Monthly Archives: March 2014

United States Federal Budget: Social Insurance, Earned Benefits, & Entitlements – Video

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United States Federal Budget: Social Insurance, Earned Benefits, Entitlements
Social insurance is made up of programs that help workers and their families replace part of income lost due to unemployment, disability, retirement, or deat...

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United States Federal Budget: Social Insurance, Earned Benefits, & Entitlements - Video

A RIGHT TO BE: Sex Worker Access to Health Care in the Caribbean (Part 2/2) – Video

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A RIGHT TO BE: Sex Worker Access to Health Care in the Caribbean (Part 2/2)
The Caribbean Treatment Action Group and Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition asks the question, "Are we keeping our promise?" The promise of protectin...

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A RIGHT TO BE: Sex Worker Access to Health Care in the Caribbean (Part 2/2) - Video

Last minute health care enrollment event planned for Saturday

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Memphis Fashion Week gets bigger in third year Memphis Fashion Week gets bigger in third year

Updated: Friday, March 28 2014 11:19 PM EDT2014-03-29 03:19:05 GMT

Updated: Friday, March 28 2014 11:16 PM EDT2014-03-29 03:16:14 GMT

Updated: Friday, March 28 2014 11:14 PM EDT2014-03-29 03:14:39 GMT

Updated: Friday, March 28 2014 10:54 PM EDT2014-03-29 02:54:45 GMT

Updated: Friday, March 28 2014 10:51 PM EDT2014-03-29 02:51:46 GMT

(WMC-TV) - A citywide health care enrollment event will take place Saturday for those who still need to register for the Health Insurance Marketplace. The deadline to enroll is Monday, March 31.

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton is hosting the event Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, which is located at 70 N. Bellevue Boulevard.

If you plan to attend, you are asked to bring the following:

- Social security number or document numbers for legal immigrants

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Last minute health care enrollment event planned for Saturday

Obama health care law: Support drops to lowest level, 26 percent

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Public support for President Barack Obama's health care law is languishing at its lowest level since passage of the landmark legislation four years ago, according to a new poll.

The Associated Press-GfK survey finds that 26 percent of Americans support the Affordable Care Act. Yet even fewer -- 13 percent -- think it will be completely repealed. A narrow majority expects the law to be further implemented with minor changes, or as passed.

"To get something repealed that has been passed is pretty impossible," said Gwen Sliger of Dallas. "At this point, I don't see that happening."

Sliger illustrates the prevailing national mood. Although a Democrat, she's strongly opposed to Obama's signature legislation. But she thinks "Obamacare" is here to stay.

"I like the idea that if you have a pre-existing condition you can't be turned down, but I don't like the idea that if you don't have health insurance you'll be fined," said Sliger.

The poll was taken before Thursday's announcement by the White House that new health insurance markets have surpassed the goal of 6 million sign-ups, so it did not register any of the potential impact of that news on public opinion. Open enrollment season began with a dysfunctional HealthCare.gov website last Oct. 1 but will end Monday on what looks to be a more positive note.

Impressions of the health care rollout while low, have improved slightly.

While only 5 percent of Americans say the launch of the insurance exchanges has gone very or extremely well, the number who think it has gone at least somewhat well has improved from 12 percent in December to 26 percent now. The exchanges offer subsidized private coverage to people without a plan on the job.

Of those who said they or someone in their household tried signing up for coverage, 59 percent said there were problems.

Repealing the health care law is the rallying cry of Republicans running to capture control of the Senate in the fall congressional elections. The Republican-led House has already voted more than 50 times to repeal, defund or scale back "Obamacare," but has been stymied in its crusade by Democrats running the Senate.

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Obama health care law: Support drops to lowest level, 26 percent

How Is Obamacare a Blessing in Disguise?

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Health care i want to bring in someone who has written extensively about the affordable care act.

"bloomberg view" column this was with the mitt romney campaign and is now a professor at stanford law and a research fellow at the heritage foundation.

In his latest piece he writes "it is easy to dismiss obamacare is a failure, but here is something conservatives should begin to have -- director heads around.

For all consternation, obamacare may be a blessing in disguise." lahnee chen joins me from washington.

Blessing in disguise?

I am trying -- kind of surprised to hear you say that.

Explain.

Good to be with you.

I think the reality is there are a lot of elements in obamacare that actually make it easier for us to have a conversation about the kind of health care reforms that conservatives have been fighting for for decades really.

That includes changing the tax treatment of health care, having an open and free marketplace where people can get competitive plans, so there are elements of obamacare that could one day be better.

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How Is Obamacare a Blessing in Disguise?

Health care not on governments radar say Carol Hughes

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When Canadians are asked to rank items that should be a priority for the federal government, health care is always at or near the top of the list. That is why it is so surprising that there has been no action from the government with the 2004 Health Care Accord set to expire in April. Maybe it shouldnt be surprising though since this same government unilaterally slashed $36 billion from health care budgets over a five year period in 2011 and has taken no significant action to implement the 2004 Accord since coming to power in 2006.

