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White House Budget Chief Says Issue Of Abortion Coverage In Health Reform Still Under Debate
In an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said that he is "not prepared to say explicitly" whether health care reform legislation would prohibit the use of federal tax revenue to fund abortion coverage, the New York Times reports. Orszag"s statement came in reply to a question asking whether he was prepared to say that "no taxpayer money will go to pay for abortions." Orszag said, "It"s obviously a controversial issue, and it"s one of the questions that is playing out in the debate" (Pear/Liptak, New York Times, 7/20).Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who also appeared on "Fox News Sunday," said, "No matter what your views are on abortion, you shouldn"t ask people to use their tax dollars if they think that abortion is taking a life." Gregg added, "I would hate to see the health care debate go down over that issue. We do really need health care reform, and it has to be substantive. ... So hopefully we won"t get ourselves wrapped around the wheel of abortion in this debate" (FoxNews.com, 7/19). According to the Times, there is an ongoing behind-the-scenes debate over handling abortion coverage in health overhaul legislation. The debate affects both the public insurance plan the legislation would create and private insurers, who would receive tens of billions of dollars in federal subsidies to expand coverage for low- and moderate-income U.S. residents. A provision in the House health reform bill (HR 3200) calls for a federal advisory committee to advise the HHS secretary on an "essential benefits package" that most insurers would be required to provide. Abortion-rights opponents want abortion coverage excluded from the package, while abortion-rights advocates say the decision should be left to medical professionals. House committees working on health reform legislation have rejected Republican amendments that would have restricted abortion coverage. The Hyde Amendment, first enacted in 1976, prohibits the use of federal Medicaid money for abortion services. However, abortion-rights opponents argue that federally subsidized coverage of the uninsured would not be subject to the existing restrictions. The National Right to Life Committee issued an analysis of the House bill, stating, "There is no doubt that coverage of abortion will be mandated, unless Congress explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of federal authority to define "essential benefits."" According to the group, even if the HHS secretary did not require abortion coverage, "federal courts would interpret the broadly worded mandatory categories of coverage to include abortion" (New York Times, 7/20).
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Skin-like Tissue Developed From Human Embryonic Stem Cells
Dental and tissue engineering researchers at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts have harnessed the pluripotency of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) to generate complex, multilayer tissues that mimic human skin and the oral mucosa (the moist tissue that lines the inside of the mouth). The proof-of-concept study is published online in advance of print in Tissue Engineering Part A.
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Republicans Test Public Plan Supporters' Will
Congressional Republicans are pushing an idea unlikely to garner much traction that would force members of Congress who vote for a government-run public plan for health insurance coverage to enroll in it, Politico reports. "Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), a family physician, kicked off the quixotic bid last week, urging House members to give up their right to participate in the much-revered Federal Employees Health Benefits Program if they support a government-run program as part of the health care reform package. Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma are pushing the same concept in the Senate, preparing separate amendments that would require members - and maybe even their staffs - to sign up for the public option."
Public Health

U-M Study: Why Dishing Does You Good

A University of Michigan study has identified a likely reason: feeling emotionally close to a friend increases levels of the hormone progesterone, helping to boost well-being and reduce anxiety and stress. "This study establishes progesterone as a likely part of the neuroendocrine basis of social bonding in humans," said U-M researcher Stephanie Brown, lead author of an article reporting the study findings, published in the current (June 2009) issue of the peer-reviewed journal Hormones and Behavior. A sex hormone that fluctuates with the menstrual cycle, progesterone is also present in low levels in post-menopausal women and in men. Earlier research has shown that higher levels of progesterone increase the desire to bond with others, but the current study is the first to show that bonding with others increases levels of progesterone. The study also links these increases to a greater willingness to help other people, even at our own expense. "It"s important to find the links between biological mechanisms and human social behavior," said Brown, is a faculty associate at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR) and an assistant professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School. She is also affiliated with the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Hospital. "These links may help us understand why people in close relationships are happier, healthier, and live longer than those who are socially isolated." Progesterone is much easier to measure than oxytocin, a hormone linked to trust, pair-bonding and maternal responsiveness in humans and other mammals. Oxytocin can only be measured through an invasive spinal tap or through expensive and complex brain imaging methods, such as positron emission tomography scans. Progesterone can be measured through simple saliva samples and may be related to oxytocin. In the current study, Brown and colleagues examined the link between interpersonal closeness and salivary progesterone in 160 female college students. At the start of the study, the researchers measured the levels of progesterone and of the stress hormone cortisol in the women"s saliva, and obtained information about their menstrual cycles and whether they were using hormonal contraceptives or other hormonally active medications. To control for daily variations in hormone levels, all the sessions were held between noon and 7 p.m. The women were randomly assigned to partners and asked to perform either a task designed to elicit feelings of emotional closeness or a task that was emotionally neutral. In the emotionally neutral task, the women proofread a botany manuscript together. After completing the 20-minute tasks, the women played a computerized cooperative card game with their partners, and then had their progesterone and cortisol sampled again. The progesterone levels of women who had engaged in the emotionally neutral tasks tended to decline, while the progesterone levels of women who engaged in the task designed to elicit closeness either remained the same or increased. The participants" cortisol levels did not change in a similar way. Participants returned a week later, and played the computerized card game with their original partners again. Then researchers measured their progesterone and cortisol. Researchers also examined links between progesterone levels and how likely participants said they would be to risk their life for their partner. "During the first phase of the study, we found no evidence of a relationship between progesterone and willingness to sacrifice," Brown said. "But a week later, increased progesterone predicted an increased willingness to say you would risk your life to help your partner." According to Brown, the findings are consistent with a new evolutionary theory of altruism which argues that the hormonal basis of social bonds enables people to suppress self-interest when necessary in order to promote the well-being of another person, as when taking care of children or helping ailing family members or friends. The results also help explain why social contact has well-documented health benefits---a relationship first identified nearly 20 years ago by U-M sociologist James House. "Many of the hormones involved in bonding and helping behavior lead to reductions in stress and anxiety in both humans and other animals. Now we see that higher levels of progesterone may be part of the underlying physiological basis for these effects," Brown said. Diane Swanbrow University of Michigan


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