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                        OF NOTE...
                        News to Use

Vol. III, Issue 69                           September 15, 1994
Earl Appleby, Jr., Editor                    CURE, Ltd.

                         Addictions

"As if plain cigarette smoking weren't bad enough, some young people in
the Northeast are getting high on cigarettes soaked in embalming fluid.
Called illy or Crazy Eddy on the street, the embalming fluid-soaked
cigarettes are often also dusted with the hallucinogen PCP (angel dust),
according to Connecticut State Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver." (Coffin
Nails? American Health, 7-8/94)

An advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration declared yesterday
that a nasal spray containing nicotine and intended as a smoking-
cessation aid is as potentially addictive as cough medicines containing
codeine. Concluding the spray has "significant abuse liability," the
panel majority recommended it be categorized as a "schedule 5 drug"
subject to the same restrictions as the codeine-bearing cough syrups.
During the first of three days of sessions in Silver Spring, ND on
nicotine panelists heard the case of a subject in a British clinical
trial: Patient 13. Even after developing a sore in her left nostril,
Patient 13 reported using the spray as much as 90 times a day. In fact,
she declined a clinic appointment to treat the sore for fear the doctors
would take the spray away. Indeed, she cadged "several more bottles" from
other subjects against such a possibility. While Patient 13 did quit
smoking, she continued to use the spray for a year--well beyond the
three-month tapering-off period intended by researchers. Patient 13
resumed smoking less than two weeks after ceasing to use the spray.
(Nasal Spray That Helps Smokers Quit Can Build New Addiction, FDA Panel
Says, John Schwartz, Washington Post, 8/2/94)

                         AIDS Addenda

"Studies of people who are healthy despite carrying the AIDS virus many
years are providing a 'ray of hope' that infection is not always a death
sentence, and AIDS researcher said Tuesday. Perhaps 5% of people with
HIV, the AIDS virus, show no signs of damage despite 12 or more years of
infection. Just how these people stay well while others fall sick has
emerged as one of the hottest areas of AIDS study. Scientists are turning
to them for new clues as searches for potential medicines and vaccines
have repeatedly ended in disappointment. Researchers hope they can learn
what these people's bodies are doing to thwart the virus and essentially
bottle it for those less fortunate. 'The long-term survivors, although
rate, provide a ray of hope to affected patients and the research
community that it is possible to coexist with HIV without harm,' said Dr.
David Ho, head of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York
City...Ho presented his findings at the 10th International Conference on
AIDS, where discussion of the long-term survivors has been a frequent
topic." (AIDS Survivors Providing Clues to Treatment, MJ, 8/10/94)

Changes in behavior are essential to bringing AIDS under control and
overconfidence in a vaccine could make the current epidemic even worse,
researchers warn in a study published in the journal Science. "We could
have a reverse outcome if risk behavior increases as a result of a
vaccine being available," cautions epidemiology specialist Sally M.
Blower, at the University of California, Berkeley. Blower and Angela R.
McLean, an Oxford University epidemic expert, have concluded that the
answer to the AIDS crisis does not lie in vaccinations alone. "It is
unlikely that vaccines alone will be able to eradicate HIV," Blower
affirms. 'You are going to have to have a behavioral change." (Study:
Behavior, Not Vaccine, Key to Controlling AIDS Crisis, MJ, 9/3/94)

"At the tip of his pug nose, the boyishly handsome Tom Villard has a
purple splotch that tells the world, 'I have AIDS.' He's a rarity, an
actor who has kept working through treatment for an AIDS-related skin
tumor that has sent others scurrying for cover...HIV-positive men
everywhere, no matter what their jobs, no matter how close and trusted
their colleagues and employers, dread the telltale bumps and blotches of
Kaposi's sarcoma, especially when they appear on the face. The fear is
acute in Hollywood, where sculpted bodies and flawless skin are tools of
the trade. Audition calls grind to a halt. Work--and health insurance--
vanish. 'Anything but the face. If it's on my face, I'm history,' patient
after patient tells Dr. Gary Cohen, an internist and HIV specialist with
Pacific Oaks Medical Group, the nation's largest private AIDS practice.
'It's like the mark of Cain,' says Suzanne Rosenblatt, a psychotherapist
and HIV specialist in West Hollywood." (AIDS-Related Skin Disorder Like
Mark of Cain, Martinsburg Journal, 9/4/94)

                         Biotech Bulletin

"The tabloid press had a field day fanning fears about infectious
bacteria with such headlines as 'Flesh But Ate My Brother in 18 Hours'
and 'Alert Over Superbug: Hospital Tests Its Patients as Woman Dies in
Outbreak.' Despite the hyperbole and misinformation which made the rare
cases of the 'flesh-eating bug' seem widespread, the hoopla drew
attention to a problem doctors say really does bedevil modern medicine:
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria. 'We're running out of drugs, 'Mitchell L.
Cohen, a specialist in bacterial infections at the Centers for Disease
Control in Atlanta said this week. 'We're approaching an era of killer
bugs, and it could be a disaster.' But biotechnology companies...using
compounds found on the skin of African frogs and in microscopic sea
algae, and genetically engineered compounds that boost humans' natural
defense systems, are pursuing new types of drugs that could defeat ever-
mutating germs. If they are successful, a large chunk of the $20 billion-
a-year antibiotic industry could be up for grabs...The opportunities for
biotech companies have arisen because of the overuse and misuse of
antibiotics--drugs that kill bacteria after a person has been infected
with them--in recent decades. As a result, there has been a steady
increase in strains of bugs in hospitals, nursing homes, and day-care
centers--'super bugs'--that can't be treated with some antibiotics." (The
Germ of a Biotech Boom? Kathleen Day, Washington Post, 8/19/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: We pursued a conservative approach to antibiotics during
the near ten years my Dad lived in coma in order to reserve the "big
guns" for life-threatening opportunistic infections. Nevertheless during
my father's last hospitalization he contracted methlycillin-resistant
staphylococcus aureas (MRSA), which is listed on his death certificate,
as, alas, he died--just days after returning home--on September 1990.
BTW, at discharge we were told Dad was free of MRSA but lab tests
conducted otuside that facility evidenced the contrary. That is why CURE
paraphrases Webster to say, "The price of Life is enternal vigilance."

