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Eleven Accussed Of Scamming Medicare In Michigan
Eleven people were charged in an indictment unsealed on Thursday with "scamming Medicare to get painkillers," the Associated Press reports. "A federal indictment in Detroit says the government unwittingly paid more than $480,000 to a phony health-care business that was a front for acquiring and selling painkillers." Authorities say Quick Response Medical Professionals paid people up to $220 to be seen by a doctor and that those visits were then reimbursed by Medicare. The case also involves thousands of doses of OxyContin worth more than $5 million that were sold during 2007 and 2008. The AP noted that "the government says Medicare and Medicaid fraud costs taxpayers billions each year" (6/4).
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Senate Finance Dems Back Public Plan, Blue Dogs Back Away
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee expects the Senate"s health care overhaul proposal to include a public health insurance plan, Dow Jones Newswire reports, adding that Baucus was "following the lead of President Obama and drawing a line in the sand on the controversial issue." The President strongly supported the public option in a letter to senators Wednesday.
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'Marketplace' Examines Women's Decisions To Have Children During Recession
American Public Media"s "Marketplace" on Tuesday examined how some women and their partners are deciding to have more children, a choice that runs contrary to birth rate trends during past economic recessions. Stephanie Ventura, a demographer at the National Center for Health Statistics, said that in previous severe economic recessions, birth rates have decreased or stabilized. It is too soon to tell whether the current recession will affect birth rates because the most recent birth data are from July 2008. Ventura also noted that the data will encompass a broad range of personal choices, including people who delayed pregnancy and those who went forward with plans to have children despite the recession.According to "Marketplace," some women who have lost jobs but have other s of income believe that having time away from work is a good opportunity to plan a pregnancy. Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, called this rationale "very clever" but added that being out of work only "gives you a break as long as you"ve got health insurance coverage, or unemployment, or some other of income that you can depend on." Galinsky said, "This country is increasingly becoming family centric. There is much more of an emphasis on children and families and being with them and taking good care of them than there has been before" (Keith, "Marketplace," American Public Media, 6/16).
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Opinion: Governments Must Take 'Concrete Action' To Reduce Maternal Mortality, Morbidity

With the U.N. Human Rights Council"s June session coming up, governments have a "chance to prove that they value women"s lives by taking concrete action" to recognize "preventable maternal death as a violation of women"s rights," Mary Robinson and Alicia Yamin, advisory council members of the International Initiative on Maternal Mortality and Human Rights, write in a Boston Globe opinion piece. In this "critical year" leading up to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) review in 2010, the council has an "historic opportunity in its June session to recognize the need to incorporate human rights into programs and policies designed to combat maternal deaths and encourage international cooperation and assistance in this area," Robinson and Yamin write. Although "we know what is needed to save women"s lives" women are still dying or "left with lifelong, debilitating complications. Moreover, when mothers die, children are at greater risk of dropping out of school, becoming malnourished, and simply not surviving. Not only is maternal mortality and morbidity a global health emergency, but it triggers and aggravates cycles of poverty that cause generations of suffering and despair," Robinson and Yamin write, adding that "saving women"s lives" would cost an estimated additional "$6 billion a year to be on track to achieve" the U.N. MDGs. They write that "poor governments" will not "be blamed for not doing what they cannot do," but asserting that these "preventable deaths are an issue of human rights" highlights the "profound injustice of disparities in maternal deaths" and makes it "more urgent that donor states honor their funding commitments." Robinson and Yamin conclude that the U.S., as a new member of the Human Rights Council, "has the chance to lead the way in promoting a woman"s right to go through pregnancy and childbirth in safety and, just as important, to back up that assertion with adequate funding commitments" (Robinson/Yamin, Boston Globe, 6/4). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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