Insights

<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><strong>Cook Stoves Save Lives: Why Hillary Clinton's new indoor stove initiative will help stop global warming</strong></p><p>Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged $50 million in seed money to supply fuel efficient indoor stoves for women in Africa. When you think of the mega-billions that are spent on endless wars, it's refreshing to see that what the DOD would consider chump change is being earmarked for a worthy project that will save tens of millions of lives, improve the health of millions more—and drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.</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>The heart of Helena, the capital city of Montana, is called Last Chance Gulch, named after the chance prospectors took panning for gold in the creek that used to run wild through the area.</p> <p><a href="http://fnweb.mt.gov/IDMWS/custom/BSD/BSD_FN_Home2.asp?FileNumber=136963…. Stanley Robert Schure</a> could certainly relate. He has had about a dozen “last chances” courtesy of the <a href="http://bsd.dli.mt.gov/license/bsd_boards/med_board/phy.asp">Montana Board of Medical Examiners</a>.</p>

<p>Social media, blogs and instantaneous online distribution has revolutionized news. The reach of social media is comparable to mainstream media -- in the billions -- "but that's where the similarities end," said attorney Wendy Heimann-Nunes, who moderated an event in Hollywood today about intellectual property, part of the multi-city virtual conference <a href="http://socialmediaweek.org/">Social Media Week</a>. On the Internet, content can be moved and shared and copied with ease.</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>

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<p><a href="http://www.patriciacornwell.com/">Patricia Cornwell</a>, take note: The Michigan Board of Medicine may have a treasure trove of story ideas for your crime novels.</p> <p>How does this sound for a book opener?</p> <p>A married patient leaves a new pair of expensive boots at a psychiatrist’s office with a note saying, “If you ever decide to ‘kick up your heels,’ I just hope you’ll do it with me.”</p> <p>Cut to the doctor’s office a few months later, heels and everything else tossed onto the floor while the two had sex.</p>

<p>Some of heath care reform's provisions went into effect today -- to acclaim and criticism, but mostly just explanation. Here's a rundown of coverage in the <em>ReportingonHealth</em> community.</p> <p><strong>8 changes, 7 caveats:</strong> <a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/users/macwrite&quot;