Divorce hurts health more at earlier ages

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
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Contact: Cathy Liu
liuhu@msu.edu
517-353-3265
Michigan State University

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Divorce at a younger age hurts people's health more than divorce later in life, according to a new study by a Michigan State University sociologist.

Hui Liu said the findings, which appear in the research journal Social Science & Medicine, suggest older people have more coping skills to deal with the stress of divorce.

"It's clear to me that we need more social and family support for the younger divorced groups," said Liu, assistant professor of sociology. "This could include divorce counseling to help people handle the stress, or offering marital therapy or prevention programs to maintain marital satisfaction."

Liu analyzed the self-reported health of 1,282 participants in Americans' Changing Lives, a long-term national survey. She measured the gap in health status between those who remained married during the 15-year study period and those who transitioned from marriage to divorce, at certain ages and among different birth cohorts, or generations.

Liu found the gap was wider at younger ages. For example, among people born in the 1950s, those who got divorced between the ages of 35 and 41 reported more health problems in relation to their continuously married counterparts than those who got divorced in the 44 to 50 age range.

From a generational perspective, the negative health impact was stronger for baby boomers than it was for older generations a finding that surprised Liu.

"I would have expected divorce to carry less stress for the younger generation, since divorce is more prevalent for them," she said.

Liu said this may be because the pressure to marry and stay married was stronger for older generations, and so those who did divorce may have been among the most unhappily married and thus felt a certain degree of relief when they did divorce.

Overall, the study found that those who transition from marriage to divorce experience a more rapid health decline than those who remain married. However, those who remained divorced during the entire study period showed no difference than those who remained married.

"This suggests it is not the status of being married or divorced, per se, that affects health, but instead is the process of transitioning from marriage to divorce that is stressful and hurts health," Liu said.

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Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Cathy Liu
liuhu@msu.edu
517-353-3265
Michigan State University

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Divorce at a younger age hurts people's health more than divorce later in life, according to a new study by a Michigan State University sociologist.

Hui Liu said the findings, which appear in the research journal Social Science & Medicine, suggest older people have more coping skills to deal with the stress of divorce.

"It's clear to me that we need more social and family support for the younger divorced groups," said Liu, assistant professor of sociology. "This could include divorce counseling to help people handle the stress, or offering marital therapy or prevention programs to maintain marital satisfaction."

Liu analyzed the self-reported health of 1,282 participants in Americans' Changing Lives, a long-term national survey. She measured the gap in health status between those who remained married during the 15-year study period and those who transitioned from marriage to divorce, at certain ages and among different birth cohorts, or generations.

Liu found the gap was wider at younger ages. For example, among people born in the 1950s, those who got divorced between the ages of 35 and 41 reported more health problems in relation to their continuously married counterparts than those who got divorced in the 44 to 50 age range.

From a generational perspective, the negative health impact was stronger for baby boomers than it was for older generations a finding that surprised Liu.

"I would have expected divorce to carry less stress for the younger generation, since divorce is more prevalent for them," she said.

Liu said this may be because the pressure to marry and stay married was stronger for older generations, and so those who did divorce may have been among the most unhappily married and thus felt a certain degree of relief when they did divorce.

Overall, the study found that those who transition from marriage to divorce experience a more rapid health decline than those who remain married. However, those who remained divorced during the entire study period showed no difference than those who remained married.

"This suggests it is not the status of being married or divorced, per se, that affects health, but instead is the process of transitioning from marriage to divorce that is stressful and hurts health," Liu said.

###

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/msu-dhh013012.php

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Copyright Extension, Reversion Are Focus of Legal Panel at MIDEM ...

January 29, 2012

Recent changes in U.S. and European copyright law may not seem like the most scintillating topic for a Saturday afternoon. But a MIDEM panel titled "New Horizons in Copyright Law" drew an overflow crowd at the Midem Academy room of Riviera Hall.

And no wonder. As three prominent entertainment attorneys explained, artists, labels and publishing companies will be profoundly affected by the European Union's copyright term extension and the pending reversion of U.S. copyrights to creators of works assigned to a publisher on Jan. 1, 1978 and thereafter.

EU Extends Copyright Term To 70 Years

In September 2011, the EU adopted a directive extending copyright protection for sound recordings to 70 years, from the previous 50-year term. The directive will be implemented by EU member states over the next two years.

"This is really, really a major piece of new legislation," said Michael Sukin, chairman of Sukin Law Group in New York. Sukin, a long-time advocate of the extension, stripped down the complex directive to its bare essence, saying that it means "songs get better protection, records get another 20 years, artists get new money, artists get termination rights."

The potential implications of U.S. termination rights for works assigned to publishers in 1978 and thereafter are also significant, said Kenneth Abdo, chairman of the entertainment law department at Lommen Abdo in Minneapolis.

Business Matters: Make No Mistake, EU Copyright Extension Is Good for Record Labels, Too

In theory, Abdo said, the reversion of copyrights to creators means that labels and publishers will lose control of valuable catalogs. "Can it happen? Yes," he said. "Will it happen? Maybe. It's a complicated area."

One factor muddying the waters is the large number of parties who can be considered an "author" eligible to exercise termination rights. They include artists, songwriters, session musicians and producers. Meanwhile, creative works determined to be "works for hire" -- for instance, a work created by someone who was employed by a company claiming the copyright -- are not eligible for termination.

Bernard Resnick, an entertainment attorney based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., explained what he'd advise labels to do if they were to receive copyright termination notices. First, he said, they should take a hard look at their catalog and determine which works earn the most money. Then they should consider whether to approach a creator preemptively to try to work out a settlement with more favorable terms for the artist, explaining that the termination provision could affect the label's ability to handle copyrighted works they still control outside of the U.S., Resnick said.

Finally, labels should create departments devoted to the administration of reverted copyrights, which would buttress their argument that they are equipped to handle continued administration of their works.

"This is the kind of thing that drives artists crazy," Resnick said. "It's something we all have to pay a lot of attention to."

Source: http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/legal-and-management/copyright-extension-reversion-are-focus-1006026152.story

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`Beasts of the Southern Wild' wins at Sundance (AP)

PARK CITY, Utah ? A mythical film starring an 8-year-old girl and a documentary about the war on drugs took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival.

