Barbara Feder Ostrov

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Health Insurance:</strong> Ugh. A new Hewitt Associates report shows just how much our health premiums are expected to rise next year. The Los Angeles Times’ Duke Helfand <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/27/business/la-fi-healthcare-costs… the details</a>.</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p>Journalists’ Pfriend? Gary Schwitzer and Andrew Holtz weigh in on <a href="http://www.healthnewsreview.org/blog/2010/09/pfizer---a-pfriend-of-jour…’s sponsorship of a National Press Foundation education program about Alzheimer's</a>, a disease for which Pfizer makes medications.</p> <p>Medical Loss Ratios: If you’re wondering what these are, check out <a href="http://www.gooznews.com/node/3449">Merrill Goozner’s analysi</a>s of some recent proposed regulations on this key element of health reform.</p>

<p>On Saturday, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency will hold its first <a href="http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/takeback/">prescription drug take-back day</a>, setting up 4,000 sites nationwide where people can bring old and unused prescription drugs for safe disposal. (Click <a href="https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/NTBI/NTBI-PUB.pub?_flowExecutionKey=…; to find a site in your community.)</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Avandia:</strong> Fortune’s Shelly Dubois analyzes why the FDA <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/24/news/companies/FDA_Avandia_GSK_ban.fort…;“maimed” the diabetes drug Avandia</a> but didn’t permanently pull it off the market, as its European Union counterpart did. Quote of the day: “Avandia lives on in these United States as a zombie shell of its former top blockbuster self.”</p>

<p>Amid the election-season clamor over health reform and some major insurers’ recent decision <a href="http://www.latimes.com/health/la-fi-kids-health-insurance-20100921,0,79… stop offering new child-only policies</a>, there are <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_16137343">substantial changes rolling out on September 23</a>.</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Birth Control:</strong> Now that the new “morning after” contraception pill known as <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/11/AR20100…; is on the market, will pharmacists dispense it? <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2010/09/will_pharmacists_fill_… may not</a>, according to the Washington Post’s The Checkup health blog.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Kid Insurance:</strong> HHS chief Kathleen Sebelius may have called on states to get cracking on insuring more poor kids, but the states are responding: with what money? American Medical News <a href="http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/09/20/gvl10920.htm">has the story</a>.</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re reading and listening to today:</p> <p><strong>Achoo:</strong> A small but intriguing new study suggests that a common cold virus is linked to childhood obesity. In San Diego, KPBS’ <a href="../../users/kennyg">Kenny Goldberg</a> has <a href="http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/sep/20/ucsd-study-suggest-link-between-co… story</a>.</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Uninsured</strong>: More than 50 million Americans have no health insurance, according to new U.S. Census data. Kaiser Health News has a <a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2010/September/16/uninsur… roundup of the media coverage</a>.</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Mental Illness:</strong> Is it <a href="http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2010/09/15/julian-sheather-i-want-to-be-bipola… fashionable to be bipolar</a>? British Medical Journal blogger Julian Sheather investigates.</p>