American Morning
Ron Paul: 'Socialized medicine' will not work
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/06/15/ron.paul.healthcare.cnn.art.jpg caption="Rep. Ron Paul says 'socialized medicine' will not solve the nation's high health care costs."]
President Obama heads to Chicago today, but he will not be greeted by a hometown crowd. Instead, he'll be trying to sell his plan for a public, government-sponsored health insurance plan to the American Medical Association. Skeptical doctors who don't like what they see in his health care reforms are going to be in the audience.
Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) has a unique perspective on the issue. He is a member of the House of Representatives, but also a doctor. He spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Monday.
Kiran Chetry: The American Medical Association does have some serious concerns about a government-sponsored, public health care program. You share some of those same concerns. In a nutshell, what troubles you the most?
Ron Paul: Well, I don't like socialized medicine. We've had corporate medicine now for about 30 years, which is managed medicine by the government and it's been a total disaster. And it didn't do much more than push the cost up. And it didn't work. So now we only have one other choice, it seems, and that is going towards total government medicine. I would like to see that medicine be delivered in the marketplace like other goods and services. There's no reason we can't do this. Everybody complains about one thing. The cost of medicine is too high. And it is. But they never talk about exactly why.
There's an inflation factor involved too. We create inflation, but it goes into certain areas of the economy more so than others. The more the government is involved in an industry or a service, the higher the prices go. So in education, cost goes up way beyond the cost of living and the cost of medicine goes way up. So you can't solve the problem of medical care by…ignoring this. Now, Obama says, what we're going to do is we're going to tremendously increase the services and we're going to cut all of the payments to the doctors and the hospitals. Where is he coming from? This can't possibly work.
Despite shortage, blood donors turned away
From CNN's Ben Tinker
NEW YORK – Montclair State University junior Dustin Weinstein recalls the excitement leading up to his first blood drive.
"I had never been to donate blood before," he says, "and I actually believe it was a friend of mine who told me they were going to be on campus."
But then came the lengthy screening questionnaire, and his hopes of helping others in need were dashed.
"The question said, 'Are you a male who's had sexual contact with another male, even once, since 1977?'" he recalls. "I said yes, and sure enough, they came back to me with a pink slip that said 'You're being chosen to be deferred.'"
Weinstein didn't realize that a more than two-decade old FDA policy bars him and millions of other men – who admit to same-sex contact – from giving blood.
AIDS activist Phil Wilson calls the policy outdated. "I think in 1985, there's a lot we didn't know about HIV. There's a lot we didn't know about prevention. There's a lot we didn't know about treatment. But now we know a lot more."
Wilson is not alone. The American Association of Blood Banks has tried to get the FDA to loosen the restriction. They're not only running low on blood; donations are steadily declining as the need for healthy blood continues to rise.
Student saves dean’s life
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/06/12/intv.nurse.dean.art.jpg caption="Dean Glenn Swinny sits next to Charity Caldwell, the nursing student who came to his aid during his heart attack at her commencement ceremony."]
This was not a test. A nursing student put her skills to work just minutes before she graduated. She saved a man having a heart attack at the commencement ceremony, yelling out “I’m a nurse” while wearing her cap and gown. It turned out the man whose life she saved was the dean of her school, a man she'd never met before.
Charity Caldwell is now a practicing nurse in Memphis, Tennessee. Glenn Swinny is the dean of mathematics, health and natural sciences at Southwest Tennessee Community College. They both spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Friday.
Kiran Chetry: You guys have quite a story to tell. Let me ask you dean, how are you doing this morning?
Glenn Swinny: I'm doing great and getting stronger each day.
Chetry: You ended up having to have a double bypass, right?
Swinny: That's correct.
Chetry: Well, it's great to know you're doing better. You got out of the hospital in the middle of May. Charity, tell me about how all of this happened. You guys were there celebrating your graduation. I'm sure it was a very exciting day. When did you realize someone was in distress?
Charity Caldwell: I was running ten minutes late to graduation; pouring down rain and ran through the hallway trying to go through security and friends were waiting on me. And I came down the hall and saw a man lying on the ground with a crowd gathered around him and instantly dropped to my knees and started assessing what was going on and saw that he was in distress and yelled “Call 911. Who is he? Who is he with?”
Chetry: And this is when you started doing chest compressions? You did that for several minutes and drawing on your nursing skills knowing you had only about three minutes to get his blood circulating again and then you started worrying about brain damage. What were you doing at the time?
Caldwell: Well, as I assessed him, I felt for a pulse. I saw that he was barely breathing and as I yelled to call 911, he lost his pulse. And at that time, I began chest compressions and Dean Swinny opened his eyes and I could see these big brown eyes and he took a big breath and went out on me again. And I was yelling “Come on, you can do this, stay with me, it's going to be okay.” And I started chest compressions again. And during that time, paramedics arrived and started hooking him up to the defibrillator and an Ambu bag to breathe for him. And I asked them do they need me to stay on? And they said they had it at that time.
Heath care minefield
One person who knows the health care minefield well is Mike Lux. He was a special advisor to the president during the Clinton administration and worked inside the “Health Care War Room.” As Lux told me, “He has the scars to prove it.” Lux, who also served on the Obama transition team, says the current White House has learned from the “mistakes” of what was once called “Hillary Care,” the former first lady’s ill-fated fight for national health care reform.
He says the Clinton administration made the mistake of crafting a complicated plan behind closed doors before dictating the policy to Congress. This time around, Lux says the Obama White House deserves credit for allowing members of Congress to work out the details. But he cautions the president may need to use some “muscle” in the end. He’s doubtful Republicans will come on board to support a plan that offers the option of a government-run health care plan. At the end of the interview Lux told me, if Republicans don’t come on board the Obama administration may have to “roll these guys.”
Pregnant with girl or boy? At-home test may tell you
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/06/09/art.gender.test.cnn.jpg caption="IntelliGender makes a gender prediction test. If a urine specimen turns orange, it's a girl. Green is for boys."]
By Danielle Dellorto
(CNN) - Expecting moms can determine whether they're carrying a boy or a girl as early as 10 weeks after conception, according to an over-the-counter gender prediction test by a Plano, Texas, company.
IntelliGender, the creator of the "Boy or Girl Gender Prediction Test," say scientists isolated certain hormones that when combined with a "proprietary mix of chemicals" react differently if a women is carrying a boy or a girl.
It claims that within 10 minutes of taking the urine test, a mother will be able to tell her baby's gender. The specimen will turn green if it's a boy, and orange if it's a girl.
IntelliGender would not say what hormones or chemicals it uses it in its test because of a pending patent.
"Most parents have a great degree of curiosity to find out if they're having a boy or a girl, and it can be so excruciating to wait until the 20-week sonogram to find out," IntelliGender co-founder Rebecca Griffin said. "But the test was never meant to be a diagnostic tool. We don't claim 100 percent accuracy."
In fact, the company's Web site specifically says to not "paint the room pink or blue" until an expectant mom confirms results with her doctor.
"We specifically state to all our consumers that they shouldn't make any emotional or financial steps until the results are confirmed via sonogram," the company says.
The gender predictor test boasts a 78 to 80 percent accuracy rate, according to the latest IntelliGender report.
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