"Beasts of the Southern Wild" won the grand jury prize in the U.S. dramatic competition, and "The House I Live In" won the same honor in the U.S. documentary category Saturday at the independent film festival's awards ceremony.

Directed and co-written by 29-year-old first-time filmmaker Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" follows a girl named Hushpuppy who lives with her father in the southern Delta. The film also won the cinematography prize.

Zeitlin said he was grateful to the Sundance Institute and labs, where he worked on the film for more than three years.

"This project was such a runt, this sort of messy-hair, dirty, wild child, and we just have been taken care of and just eased along until we were ready to stand up on our own," he said in an interview after the ceremony. "It's just great that it happened here. This is the right place for the world to meet the film."

Zeitlin described his spunky young star, Quvenzhane Wallis, as "the biggest person I know." She said she is ready to be a movie star, but first will be going back to third grade.

Fox Searchlight acquired the film earlier this week.

Eugene Jarecki's documentary "The House I Live In" examines the social, human and financial costs of the war on drugs. The filmmaker won the same award in 2005 for his documentary "Why We Fight."

As he accepted his award, Jarecki called the war on drugs "tragically immoral, heartbreakingly wrong and misguided."

"If we're going to reform things in this country, putting people in jail for nonviolent crime, in many cases for life without parole, for possession of a drug, for sentences longer than is now given for murder in this country, must end," he said.

Kirby Dick's documentary about rape in the military, "The Invisible War," won the audience award, as did Ben Lewin's heartfelt drama "The Surrogate," which stars John Hawkes as a paralyzed 38-year-old man who hires a sex surrogate, played by Helen Hunt, to help him lose his virginity. Fox Searchlight acquired that film, too.

"I don't think most people have ever seen this sort of story before," Lewin said after the ceremony. "I think it was very new and unexpected... From the experiences I've had seeing it with an audience, it seems to be a real emotional ride."

"The Surrogate" also won a special jury prize for its ensemble cast.

World cinema jury prizes went to the documentary "The Law in These Parts," about Israel's legal system in occupied Palestinian territories, and the drama "Violeta Went to Heaven," about Chilean musician Violeta Parra.

The audience favorites in world cinema were the documentary "Searching for Sugar Man," which also won a special jury award, and the drama "Valley of the Saints," which also claimed the Alfred P. Sloan film prize. A second winner of the Sloan Award, which recognizes films with science as a theme or a scientist as a major character, was "Robot and Frank." The film, which premiered at Sundance, stars Frank Langella as a retired jewel thief who befriends the caretaker robot his children have given him, eventually bringing the robot along on his illegal outings.

Other winners:

? U.S. drama directing award: Ava DuVernay, "Middle of Nowhere."

? U.S. documentary directing award: Lauren Greenfield, "The Queen of Versailles."

? World cinema drama directing award: Mads Matthiesen, "Teddy Bear."

? World cinema documentary directing award: Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi, "5 Broken Cameras."

? U.S. drama screenwriting award: Derek Connolly, "Safety Not Guaranteed."

? World cinema screenwriting award: Marialy Rivas, Camila Gutierrez, Pedro Peirano, Sebastian Sepulveda, "Young & Wild."

? U.S. documentary editing award: Enat Sidi, "Detropia."

? World cinema editing award: Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky, "Indie Game: The Movie."

? U.S. documentary cinematography award: Jeff Orlowski, "Chasing Ice."

? World cinema drama cinematography award: David Raedeker, "My Brother the Devil."

? World cinema documentary cinematography award: Lars Skree, "Putin's Kiss."

? U.S. drama special jury prize for producing: Andrea Sperling and Jonathan Schwartz, "Smashed" and "Nobody Walks."

? U.S. documentary special jury prizes: "Love Free or Die," "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry."

? World cinema drama special jury prize: "Can."

? Short film audience award: "The Debutante Hunters."

? Best of NEXT audience award: "Sleepwalk With Me."

___

Follow Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen at www.twitter.com/APSandy.

___

Online:

http://www.sundance.org/festival/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_en_mo/us_film_sundance_awards

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Gingrich Spokesman Confronts Romney Surrogate (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192259102?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Obama's populist pitch unifies House Democrats (AP)

CAMBRIDGE, Md. ? President Barack Obama's populist election-year pitch and middle-class message have unified House Democrats. The bitter divisions among Republican White House hopefuls have helped bring them together, too.

"Long may it last," said Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., on the prospect of a drawn-out, bare-knuckle GOP nomination fight between top candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

House Democrats, who gathered for their annual three-day retreat on Maryland's Eastern Shore, echoed many of the themes from Obama's State of the Union speech on economic fairness, boosting manufacturing and helping middle-class Americans, a reflection of campaign messaging and a recognition that their fate is inextricably linked to the president. They held a series of closed-door sessions on strategy for the coming year and later spoke to reporters.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will address the group on Friday. It's a more upbeat Democratic caucus than the one Obama encountered last year when backbiting and frustration split Democrats after a thrashing in the November 2010 midterm elections.

Being out of power for a year will do that. So will a week in which Democrats saw some positive signs, from Obama's address to polls showing more voters think the country is on the right track, to a daring hostage rescue of an American in Somalia. Signs of an economic rebound are prevalent; Commerce Secretary John Bryson told the Democrats that of the 3 million new jobs, 300,000 were in manufacturing.

As for the Democrats' own finances, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised more than $61 million last year and has $11.6 million cash on hand. It also eliminated a lingering debt.

"It's the first time I've seen Democrats this united," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.

That unity will be tested by months of campaigning and legislative fights as well as clear signals from Obama that he will run against Congress.

While Democrats talked about message, Obama was on a three-day, five-state swing that included a stop in Aurora, Colo., where he told the crowd, "We're not going to wait for Congress," on some issues such as producing clean energy to power 3 million homes. He made similar arguments in his speech.

Democratic leaders said Obama should run against a "do-nothing Congress" to highlight for American voters how Republicans have obstructed his agenda. Yet that kind of campaign strategy could be equally damaging to Democrats, who hold 191 seats in the House and control the Senate by a narrow margin, 51-47, plus two independents who generally vote with them. Public approval ratings for Congress have hit all-time lows, dipping to the teens. Voters easily could send scores of members from both parties packing in November.