                         Cancer Chronicles

In the largest long-term study of its kind to date, researcher at the
Kaiser Permanente Division  of Research in Oakland, CA have found no
links between residues of the chemicals DDT and PCBs and breast cancer.
The findings will fuel debate about the role of environmental pollutants.
Only a week earlier, the New York State Department of Health found that
Long Island women who lived within a half mile of a chemical plant were
60% as likely to develop postmenopausal breast cancer as those living
further away. (Breast Cancer and Pollutants, Michele Turk, American
Health, 7-8/94)

In a 2,000-page report, the Environmental Protection Agency concludes
that dioxin--a class of potent chemical compounds that works its way into
meat, fish, and dairy products--probably causes cancer. The study stops
just shy of declaring dioxin a carcinogen. Still the EPA estimates dioxin
and related compounds may be responsible for as many as 1 in 1,000
cancers. Dioxin first drew public scrutiny for its role in the herbicide
Agent Orange, used extensively during the Vietnam War. Today, 99% of US
dioxin emissions are believed to be byproducts of the incineration of
medical and municipal waste. (EPA Study Links Dioxin to Cancer, Gary Lee,
Washington Post, 9/12/94)

                         COMPUTations

"You might call the genre MDCD: medical doctor on a CD-ROM. Utilizing
film clips, large quantities of animation, and hundreds of thousands of
just plain words, these electronic medical advisers go well beyond home
doctoring guides most Americans have on their bookshelves. Leading the
pack are three CD-ROMS sponsored by the prestigious Mayo Clinic based in
Rochester, MN, which also publishes printed home medical encyclopedias.
The Mayo CD-ROMS include the Mayo Clinic Family Health Book ($69.95),
Mayo Clinic: The Total Heart ($59.95), and Mayo Clinic Family Pharmacist
($99.95)...Combined the three CD-ROMS are a treasure trove of information
for potential customers as diverse as new parents fretting over their
baby's first fever and hypochondriacs wondering what horrible condition
lies behind the latest twinge in their tummies...Mayo has some formidable
competition in at least tow other titles now on store shelves: Home
Medical Advisor Pro ($99.95)...and The Family Doctor ($79.99)." (Doctors
on Disc Now Make House Calls, Morning Herald, 8/31/94) CURE Comment: Note
the standard media hype of hypochondria a stereotypical view of the
growing interest of patients and their families in their health and its
care, an interest we encourage and support as patient advocates.

                         Family Affair

According to a panel at the National Institutes of Health, the lives of
7,000 premature babies could be saved each year if their mothers were
injected with an inexpensive corticosteroid shortly before going into
labor. The treatment, which has been studied for more than 20 years, is
used in fewer than one in five suitable cases. Once injected in the
mother, the drug swiftly passes across the placenta accelerating the
maturation of her baby's vital organs. The injection cuts cases of
respiratory distress syndrome--the number one killer of preemies in half
and reduces overall mortality by 40%. Dr. Linda Wright, a neonatologist
at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, reports
the most premature infants are apt to benefit most. "To me, this is the
single most short-term intervention that we can make for saving
preemies." (Baby Boon, Theresa Tamkins, American Health, 7-8/94)

"Steve Morris admits his marriage lasted longer than he thought it would
--because of Jolson. He just couldn't bear to leave the little guy. After
all, Jolson had been with him on his wedding night nine years ago at the
Pierre Hotel in New York. But Mr. Morris didn't think he could get
custody of Jolson either--let alone persuade a judge to hear his case.
Jolson ia a dog [a fluffy white bichon frise]...Such attitudes aren't
unusual these days, as animal enthusiasts become more willing to admit--
and act on--feelings for their pets. Some pet owners now hire lawyers to
fight for animal custody. Dogs often trigger the most ferocious custody
disputes--in part because they are more demonstrative and seemingly more
emotionally dependent than other animals. But people wage battles over
all the animal kingdom, fighting for cats, parrots, even snakes,
sometimes spending $10,000 or more to win custody." (Bones of Contention:
When a Marriage Goes to the Dogs, Rochelle Sharpe, WSJ, 8/22/94)

"Orphanages are almost extinct in the United States, but orphans are not.
More than 400,000 children now live in foster homes, and unknown
thousands more live nominally at home but actually as latch-key children
surviving on the mean streets of America with no fathers, crack-abusing
mothers, and drug dealers as role models. America once provided
orphanages for many children. In 1910, about 123,000 lived in such
places...Today these institutions have almost disappeared. Most people
think--wrongly, as we shall see--that they vanished because they had
failed...These institutions did not disappear because an enlightened
public was shocked by stories of abuse or neglect within their walls. On
the contrary, they were destroyed by their success and the ideology of
their rivals. So popular did they become, so great was the demand for
places in them, that private charities could no longer afford them and
public agencies refused to make up the difference. Social workers opposed
them because they 'broke up the family,' liberal reformers because they
involved 'social control,' fiscal conservatives because they were too
expensive." --James Q. Wilson, professor of management and public policy,
University of California, Los Angeles. (Bring Back the Orphanage, Wilson,
op-ed, Wall Street Journal, 8/22/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: For a
contrary view, see Anthony Platt's book, The Child Savers (1974).

"One chilly day in November 1991, a grass fire burning near his rural
Cape May County, NJ home caught the attention of a red-haired, freckle-
faced boy of 12. The boy, Mark Himebaugh, left a park where he was
playing to watch the commotion and was never seen again. Investigators,
from the local police to the FBI, descended on the little town of Del
Haven. Hundreds of volunteers poked through the underbrush and water
pipes. Police searched with helicopters and bloodhounds. On radio and
television, the boy's father, Jody Himebaugh, appealed for help...The
days turned into months. The leads thinned. And the contacts with police
diminished. Yet, as the search through official methods began to face, a
different kind of investigation intensified. It didn't take long, said
Himebaugh, for psychics to being showing up 'like flies on horse manure.'
Himebaugh had never so much as read the horoscopes in the daily paper.
But soon, he found himself talking to the strangers from Louisiana to
Texas who said they'd had visions of his son's fate...He could not
imagine the underworld he was about to enter as the parent of a missing
child...Suddenly, Himebaugh was dealing with private investigators,
cadaver-seeking dogs, search-and-rescue teams, forensic scientists,
bloodhounds, Indian man-finders, palmists, crystal balls, age-enhanced
photography, criminal profiling, and all manner of psychic sleuthing.
Some psychics tried psychometry, which involves clutching a metal object
that belongs to the missing person. Others tried dowsing--searching with
a divining rod for a source of water that might contain the person's
body." (Parents of Missing Children Often Turn to Psychics in Bid for
Help, Morning Herald, 8/31/94)

                         Forget the Vet?

"People anxious to water down rules giving military veterans extra
federal job protection ran into a brick wall in the form of John King,
director of the Office of Personnel Management. He's a Korean War vet and
one-time commander of a chapter of the Disabled American Veterans
Association...But when it comes time to cut jobs, there will be attempts,
like the end run tried by the US Postal Service, to skirt veterans
preference rules by pretending that a reduction in force (where vet
preference rules apply) is really only a minor realignment." (Veterans
Preference, Mike Causey, Washington Post, 8/17/94)

"August is the traditional month for reflecting on the atomic bomb. Next
August, the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
will be the occasion for even more reflection. In commemoration, the
National Air and Space Museum is preparing an exhibition. On display will
be more than the Enola Gay, the B-29 that delivered the bomb, The walls
of text and choice of exhibits will display also the degree to which
elite American museums, like the universities, have fallen to the forces
of political correctness and historical revisionism...The original script
for 'The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II'...betrays
the ideology and intentions of the curators. It said of the Pacific war
endgame, for example, that 'for most Americans...it was a war of
vengeance. For most Japanese, it was a war to defend their unique culture
against Japanese imperialism.'...It is an exhibit that underplays
Japanese savagery in the conduct of World War II...and devotes much
attention to American racism. It quotes Hitler declaring, 'I want no war
against women and children. I have given the Luftwaffe instructions to
attack only military objectives'...This is a museum that sports a German
V-2 rocket display accompanied by 13 photographs, exactly one of which
shows any victims. It is an exhibit, in short, that casts the Japanese as
victims, the kamikaze pilots as heroes, and the Americans as the vengeful
heavy." (World War II, Revised, Charles Krauthammer, op-ed, WP, 8/19/94)