But it isnt just cuts to health care transfers that show the Conservative luke-warm commitment to public health care. They also tied future federal contributions to growth in the GDP which will never maintain an even pace with need. With Baby Boomers cycling out of the workforce and into retirement we are set to have demand far outstrip capacity and all signs point to a government that doesnt see this as a problem.

Given the rocky relationship Stephen Harper has had with provinces, it is reasonable to ask if the Conservatives are trying to create an 11th hour show-down to use as leverage to unilaterally impose their own plan. While we have seen the government try to force the provinces hand on other items without negotiations employment training being the most recent a showdown on health care doesnt stand a chance of flying under the radar.

Defenders of public health worry that reducing the federal contribution to the point that the government surrenders all authority for Medicare is a real possibility. If the federal share of cash payments to the provinces and territories decrease to less than 12 per cent over the next 25 years, as is expected, it will be difficult for the government to call the shots like they have so far. Keep in mind that the federal contribution was in the 50 percent range when Medicare was first implemented.

The federal government has a clear role in ensuring that health care in Canada remains public and accessible. Working with provinces and territories, the federal government needs to put in place the changes that will ensure improved health outcomes for all Canadians, but that isnt happening.

Instead of negotiating a new Health Accord, Conservatives are downloading heath care costs onto the provinces and turning their backs on a system that Canadians have relied on for generations. As a result, we are seeing increased disparities across the country, longer wait times, reduced-front-line services, and lack of access to home and long term care.

New Democrats have consulted widely with Canadians on this and know that the priorities of both health care professionals and consumers/patients are not reflected in the governments lackadaisical work on this front. We are pressing the Conservative government to show leadership and work with provinces and territories to improve our public health care system. So far there isnt any sign the government is listening, but they would be foolish to let an issue so important and cherished by Canadians to deteriorate any further under their watch.

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Health care not on governments radar say Carol Hughes

Is U.S. health care really best?

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It is nothing short of amazing to me. There are people who truly believe that our health care system is the best in the world. Lets look at some numbers and research reports and see what we find.

Since profit is at the heart of our health care system, with some very notable exceptions, lets look at the costs and studies associated with the United States system of health care delivery and its results.

Where do you imagine that our spending on health care ranks compared to other developed countries? A variety of sources including the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment all seem to conclude that we rank No. 1 in the world on the amount of money we spend on health care. This ranking looks only at highly developed countries because there are a few places that spend more, such as the Marshall Islands and Syria.

Are we getting good value for this expenditure? If we rank No. 1 in money we spend, I would imagine and the conservative Republicans apparently believe we would rank near the top in comparison to other highly developed nations. But do we?

What about the issue of life expectancy?

Of course, most of us expect to live a long time, although the universe sometimes may dictate otherwise. But if we think we are No. 1 or 2 we are not. The CIA World Factbook reports that we are No. 42 behind countries such as Japan, Australia, Italy, Canada, France, Ireland, Germany, United Kingdom, South Korea and Finland, along with 30 other nations. The OECD ranks us at 35 out of its membership. CBS news reported that the life expectancy for people living in the United States was lowest among 17 of the wealthiest nations. The WHO ranked us 35th as well.

Infant mortality?

The World Factbook shows us behind 55 other countries. CBS news reported that we rank No. 30 in first-day deaths. The World Bank ranks us 46th.

The National Research Council and Institute of Medicine reported in 2013 that the United States scored at or near the bottom on nine indicators of health: chronic lung disease, drug-related deaths, general disability, heart disease, injuries and homicide, low birth weight, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, obesity and diabetes.

These reports and conclusions from a wide variety of organizations that study global health along with health in the United States must indicate that some people are not telling the truth. So, if I hear one more Republican or any other politician of any political stripe say, We have the best health care in the world, it will be very difficult for me to take them seriously.

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Is U.S. health care really best?

Senator wants financial answers for health care

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BRATTLEBORO -- When it comes to Vermont's push toward universal, publicly financed health care, Windham County Sen. Peter Galbraith is requesting some straight talk.

Specifically, the Townshend-based Democrat says lawmakers need to put forth a plan for financing the massive new care system -- a plan that, Galbraith says, will inevitably lead to "the largest tax increase in Vermont history."

Though his fellow senators on Thursday deleted Galbraith's tax proposals to fund Green Mountain Care, he said residents and businesses deserve answers that, so far, have not been forthcoming.

"Let us be honest with our constituents. If we are not willing to raise $2 billion -- if we are not ready for a payroll tax, for a doubling of the income tax, for a doubling of the sales tax and for a premium tax -- let's say so," Galbraith said.

The state is scheduled to implement a publicly-funded health-care model by 2017, and Gov. Peter Shumlin had been bound by statute to deliver a financing plan more than a year ago. That has not happened, and the governor is taking heat for it -- though Shumlin on Thursday declared that "I'm not reluctant to share anything with Vermonters," VTDigger.org reported.