Republicans signaled they have a ready response to the White House strategy.

"The president can blame anyone he wants, but it won't change the fact that this year will be a referendum on his economic record," said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

For now, Democrats will press ahead with an agenda and rhetoric that mirrors Obama's.

In his State of the Union speech, Obama called for requiring millionaires to pay at least 30 percent in taxes, the so-called Buffett rule, named after a recommendation by billionaire financier Warren Buffett, who benefits from a low 15 percent tax rate on investments, that he be required to pay a higher rate than his secretary. The president also pleaded for legislation that rewards companies that create jobs in the United States instead of shipping them overseas.

Senate Democrats said this week they will move ahead this year with legislation.

Obama also said he would sign a bill that would ban lawmakers from buying and selling stock based on insider information. Senate Democrats signaled they would consider a bill next week.

House Republicans, not Democrats, have the final say on what legislation comes to the floor. Still, House Democrats say the messaging is in sync.

"I think that's led to a real spirit of optimism for the election," Andrews said. "A realistic spirit but an optimistic one."

Democrats face a tough challenge in recapturing the House as Republicans have shored up their vulnerable lawmakers through redistricting. The GOP scoffs at the notion that Democrats can win the 25 seats necessary to take control.

Still, in a sign of Democratic boldness, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., sported a button that said "Thanks Obamacare," the derisive shorthand that Republicans use to describe the president's overhaul of the health care system.

Schakowsky said there may come a time when "Obamacare might be up there with Social Security."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_go_co/us_house_democrats

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The High Price of New Cancer Drugs

First posted?1/24/12 on?Gooz News

Julie Gralow, an oncologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, recently prescribed an exciting new therapy for a 60-year-old woman with metastatic breast cancer. Three-and-a-half years into her battle against the disease, the patient had already exhausted three different anti-estrogen therapies, each of which only put a temporary check on the spreading tumors.

The newly prescribed drug, Novartis? Afinitor, is one of the recently approved targeted therapies that have generated a lot of excitement among cancer patients and oncologists in recent years. Drugs that target just the cancer cells promise the same or better results as toxic chemotherapy, but with far fewer side effects.

There was a catch, though. Like many of the latest cancer drugs,?Novartis is charging exorbitant amounts?for the treatment ? in this case, $10,000 per month. That quickly put an end to that possibility for Gralow?s patient. Her monthly co-payment, even after her insurance company agreed to pay its share of the off-label use the drug (the Food and Drug Administration has only approved Afinitor for kidney and pancreatic cancer, not breast cancer), was $2,900.

?She can?t afford this, even though it?s potentially a less toxic and potentially equally effective regimen,? Gralow said. ?Chemo will help her, and it?s a reasonable choice. But that choice is 100 percent driven by economics.?

Over the past year, official Washington and candidates on the campaign trail have locked horns over the best way to curb rising health insurance costs. The public has been bombarded with dueling slogans ? Republicans vowing to fight the ?death panels? and ?rationing? of Obamacare?while Democrats promise ?guaranteed access? and ?affordability? with the Affordable Care Act.

But an economic drama that neither side wants to confront is playing itself out in cancer wards and oncologists? offices across the country. Unaffordable new drugs, even when they?re covered by insurance, are being rationed by price as patients, doctors and hospital officials struggle with what is likely to be the most pressing problem for the nation?s health care system over the next decade: how to pay for the spectacular?rise in the cost of cancer care, especially drugs and diagnostic tests.

?In the real world of private practice where most care is delivered, it would be a mistake to say rising costs haven?t affected care,? said Eric Nadler, a head, neck and lung cancer specialist at Baylor University Medical Center. A recent survey published in Health Affairs found a stunning 84 percent of oncologists say their patients? out-of-pocket spending influences treatment recommendations.

The growing cost of cancer care will impose its greatest burden on the nation?s Medicare system, since 55 percent of all cancers are diagnosed in individuals 65 or older. A recent study by the National Cancer Institute projected the cost of treating the 29 most common cancers in men and women will rise 27 percent by 2020, even though incidence of the disease is going down due to successful public health campaigns like the war on smoking.

That estimate is based on a relatively static cost of care per case. If costs increase just 2 percent more a year than previous trends in the first and last years of care, the study said, then costs would soar to $173 billion, a 39 percent increase. The study pointed out that its projections were based on 2006 Medicare claims data, which predated the development of most of the latest targeted therapies.

There?s no doubt that there will be many new therapies for cancer coming to market in the years ahead. The nation?s $150 billion public investment in understanding the biology of cancer ? the science side of the War on Cancer launched by President Richard Nixon in 1971 ? is beginning to bear fruit.

The pharmaceutical industry, which draws on that publicly funded science to develop drug candidates, now has 887 new cancer drugs in development, over 30 percent of its total portfolio of new drug candidates, according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry trade group. That?s up from 646 or 26 percent of the total devoted to cancer in 2006.

The industry is pouring increased research and development resources in cancer therapeutics in hopes that it will replace the revenue being lost from the expiration of patents on blockbusters like Lipitor. However, since there are fewer cancer patients than there are people with chronic conditions like elevated cholesterol, and many don?t live very long, the prices needed to support the industry?s current size and structure, and profits must be substantially higher.

?They?re trying to maximize profits given their incentives,? said Peter Neumann, director of the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health at Tufts Medical Center, which receives funding from the drug industry. Possible solutions, he said, include letting Medicare set prices based on the medical value of adding extra months to life. That?s a variation on Great Britain?s cost-effectiveness model, which has been roundly condemned by most U.S. politicians and the press.

The other path is to turn to a bundled payment for every for every episode of cancer care and let the health care delivery organizations and private insurers sort it out. (Bundled payments?account for all medical services associated with a given episode of care?doctors, nurses, technicians, etc.) That approach, in essence, would force the marketplace to execute the rationing.
?Bundled payment isn?t a panacea, but it does create incentives,? Neumann said. Some private insurers are experimenting with bundled payments for cancer care.

A quick review of the new cancer drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration last year reveals how fast drug prices are rising. Most of the older chemotherapy regimens for cancer, some of which have been around since the 1950s, are generic and relatively inexpensive. But among the six new drugs approved in 2011, the cheapest ? Johnson & Johnson?s Zytiga for advanced prostate cancer ? cost $44,000 a year. The drug extended life by an average of less than 5 months to 16 months, according to a company spokesperson.