Reacting to criticism from veterans associations and members of Congress,
the Smithsonian Institution has opted to broaden the scope of a planned
exhibition on the American bombing of Japan during the Second World War.
A principal complaint was that the atomic bomb exhibit lacked balance as
it failed to provide background on events leading up to the bombing. The
exhibit, which will include the front fuselage of the Enola Gay, had
already been revised once in the wake of public outcry. "I am pleased
that the Air and Space Museum has finally admitted publicly that this
exhibit is unbalanced and biased. But even with the addition of a section
on the Pacific War, the exhibition still needs to undergo a massive
revision or rewrite," Rep. Peter Blute (R-MA) cautioned. (After
Criticism, Smithsonian Will Broaden Enola Gay Display, MJ, 8/25/94)

"Next May, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington is planning an
exhibit of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima. Veterans are angry--and justly so...Veterans say the museum
plans to present Japan as a victim of racism. For a public museum to turn
United States victory in World War II into a guilt trip is more than
veterans can stomach. The problem is the intellectual arrogance of the
museum director, Martin Harwit. He wrote in the Washington Post that
there were two views of the bombing--the widely held patriotic consensus
that the act was necessary and ended the war and '...the more analytical,
critical, and to some discomforting view' that stresses the 'horrors of
nuclear war.'...Actually, it is Mr. Harwit who seems...to be dumb as well
as arrogant. To suppose that those American servicemen who were neck-deep
in the horrors of war do not understand the horrors of war as well as
academic twits do is arrogant and absurd... Was Hiroshima more horrible
than Auschwitz or Stalingrad or Bataan or Nanking?...Americans and others
who died from Japanese bombs and bullets, bayonets or swords, or forced
starvation in prison camps, were not less dead than those who died in
Hiroshima...The Japanese who died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were victims
of their own government, not ours...We must not allow a public museum to
turn one of America's finest hours into an insult to some of America's
finest people. The US government has made mistakes, but dropping atomic
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not one of them. Hiring Martin Harwit
was." (The Enola Gay Controversy, Charley Reese, op-ed, MH, 8/29/94)

                         Front Lines

"Walter Reed officials plan to open a managed care clinic in the main
hospital in the fall...The catchment area for the Walter Reed TRICARE
clinic will be Washington, DC, Silver Spring, Tacoma Park, and
Kensington, MD..."The complaint most of our patients have about Walter
Reed is in getting appointments,' Col. Robert L. Ramsey said. Ramsey is
project manager for the WRAMC managed care clinic...For routine problems,
patients will see a physician within a week. For most specialty
appointments, the goal is for patients to be seen within 30
days...Enrollees will learn the name of their doctor as soon as they are
registered...'We are going to ask everyone who enrolls in our clinic to
come in once a year for a Health Assessment Wellness check,' Ramsey said.
'They will see a wellness technician or nurse for all of their health
issues.'" (Managed Care Clinic Slated for Fall Opening, Gilda Kerrera,
Stripe, 8/12/94) CURE Comment: As the Stripe reports, "This check is
unlike a physical since the patient will probably not see a physician."
Not only is an assessment by a "technician" a sorry substitute for an
annual examination by a doctor, but since technicians will serve as
gatekeepers for "all of their health issues," "the patient will probably
not see a physician"--who is assigned not chosen--as often as her or she
may need. As the Colonel concedes, "One reason for motivating us to start
this is to reduce CHAMPUS costs and bring more business back into the
military health care system. For CHAMPUS-eligible patients, we are going
to ask them no to use their CHAMPUS. That way, we will save money by not
paying CHAMPUS bills."  Incredibly, the cost-cutting, i.e., care-cutting,
brass then has the gall to claim, "Patients and Dod have similar
interest. The goals of managed care are to provide those things." NOT.

                         Head Lines

"Think bingo's a no-brainer? Speak to people like Kimberly Lee, who can
keep track of 102 bingo cards at once. And get this--she does it all in
her head. She wants to play 204 cards at once someday. 'People will
always ask me, 'How can you remember all those cards?' I honestly don't
know,' said Lee, 33, of Pittsburgh. Iseli Krauss wants to know. The
Clarion University psychology professor is studying what makes bingo
players tick. She is using bingo as a platform for studying memory,
concentration, and aging. 'They get so good at it that there are people
who do not mark their cards,' said Krauss. 'They remember the numbers
that were called and know when they have bingo Yet non-bingo players
think that it is a mindless game.' Kelly and her psychology students have
found that age, gender, and education have little to do with the ability
to track bingo cards. She has a strong hunch that a phenomenon called
'divided attention' is keenly developed in bingo players." (Bingo Takes
Brains, Morning Herald, 8/29/94) CURE Comment: We deplore the use of TAB
hate words like "no-brainer."

                    Health Care Plans and Pans

"The president was 'misunderstood' again last week. He seemed to favor
momentarily a more flexible definition of 'universal' health coverage, a
less resolute attachment to the idea that employers should have to pay
health care benefits. But no; not really--his advisers quickly rolled him
back. Nothing had changed. The health care debate remains adrift, Bill
Clinton's personal trajectory wanes with it. Indeed, the whole episode
would be of little interest if it weren't a public rehearsal of a style
the president has perfected in private--the policy tease." (Chafee at the
Bit, Joe Klein, Newsweek, 8/1/94)

"The latest twists and turns have only piled more dirt on the grave of
the original 1,300-page Clinton health package. Democrats were publicly
and finally through with mandatory alliances, the giant purchasing
cooperatives that the Clintons had hoped would give consumers more buying
power. Congressional leaders seemed willing to phase in a requirement
that employers pay for their workers' health care. Yet Democrat leaders
and the White House still struggled to get past the obvious conundrum of
these so-called employer mandates: While the White House seems to insist
on them, the Senate lacks the votes to approve them...In the Senate,
Majority Leader George Mitchell [D-ME] was shopping a proposal to keep
even his anti-mandate conservatives on board...By one leadership count,
there are 14 Democrats who oppose mandates altogether...Nebraska's Sen.
Bob Kerry...has told Mitchell privately, 'If somebody introduces
something to strike mandates, I will vote for it.'...Kerrey, who is no
fan of either the White House or its health plan, intends to hold Clinton
to his statement in Boston that universal coverage may mean covering 95%
of the population. 'He cans say whatever he wants now,' Kerrey says.
'They can fill the air with spin control. But the words are out there--
and we have banked on them.'" (Stumbling Into a Deal, Matthew Cooper, US
News & World Report, 8/1/93)

