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Health Insurance Exchanges Gain Attention
Kaiser Health News reports on health insurance exchanges, a concept now being considered in the context of Congress"s health overhaul proposals. "The seemingly simple idea behind exchanges - one-stop shopping for insurance - masks the cornerstone role they may play in a national overhaul of the health system. President Obama supports the idea, and exchanges are included in most of the health care proposals now before Congress. Done right, proponents say, exchanges could transform how insurance is sold, giving individuals and small businesses improved purchasing power, increasing price competition among insurers and creating standardized benefits. Done poorly, analysts and critics say, exchanges could drive up insurance costs and encourage employers to drop coverage, unraveling the system that insures most working Americans. While it"s still unclear what Congress will do, Senate Democrats have looked closely at Massachusetts. Here"s how it works there: The state established its exchange, called the Health Connector, mainly for the benefit of individuals who aren"t insured by employers. They include the self-employed and the unemployed, two categories of people who traditionally have the most difficulty obtaining policies. Although not required to buy through the exchange, doing so gives them group-purchasing power. Lower-income people are eligible for state subsidies."
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'Past Time' To Denounce Tiller Murder, Violence Perpetrated By Some Antiabortion Advocates, Opinion Piece Says
In the wake of the shooting death of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, columnist Ellen Goodman writes in the Boston Globe that she "can"t help wondering whether rhetoric can justify a crime in the mind of a fanatic." She continues, "Can"t words provide the sort of perverse moral platform that jihadists stand on and the alternate universe in which a "lone nut" can find a home?" Goodman writes that she does not blame Tiller"s death on "everyone who checks a pro-life box on the pollster"s chart," but it is "well past time for the antiabortion movement to denounce those who are in the profession of inflaming passions."Tiller "was a doctor of last resort for many women, especially those women for whom the sonogram did not bring joy but tragic tidings," Goodman writes, adding, "He refused to be cowed. At the very least, he should be buried with truth." In his recent commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, President Obama asked, "As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?" Goodman writes, "One way is for those who truly "denounce the murder" to take on the chorus, the back-up singers, who still provide the doo-wop for the next deranged soloist." She concludes, "You see, this suspect was not such a lone gunman. And no, I am afraid, this was not an isolated incident" (Goodman, Boston Globe, 6/5).
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Discovery May Revolutionize Therapy In Muscular Dystrophy And Other Skeletal Muscle Disorders
Researchers at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School are a step closer to treating, and perhaps preventing, muscle damage caused by disease and aging. In their study, published in the June issue of Journal of Biological Chemistry, the scientists have linked the newly discovered protein MG53 to a pathway that repairs human muscle tissue along with the proteins caveolin-3 (Cav3) and dysferlin. Prior to this study, the underlying interactions that inhibited membrane repair in muscle tissue were unknown. Linking these proteins creates a mechanism that allows damaged membranes to be repaired, which may transform treatment for patients who suffer from severe complications of diseases such as muscular dystrophy, as well as cardiovascular disorders and conditions related to advancing age.
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Study Suggests Memory Repression May Help The Traumatized

Geisinger Health System senior investigator and U.S. Army veteran Joseph Boscarino, Ph.D., is proud of his military service, yet he doesn"t like to talk much about his combat experiences. Before becoming a renowned researcher of psychological trauma, Dr. Boscarino served a tour of duty with an artillery unit in Vietnam from 1965-66, during which he witnessed heavy combat and its aftermath. To this day, he tries hard not to reflect on those battlefield memories. New research by Dr. Boscarino and Tulane University investigator Charles Figley, Ph.D., shows that for some people exposed to traumatic events, repressing these memories may be less harmful in the long run. "Going back to the days of Sigmund Freud, psychiatrists and mental health experts have suggested that repression of traumatic memories could lead to health problems," Dr. Boscarino said. "Yet we have found little evidence that repression had an adverse health impact on combat veterans exposed to psychological trauma many years later." In a study that appears in the June issue of the research publication Journal of Nervous & Mental Diseases, Drs. Boscarino and Figley examined the long-term mortality rates of Vietnam veterans who were evaluated in 1985 with follow up in 2000. By studying the death certificates and records of a random sample of more than 4,000 veterans 30 years after military service, the researchers found that having PTSD along with a repressive personality trait does not necessarily lead to premature death. The researchers say this is an important finding because exposure therapy is a prevailing practice in psychiatry, a technique that encourages patients to relive painful or traumatic events. Yet, for some patients, this therapy may inadvertently cause a resurfacing of PTSD symptoms and psychological distress, putting that patient at risk for health problems. Previous research by Boscarino has shown that PTSD may cause premature death from heart disease, leads to elevated white blood cell counts and higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate levels (both of which indicates inflammation), and may cause other disease such as rheumatoid arthritis. "While the dominant therapy model for PTSD should not be abandoned at this point, emerging research suggests that it might need to be seriously re-evaluated, at least for some PTSD patients," Dr. Boscarino said. "More research is clearly needed." Dr. Figley, another renowned trauma scholar who co-authored the 2007 book Combat Stress Injuries, said he was not surprised by the findings since it they are consistent with a new theory of combat-related stress. "Repression is a self-regulator and a method of memory management," Dr. Figley said. "In other words, "keeping your stressful memories in side or it will kill you" is a myth." Dr. Figley, who served in Vietnam as a Marine at the same time as Dr. Boscarino, believes this study is a wake- up call to all those who care about combat veterans. "These men and women deserve our respect in recognizing that they often know better than we do in how to manage their stressful memories, in most cases," Dr. Figley said. About Geisinger Health System Founded in 1915, Geisinger Health System is one of the nations largest integrated health services organizations. Serving more than 2.6 million residents throughout central and northeastern Pennsylvania, the physician-led organization is a nationally recognized leader in the use of electronic health records, patient access and engagement in their healthcare, and in medical education for the next generation. Geisinger is comprised of three medical center campuses, a 740-member group practice, a not-for-profit health insurance company and research that extends across our large system- all dedicated to creating new models for scientific discovery, quality patient care, and successful clinical outcomes. Geisinger"s Weis Center, Center for Health Research and Center for Clinical Studies include basic science, population-based and clinical trials research, complemented by collaborative relationships with top academic centers. Geisinger Ventures, the system"s for profit entrepreneurial arm, seeks and promotes opportunities to speed the delivery of medical innovation to benefit patients. Geisinger Health System


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