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Hospitals hospitable to savings

12 Jul 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday's reading from the Letter to the Ephesians speaks of redemption. The Obama administration, hoping to redeem a push for comprehensive healthcare legislation that some say has been floundering, announced this week that major hospital organizations have agreed to save the nation $155 billion in healthcare expenses over the next 10 years. Vice President Joe Biden announced the agreement Wednesday but offered few details on how the savings would be achieved, saying only that they would come about as a result of delivery system reforms and trimming the annual inflationary adjustment to hospital reimbursement payments from government programs. The administration is pursuing such agreements with key sectors in healthcare to build support and funding for sweeping reforms that are estimated to cost upward of 1 trillion dollars. "Folks, reform is coming," Biden said as he announced the agreement with the hospital groups. "It is on track. . . . We have tried for decades and decades to fix the broken system and we have never in my entire career in public life been this close." "Our hospitals are cracking under the weight of providing quality healthcare for Americans who lack insurance," he added. "The status quo is simply unacceptable. Rising costs are crushing us." The three groups participating in the deal were the Catholic Health Association of the United States, the American Hospital Association, and the Hospital Corporation of America. Source: An article by Reuters

health care reform obama administration hospitals joe biden american hospital association hospital corporation of america

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U.S. troops face deadly assault as Washington debates strategy

11 Oct 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Nothing is preferable to wisdom, says the first reading this Sunday. While a fierce gun battle in Afghanistan over the weekend killed eight U.S. soldiers and captured more than 20 Afghan security troops, the Obama administration and the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan differed over the wisest course in the eight-year Afghan war. In a speech last week before the Institute for Strategic Studies in London, Gen. Stanley McChrystal said that decreasing troops would be a "short-sighted" strategy. The general has called for 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan and plans to shift U.S. troops away from remote outposts that are difficult to defend and move them into more heavily populated areas as part of his new plan to focus on protecting Afghan civilians. Washington, however, is not sold on the strategy. McChrystal's recommendations have been met with deep skepticism among some of President Barack Obama's most senior advisers. Vice President Joe Biden was among the administration officials who challenged the assumptions behind McChrystal's request during a three-hour meeting of Obama's war council last week. Among the biggest questions being asked in the White House is whether the Afghan government can be a reliable partner in economic development and improved governance--especially in the wake of ongoing corruption and the still-disputed August presidential election. "Turning an illegitimate government into a legitimate one is simply beyond the capacities of foreigners, however wealthy or militarily unmatched," said Stephen Holmes, a law professor at New York University. At a meeting Tuesday with a bipartisan group of congressional leaders, Obama reportedly ruled out substantially reducing American forces in Afghanistan or shifting the mission to only hunting terrorists there. Source: Articles by Robert Reid and Rahim Faiez for Associated Press, Sheldon Alberts for Canwest News Service, and James Traub, Peter Baker, and Jeff Zeleny for the New York Times

barack obama afghanistan war joe biden stanley mcchrystal stephen holmes

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Unsettling developments in U.S.-Israeli relations

21 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Mount of Olives, where in this Sunday's gospel Jesus challenges the one "who is without sin" to cast the first stone, is located on a ridge overlooking Jerusalem. This week the city of Jerusalem--sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike--is front and center to a deepening diplomatic crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations.The conflict erupted last week after Israel announced during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that it would build 1,600 apartments for Jews in disputed east Jerusalem, the sector of the city Palestinians claim for a future capital.The Obama administration, fuming over what it called "insulting" Israeli conduct, has demanded that Israel call off the project. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, however, said such demands are "unreasonable" and predicted the row with the U.S. would blow over, saying neither side had an interest in escalation.But Washington notified Israel early Tuesday that U.S. envoy George Mitchell had put off a trip to the region indefinitely. Mitchell had planned on coming to wrap up preparations for relaunching Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Now it is not clear when the indirect talks will begin.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized for the timing of the project's approval, but he has not said it would be canceled. On Wednesday he praised President Obama and spoke by telephone with Biden. But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cast more doubts on prospects for indirect peace talks with Israel soon, reaffirming a demand it first halt all settlement construction.In the heaviest clashes in the city in months, scores of Palestinians this week hurled rocks at police and set tires and garbage bins ablaze across the holy city's volatile eastern sector where the construction is planned. Source: Articles by Jeffrey Heller for Reuters, Andrew Lee Butters for TIME, and Amy Teibel for the Associated Press

israel diplomatic relations east jerusalem peace talks george mitchell settlements joe biden benjamin netanyahu mahmoud abbas united states jerusalem palestinians avigdor lieberman

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Is the time finally at hand to curb gun violence?