Full-page advertisements sponsored by The Roundtable Freedom Forum
criticize the speed with which congressional leaders are seeking to move
health care reform legislation. The ads--which first appeared in the
Washington Times and the Cleveland Plain Dealer--note the extent of
health-care rationing in nations with nationalized health plans. (Ads
Oppose Congress' Efforts, USA Today, 8/3/94)

President Bill Clinton will hit the nation's TV airwaves Wednesday night
in order to peddle Democrat health reform plans, including one announced
by Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME) on Tuesday. Sen.
Mitchell hopes to woo the votes of conservative Democrats for his bill,
which would require employers to pay half the insurance premiums of their
employees--but only if other measures don't work. On Tuesday, hundreds of
health care workers rallied on Capitol Hill Tuesday in support of
universal coverage. Public officials attending the rally included First
Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sens. Paul Wellstone (D-MN), Paul Simon (D-
IL), and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), House Majority Leader Richard
Gephardt (D-MO) and House Majority Whip David Bonior (D-MI). (Clinton
Sets Prime-Time Pitch, USA Today,  8/3/94)

House Democratic leaders are holding firm to the mandate that all
employers pay 80 percent of workers' premiums by 1999. Citing polls in
favor of the requirement, House Speaker Tom Foley (D-WA) declared, "There
shouldn't be any difficulty in supporting ideas that are supported by the
public." Nonetheless, conservative Democrats warn the employer mandate
will fail in the House. (House Sticks By Mandate, USA Today, 8/3/94)

Coverage for pregnant mothers and uninsured kids is a priority in Sen.
George Mitchell (D-ME)'s health reform bill. The Mitchell plan also adds
benefits for prescription drugs for the elderly and provides long-term
and home-care. Speaking On PBS' MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour, the Senate
Majority Leader said funding of the $900 billion in subsidies over 10
years his plan requires largely would come from Medicare and Medicaid
cuts. Under the plan, states would be allowed to create state-financed
single-payer health-care systems under which the government would collect
insurance premiums and pay health care bills. But Senate moderates made
no movement Tuesday towards the Mitchell initiative. Seven moderate
Senators, who are attempting to craft a bipartisan compromise, charged d
Mitchell had not watered down the Clinton plan enough. Led by Sen. John
Chafee (R-RI), they complained of too much government regulation in the
plan, whose employer mandate exempts firms with fewer than 25 workers.
(Senate Moderates Unconvinced, USA Today, 8/3/94)

"Today Majority Leader George J. Mitchell [D-ME] unveils the legislation
around which Senate debate on health care will finally be organized this
year. You will read about it tomorrow on the front page of the New York
Times. But don't bother reading too carefully; at least for now, the
Mitchell bill hardly matters. The amazingly radical House leadership bill
proposed last Friday by Dick Gephardt is actually by far the more
significant piece of health care legislation at issue in Washington this
week and next. The health care battle is almost over, and when it ends,
the following question, whose importance is impossible to exaggerate,
will be settled: should the federal government impose on the nation a
sweeping and detailed redirection of traditionally private social and
economic decisions about our medical services?" --William Kristol,
chairman, Project for the Republican Future. (Why Gephardt Matters and
Mitchell Doesn't, Kristol, op-ed, Washington Times, 8/3/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: The excerpt is from a Memorandum to Republican Leaders.

"Regardless of what Congress does--or doesn't do--about health care
reform this year, there will be little change in the 1995 premiums or
benefits in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. It is the
largest company-style health plan in the nation and has become the
centerpiece for universal coverage efforts. When the health care debate
began, many federal workers worried--with good reason--that politicians
were about to fix something (the tried-and-true federal health plan) that
wasn't broken. Ironically, the political cry 'Give the American people
the same thing the politicians have!' may have saved the federal employee
health program...President Clinton originally proposed eliminating the
federal health plan and putting workers and retirees into regional
alliances. Now he favors keeping the federal program and extending its
benefits to the private sector." (Health Plan Safe, Mike Causey,
Washington Post, 8/17/94)

Seeking to scale back the benefits and the bureaucracy in Senate Majority
Leader George Mitchell (D-ME)'s health plan, Senate moderates met with
leaders of both major parties Wednesday. House Democrats said the debate
could start sometime after Labor Day. Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-
KS) told reporters that the so-called "mainstream coalition" had sounded
him out on whether he would work with Mitchell toward a bipartisan deal.
"Let me see the product," Dole was quoted as saying. "We can't buy
anything sight unseen." Coalition participants admit that the group has
yet to reach a final agreement, but they predict they will propose
cutting benefits and reducing the scope of Mitchell's 1,443-page bill.
Prescription drug coverage for the elderly and a new home health care
program are believed to be on the chopping block. (Senate Moderates Work
on Health Compromise, Martinsburg Journal, 8/18/94)

"While the Senate opened debate on the crime bill, Senate backers of
rival liberal and conservative health care plans met behind closed doors
yesterday to explore their chances of finding agreement. They concluded
that it would be a long reach. Sens. John Chafee (R-RI) and John Breaux
(D-LA), leaders of a self-styled 'mainstream coalition' that on Friday
completed drafting a health plan much more limited than President
Clinton's, accepted the invitation of Sen. Thomas A. Daschle (D-SD) and
joined more than a dozen Democrats pressing for universal health
insurance coverage...The Chafee-Breaux bill is designed to substitute
for--or tug to the right--the modification of the Clinton plan offered by
Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-ME. It would cost less,
insure fewer people, and provide more modest benefits than the Mitchell
plan, which aims at 95% coverage by the year 2000. Daschle and his
allies, in contrast, want to beef up the Mitchell plan and take it in the
direction of the original Clinton bill...Sen. Paul D. Wellstone (D-MN)
said that after the briefing. he had concluded that the Chafee-Breauz
approach 'is a step backward. It is not an improvement over what we now
have in this country.'...Chafee, appearing undaunted, said he had invited
Breaux to breif more conservative Republican senators." (Health Bill
Consensus Eludes Closed-Door Meeting of Senators, David Broder,
Washington Post, 8/19/94)

"There is no doubt in my mind that Harry and Louise will share exhibit
space with Willie Horton in the American Museum of Political Advertising
exhibit of outrageous successes during the last dozen years of the 20th
century. The televisions campaigns have a lot in common. They provide
more heat than light. They became cliches that were discussed by millions
who had never seen them. Each sent an effective implicit message that
went far beyond the explicit message that was ostensibly being delivered.
And they actually had an impact on the debate they were trying to
influence." --Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL, former chairman, House Ways
and Means Committee. (Hortonizing the Health Debate, Rostenkowski, op-ed,
Washington Post, 8/19/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: Politicos outraged at
their defeat by the people invariably find the means of that setback
"outrageous."  Rosty left out another similarity between Harry, Louise,
and Willy: the messages were based on facts. To be fair, he comes close
in a left-handed sort of way: "The message of the Horton ads was that
Michael Dukakis was indifferent to public fears of violent crime and
cared more about criminals than crime victims. The message from Harry and
Louise was that seeming reasonable people could be confused by the
complexity of the original Clinton plan and that one could question the
plan without appearing to be a moneyed special interest." CURE Comment:
We oppose the Clinton plan and it's TAB-biassed rationing, but we are
anything but "moneyed," though we admit a "special interest" in persons
with disabilities and illnesses, the aged, the poor, and other vulnerable
targets of the checkbook euthanasians.

