WikiLeaks Releases More of ObamaTrade Draft Altering Healthcare, Halting Medicare Reform
Posted: June 10, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: Arnold S. Relman, Foreign trade of the United States, Health care in the United States, Investor-state dispute settlement, Julian Assange, Minister of State for Trade, Office of the Gene Technology Regulator, Pharmaceutical industry, Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, United States Leave a commentCongress wouldn’t be able to reform Medicare
Alex Swoyer reports: The Healthcare Annex, according to WikiLeaks, “seeks to regulate state schemes for medicines and medical devices. It forces healthcare authorities to give big pharmaceutical companies more information about national decisions on public access to medicine, and grants corporations greater powers to challenge decisions they perceive as harmful to their interests.”
“The inclusion of the Healthcare Transparency Annex in the TPP serves no useful public interest purpose. It sets a terrible precedent for using regional trade deals to tamper with other countries’ health systems and could circumscribe the options available to developing countries seeking to introduce pharmaceutical coverage programs in the future.”
Dr. Deborah Gleeson, who gave professional review and analysis to WikiLeaks said, “The purported aim of the Annex is to facilitate ‘high-quality healthcare’ but the Annex does nothing to achieve this. It is clearly intended to cater to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry.” Gleeson added, “Nor does this do anything to promote ‘free trade.’”
[Read the full text here, at Breitbart]
“The inclusion of the Healthcare Transparency Annex in the TPP serves no useful public interest purpose. It sets a terrible precedent for using regional trade deals to tamper with other countries’ health systems and could circumscribe the options available to developing countries seeking to introduce pharmaceutical coverage programs in the future,” noted Gleeson. Read the rest of this entry »
Nonsmokers USA: Americans Get Fatter, Drunker (but have a more pleasant smell)
Posted: October 15, 2012 Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health, Health care in the United States, Northeastern United States (U.S. Census Bureau), Obesity, Oklahoma, United States, West Virginia Leave a commentLost in the U.S. health care debate is whether the countrys citizens are hurting themselves with bad habits. The bottom line is mixed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Americans are imbibing alcohol and overeating more yet are smoking less.
Some of the behaviors have patterns; others do not. Obesity is heaviest in the Southeast. Smoking is concentrated there as well. Excess drinking is high in the Northeast.
Comparing 2010 and 1995 figures provides the greatest insight into trends. Heavy drinking has worsened in 47 states, and obesity has expanded in every state. Tobacco use has declined in all states except Oklahoma and West Virginia. The “good” habit, exercise, is up in many places—even in the Southeast, where it has lagged…
Full details for each state >> ScientificAmerican.com/oct2012/graphic-science
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