At the high end of the spectrum was Adcetris, a biotech product from Seattle Genetics that treats recurrences of Hodgkin?s lymphoma.? A highly curable disease when initially treated in the 8,830 mostly middle-aged patients who get the disease every year, it is usually fatal if a drug-resistant strain emerges later in life. Adcetris, the first new treatment to come along since 1977, kept the cancer in check for nearly 7 months in the single small trial that led to its quick FDA approval. It?s price tag: $216,000 for a full course of treatment.

Skin cancer specialists had a lot to cheer about in 2011 with two new therapies coming on the market for metastatic melanoma, which is fatal within one year for about 75 percent of the 10,000 people stricken each year. But Roche/Genentech?s Zelboraf cost $61,400 a year and Bristol-Myers Squibb?s Yervoy, which nearly doubled the one-year survival rate from 25 percent to 46 percent, cost $120,000 for a four-month course of treatment.

?We price our medicines based on a number of factors including the value they deliver to patients and the scientific innovation they represent,? said Sarah Koenig, a spokeswoman for Bristol-Myers. ?We have one of the most robust patient assistance programs for cancer patients in the industry.?

Most drug companies have patient assistance programs for poor or struggling patients, but many only come into play if patients are poor or families have exhausted their savings. And since many of the latest therapies, like the older chemotherapies they are replacing or supplementing, extend life for brief periods of time, patients wind up weighing whether they want to deplete their children?s inheritances for a couple extra months of being very, very sick.

A study released at last June?s annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, which represents the nation?s 25,000 oncologists, revealed that patients with co-payments over $500 a month were four times more likely to refuse treatment than those whose co-payments were under $100 a month. ?The price of drugs can?t be set so outrageously high,??study author Lee Schwartzberg??told Reuters. Schwartzberg is the chief medical officer at Acorn Research, which conducted the study.

?All stake holders have to get together and compromise to translate this great science into great patient care without breaking the bank.?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDoctorWeighsIn/~3/UCU63rwZqJY/

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The Advantages Of Automotive LED Headlamp

Li Xiao Na asked:

The automotive LED headlamp has so many obstacles and difficulties in the process of development, but all the manufacturers are trying to drive the development of LED. Obviously, the automotive LED lamp has so many advantages. The new light source is able to provide the car with flexibility and personalization, besides, the light efficiency of the LED light is similar with the HID light; therefore, the traditional light will be cleaned out from the market sooner or later. The chromatography of LED is the same with sunlight, which makes the effectiveness of the reflection higher than the other lights. Drivers can see the obstacles from far away with this kind of light. Experts also maintain that road signals always use the passive glow reflection; therefore, the LED can make the driver see the signals as it always in the daytime.

The Daytime Running Light rules, which is passed by the Europe union, fixes that automobiles should use the headlamp even in the daytime. This regulation makes the low power consumption, and long service life of LED light outstanding. The LED headlight does not need any mechanical part, which is able to produce the active function. This kind of active lighting system may need more streamer tube. From this way, scientists can study the new adapting headlamp system.

Scientists point out that the changes of the illumination system is correspond with the developing tendency, namely the mechanical device will be replaced by the electric system gradually. All in all, the automotive LED headlamp is still in its infancy now, but it will develop with high speed. It is predicated that the capital of the automotive LED market will reach 80 million US dollars in the year of 2012. The LED must be welcomed by people with its safety and reliability, which will also bring so many opportunities for the revolution of the automotive lamp. The related integrated circuit is S4060U.

Automotive

Source: http://rambergmedia.com/the-advantages-of-automotive-led-headlamp/

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Man gets car ban after 4 children found in trunk (AP)

LONDON ? A British court has banned a man from driving for a year after he was caught traveling with four children in the trunk of his car.

Britain's Press Association news agency said Thursday that police found a total of 11 people in Zoltan Lakatos' Audi A4 when they stopped him in the English city of Leicester last year.

One passenger was in the driver's seat, three adults and two children were squeezed into the back, and officers discovered four more children in the trunk.

The news agency says Lakatos was convicted of endangering his passengers and of driving without insurance earlier this week at Leicester Magistrates' Court. He also was fined 1,325 pounds (about $2,080).

The agency said the 38-year-old was not in court for the ruling.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_kids_in_the_trunk

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Key Greek bondholders meet to reconsider debt deal (AP)

BRUSSELS ? Representatives of Greece's private sector bondholders will meet Wednesday to discuss how and whether to continue talks on a bond swap after the EU toughened its demands, a person close to the investors said.

The so-called steering committee of the Institute of International Finance will gather in Paris for an "important meeting ... to really take stock" of the talks, the person said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The committee represents banks and other investment funds that hold a large part of Greece's debt and are being asked to swap their existing bonds with new ones of a reduced value, longer maturity and lower interest rate.

Eurozone finance ministers decided this week to cap the average interest rate on those new bonds at well below 4 percent. In their last offer, the bondholders said the average interest rate should be above 4 percent.

The finance ministers are pushing for a lower rate because whatever debt relief Greece doesn't get from the investors will have to come from them and the International Monetary Fund, the country's bailout rescuers.

The eurozone and the IMF, however, have made clear that they would not increase their loans for Greece above the euro130 billion ($169 billion) tentatively agreed in October.

The person close to the private bondholders said the meeting was called for Wednesday because some eurozone officials wanted the deal to be ready for a summit of EU leaders on Monday.

The bond swap is crucial to cut Greece's debt by some euro100 billion ($130 billion) and bring it back to a sustainable level. The plan is to have private investors exchange their old Greek bonds for ones with half the face value and to push repayments 20 to 30 years into the future.

A higher interest rate could help buffer losses for investors, but the eurozone and the IMF say it will prevent Greece's debt from falling to 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020 ? the maximum level they see as sustainable. Without the debt swap, Greece's debt would approach 200 percent of GDP by the end of this year.

So far, all sides in the negotiations have been trying to make the bond swap a voluntary deal.

If the investors decide against moving voluntarily accepting the eurozone ministers' tougher terms, the eurozone would face a stark choice between a forced default by Greece or new, bigger aid payments to Athens.