"Health care reform hangs by a thread in Congress, as President Clinton
is now reduced to trying to salvage a bill that at best lays the
foundation for some day achieving his goal of medical coverage for all
Americans. These efforts now turn on a plan put forward by a bipartisan
bloc of Senate moderates, who propose a progressive set of insurance-
market reforms with a much-scaled-back subsidy program for poor and
working-class families. Proponents say the so-called 'mainstream
coalition' is the last, best chance for health care reform this year. But
by putting more emphasis on deficit reduction than universal coverage,
the plan would leave more than 20 million people without insurance at the
turn of the century." (Bipartisan Plan Moves to Fore as Best Bet for
Health Reform, David Rogers and Hilary Stout, WSJ, 8/22/94)

While Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-ME) has vowed, "We're
going to proceed with health care until we're finished," Senate Finance
Committee Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) suggested yesterday
that the Senate recess until after Labor Day before trying again on the
stalled health care bill. "I will do whatever the leader want s done, but
I think he might decide that we've talked enough, we've listened to each
other enough. Now maybe it's time to break and see if we can't put
together a bill that has enough common ingredients of the various groups
to get 60 votes." (Moynihan Suggests a Recess for Senate, Helen Dewar,
Washington Post, 8/22/94)

"'Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their
country.' Government-dictated health care reform is about to be shoved
down our throats...The state of Virginia has lost 25% of their
independent pharmacies in the past year. Physicians are leaving our area
to team up with more suburban practices. Fewer and fewer American
students choose to go to medical school. Small hospitals are forced to
close or to send their patients to other hospitals for procedures they
can no longer afford to offer. These changes result in fewer consumer
choices and the depersonalization of health care. In the future, we can
look forward to 'Jiffy-Lube' type clinics where you never see the same
doctor twice and 'Wal-Mart' hospitals where patients are stacked like
merchandise." --Linda Bower, Charles Town, WV. (Government-Controlled
Health Care Not Feasible, Bower, let-ed, Martinsburg Journal, 8/24/94)

"The nation's largest seniors group threw its endorsement to the leading
Democratic health care bills because it 'wanted to make a statement to
our members that these are two good bills.' But the fine print of the
health plan proposed by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-ME)
suggests that the high-minded rhetoric of the American Association of
Retired Persons papers over the bottom line. Tucked away in the 1,443-
page Mitchell bill is a sweetener that the seniors lobby may have found
irresistible: a clause that largely exempts mail-order pharmaceutical
firms from the stringent cost controls contained in a prescription drug
benefit for the elderly. Not coincidentally, the AARP owns a stake in one
of the country's oldest and largest mail-order prescription drug
companies. If the Mitchell bill becomes law, this clause could mean extra
wealth for what's already become a cash cow for the nation's largest
advocacy group. 'It certainly appears to line the pockets of the AARP
leadership,' says one Republican health care staffer. 'It's
flabbergasting how blatant this is, how a special interest benefits from
the Clinton-Mitchell bill.'" (AARP's Health Care Booster Shot, Jack
Anderson and Michael Binstein, op-ed, Washington Post, 8/25/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: For the rest of this eye-opening expose, see AARP9408.*
wherever ABLETEXT files are found.

"Please discontinue my membership in the American Association of Retired
Persons and return my dues. AARP has acted politically and without any
attempt to determine the wishes of its members in publicly supporting the
partisan Mitchell health care bill. I am one of a large majority of
citizens who have a very satisfactory, 80% company-paid health plan. I do
not want this disturbed and remade in some government image with
government controls and regulation that determine who my doctor is, what
I can buy, and what it costs...AARP has no business taking any position
on any legislation unless the organization has first obtained the
members' views: that is the democratic American way...AARP should not use
the national office for political ends." --Sharon Rafferty, Amherst, NH.
(AARP; Not My Representative, Rafferty, let-ed, WSJ, 8/25/94)

"I do not see anything in my membership application that authorized AARP
to speak politically for me or other members. My purpose in joining AARP
was to enjoy the benefits of large group purchases of travel, medical
insurance, prescription drugs, and other similar programs. I am asking my
senators and congressmen to propose legislation that forces organizations
such as AARP, labor unions, etc., to state what percentage of their
members have given the organization permission to speak politically for
its members. If AARP does not cease this unauthorized course of action, I
will cancel my membership even if it results in additional costs."
--Robert Koch, Edison, NJ. (AARP; Not My Representative, Koch, letter-
editor, Wall Street Journal, 8/25/94)

"The endorsement by AARP officers of the Clinton health plan is an
outrage. What in the world possessed AARP representatives to mildly
favor, let alone endorse (with the implication that AARP members
endorse), this bureaucratic boondoggle? If you as individuals want to
support the Clinton monstrosity, that's your privilege--but don't presume
to speak for me." --Esther Moore, Thomaston, TX. (AARP; Not My
Representative, Moore, letter-editor, Wall Street Journal, 8/25/94)

"President Clinton yesterday portrayed Senate moderates as trapped in an
'ideological box' in their refusal to support his proposed cost controls
on medical expenditures and a requirement that employers help pay for
their workers' insurance. Without cost controls or an employer mandate,
health care reform becomes dependent on wasteful subsidies, the president
said in a televised exchange from the White House with a B'nai B'rith
audience in Chicago. And the same lawmakers who criticize him for being
too liberal, he said, end up 'getting into taxes and government
regulation' to come up with the resources needed to fund their own
alternative reform plans." (Health Reform Moderates Are Trapped in
'Ideological Box,' President Says, David Rogers, WSJ, 8/25/94)

"When the history is finally written of Bill Clinton's failure to pass
his far-reaching health reform proposal, the centerpiece of his
commitment to 'change,' one name will loom large in the narrative: Robert
D. Reischauer, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
After months of debate, it's clear not only that the Clinton proposal for
a new entitlement--universal health care insurance--is dead but that
major alternative programs, including those advanced by Democratic
leaders George Mitchell and Richard Gephardt, will also not see the light
of day...Those seeking an explanation for congressional resistance to
what was intended as the capstone of the new administration's first-term
effort have focused on a number of things that frustrated health reform.
They cite amateurish White House staff work, Hillary Rodham Clinton's
secrecy in working out the program in the first place, the impact of
Whitewater and the resultant attacks on the president's character, the
loss of Democratic party discipline, and plain old politics, in which the
Republicans see a golden opportunity to embarrass the president. Then
there were 'Harry and Louise,' the actors who spoke for the entrenched
insurance industry in an effective television camapign. All of these
factors played a role. But the extraordinary impact of the CBO and its
judicious director cannot be ignored...The collapsing prospects for the
Clinton, Mitchell, and Gephardt health plans can be closely correlated
with the new eminence of the CBO which, by costing out each plan in
simple but restrained language, has made most seem too risky, too
complicated, or totally unworkable. CBO offers a budget-oriented
reiteration of the fact that there's no such thing as a free lunch." (The
Man Who Put a Price on Health Care, Hobart Rowen, op-ed, WP, 8/25/94)

