Medicare not currently sustainable. Financial analysis shows that what people paid into the federally-funded healthcare system doesn’t come close to covering the full value of the medical care they can expect to receive as retirees, reports the Associated Press.
Medicare subscribers to reach 7,000 per day in 2011. In 2011, there will be 7,000 new Medicare beneficiaries added each day — a total of 2.5 million baby boomers who will begin subscribing to the government’s senior health insurance program, according to Medical News Today.
New healthcare reform rules take effect. The Christian Science Monitor rounds up nine key provisions that went into effect on Jan. 1.
MGH and J&J join to find individual cancer cells. Massachusetts General Hospital and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) are coming together to develop a blood test so sensitive that it can spot a single cancer cell lurking among a billion healthy ones, reports the Associated Press.
GOP healthcare reform legislation strategy… will include a two-pronged attack on the Obamacare health plan that could have a repeal vote ready before the State of the Union Address. Some Republicans — namely, incoming House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton — claim they’ll have a veto-proof majority to dump the US healthcare reform bill signed last year.
“We have 242 Republicans. There will be a significant number of Democrats, I think, that will join us. You will remember when that vote passed in the House, last March; it only passed by seven votes.
“Just wait. If you switched four votes from last March, that bill would have gone down. So we’ll take the Democrats that voted no, we will take other Democrats who probably agree with Speaker Pelosi’s statement. Remember when she said we want to pass this thing because then we’ll learn what’s in it? Well now the American public does know what is in it. Unpopularity numbers are as high as 60 percent across the country. I don’t think we’re going to be that far off from having the votes to actually override a veto.”
100 things to watch in 2011 include… biomimicry; food engineered to target medical conditions; a refocus by global health groups to attack heart disease, cancer and diabetes; mHealth; and wellness-driven lunchrooms (via JWTIntelligence).
FDA warning letters for clinical investigators leveled off in 2010 after a “significant rise” in previous years.
Glaxo: Good name swapped for bad medicine? 60 minutes had GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) whistleblower Cheryl Eckard on air to outline her experiences within the pharmaceutical giant (and, in particular, the problems with its plant in Cidra, Puerto Rico). Among the lessons? That Eckard’s story is an “extraordinary look at what can happen when there aren’t enough investigators to follow-up on the federal inspections.”
More (and the last of) 2010 reflections. 30 best hospital/healthcare executive moves on the year and the top 10 medical stories of the year (including reform, medical homes and the removal of Avandia and Darcovet).
Dealflow and more. Alzheimer’s disease company Accera has raised $11 million.
Material from MedCity News was used in this report.
