village to share your story with others The Mighty is your village. It contains a variety of formats which are educational and even entertaining in light of the serious disorders discussed. The articles are vignettes written by family members and friends of those with these challenges.



from "Wrecking Ball"  by Miley Cyrus





Guidelines for Contributing Writers | The Mighty

Healthcare Stole the American Dream - Here’s How We Get it Back | Dave C...

Healthcare Stole the American Dream - Here’s How We Get it Back |  

 

TEDx Talk

Thanks to Rob Lambert M.D. a pioneer in direct primary care for 

bringing this to my attention.

The middle class is being crushed by skyrocketing healthcare costs, but there are common sense solutions to save it. Dave Chase gives us a non-political road map to solving one of America's biggest problems.

Dave Chase is co-founder of the Health Rosetta and was named one of the most influential people in Digital Health due to his entrepreneurial success, public speaking & writing that recognizes healthcare’s under-performance but contrasts that with a growing cadre of high-performing organizations that have solved healthcare’s toughest challenges. Chase, widely published, co-authored the healthcare Book of the Year in in 2014. Chase was the CEO & Co-founder of Avado, which was acquired by and integrated into WebMD and the most widely used healthcare professional site – Medscape. Before Avado, Chase spent several years outside of healthcare in startups as founder or consulting roles with LiveRez.com, MarketLeader, & WhatCounts. He also played founding & leadership roles in launching two new $1B+ businesses within Microsoft including their $2 billion healthcare platform business. Chase is a father of two great kids/athletes, husband & oxygen-fueled mountain athlete.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Bay Area Cancer Patient Confronts and Embraces His Right to Die | State of Health | KQED News

Something all patients should know if you live in California and five other states, Oregon,  District of Columbia,Vermont, Washington and California. It is an option in Montana, requiring a terminal illness and a prognosis of less than six months to live.


Many other jurisdictions have similar bills in process.

Other Facts:
The specific method in each state varies, but mainly involves a prescription from a licensed physician approved by the state in which the patient is a resident.

Physician-assisted suicide differs from euthanasia, which is defined as the act of assisting people with their death in order to end their suffering, but without the backing of a controlling legal authority.

In Oregon, "the physician must be a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) or Doctor of Osteopathy (D.O.) licensed to practice medicine by the Board of Medical Examiners for the State of Oregon. The physician must also be willing to participate in the Act."

In Vermont, "only a doctor of medicine or osteopathy licensed to practice medicine in Washington may write this prescription...A physician, nurse, pharmacist, or other person shall not be under any duty, by law or contract, to participate in the provision of a lethal dose of medication to a patient."

In Washington, "only a doctor of medicine or osteopathy licensed to practice medicine in Washington may write this prescription...participation is entirely voluntary. Health care providers are not required to provide prescriptions or medications to qualified patients."

In California, "An individual seeking to obtain a prescription for an aid-in-dying drug...shall submit two oral requests, a minimum of 15 days apart, and a written request to his or her attending physician. The attending physician shall directly, and not through a designee, receive all three requests required pursuant to this section."

Statistics:

The process of reporting applications and deaths varies by state. Only those states where physician-assisted suicide is mandated by law have a reporting process.

Oregon - Has had a physician-assisted suicide law on the books since 1997. Since its enactment, there has been a steady increase in both prescription recipients and the number of deaths. According to the 2015 Data Summary, as of January 27, 2016, prescriptions have been written for 1,545 people, and 991 patients have died from ingesting the drugs that were legally prescribed to them under the law.

Washington - According to the 2014 annual report, since 2009 prescriptions have been written for 725 people, and there have been 712 reported deaths.

Vermont - Between May 2013 and May 2016, physician reporting forms have been completed for 24 people, according to the Department of Health.

Bay Area Cancer Patient Confronts and Embraces His Right to Die | State of Health | KQED News

Best preventive care? Get vaccines, and don't smoke -

Doctors giving regular checkups will get the most bang for their buck if they advise adults to quit smoking, convince teens to never start, and keep children up to date with immunizations, according to an influential report released Monday by the Bloomington-based HealthPartners Institute.

The research findings, sponsored in part by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, could influence how doctors across the country conduct thousands of regular patient visits each year.