"I have been a member of the American Association of Retired Persons
(AARP) for 17 years. On August 10, 1994, however, I cancelled my
membership. Why? Because the leadership of the AARP did an unforgivable
thing in my opinion: They politicized the organization in a way that was
never done before. They proclaimed AARP organizational support for the
Gephardt/Mitchell health care bills now in Congress. They did it without
polling the membership or even notifying the membership of their
intentions...Why did the AARP leadership do it? I suspect it was for a
very cynical reason: the belief that the membership of AARP is nothing
but a bunch of greedy geezers whose only goal is to get someone else to
foot the bill for their complete health care costs without regard to the
impact on the rest of society. Well, I reject that notion completely. I,
also, resent the implication that we older citizens are so selfish and
uncaring that we will support this legislation just to get a few goodies
for ourselves...Sixty-five percent of the American people say the matter
deserves extensive debate and should be left to next year's agenda. Yet
AARP is pledging its support to the Gephardt/Mitchell bills and is urging
the membership to call their elected representatives to back these bills!
...Well, I have made my point and taken the action I feel is necessary in
so fundamental a disagreement with the AARP leadership. If there are
others who feel the same way, write to: AARP Membership Communications,
601 E St. NW, Washington, DC 20049, Attention: Horace Deets, Director."
(Why I Was Forced to Part Ways With the AARP, Donald Currier, op-ed,
Herald-Mail, 8/28/94)

"To AARP leadership: We senior citizens and AARP members in this area
demand your resignations immediately!...You are telling a bare-faced lie
when you tell the media that you have contacted the membership and we
have indicated that we want health reform. I have talked to more than 200
members and 84.5% do not want the government involved in our health care.
The only reform any of us want is to help the people who don't have it to
get it if they want it! You are using this as a political issue to the
detriment of the membership and we are offended by it!" --Charles Flurie,
Greencastle, PA. (AARP Troubles, Flurie, let-ed, Morning Herald, 8/29/94)

Martin Wattenberg, a political scientist at the University of California,
Irvine, is quoted in the New York Times on health care reform. "They
really, really blew it," he says of the party in power. "People will see
this as 'we gave control to the Democrats and they still couldn't do
anything. Voters don't have a very long memory. What they remember is a
party that pledged itself to this as the top priority, but when push came
to shove, they didn't do anything.' But Charles Rolland, Washington state
chairman of the Democratic Party, strikes a more upbeat note. "Maybe I'm
the naive optimist out here in the other Washington. But if we have to
take a smaller step than originally intended for the first step, the
voters will understand." (Health Care Blown? Alan McConagha, WT, 8/29/94)

"For months, the White House and Democratic leaders predicted that if
comprehensive health care reform was derailed, voters would retaliated
against Republicans at the ballot box in November. But with Clinton-style
reform all but buried for the year and the fate of any reform uncertain,
it's not at all clear that the Democrats will be able to notch political
gains by painting the GOP as obstructionist. Many Republicans think the
issue will actually work in their favor, and polls indicate they may be
right...Since Mr. Clinton introduced his bill last September, public
support for it has steadily declined. A Gallup Poll conducted for CNN and
USA Today found that when the proposal was introduced a year ago, the
public supported it by 59% to 33%; earlier this month. the same survey
showed 39% approved of it and 48% opposed it. The August poll found that
47% of the voters would feel relieved if no health care bill passed this
year, while 39% would be angry...Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, who chairs the
GOP panel that oversees Senate campaigns, says, 'As far as I am aware,
every single one of our candidates is willing to run the whole election
on health care and let the outcome be determined by that issue alone.'"
(Health Gridlock May Work in GOP's Favor, Peter Brown, WT, 8/29/94)

"So leading congressional Democrats on Capitol Hill and some
administration officials have risen to declare that a major overhaul of
the US system of health care will not, after all, be taking place this
year. People who have spent a long time opposing ClintonCare--and its
Capitol Hill variations from Gephardt to Mitchell to Chafee--are probably
tempted to declare victory and take a well-earned vacation...The case for
a government takeover of one-seventh of the US economy has collapsed. But
it did not collapse of its own weight. It collapsed because people
OPPOSED it, making the case that whatever the ills of the nation's health
care system, the plans being bandied about would make matters worse, cost
more, damage care, and vastly enlarge the size and role of government to
the detriment of individual liberty. But before opponents pop the
champagne corks, they had better take a clear-eyed look at the political
scene...In short, this is no time for complacency for the opponents of
health care reform, Clinton-style. In fact, it remains a time of maximum
peril. The Clinton White House and the Democratic congressional
leadership know perfectly well that their ability to fashion something to
their liking is apt to be significantly diminished as a result of GOP and
conservative gains in November. Unless they are throwing in the towel for
the first time in their political lives, they would still like very much
to get something done before then...Neither Republicans nor conservative
Democrats gain by signing on to the liberal agenda emanating from the
White House nd the Democratic leadership, even if it is attenuated, and
especially if it is merely pretending to be attenuated. The opposition to
that agenda has been successful so far. It's time to finish the job."
(The New Perils of Health Care Reform, ed, Washington Times, 8/29/94)

"Saying 'it won't be the end of the world' if major reforms were
postponed until next year, House Speaker Thomas Foley called Tuesday for
more than cosmetic changes to the nation's health care system. The
Washington Democrat said there was no rush for Congress to approve 'a bad
bill' this year. It was the first indication that any Democratic leader
would consider delaying major reforms or completing them in a piecemeal
fashion. 'I don't think we ought to pass a purely cosmetic bill that does
nothing significant for health care,' Foley said...Before the November
elections, Foley added, 'I think we'll be able to complete--I hope we
will be able to complete--at least initial legislation on health care
reform. But I don't think health care reform is, at this juncture, an
absolute requirement.' Many Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader
George Mitchell of Maine, fear that Democrats will lose seats in the
midterm congressional elections. But Foley said he doesn't expect a
significant number of Democrats to be turned out of office." (Foley:
Delay Health Reform, Morning Herald, 8/31/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: I
suspect Tom's crystal ball is cloudy, perhaps, even in its view of the
Speaker's own district.