In a forced default, bondholders would likely stand to lose an even bigger part of their investments, though some of them would get payments from bond insurance, the credit default swaps, or CDS.

The eurozone has so far worked hard to prevent a payout of CDS, since the CDS market is obscure ? without a clear picture of who owes what to whom ? and they worry that it could create uncertainty and panic on financial markets. The private investors also argue that a forced default would make investors more reluctant to lend to Greece and other vulnerable euro countries.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_financial_crisis

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User-friendly health plan summaries at risk

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Consumer groups are scrambling to salvage a popular provision of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul that suddenly seems to be in question.

This time it's not Republican opposition they're worried about, but the White House itself.

At issue is a requirement that health plans provide simple, standard summaries of coverage and costs to help consumers pick benefits that are right for them ? a sort of "CliffsNotes" version of cryptic insurance company jargon.

Consumer advocates say they fear the administration may heed industry complaints that the regulation as proposed last summer is too costly, burdensome and intrusive. The rule is due to take effect this year and is undergoing final review by the White House. It would apply to all private and employer health plans, covering an estimated 180 million Americans.

"There is concern that the consumer protections we were hoping to see may not be in the final rule," said Dr. LaShawn McIver, policy director for the American Diabetes Association. "Ultimately, we are looking for a consumer-friendly product that gives people the information they need about what levels of coverage they can expect."

Her organization and four others ? the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, AARP and Consumers Union ? wrote Obama this week urging him not to water down the requirements.

"The information available to Americans today is wholly inadequate for consumers to choose and understand the insurance coverage options available to them," their letter said.

Simple-to-understand health plan summaries are the most popular provision of the health care law, which otherwise continues to divide the public. That's according to a poll last November by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, which found the summaries garnered support from 84 percent of Americans compared with 37 percent who viewed the overall law favorably.

Administration officials said they can't comment on the specifics of regulations under review, but they sought to reassure the consumer groups, which were among the major backers of the health care law as it was being debated in Congress.

"Giving consumers the information they need and making the health care system more transparent is a top priority," said Erin Shields, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department. "We're confident the final rules ... will meet that goal."

A proposed template released by the department last summer included such basic details as information on premiums, deductibles and copays for doctor visits and hospitalization. Such information is now generally the norm in health plan summaries that most companies voluntarily provide their employees during annual open enrollment.

But the federal template also included so-called coverage examples of the cost of care for a typical individual for three common health conditions: normal childbirth, treating breast cancer and managing diabetes. Because all health plans would have to follow the same rules in compiling the information, it would allow consumers to directly compare insurance in ways they can't now.

America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade group representing the industry, complained that the timeline for introducing the comparisons this year is unrealistic, and the cost would be more than double what the government estimated, or $382 million for the first two years alone. That would drive up costs for employers and health plans, the industry said, at a time when many companies are struggling in a difficult economy.

Lynn Quincy, a senior policy analyst for Consumers Union, said the advocacy groups have learned that the requirement for employer plans to provide the comparisons may be delayed or weakened. Additionally, two of the coverage examples may be omitted at least initially, leaving only a comparison of maternity costs.

"We are very concerned that compared to the proposed rule that was released in August, the final rule we are expecting shortly will be weakened," she said. "That would be very bad for consumers."

___

Online:

Proposed template for health plan comparisons: http://tinyurl.com/6ryq8rl

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-26-Health%20Overhaul-Consumers/id-25be26cd6c784ab5be69a1295e171661

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Putin warns ethnic tensions risk tearing Russia apart (Reuters)

MOSCOW/KISLOVODSK, Russia (Reuters) ? Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, warning ethnic tensions could tear Russia apart, said on Monday he would toughen migration rules and keep a tight rein on Russia's regions to prevent it following the Soviet Union into oblivion.

In a newspaper article and an address in southern Russia, Putin used the danger of ethnic discord to call for limits on electoral reforms.

"With the collapse of the country (the Soviet Union), we were on the edge -- and in some regions over the edge -- of civil war," Putin wrote in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

"With great effort, with great sacrifice we were able to douse these fires. But that doesn't mean that the problem is gone," he wrote in the second of a series of articles promoting his leadership goals ahead of a March 4 presidential election.

Putin, in power since 2000 and favored to win a six-year presidential term in March, described a Soviet-style vision of a country in which the rights of ethnic minorities would be respected but Russian language and culture would dominate.

"The Russian people, the Russian culture is the glue holding together the unique fabric of this civilization," Putin wrote.

Putin is steering a fine line between Orthodox Christian ethnic Russians, some of whom fear labor migration and higher birth rates among Russia's Muslims, and ethnic tensions which could challenge his vision of a centralized, united, Russia.

Thousands of nationalists have protested in Moscow over migration and state subsidies to the mostly Muslim North Caucasus, where an Islamist insurgency rooted in the Chechen wars persists.

Comparing nationalism to a disease, Putin took aim at ethnic Russian nationalists, who have been among the 59-year-old prime minister's most vociferous critics.

"If a multiethnic society is infected by nationalism, it loses its strength and durability," Putin wrote. "We need to understand what far-reaching effects can be caused by attempts to inflame national enmity and hatred."

He said minorities must live under the umbrella of Russian culture, and migrants must pass exams in Russian language and history. Authorities should be given more power to vet migrants' professional skills and students should read some 100 national classics.

But he also said the best way to stem migration was by creating favorable conditions for citizens to work in their native regions.

Without naming names, he took aim at the idea of cutting federal subsidies for the North Caucasus, promoted by anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny.

"The goals of such activists are clear and they have nothing in common with the real attempts to solve ethnic problems, with Russia's development and interests of its citizens," Putin told the conference of Peoples of Russia's South in Kislovodsk.

In the article, he plugged his plan for a Eurasian Union linking Russia with other ex-Soviet republics including those in Central Asia -- the source of millions of labor migrants in Russia -- saying closer ties would help curb migration by helping to develop their economies.

Yet in a sign he will not reverse a consolidation of power in Moscow, Putin said he could not allow regional political parties because some could be created on ethnic lines, calling it a "direct path to separatism."

"What is omitted is even more important than what is included (in the article)," said Nikolai Petrov, a political analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Center, told Reuters.

