Juvan's Health Law Recap--February 11, 2007
Last week, the FDA cleared the way for the MammaPrint test, a diagnostic test designed to predict the likelihood of breast cancer recurrence. As a person with a family member who has battled this terrible disease, I can attest personally to the fact that breakthroughs such as this continue to bring renewed hope to survivors. While we all debate reimbursement rates, the impending health financing crisis and the like, one thing is certainly true: positive developments in modern medicine truly do have the ability to change lives.
In addition to FDA clearance for MammaPrint, President Bush last week proposed reducing Medicare and Medicaid spending by $101 billion over five years. In a controversial move, Bush has proposed to require wealthier seniors to pay higher Medicare premiums. Some have criticized Bush for failing to address a reduction in underlying costs and instead simply "just lopping off the top."
Looking forward to the week ahead, make sure to watch for news from the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing on FDA drug review deficiencies. The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Finally, please note that, a few weeks ago, a reader alerted me to the fact that the comment feature on Juvan's Health Law Update was not enabled. This was a minor glitch that occurred when the blog was shifted from Typepad to Lexblog. Please note that comments have now been enabled. I encourage all of you to participate in commenting in the future, and I apologize to those whose comments were not timely published.
Jayne