"With comprehensive health care reform legislation dead for this year,
moderates still face a daunting task trying to overcome opposition from
both ends of the political spectrum to a modest, 'first step' bill. In
recent days, some of the strongest advocates for sweeping restructuring
of the health system, such as Sen. Harris Wofford (D-PA, have started
saying they could accept a scaled-back bill...And the White House has
suggested that President Clinton, who had threatened to veto any bill
that falls short of providing universal health coverage might be willing
to sign some 'incremental' legislation...But many in the Democratic Party
fear that incremental legislation would kill the momentum for broader
change, and could leave the system in worse shape than it is now. At the
same time, a number of conservatives, who earlier argued for a go-slow
approach now are retreating even further. House Republican Whip Newt
Gingrich (R-GA), the intellectual leader of the House's conservatives,
said in an interview yesterday that he wants to be 'very, very cautious'
about supporting an incremental health bill. 'I don't want to create a
new entitlement,' Mr. Gingrich said...If lawmakers aren't going to pass a
bill that guarantees health insurance for all Americans, 'then they
should be very careful about doing anything else,' says Cathy Hurwit, a
lobbyist for the consumers' group Citizen Action. 'One of the things that
we have learned at the state level...is that trying to fix one piece of
the health care  problem won't work. We really think you do need systemic
reform.'" (Moderates Face Rough Struggle to Rally Support for 'First
Step' Health Care Bill, Hilary Stout, Wall Street Journal, 8/31/94)

"There's still a week to go before Congress reconvenes, but the outlines
of the Democratic end-game planning on health care already seem fairly
clear: they'll try to 'start something' by passing 'incremental' reforms.
Sen. Dodd thinks that the success of such a stripped-down Democratic
health reform bill this year will lead inevitably to bigger, more
ambitious legislating on the issue in the future; who knows, they may
even get to write health bills forever. And Sen. Mitchell understands
that this stratagem must travel in disguise. So the beast of heath care
Clintonism, like the monster in 'The Thing,' is about to assume on last,
mutated form this year. From now on, post-Labor Day, it will try to look
like innocuous 'incrementalism.' It still deserves to die." --William
Kristol, chairman, Project for the Republican Future. (It's Health Care
Reform's Neo-Incrementalist Season, Kristol, op-ed, WT, 9/7/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: The excerpt is from a Memorandum to Republican Leaders.

"First there was President Clinton's mammoth health care reform plan.
Then there was 'Clinton Lite' and a confusing array of other choices. But
now, with Congress set to resume negotiations today on the domestic
policy issue of the decade, the choice is simpler: little or nothing.
Gone are the employer mandates, price controls, and new bureaucracies of
the Clinton plan, casualties of their own complexity and the effective
special-interest campaigns against them. What remains are smaller
packages combining goals Democrats and Republicans agree on: insurance
market changes to make policies easier to buy and harder to cancel, and
subsidies for the poor." A Little Bit of Health Reform Is Getting a
Longer Look, Richard Wolf, USA Today, 9/12/94) CURE Comment: While they
do not constitute the only changes we believe are needed in our health
care system, we agree in principle with the bipartisan goals cited above.

"Congress returns to business today, and many politicians talk hopefully
of making incremental progress on health care reform. The most commonly
discussed changes would create insurance subsidies for low-income
Americans and provide guaranteed coverage for people with pre-existing
conditions. Both are hideous ideas. The four major plans before Congress
...offer subsidies for people who make 240% of the poverty wage ($36,000
for a family of four). The funds would flow to between 53 million and 88
million Americans...This means serious money...The second reform,
coverage of pre-existing conditions, invites people to avoid getting
insurance until they need care...This approach makes irresponsible
behavior not only cost-free but economically sensible. It creates an
enormous temptation for people not to take care of themselves...A fair
number of Republicans won't oppose low-income subsidies or coverage of
pre-existing conditions because they don't want to be perceived as
coldhearted. But if there's anything worse than a scrouge, it's a
coward." (Small Health Reforms Carry Very Big Bills, Tony Snow, op-ed,
USA Today, 9/12/94) CURE Comment: What about persons born with pre-
existing conditions? What about persons with disabilities unable to
afford insurance without subsidies? Is picking on the poor and the
disabled Mr. Snow's definition of "courage"?

"Most Capitol Hill staffers took a breather over the past couple of
weeks, but not the number crunchers at the Congressional Budget Office.
While colleagues relaxed, the CBO experts kept pumping calculators to
estimate the costs of the latest wrinkle in health care reform. The
trouble is, every time the beleaguered budget staff finishes sizing up
one proposal, another pops up in its place. And at this point in the
session, with less than a month to go to the scheduled October 7
adjournment, all the labor may be in vain. 'The Sisyphean analogy is very
apt,' says CBO Director Robert Reischauer, referring to Sisyphus, a
Corinthian king in Greek mythology who was doomed forever to roll a heavy
stone uphill, only to have it roll back down again." (Health Proposals
Keep CBO Busy, Steve Langdon, Washington Times, 9/13/94)


As Democrat leaders returned to Capitol Hill from the summer recess
holding faint hope for health care reform, their Republican counterparts
indicated they would block all but the most modest measures. Asked if
Congress could pass incremental legislation this session, House Speaker
Thomas Foley (D-WA), allowed, "It's a possibility." But he added, it
"will not be the comprehensive bill we talked about." In the Senate,
Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME) and a bipartisan group led
by Sen. John Chafee (R-RI) have proposed an alternative that is somewhat
less regulatory than President Clinton's health plan. And liberal
Senators under the helm of Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) seek to take the first
step towards overall health reform by covering all children. But Sen.
Phil Gramm (R-TX) signaled that it was unlikely that either measure would
receive significant GOP support, declaring his opposition to rushing
"a last-minute patchwork deal on health care" through Congress. (Hopes
for Health Bill Slim to None on Hill, Washington Times, 9/13/94)

                         Heart Stoppers

The Insurance Information Institute reports that lightning kills more
people each year than hurricanes and tornadoes combined. Lightning bolts
cause 100 deaths and 250 injuries annually, damaging over 30,000 homes
and businesses each year. Most victims are hurt by lightning while at
home. A third of lightning bolts hit roofs and projections of homes and
buildings, while 29% strike TV antennas and overhead power lines. Another
10% hit trees.  While a household current flows at 200 or 400 amperes at
220 or 440 volts, a typical lightning bolt travels at 25,000 amperes at
30 million volts. Most lightning strikes occur in Southern states. (The
Dangers of Lightning, USA Today, 8/3/94)

"Cashing in on Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain's suicide, a Seattle
entrepreneur advertised in Rolling Stone magazine copies of the 27-year-
old performer's death certificate and medical examiner's report. Readers
were told to send checks to PostMortem Art. Other ads promoted 'actual
handwritten' Cobain suicide note T-shirts and 'A Star Has Died. A Legend
Is Born' bumper stickers. Rolling Stone's group publisher couldn't be
reached, and its ad department declined to comment." (Odds and Ends, Wall
Street Journal, 8/22/94) CURE Comment: We deplore such death-cult
glamorization of the self-destruction of suicide.