"There is no mention of federalism here and the idea here is that a centralized state should be stronger in order to prevent disintegration," he said.

President Dmitry Medvedev submitted a bill this month that would restore popular elections for Russia's regional governors. But Putin suggested on Monday that potential governors may need presidential approval to run.

"We need to tune this mechanism properly," he said.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Grove; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/wl_nm/us_russia_putin

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Egypt Islamists on eve of power ease talk of Islam

Officials are seen in the People's Assembly in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, as final preparations are made for Monday's opening session of parliament. Egypt's parliament will convene Jan. 23, after three rounds of balloting for the first post-Hosni Mubarak assembly have been completed and just two days before the one-year anniversary of the start of Egypt's uprising. (AP Photo/Ahmed Gomaa)

Officials are seen in the People's Assembly in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, as final preparations are made for Monday's opening session of parliament. Egypt's parliament will convene Jan. 23, after three rounds of balloting for the first post-Hosni Mubarak assembly have been completed and just two days before the one-year anniversary of the start of Egypt's uprising. (AP Photo/Ahmed Gomaa)

In this Friday, Jan. 20, 2012 photo, Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan listens during an interview at his home in Cairo, Egypt. After dreaming of power for decades, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood finally comes face to face with the question of how to use it as a new parliament that it dominates opens Monday. The fundamentalist group has eased off talk of Islamic-style legislation, saying it will focus on fixing Egypt's ailing economy, but it has other tools to push Egypt toward greater religious conservativism, including its role in writing the new constitution. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Officials are seen in the People's Assembly in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, as final preparations are made for Monday's opening session of parliament. Egypt's parliament will convene Jan. 23, after three rounds of balloting for the first post-Hosni Mubarak assembly have been completed and just two days before the one-year anniversary of the start of Egypt's uprising. (AP Photo/Ahmed Gomaa)

A worker makes repairs to a fence outside the People's Assembly in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, as final preparations are made for Monday's opening session of parliament. Egypt's parliament will convene Jan. 23, after three rounds of balloting for the first post-Hosni Mubarak assembly have been completed and just two days before the one-year anniversary of the start of Egypt's uprising. (AP Photo/Ahmed Gomaa)

Officials are seen in the People's Assembly in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, as final preparations are made for Monday's opening session of parliament. Egypt's parliament will convene Jan. 23, after three rounds of balloting for the first post-Hosni Mubarak assembly have been completed and just two days before the one-year anniversary of the start of Egypt's uprising. (AP Photo/Ahmed Gomaa)

CAIRO (AP) ? After decades of dreaming of power, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood finally comes face to face with the question of how to use it, as a new parliament that it dominates opens Monday.

The fundamentalist group has eased off talk of Islamic-style legislation, saying it will focus on fixing Egypt's ailing economy, and it has even backed off introducing further explicit Islamic references in the new constitution it will have a major hand in writing. But it has other tools to push Egypt toward greater religious conservativism.

The Brotherhood's caution in its Islamic rhetoric and parliament agenda reflect its worries of a backlash against it at a time when Egypt's politics are still in major flux. Egyptians are eager to see quick improvements in an economy that has been battered by turmoil and mismanagement since the fall of Hosni Mubarak nearly a year ago.

They also want signs of long-term change in a system where corruption was rife, nearly half the population fell to the edge of poverty or below, young people searched in vain for jobs and for housing and neighborhoods were left to fall into dilapidation as Mubarak's regime built clean new suburbs for the few wealthy.

Moreover, how much authority the Brotherhood will have to bring changes remains unsettled. The military, which took over when Mubarak was ousted, holds ultimate power for at least six more months. The Brotherhood and ruling generals are expected to jostle and cajole each other over dividing power, and the Brotherhood is wary of moves that could cause a clash.

"We can't talk about implementing Islamic Shariah law when the country is experiencing such devastating economic problems," said Mohammed Gouda, a Brotherhood policymaker and member of the party's economic committee.

The Brotherhood feels little need to push through legislation enforcing an Islamic vision, he and other members say, especially since Egyptian society is already deeply religious and conservative. More effective, they say, is influencing the culture. Brotherhood members show a confidence that they can show a "correct" example of Islam that will bring the public into their way of life.

Indeed, Gouda said that the Egyptian public is "already convinced" and doesn't need much persuasion.

He pointed to the dramatic spread of the Muslim headscarf among women in past decades. In the past, few women wore it, but now it is nearly universal among Muslim women in Egypt as society has grown more conservative. He and others shrug off the need for laws on traditionally "Islamic " issues such as banning alcohol and encouraging or even requiring gender segregation and Islamic dress.

Critics in Egypt worry that the Brotherhood is only biding its time to bring a more Islamic agenda, and their greatest fear is of a long-term understanding between the Brotherhood and military to run the country, even after the generals step aside for a civilian president, due to take place by late June.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report Sunday that the West must recognize that Islamists are "the majority preference" in Egypt and other Arab countries and will naturally grow stronger in a democratic system.

But it said pressure must be maintained to ensure respect for human rights.

The Brotherhood has been "saying the right things" but "we have to see how they govern and how they deal with women, religious minorities. These are the big questions," said HRW's executive director Kenneth Roth.

By any measure, it will be an unprecedented moment on Monday with the convening of the first parliament since last year's dramatic wave of protests led to the Feb. 11 fall of Mubarak after nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule. The protests were led by leftist and secular youth, but the free elections that resulted ? Egypt's first in living memory ? were a prize for Islamists, particularly the Brotherhood, which was banned under Mubarak.

In the parliament chamber Monday, 47 percent of the 498 lawmakers will belong to the Brotherhood, including the parliament speaker. Another quarter will be Salafis, a more radical Islamic group who only a year ago shunned democracy as a violation of God's law but who now see government as the way to bring it about.

Parliament's biggest upcoming task is the writing of the new constitution. It is to form a 100-member assembly to draft the document, though the military is pressing for a say as well, and the Brotherhood is under pressure to ensure secular and liberal voices have an equal say with Islamists.

The Brotherhood says it does not intend to enshrine further Islamic structures into the new charter, beyond its current Article 2, which says principles of Islamic law are "the main basis" for legislation in Egypt.

