BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Rational Rationing – Sloan-Kettering’s Decision Not To Offer Zaltrap

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City this week announced it will not include a newly approved colorectal cancer drug called Zaltrap for its patients because of the drug’s cost — $11,063 monthly. Officials from the hospital noted that the drug costs twice as much as another treatment already on the market — Avastin — and has not proven to be more effective.

BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: #ReplaceObamaCareDemocrats Targeted on Health Reform

Last week, Democratic leaders in Charlotte, N.C., took to the stage at the Democratic National Convention to urge voters to re-elect President Obama.

Sam Baker of The Hill‘s “Healthwatch” wrote that Democrats put health reform “front and center” during the convention. Democrats “believe they can win on the issue in light of the uproar over contraception and the Republican ticket’s controversial Medicare reform proposal,” he wrote, adding that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called ObamaCare a “badge of honor” for Democrats.

BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Study Linking School Junk Food Laws to Lower Obesity ‘Not a Slam Dunk’

A recent study in the journal Pediatrics indicates that stricter laws regulating the sale of junk food and sugary drinks in schools could help curb childhood obesity, but not everyone is convinced.

BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Health Reform Stuck in Partisan Politics

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) rejected Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) request to conduct a vote this week to repeal the Affordable Care Act through an amendment to a cybersecurity bill, providing further evidence that the ACA remains mired in partisan disputes.

BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Unproven Theories Hinder U.S. Needle Exchange Programs

Researchers this week at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., presented two studies demonstrating the effectiveness of needle exchange programs in reducing HIV transmission.

BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Individual Mandates and the Founding Fathers

This week, Ezra Klein of the Washington Post‘s “Wonkblog” reviewed arguments in defense of the constitutionality of the federal health reform law’s individual mandate. Klein featured Harvard Law Professor Einer Elhauge’s argument that in 1798, “Congress enacted an individual mandate requiring the purchase of health insurance,” which was signed by John Adams. The Act for the Relief of Sick and Disable Seamen “required companies involved in interstate and international commerce to pay for health insurance for their ships crews.”

BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Should Physicians Screen for Loneliness?

One is the loneliest number, but can being lonely kill you? According to two new studies in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the answer is yes.

BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: The Limited-Benefit Health Plan Debate

This week, bloggers reacted to a Wall Street Journal article that revealed college students will have to pay higher premiums because of a provision under the federal health reform law that prohibits limited-benefit plans beginning 2014 and significantly increases the caps for 2012 and 2013.

BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Should the PSA Test Be Discontinued?

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in its final recommendation last week said that healthy men should not have to undergo the prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, blood test for prostate cancer because it does more harm than good. Meanwhile, a recent survey published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that just 1.8% of physicians would discontinue the now-routine test, even though half of them said they agree with the USPSTF recommendation.

The recommendation follows numerous studies that have found that the PSA test has a high level of false positives, estimated at about 80%, which can result in unnecessary and potentially harmful care.

BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Debating America’s Expanding Waistlines

The percentage of U.S. residents who are obese is expected to reach 42% by 2030, according to a recent study released at a CDC conference on obesity. The study also found that the U.S. could save $550 billion in projected medical costs by maintaining the current obesity rate of 36%.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Medicine, CDC and NIH are partnering with HBO to launch on May 14 a four-part documentary — titled, “The Weight of the Nation” — emphasizing the role of diet and exercise in reducing our national obesity epidemic. According to producer John Hoffman, the documentary aims to “sound the alarm” and motivate the nation to act.