"My problem is that we don't have it right yet, and one thing I've learned about health-care reform in the last few months is it's better to get it right than to pick an arbitrary date or, in my case, have it picked for you and have to meet it," Shumlin said.

The governor said attempts to find the right financing formula have proven difficult. Galbraith, however, disagrees with that assessment.

"Raising the approximately $2 billion needed for Green Mountain Care is a big decision but not necessarily a complicated one," Galbraith said. "In fact, the very size of the amount that needs to be raised greatly reduces our options and therefore simplifies our choices."

He proposed three financial mechanisms:

-- A payroll tax of 11 percent on employers and 2 percent on employees. This is easily the single-biggest revenue generator, raising about $1.45 billion.

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Senator wants financial answers for health care

David Pearce – The Hedonistic Imperative vs The Abolitionist Project The Differences – Video

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David Pearce - The Hedonistic Imperative vs The Abolitionist Project The Differences
http://hedweb.com - The Hedonistic Imperative outlines how genetic engineering and nanotechnology will abolish suffering in all sentient life. The abolitioni...

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David Pearce - The Hedonistic Imperative vs The Abolitionist Project The Differences - Video

Genetic engineering increases yield of biodegradable plastic from cyanobacteria

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21 hours ago Figure 1:Synechocystis cyanobacteria could become factories of bioplastic production. Credit: Kiminori Toyooka, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science

The production of plastics using biological systems such as bacteria could lead to the sustainable manufacture of biodegradable and biocompatible plastics using carbon from the atmosphere. So far, however, it has proved exceedingly difficult to increase the yields of bioplastics to industrially viable levels. Takashi Osanai, Masami Yokota Hirai and colleagues from the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science have now engineered a cyanobacterium strain that produces triple the normal yield of the bioplastic polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB).

The species of cyanobacterium known as Synechocystis (Fig. 1) starts to produce PHB when nutrients such as nitrogen become scarce. This metabolic adaptation helps the cyanobacteria survive under low resource conditions. However, the organisms do not naturally produce sufficient yields of PHB for commercial applications.

To boost the levels of PHB produced by the organism, the research team created a strain of Synechocystis with higher than normal expression levels of Rre37, a regulatory protein known to be involved in sugar metabolism during times of nitrogen starvation. Genetic and metabolic analyses showed that Rre37 facilitates the conversion of glycogen, a sugar storage molecule, into PHB. "In Rre37, we found a novel regulator activating bioplastic production in cyanobacteria," says Osanai.

The same team previously identified another protein, SigE, involved in bioplastic production. Similar to the results with Rre37, the researchers found that overexpression of SigE, which contributes to the initiation of RNA synthesis, led to more PHB accumulation under nitrogen-limited conditions.

Their latest Synechocystis strain expressed elevated levels of both Rre37 and SigE. Gene expression analysis revealed that Rre37 and SigE each activate different pairs of genes involved in PHB biosynthesis. Extraction of PHB from the cyanobacteria showed that the bioplastic concentrations were even greater in the strain with bolstered Rre37 and SigE activity compared to those with only one overexpressed protein or in the unaltered 'wild-type' strain. "By the double overexpression of Rre37 and SigE, PHB levels increased by three times compared to the wild type," says Osanai. "However, even further increase in bioplastic production is required for commercial applications," he notes.

In addition to helping transform glycogen into PHB, the researchers documented an important new role played by Rre37 in nitrogen metabolism. Levels of aspartate, a type of amino acid, increased in the Rre37-overexpressing strain of Synechocystis. Compiled transcriptome and metabolome data point to a new metabolic cycle that is something of a hybrid between the well-known Kreb's and urea cycles, which describe common biochemical reactions in the body.

Explore further: Modifying one cell factor alters many others

More information: Osanai, T., Oikawa, A., Numata, K., Kuwahara, A., Iijima, H., Doi, Y., Saito, K. & Hirai, M. "Pathway-level acceleration of glycogen catabolism by response regulator Rre37 in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803." Plant Physiologyadvance online publication, 12 February 2014 (DOI: 10.1104/pp.113.232025). http://dx.doi.org/10.1104/pp.113.232025

Using a widely studied species of cyanobacterium, researchers from the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Sciences have shown how difficult it is to alter the metabolism of a unicellular organism with ...

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Genetic engineering increases yield of biodegradable plastic from cyanobacteria

Compliance is Dead! Beyond Compliance – protecting reputation – Futurist Speaker – Video

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Compliance is Dead! Beyond Compliance - protecting reputation - Futurist Speaker
Why compliance is dead as a strategy to protect your brand. We have to go beyond compliance with regulation, because future public opinion may decide that th...

By: Patrick Dixon Futurist Keynote Speaker for Industry Conference

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Compliance is Dead! Beyond Compliance - protecting reputation - Futurist Speaker - Video