MASSDEVICE ON CALL — One year into health care reform, sharp divides remain among Americans about the law along partisan lines, with half of the public unsure about its effects.
Fifty-two percent of Americans say they’re unsure about how the law will affect them, according to a survey of "a nationally representative random sample of 1,202 adults ages 18 and older" conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Unsurprisingly, support and opposition fall along partisan lines, with Democrats generally backing the law and Republicans standing against it (half of independent voters view the law as bad, according to a Gallup poll, with 37 percent supporting it).
Republican efforts to de-fund the legislation remain unpopular, according to the Kaiser survey (PDF). Sixty-four percent of respondents said they disapprove of the tactic. The law is hugely unpopular among conservatives and business leaders, as evidenced by this list of its “worst features” from Investors Business Daily.
And the law is shaping up to be a huge political football as the 2012 election cycle gets going in earnest:
- Former Mass. gov. Mitt Romney: I’m your man for president if you want to see health care reform die — “If I were president, on Day One I would issue an executive order paving the way for Obamacare waivers to all 50 states,” Romney writes in a blog post for the National Review.
- Vermont prepares to set up health insurance exchange, regulate health care costs — Lawmakers in Vermont are debating a measure that would create a state-run health benefit exchange and establish a board with authority to regulate health-care costs, for example by shutting down the fee-per-procedure business model in favor of preventive treatment and chronic disease management.
- Georgia prepares to block law — Further south, Georgia is taking the opposite tack, looking to block health care reform entirely. Gov. Nathan Deal shelved the Peach State’s efforts to begin setting up a health insurance exchange after a last-minute Tea Party protest. Instead, Deal plans to create an advisory committee and recommend legislation next year if the law hasn’t been overturned in the meantime (Georgia is a party to one of the several lawsuits challenging the law’s constitutionality).
- Insurers make out — As a law designed in part to bring the insurance industry to heel, health care reform hasn’t exactly panned out. Shares of the six major insurance companies in the S&P 500 are up an average of 16 percent over the last year, with some companies (hello there, Humana (NYSE:HUM)) up about 30 percent.
- Dems use bogus stats to bolster support — House Democrats repeatedly use false or exaggerated numbers to play up the law’s positive side, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) among the worst offenders. By contrast, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) largely plays it straight with the numbers.
- Get set for another year of fighting over reform — It’s second year as the law of the land is sure to be marked by still more political infighting as more and more of its provisions come on line. Health insurance exchanges, food labeling, hospital payments, home care, and Medicare payments are just a few we’ll see before March 23, 2012.
Suspended urologist blames vendor for bad advice
A Nevada urologist whose medical license was suspended for re-using medical devices that were supposed to be destroyed after a single use is laying the blame at the feet of the vendor who sold him the devices.
Dr. Michael Kaplan put his patients at risk of developing blood-borne diseases like HIV and hepatitis, according to health officials in the Silver State.
Cooper said Kaplan reused endocavity needle guides — plastic sheaths used to direct needles during biopsy — via the anus and rectum.
But Kaplan, in an ad in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, says he only began that practice after the vendor assured him it was OK.
Advanced Cell Technology wins patent in China
Advanced Cell Technology Inc. (OTC:ACTC) says China’s State Intellectual Property Office granted its patent application "to provide broad intellectual property protection in China for the manufacturing and pharmaceutical preparations of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs)."
"The fact that we are being awarded a set of broad claims in China, following the issuance of the three far-reaching RPE patents in the U.S. last year, gives us greater confidence that we are in a position to create a dominant patent position around our stem cell-derived RPE program in leading markets around the world," interim chairman and CEO Gary Rabin said in prepared remarks. "Our progress in obtaining patent protection in China for our RPE program is a testament to the continued recognition of the inventions and innovations resulting from our scientific team’s ongoing research, and further protects the platform technology underlying one of our key therapeutic programs."
Tough duty
SV Life Sciences is bemoaning the downside to its $523 million kitty for healthcare investments. The VC shop raised the fund last year but is worried that there won’t be enough similarly well-heeled funds to partner with.
"The good side of being in our position is that we are in a great competitive position because we have capital, and several years of capital. There’s less competition now for good ideas," managing partner Mike Ross told Xconomy’s Luke Timmerman. "The bad news is, we always syndicate our deals, and there are fewer people who can syndicate. The last thing a company needs is financing risk on top of everything else. You want to make sure the financial footing you are providing is strong."
FDA, Xavier to host global medical device conference
The FDA’s Cincinnati office and Xavier University are co-sponsoring a 3-day public event, the "FDA/Xavier University Global Medical Device Conference,” for quality, regulatory affairs, clinical research professionals and other industry players.
