Effect Measure
When Thomas Frieden took over as CDC Director less than a year ago, I didn't know what to think. The CDC is an agency under a lot of budget stress and choices have to be made.
2009 was a dismal year, economically speaking - unless you were a health insurer.
I despise politicians who enable, support and help entrench insurance companies as the bedrock of our healthcare system.
After former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's impeachment, his Lieutenant Governor, Pat Quinn, assumed the office. He has just done something quite unusual: appointed a public health advocate for Illinois.
Rush Limbaugh has done a personal biopsy of the U.S. healthcare system and found it healthy.
If swine flu is a test of public health, we've already flunked. And we have only ourselves - and the political leaders who have been disinvesting in public health since 1980 - to blame.
For years the drug companies shunned vaccines because it wasn't as obscenely profitable as impotence drugs or cholesterol lowering drugs or antidepressants. Now that governments have guaranteed them a market they have rushed in to scarf up the profits.
There is now new evidence that not having health insurance makes it more likely you'll die if you do have an "accident."
I don't know if the rest of the world laughs at the U.S., but I feel quite sure they at least shake their collective heads when they hear how we lack one of the most important non-pharmaceutical measures against pandemic flu: paid sick leave.
It looks like there's going to be some kind of healthcare reform bill, but we're not celebrating. It's legislation that could have been important and meaningful and instead is a neutered industry-friendly cup of weak tea.