Comparing 28 recommended preventive services, HealthPartne researchers   found that tobacco counseling and pediatric immunizations outranked the others in cost-effectiveness and the potential to save lives.

While all the preventive services are valuable, the reality is that doctors can't do them all in a standard 15-minute office visit, said Dr. George Isham, a senior fellow with the institute.

The study found a particularly strong impact if 90 percent of youth received tobacco prevention counseling — a huge increase from the 20 percent that actually receive it today. "Tobacco use has certainly come down over time, both among adults and youth," said Michael Maciosek, the study's lead author. "Nevertheless, it remains a huge problem compared to other health threats."

HealthPartners' first ranking of preventive services received wide notice when it came out in 2006 — at a time when rising deductibles and copays made patients more sensitive to medical bills and which services they were paying for out of pocket.

Today, preventive services are fully covered by insurers — a requirement of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. But pledges by President-elect Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers to repeal the act could make patients more sensitive to costs again.

"These are all valuable kinds of things, but this research tells us some things are more valuable than others," said Isham, who wrote an editorial that accompanied the research in the Annals of Family Medicine.

Even with preventive services fully covered, the report provides important information to doctors and to health plans in terms of the incentives they provide to doctors, Maciosek said, especially when doctors face time constraints.

Best preventive care? Get vaccines, and don't smoke - StarTribune.com

Congressional plan to repeal and replace the ACA is not clear

Amidst the chaos of electioneering and the run up to the Presidential inauguration, the U.S. Congress is drafting amendments to the affordable care act.  Will it be repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act,  or slice and dice?

Recent summary from the California Medical Association gives some overview of the possible process.

A budget resolution establishing procedural instructions to set up the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was introduced in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. This move by the Senate’s budget committee chairman on the first day of the new Congress has set into motion the GOP promise to repeal the ACA as its first legislative act. The House is expected to vote on the Senate budget resolution shortly after the Senate vote. However, the repeal process could take months, while developing a replacement plan could take years.

Senate Republicans have agreed to use a budget resolution, allowing them to repeal ACA funding without any Democratic votes. Budget resolutions require a simple majority to pass in the Senate, instead of the 60 votes required to clear procedural hurdles. There are 52 Republicans in the 100-seat chamber.

While the Senate budget resolution is a statement of priorities and lays the groundwork for the repeal of the ACA, it does not have the force of law. To repeal the law, the House Energy & Commerce and Ways & Means committees and the Senate Finance Committee need to meet to develop replacement legislation. The Senate plan introduced Tuesday includes a “repeal and replace” strategy that would require passage of two separate bills.

Looming over the whole process of repealing the ACA are the actions of the health care marketplace. Congressional plans to repeal the ACA without a replacement plan in place could result in more uncertainty in an already fragile marketplace, prompting insurers to leave the individual market and creating chaos for the 20 million Americans insured through the ACA.

In addition to working on a replacement plan, Congress must also act on a handful of health care programs before they expire, including the Children's Health Insurance Program; Prescription Drug User Fee Act; Medical Device User Fee and Modernization Act; and the Veterans' Access, Choice and Accountability Act.

The California Medical Association (CMA) is closely following these issues as they play out in Congress and will be actively engaged in shaping the future of health care reform at the national level. CMA will work to ensure that any resulting legislation will benefit the patients and physicians in California and the nation as a whole. We will also work to keep you up-to-date on any breaking news from the nation’s capital.

Below are the principles that will guide CMA’s advocacy on health care reform.

1. Ensure Californians do not lose coverage or access to care.
2. Protect the billions in current state and federal health care funding.
3. Ensure appropriate and broad-based financing.
4. Advocate for patient choice of physicians, health plans and coverage through private contracting, health savings accounts, health plans and state and federal government programs.
5. Continue tax policies and subsidies that help low-income patients afford coverage.
6. Maintain the insurance industry reforms that protect physicians and patients.

Contact: Elizabeth McNeil, (800) 786-4262 or emcneil@cmanet.org.

Keywords:

• ACA
 
• Affordable Care Act
 
• Affordable Care Act (ACA) Repeal
 
• Federal Legislation
 
• Federal Legislative Advocacy

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