Hot Docs: Financial Crisis and Healthcare Reform, a Season for Practical Holiday Gifts

An Economic Take on Healthcare Reform: The financial downturn makes it difficult, but all the more important, to reform the U.S. healthcare system, economic leaders told the Senate Finance Committee recently. Introducing Wednesday's hearing, committee Chairman Max Baucus rejected the "false choice" of deciding between the two goals: "Healthcare reform is not a distraction from addressing the economy. Healthcare reform is central to restoring America's economy." Business and labor leaders as well as economists testified about the importance of securing affordable healthcare, citing the difficulties taxpayers and companies alike encounter in paying for care. Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, remarked on the unusual coalition of partners working together on this issue: Labor leaders are collaborating with business groups and major employers, groups they "may disagree with on a lot of other issues but who all agree we need to fix healthcare now." Uwe Reinhardt, a Princeton professor of economics and public affairs, said that the current economic crisis has created a chance to make real change: With the public, Congress, and the president-elect eager for healthcare reform, "this is one of those rare windows of opportunity in which several factors come together to make health reform a real possibility."

Shaky Economy Means Practical Holiday Gifts: Big-ticket items like jewelry and Blu-ray DVD players will be under fewer Christmas trees this holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation's annual Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey. Instead, consumers will head for the practical, such as winter apparel, and the inexpensive, such as DVDs, CDs, and books. Compared to last year, more shoppers say that they plan to avoid using their credit cards, opting for debit, check cards, or cash instead.

Going to the Source, FDA Opens Offices in China: The Food and Drug Administration is opening offices in three cities in China this week in an effort to improve import safeguards, the Department of Health and Human Services has announced. The offices will be in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. Employees who will staff the offices are experts in foods, medicines, and medical devices. The China offices represent a first step in what Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt calls a "new era" for the agency. The FDA plans to open locations in the Middle East, India, Latin America, and Europe as well.

Problems With Homeland Security Spending: The Department of Homeland Security is spending billions of dollars each year without proper oversight, according to the Government Accountability Office. The GAO looked at how the department spends the money it has allocated to invest in equipment and systems and found "poor implementation" of the required review process. The audit revealed that out of 48 "major investments," 94 percent had not been reviewed properly, and 18 of them had not been scrutinized at all. The lack of oversight makes it impossible to ensure that goals and budgets are being met, GAO says. "DHS cannot ensure that annual funding decisions for its major investments make the best use of resources and address mission needs."

Assisted Reproductive Technology Raises Risk of Birth Defects: Babies conceived with the help of fertility treatments are two to four times more likely to have certain types of birth defects, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study, "Assisted Reproductive Technology and Major Structural Birth Defects, United States," noted that single births resulting from such things as in vitro fertilization were associated with more than twice the risk of cleft lip and more than four times the risk of gastrointestinal defects, compared with normally conceived babies.