The phrasing is broad enough to mean almost whatever those in power want it to mean. Mubarak's nominally secular regime did little to legislate Shariah beyond family laws, but future decision-makers could cite the clause to insist on expanding Shariah's scope.

Instead, the Brotherhood's priority in the constitution is, again, political more than religious. It wants to restructure Egypt's system where the president had overwhelming power ? the legal grounding for Mubarak's authoritarian rule.

For months, the Brotherhood advocated a strictly parliamentary system. That raised criticism that it seeks to concentrate power in a body that it is likely to dominate for the foreseeable future, so it has shifted to advocating a mixed system sharing powers between president and parliament.

In parliament itself, the focus will be on the economy, said Gouda.

The Brotherhood's economic platform, as much as it is spelled out, is strongly liberal capitalist, reflecting the business and professional backgrounds of many of its members, so much so that it has come under criticism from the left for neglecting "social justice."

Gouda said the group's priority is stability to encourage investment. It wants to tackle corruption by activating a consumer protection law that was introduced under Mubarak but sat idle, and by making regulatory bodies independent so they can do their work without corruption.

"We will set up a system to encourage people to report those who offer bribes, and actually make sure laws that protect consumers be applied," he said.

For spreading its conservative ideology through the culture, the Brotherhood already boasts a nationwide system of charities and social work. If it gains positions in government as well as parliament, it could have further tools, including greater influence over the powerful state television and other media ? which it has always been shut out of. Some Brotherhood figures have spoken of the Education Ministry as a key sector.

The Brotherhood, however, may face a challenge to this gradualist approach from the right.

The Salafis who form the second largest bloc in parliament espouse a far more rigid, literalist and uncompromising stance on Shariah. The two blocs were often rivals in the election campaign over the past months, and pressing for more overtly Islamic laws could help the Salafi parties with their base.

"What we may see is that each side will try to out-Muslim the other," said Mohammed Abbas, a young former Brotherhood member who left the group after being frustrated with the group for not giving youth a stronger voice.

Nathan J. Brown, a professor at George Washington University and who studies Middle Eastern Islamist parties said the Salafis "are one of the biggest issues on their mind ? almost as big as the military."

The Brothers' worry is that they would be pushed into a more radical stance. They remember the experiences of Islamic movements in Algeria and Palestine, where Islamic groups that were too aggressive brought a backlash. They also don't want to lose their focus on showing they can bring good governance.

"They would never say they are de-emphasizing religion, and I think they are being sincere," Brown said. "For them good governance providing for the needs of people, this is Islam."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-22-ML-Egypt-Brotherhood's-Parliament/id-68f96d47c02847e0ad502d780c8f009d

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Women report feeling pain more intensely than men

Monday, January 23, 2012

Women report more-intense pain than men in virtually every disease category, according to Stanford University School of Medicine investigators who mined a huge collection of electronic medical records to establish the broad gender difference to a high level of statistical significance.

Their study, to be published online Jan. 23 in the Journal of Pain, suggests that stronger efforts should be made to recruit women subjects in population and clinical studies in order to find out why this gender difference exists.

The study also shows the value of EMR data mining for research purposes. Using a novel database designed especially for research, the Stanford scientists examined more than 160,000 pain scores reported for more than 72,000 adult patients. From these, they extracted cases where disease-associated pain was first reported, and then stratified these findings by disease and gender.

"None of these data were initially collected for research, but this study shows that we can use it in that capacity," said Atul Butte, MD, PhD, the study's senior author.

The medical literature contains numerous reports indicating that women report more pain than men for one or another particular disease, noted Butte, a professor of systems medicine in pediatrics. "We're certainly not the first to find differences in pain among men and women. But we focused on pain intensity, whereas most previous studies have looked at prevalence: the percentage of men vs. women with a particular clinical problem who are in pain. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first-ever systematic use of data from electronic medical records to examine pain on this large a scale, or across such a broad range of diseases."

The study's first authors were Butte's graduate student Linda Liu and postdoctoral scholar David Ruau, PhD, who splits his time between Butte's group and that of co-author Martin Angst, MD, professor of anesthesia. David Clark, MD, PhD, a professor of anesthesia, was another co-author.

Electronic medical records are deployed in about 1-2 percent of hospitals now, but that should approach 100 percent within the next few years as the United States continues to move toward EMRs, Butte said. Thus, large-scale research using clinically collected data will become increasingly feasible.

In this case, the scientists tapped an existing data archive that has been designed specifically for ease of research: the Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment, or STRIDE. Pioneered by the medical school's chief information officer, Henry Lowe, MD (who is also an associate professor of systems medicine in pediatrics and director of Stanford's Center for Clinical Informatics), STRIDE aggregates clinical data on patients cared for at Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, making this data searchable for approved research projects.

Butte's team selected only adult records and looked for gender-related differences in pain intensity as reported on 1-to-10 scales, in which a zero stands for "no pain" and 10 for "worst imaginable." Their search algorithm combed through de-identified EMR data for more than 72,000 patients, and came up with more than 160,000 instances, ranging across some 250 different disease categories, in which a pain score had been reported.

"If someone's reporting that they're in pain, they're probably going to be given medication, which might reduce any subsequently measured pain score," said Butte. To get pain estimates that weren't as confounded by subsequent pain-relief medications or procedures, his group analyzed only the first pain-intensity score reported by a patient per encounter with a hospital-associated health professional.

The search identified 47 separate diagnostic categories for which there were more than 40 pain reports for each gender. The sample included more than 11,000 individual adult patients, of which 56 percent were women and 51 percent of them white. The researchers were able to further analyze these 47 categories by condensing them into 16 disease clusters: "musculoskeletal and connective tissue" (in which the biggest gender differences in reported pain intensity were observed), "circulatory" and so forth.

"We saw higher pain scores for female patients practically across the board," said Butte. Those reported differences were not only statistically significant, but also clinically significant. "In many cases, the reported difference approached a full point on the 1-to-10 scale. How big is that? A pain-score improvement of one point is what clinical researchers view as indicating that a pain medication is working."

While the overall results tended to confirm previous clinical findings ? for example, that female fibromyalgia or migraine patients report more pain than their male counterparts ? the search also unearthed previously unreported gender differences in pain intensity for particular diseases, for example acute sinusitis and "cervical spine disorders," more commonly known as neck pain.

