Uninsured RX

NIH Completes Formation of National Network of Nanomedicine CentersWhat: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has completed its national network of eight Nanomedicine Development Centers (NDCs).Why: To announce to the scientific community the completion of the national network of NDCs.When: The final four NDCs were funded this year. NIH funded four NDCs last year. [click link for full article]

APM's "Marketplace Morning Report" on Thursday as part of its "The Real Agenda" series on issues in the November elections examined the Medicaid program in Missouri, which according to APM, "went from being one of the best states for insuring its citizens to one of the worst. [click link for full article]

Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn in a letter to lawmakers on Wednesday said a five-year contract with an Accenture LLP group that administers enrollment for Medicaid, the state's SCHIP program and other social services "must be ended" because of mismanagement, the [click link for full article]

In an essay published urgently in the international open access journal PloS Medicine, Pulitzer Prize winning author Laurie Garrett warns that if Libya proceeds with the executions of six foreign health workers accused of infecting children with HIV, the appalling injustice will threaten health workers worldwide and endanger their patients in the poorest parts of the world. [click link for full article]

The consumer advocacy group Citizens for Economic Opportunity on Wednesday filed suit in a Connecticut court alleging that limited-benefits health insurance plans sold by Aetna subsidiary [click link for full article]

The "scientific community, AIDS activists and Libyan government would do well to recognize ... the political and diplomatic import of the case" involving five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor accused of infecting Libyan children with HIV, Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in a [click link for full article]

Loss of control of professional standards has been a significant factor in the declining morale of doctors, according to an Online/Comment from Professor Ian Gilmore, the President of the Royal College of Physicians."Doctors are feeling under siege in a rapidly evolving National Health Service (NHS), and it is commonplace to debate the whys and wherefores of rock-bottom morale. A common thread is a real or perceived loss of control by doctors. [click link for full article]

The National Committee for Quality Assurance and U.S News & World Report on Friday released an annual survey ranking the nation's health insurance plans, the Akron Beacon Journal reports. [click link for full article]

Senate and House Democrats this week in a letter to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said that the Bush administration has used a Medicare handbook on coverage options for beneficiaries to promote Medicare Advantage plans, rather than to provide objective information, CQ HealthBeat reports. The letter -- signed by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont. [click link for full article]

More than half a million Medicare beneficiaries in Texas are eligible to join Care Improvement Plus, Texas' first health plan to focus exclusively on chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries and their unique healthcare needs. [click link for full article]