13 Jan 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“The people were filled with expectation,” we hear in the gospel for this Sunday’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. With suspect James Holmes on trial for the July massacre at a suburban Denver movie theater and President Barack Obama’s promise in the wake of the December shootings at a Connecticut elementary school to introduce significant initiatives on gun violence this month, expectations are high the issue will finally be addressed.Prosecutors on Monday began laying out evidence against Holmes, while a series of Aurora, Colorado police officers, detectives, and forensics experts provided gripping and often emotional testimony about the mayhem they encountered at the movie theater where Holmes is alleged to have killed 12 and wounded 57.Meanwhile on Tuesday former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly opened a national initiative aimed at curbing gun-related bloodshed, on the second anniversary of the shooting that killed six people and left her critically injured. They promised to “launch a national dialogue and raise funds to counter influence of the gun lobby.” Last week the couple visited Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman opened fire last month at Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 children and six adults. They also met with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a gun-control advocate.“In response to a horrific series of shootings that has sown terror in our communities, victimized tens of thousands of Americans, and left one of its own bleeding and near death in a Tucson parking lot, Congress has done something quite extraordinary—nothing at all,” the pair wrote in an editorial Tuesday.Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the White House is determined to act quickly to restrain gun mayhem and will explore all avenues—including executive orders that would not require approval by Congress—to try to prevent incidents like last month's massacre at in Connecticut.Kicking off a series of meetings on gun violence, Biden said the administration would work with gun-control advocates and gun-rights supporters to build a consensus on restrictions, but he made it clear that President Obama is prepared to act on his own if necessary."We are not going to get caught up in the notion that unless we can do everything, we're going to do nothing. It's critically important that we act," said Biden, who meets Thursday with pro-gun groups including the National Rifle Association, which claims 4 million members and is the gun lobby's most powerful organization.Homily hint: Gun regulation is one of the hottest of the “hot button issues” that seem to have paralyzed our public discourse and ability to come together as a nation to solve our problems. Perhaps this timely topic can be raised in conjunction with the theme raised in the next article, that of civil discourse. God has given us all the tools we need to build a better world, but we have to cooperate in order to get the job done. Sources: Articles by Gary Strauss for USA TODAY, Alistair Jamieson and BeckBratu for NBC News, and John Whitesides and Mark Felsnthal for Reuters

gun control congress joe biden gabrielle giffords shootings mark kelly james holmes sandy hook elementary school gun violence

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Ukraine in pain

27 Apr 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

We hear this Divine Mercy Sunday that the psalmist "was hard pressed and was falling" when the Lord reached out with assistance. The nation of Ukraine is hard pressed and at risk of falling into civil war. United States Vice President Joseph Biden arrived in Kiev Monday, a day after a deadly checkpoint shooting in eastern Ukraine, to signal U.S. support for the government and to look for ways out of the increasingly tense showdown with Russia.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the U.S. of being behind the political upheaval in Ukraine and said Moscow would respond if its interests came under attack. The crisis, now in its fourth month, has dragged Russia's relations with the West to their lowest point since the Cold War.In the eastern part of the country, pro-Russian armed separatists have seized about a dozen public buildings and are defying Kiev's authority. Russia justified its intervention in Crimea earlier this year by saying it had to defend Russians living there. In eastern Ukraine some people hold Russian passports.Ukraine called on Moscow to pull troops back from the border, saying it feared pro-Russian separatists could use their proximity to provoke a Russian invasion.Lavrov's ministry, in a separate statement, accused the U.S. and the interim government in Kiev of a "distorted interpretation" of an international accord, signed in Geneva last week, under which illegal armed groups in Ukraine are to disarm and give up buildings they have occupied. Russia said that applies not only to the pro-Russian separatists in the east but also to groups in Kiev whose protests helped bring Ukraine's new government to power.A further escalation could lead to damaging economic sanctions and raises the risk of a disruption to the Russian gas supplies on which Europe depends.Homily hint: The world still seems stuck in “hate your enemy” mode rather than Jesus’ radical call to “love your enemy.” Peacemakers around the world call on all nations involved to use their diplomatic skills to work out solutions to ethnic tensions simmering in Ukraine. The alternative would be to subject millions of innocent people to pain and hardship that could be avoided. Make the peace! Sources: Articles by Pavel Polityuk and Alastair MacDonald for Reutersand Andrew Roth and Neil MacFarquhar for the New York Times

