Aetna to Provide Managed Care Services to the British National Health Service--Say What?

Aetna has been approved by the British National Health Service (NHS) as one of the suppliers who can provide local Primary Care Trust (PCT) managers "a wide range of support, ranging from specific tasks such as designing medical management programs, also known as demand management, to comprehensive contracting and procurement of services."Where's Michael Moore? He needs to do an addendum to "

out of the mouths

Over dinner the other night, I was trying to figure out with my spouse how I could watch or record my friend Jacqueline, when she appeared on the New York ABC affiliate on Saturday night (I was ultimately unsuccesful, to my great disappointment).

My older son, S., asked why I wanted to watch it: "What if it's just a show with a bunch of women talking about how much they hated getting cancer?"

Me: "No, it's going to be much more than that. The woman who wrote "Cancer Vixen" is going to be on.

S.: "Oh, I know that book!" (he is seriously into graphic novels)

Me: And Jacqueline makes amazing jewelry. She also makes beautiful clothing for women who have lost a breast."

S.:"Cool!"

D., my four old, then piped up: "Mama, you've lost a breast. You should get some of that clothing."

not spamming you

Rachael from Yarn-a-Go-Go has written a romance novel. She's entered in a contest at Gather.com. Now we all have to go and read the first two chapters and, if we like them, vote for her book to be read by Simon and Schuster (see below for details).

For the record, I don't read romance novels but since I love Rachael's blog, I did check her chapters out and I loved them. I urge you to read the letter from her, below, follow the links and if you like what you read, please vote for her.

Dear friend/coworker/exboyfriend- slash-girlfriend/landlord,

My knitting-romance-writing friend Rachael has an urgent plea which I have pasted below. Please make her LIFE for her by voting for her, and if you enjoy it, please pass this email along!

**************
Hi there.

Please forgive the mass mailing -- I have a favor to ask.

I'm in a competition you may have already heard about. I wrote a book, a romance, full of yarn and alpacas and sheep and hot knitter-on-shepherd action (no, really). I entered it in Gather.com's First Romance Competition. I posted the first chapter, and it garnered enough votes to move on to the second round (in the top 25 of more than 300), so I'm thrilled to say that I'm a finalist, with people now voting on the second chapter. It's kind of an American Idol type of thing, if you can imagine, and this second round is still vote-driven, and the the most important thing to know is that if I end up in the top three, with the most votes, I move on to the last round where THE WHOLE NOVEL IS READ BY SIMON & SCHUSTER and their favorite is published. Oh, my god. I would like that. I would love that.

So I need your vote. I *really* need your vote. I'm in the top four right now, and the three people ahead of me have LOTS of friends. I need to be in the top three to move on, and you will make ALL the difference.

Here's what you do: Read chapter one, but don't vote on it. That one is nice and content and voted on as it is. Please ignore the typos. They hurt my soul, but they're there.

Then read chapter two and please DO vote. If you like the chapter at all, please give it a 10, as they only count 10s (they throw out all votes of 1-9). The chapters with the most 10-votes win.

Even though I know you want to, don't vote more than once, since they're watching for IP fraud. And you DO have to register with their site in order to vote, but they won't spam you, and they don't share or sell email addresses. They will send you a daily email which you can easily opt out of.

Oh, please, please? And will you forward this note on if you like the chapter? To all YOUR email contacts?

Thanks so much. Here you go:

Don't vote on chapter one:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977094360
DO VOTE on chapter two:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977126255

All my thanks. Really, ALL my thanks. It means so much. Whoo-hooo!
xo
Rachael

Means Testing for Medicare--It's Unavoidable If Politically Problematic

Means testing is politically problematic but necessary and probably unavoidable if we are to shore-up Medicare.The Bush administration is pushing a proposal to begin means testing on the new Medicare Part D drug benefit. They would increase deductibles and premiums on single seniors with incomes over $82,000 a year and couples with incomes over $164,000 a year.We already have a means test on

An Important and Disciplined Review of the Health Care Marketplace--The Latest Site Visit Report From 12 Markets

Good health care market intelligence is hard to come by. Information tends to come in the form of detailed and narrow, often backward looking, surveys that give us little texture for what key players are thinking. Or, at the other extreme, market information is often based on a relatively few almost random anecdotal impressions by "experts" as they do their work in the market.The highly respected

Health Wonk Review is Up

Jane-Hiebert-White has the latest Health Wonk Review up over at the Health Affairs blog.This sample of some of the best recent posts in the health blog world not surprisingly has lots to say about the SCHIP debate and other timely health reform issues.I wonder what 1993 would have been like if we'd had the blog world?

SCHIP Supporters Are At Least Ten Votes Short to Override a Bush Veto

The Democrats are now going to take two weeks to try to change some minds before they attempt to override the Bush veto of the SCHIP bill--scheduling a vote for October 18th. If nothing else they will continue to hammer on the President and his Republican supporters over what is turning out to be a very unpopular stand by the President.The Senate approved the SCHIP compromise by a vote of 67-29.