Category Archives: Health Care

Competition In Health Care – What Does It Mean? It All Depends On Who You Ask

In the debate over health care reform, “competition” is one of the words used most often by both sides. Republicans and Democrats both claim to support it, want more if it and put it at the heart of success when it comes to building a better health care system. However, once you get behind the rhetoric, there is a difference between how each side defines the term.
Posted on April 18, 2011 By Bill Pierce
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Health Care and The Supreme Court

Now that Judge Vinson has granted the Administration a stay of his ruling that the new health care law is in its entirety unconstitutional and the Administration has reacted by saying it will file an appeal with the 11th Circuit Court within the seven-day window Vinson gave the Administration, we now have some clarity. Federal and state governments must continue to implement the law. However, how this case may end up and, more importantly, when will it get to the Supreme Court, still remains a bit unclear..
Posted on March 4, 2011 By Bill Pierce
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Florida Judge Grants Stay, But With Caveats

In a thought-provoking and tightly-written decision, Vinson Stay Order, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson granted the Obama Administration a stay of his previous decision that ruled the health care law unconstitutional. But in doing so, the Judge neither backed off his ruling nor granted the Administration much wiggle room.
Posted on March 4, 2011 By Bill Pierce
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SOTU Impact

With two exceptions -- gun control and gays in the military -- the State of the Union speech delivered by President Obama could have been given by a Republican. And unlike his inaugural speech last year (and the traditional SOTU speech), he did not recite a specific laundry list of proposals and ideas he would pursue in the coming year. Instead he presented broad themes and big ideas (“Sputnik moment,” invest in the future, reform our tax code, deficit reduction). And in those places where he did provide specifics, it was often an idea that undercut Republican ideas (veto legislation that contained earmarks, reform the tax code and freeze all domestic spending). The significance of this is that if it was not clear before, it is now -- President Obama has shifted hard to the center of the political spectrum.
Posted on January 28, 2011 By Bill Pierce
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The Value of Biotech to Health Care

During an appearance on BioCentury This Week, a weekly Sunday morning show about biotechnology, I discussed the need for the biotech industry to demonstrate the value of its products. I also urged support for FDA to be well-funded as it addresses its ever expanding challenges. Click on the image below to watch the clip:
Posted on December 16, 2010 By Wayne Pines
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California Not So Golden for Republican Women

I was a typical California teenager hanging out at my house one Tuesday night almost two decades ago. My parents were away at a meeting, so my sister – three years my senior – and I left the house to attend a party. It wasn’t just some house party, however; it was the party celebrating the election-night victories of Anna Eshoo, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein at Eshoo’s campaign headquarters in Palo Alto. The year was 1992: “The Year of the Woman.” It was an exciting time to be a young woman interested in politics in California.
Posted on October 29, 2010 By Cassandra Pye
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