russia joe biden sergei lavrov ukraine

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Biden’s “cancer moonshot” successfully launches

11 Dec 2016 - Preaching the News for the Third Sunday of Advent, Cycle A

The reading from the prophet Isaiah this Sunday promises that when the savior comes, “then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.” Until that time, the ill and afflicted can take comfort in the fact that Congress passed sweeping legislation Wednesday with overwhelming bipartisan support to boost funding for medical research, ease the development and approval of experimental treatments, and reform federal policy on mental health care. The bill, known as the 21st Century Cures Act, now heads to the desk of President Obama, who praised the bill Wednesday and said he would sign it. The bill provides for $4.8 billion in new funding for the National Institutes of Health; of that, $1.8 billion is reserved for the “cancer moonshot” launched by Vice President Biden to accelerate research in that field. Another $1.6 billion is earmarked for brain diseases including Alzheimer’s. Also included are $500 million in new funding for the Food and Drug Administration and $1 billion in grants to help states deal with opioid abuse. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called the bill a “Christmas miracle . . . that will help virtually every American family. With its vote today of 94 to 5, the Senate has sent an unmistakable message that the time is now to deliver on the promise of 21st Century Cures.” The bill, however, had vocal progressive critics—Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) prime among them—who said the bill’s changes to drug approval processes gave too many concessions to pharmaceutical companies. Public Citizen, a progressive activist group that opposed the bill, called it “sorely disappointing that Congress gave Big Pharma and the medical device industry an early Christmas present” that “comes at the expense of patient safety by undermining requirements for ensuring safe and effective medications and medical devices.” But the bill won wide support from Democrats. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) negotiated key provisions to boost research funding, and Obama gave the bill a strong statement of support ahead of its passage in the House. Vice President Joe Biden, whose son Beau died from brain cancer last year, played a key lobbying role in getting the bill past many hurdles. Its passage fulfills his efforts to achieve a “cancer moonshot” of major research funding before he leaves office in January. The 10-year funding bill made its way through Congress because of Biden’s imposing presence—and also because it is packed with substantial amounts of money for enough pet projects, including a batch of Medicare and mental health reforms, to keep disparate lawmakers on board. Relentless cheerleading for the project by Michigan GOP Rep. Fred Upton, the author of the bill, and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) also played a key role. The duo traveled the country with other lawmakers and leaders like NIH Director Francis Collins to sell the project directly to the public. The vote let lawmakers close the year and the 114th Congress on a dramatic high, after a divisive election and ahead of the heated battles next year over the dismantling of Obamacare. That drama was captured Monday night, when Biden took the rare step of presiding over the Senate for a procedural vote on the bill and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the Senate would rename the law’s cancer program after Biden’s late son. Lessons drawn from the readings The psalmist this Sunday reminds us that the "Lord gives sight to the blind; the Lord raises up those who were bowed down.” We do well to imitate the Lord in our own efforts. Any work that alleviates suffering and brings hope and relief to the afflicted is God’s work. How will you do your part? Final thought in light of the news Upton told reporters on Wednesday, “It’s personal—people have family members with Alzheimer's, people have family members who died of breast cancer. They see children with these awful diseases. This is the answer.” Let your elected representatives know you appreciate the kind of bipartisan cooperation that made this legislation successful. Tell them you want to see more of the same in the coming year!

healthcare cancer mental health Alzheimer's disease joe biden bipartisanship medical research 21st century cures act

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