"South Bend, IN...A mildly retarded woman was beaten to death months
after leaving her adoptive parents and moving in with her biological
father. Her new family has been charged with murder. Dolly Ann
Hershberger, 21, decided to move in with her father, brother, and
stepmother around Christmas last year, but her brother told police they
had been beating her since September 1993. An autopsy showed she had 10
broken ribs, a cracked sternum, a black eye, numerous bruises and three
infected cuts that had been closed with homemade stitches. Frederick
Search Sr., 44; Martha Search, 35; and Frederick Search Jr., 22, were
charged Friday with murder and battery... Frederick and Martha Search
also face two counts of neglect. Frederick Search told police they had
agreed to stop beating Hershberger so that her wounds would heal and they
could place her in a home, thus being able to take a trip to Hawaii. But
his son said the beatings had gotten worse recently. The family dropped
the woman on the floor as many as 12 times Monday night, then beat her
for several hours Tuesday after she urinated as she was being helped to
the bathroom. When she cried during the beatings, it would 'make us
madder,' the son told police. Herman and Carol Hershberger...said they
cared for the retarded woman since she was 14 and adopted her when she
was 16...'If we had gotten word that this was happening, we would have
gone over there in a minute and gotten her,' Carol Hershberger said."
(Family Jailed in Woman's Death by Beating, Washington Post, 8/22/94)

                         Medicine Chest

In this the year of mega-health-industry takeovers, this could be the
biggest. On Tuesday, American Home Products made a hostile all-cash bid
of $8.5 billion ($95-a-share) for American Cyanamid. If successful, the
deal would join two of the nation's oldest diversified drug makers,
creating a medical and consumer products powerhouse with estimated
revenues of $14 billion in 1994. Reacting to the news, American Cyanamid
shot up 30 points to $93. (American Cynamid Under Seige, USAT, 8/3/94)

                         Public Health

Citing deaths of 9,000 a year in rollover crashes, Advocates for Highway
and Auto Safety protests that a plan to stop cars from rolling over in
accidents should be revived. According to the group, the federal
government has dropped plans to require new vehicles to meet
new stability standards in favor of trying to expand consumer
consciousness via safety stickers on vehicles. (Auto Rollover Rules
Sought, USA Today, 8/3/94)

"Despite growing attention to the issue of 'environmental racism,'
nonwhites are more likely to live in communities with commercial
hazardous waste facilities then they were a decade ago, a new study has
concluded...The study, based on 1990 census data, found that the
percentage of nonwhites in the United States who live near toxic waste
dumps increased from 25% to almost 31%, despite widespread publicity
given to the racial disparities in the intervening decade. Moreover, in
areas with the highest concentration of hazardous waste sites, the
percentage of nonwhites last year continued to be three times higher than
in areas without commercial waste facilities. Only 14% of nonwhites lived
in areas with no commercial toxic waste dumps...In 1993, nonwhites were
47% more likely than whites to live near a toxic waste site. The study
was sponsored jointly by the Center for Policy Alternatives, the United
Church of Christ, and the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People." (More Nonwhites Are Living Near Toxic Waste Sites,
William Claiborne, Washington Post, 8/25/94)

In Georgetown, TX, JC Johnson, Jr., 59, and his 86-year-old father were
stung at least 600 times by Africanized bees. "We're both feeling just
about back to normal," said the younger Johnson, "a little lumpy, a
little itchy." Africanized bees are a hybrid of European honeybees and
more aggressive African honey bees. According to Kathleen Davis, at Texas
A&M University's Agricultural Extension Service, the bees which attacked
the Johnsons had more European genes than most Africanized bees. (Bee
Sting Victims: 'Little Lumpy, Itchy,' USA Today, 9/7/94)

                         Research Review

"A lone scientist, wearing a smock, gloves, and a protective mask, stoops
over a test tube in a cool, quiet university laboratory. He had done this
countless times before, but this time, something went wrong. The Yale
University researcher watched as the plastic test tube ruptured without
warning inside a machine called a centrifuge. In that brief moment, Dr.
Jean-Paul Gonzalez unleashed the spray of a deadly virus and a cloud of
controversy over research safety at major educational institutions across
the country. 'Accidents inevitably occur in research situations. You can
spill something in the lab, you can do all kinds of things,' said
Theodore Poehler, vice provost for research at John Hopkins University in
Baltimore." (University Research Concerns Some, Morning Herald, 8/29/94)

                         The Bottom Line

Nearly $12 million dollars has been awarded to 28 district attorneys'
offices by the California Department of Insurance in a statewide campaign
to combat workmen's compensation fraud. The grants include a $5 million
grant to Los Angeles County (often called America's fraud capital),
$1.17 million to Orange County, and $1.2 million to San Diego County.
7,284 suspected cases of workers' compensation fraud were recorded in
1993-94, down from 8,342 the prior year. But fraud arrests climbed
dramatically from 24 in 1992-93 to 116 last year. Insurance fraud,
a $17 billion US industry costs California businesses and consumers as
much as $3 billion a year. (CA Fights Fraud with Funds, USAT, 8/3/94)

                         Telling Headlines

Aging Schools Plague Cities, Washington Times, 9/13
Avoiding Lyme Disease Can Be 'Ticky' Situation, Pentagram, 7/22
Catholics for Free Choice Doesn't Speak for the Church, WT, 9/13
China Plans to Improve Its Toilets, Herald-Mail, 8/28
Comic Burns Undergoes Surgery for Brain Fluid, Washington Times, 9/11
Estonia Dedicates Memorial at Site Where Nazis Murdered 2,000, WP, 9/2
First Senate Vote on Health Reform Near, Martinsburg Journal, 8/17
Foley: Clinton May Sign Narrow Health Care Reform Bill, Herald-Mail, 8/28
Governors' Association Considering Effect of Health Care Reform, MJ, 8/10
Hispanics in Denver Give Schools an F, Washington Times, 9/7
Japan Offers Atonement for {Filipina] Sex Slavery, Washington Post, 8/25
Jesus Loses Place of 30 Years, USA Today, 9/7
Kids Fall Out of Ride at MD Fair, Morning Herald, 8/29
Liberation of Paris Remembered, Washington Post, 8/25
Moral Issues Focus of Primary, Washington Times, 9/13
Needle Exchange May Get Second Chance, Washington Times, 8/29
New Strategies for Prostrate Problems, American Health, 7-8
Oregon Set to Blaze Trail With Welfare Reform Test, WT, 9/13
Panel OKs [WV] Medicaid Loan Plan, Martinsburg Journal, 8/10
Reversing Osteoporosis, American Health, 7-8
Saline Breast Implants May Not Be So Safe, American Health, 7-8
Scalia Refuses to Stop Medicaid Fund Cutoff, Martinsburg Journal, 8/24
Science and Sexuality, Washington Post, 8/13
Sometimes History Is Written by the Losers, Washington Times, 8/29
Southern Governors Plan to Talk About Health Care, Herald-Mail, 8/28
Turner Tells Graduates He Has Cancer, Herald-Mail, 8/28
Zeneca Resists Rising Tide of Drug-Industry Takeovers, WSJ, 8/31

                    Wish We'd Said That...

     Incrementalism, like the word 'beauty,' is in the eye of the
     beholder. (Sen. George Mitchell, D-ME)

                    ...Glad We Didn't

     Most people want to be a part of starting something. If we
     start something, there will never be another Congress that does
     not address health care. (Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-CT)

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