The study's results come with a few caveats. First, the investigators made the assumption that patients' pain hadn't already been treated?for example, that they hadn't already self-medicated with over-the-counter painkillers ? by the time they showed up in the emergency room, doctor's office or neighborhood health clinic (or, equivalently, that the men and women were equally likely to have done so).

Other possible confounders include the setting in which pain was reported, Butte said. "Will an 18-year-old male report the same pain intensity with or without his mom present, or in the presence of a male vs. a female nurse? We can't be sure." But the sheer size of the study probably washes these concerns out at least to some extent, he said.

The third caveat is perhaps the most controversial. "It's still not clear if women actually feel more pain than men do," said Butte. "But they're certainly reporting more pain than men do. We don't know why. But it's not just a few diseases here and there, it's a bunch of them ? in fact, it may well turn out to be all of them. No matter what the disease, women appear to report more-intense levels of pain than men do."

To get to the bottom of this, Butte's team plans to search EMRs to see if they can find some objective measurement ? an already commonly measured blood-test variable, for instance ? that correlates highly with reported pain. "We want to find a biomarker for pain," he said.

###

Stanford University Medical Center: http://med-www.stanford.edu/MedCenter/MedSchool

Thanks to Stanford University Medical Center for this article.

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Obama's health overhaul lags in many states

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Here's a reality check for President Barack Obama's health overhaul: Three out of four uninsured Americans live in states that have yet to figure out how to deliver on its promise of affordable medical care.

This is the year that will make or break the health care law. States were supposed to be partners in carrying out the biggest safety net expansion since Medicare and Medicaid, and the White House claims they're making steady progress.

But an analysis by The Associated Press shows that states are moving in fits and starts. Combined with new insurance coverage estimates from the nonpartisan Urban Institute, it reveals a patchwork nation.

Such uneven progress could have real consequences.

If it continues, it will mean disparities and delays from state to state in carrying out an immense expansion of health insurance scheduled in the law for 2014. That could happen even if the Supreme Court upholds Obama's law, called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

"There will be something there, but if it doesn't mesh with the state's culture and if the state is not really supporting it, that certainly won't help it succeed," said Urban Institute senior researcher Matthew Buettgens.

The 13 states that have adopted a plan are home to only 1 in 4 of the uninsured. An additional 17 states are making headway, but it's not clear all will succeed. The 20 states lagging behind account for the biggest share of the uninsured, 42 percent.

Among the lagging states are four with arguably the most to gain. Texas, Florida, Georgia and Ohio together would add more than 7 million people to the insurance rolls, according to Urban Institute estimates, reducing the annual burden of charity care by $10.7 billion.

"It's not that we want something for free, but we want something we can afford," said Vicki McCuistion of Driftwood, Texas, who works two part-time jobs and is uninsured. With the nation's highest uninsured rate, her state has made little progress.

The Obama administration says McCuistion and others in the same predicament have nothing to fear. "The fact of states moving at different rates does not create disparities for a particular state's uninsured population," said Steve Larsen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

That's because the law says that if a state isn't ready, the federal government will step in. Larsen insists the government will be ready, but it's not as easy as handing out insurance cards.

Someone has to set up health insurance exchanges, new one-stop supermarkets with online and landline capabilities for those who buy coverage individually.

A secure infrastructure must be created to verify income, legal residency and other personal information, and smooth enrollment in private insurance plans or Medicaid. Many middle-class households will be eligible for tax credits to help pay premiums for private coverage. Separate exchanges must be created for small businesses.

"It's a very heavy lift," said California's health secretary, Diana Dooley, whose state was one of the first to approve a plan. "Coverage is certainly important, but it's not the only part. It is very complex."

California has nearly 7.5 million residents without coverage, more than half of the 12.7 million uninsured in the states with a plan. An estimated 2.9 million Californians would gain coverage, according to the Urban Institute's research, funded by the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Democrats who wrote the overhaul law had hoped that most states would be willing partners, putting aside partisan differences to build the exchanges and help cover more than 30 million uninsured nationally. It's not turning out that way.

Some states, mainly those led by Democrats, are far along. Others, usually led by Republicans, have done little. Separately, about half the states are suing to overturn the law.

Time is running out for states, which must have their plans ready for a federal approval deadline of Jan. 1, 2013. Those not ready risk triggering the default requirement that Washington run their exchange.

Yet in states where Republican repudiation of the health care law has blocked exchanges, there's little incentive to advance before the Supreme Court rules. A decision is expected this summer, and many state legislatures aren't scheduled to meet past late spring.

The result if the law is upheld could be greater federal sway over health care in the states, the very outcome conservatives say they want to prevent.

"If you give states the opportunity to decide their own destiny, and some choose to ignore it for partisan reasons, they almost make the case against themselves for more federal intervention," said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

A conservative, Nelson was on the winning side of a heated argument among Democrats over who should run exchanges, the feds or the states. Liberals lost their demand for a federal exchange, insulated from state politics.

"It's pretty hard to take care of the states when they don't take care of themselves," said Nelson, who regrets that the concession he fought for has been dismissed by so many states.

The AP's analysis divided states into four broad groups: those that have adopted a plan for exchanges, those that made substantial progress, those where the outlook is unclear, and those with no significant progress. AP statehouse reporters were consulted in cases of conflicting information.

Thirteen states, plus the District of Columbia, have adopted a plan.

By contrast, in 20 states either the outlook is unclear or there has been no significant progress. Those states include more than 21 million of the 50 million uninsured Americans.

Four have made no significant progress. They are Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and New Hampshire. The last three returned planning money to the federal government. In Arkansas, Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe ran into immovable GOP opposition in the Legislature. Beebe acknowledges that the federal government will have to run the exchange, but is exploring a fallback option.

In the other 16 states, the outlook is unclear because of failure to advance legislation or paralyzing political disputes that often pit Republicans fervently trying to stop what they deride as "Obamacare" against fellow Republicans who are more pragmatic.

In Kansas, for example, Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger is pushing hard for a state exchange, but Gov. Sam Brownback returned a $31 million federal grant, saying the state would not act before the Supreme Court rules. Both officials are Republicans.

"It's just presidential politics," said Praeger, discussing the situation nationally. "It's less about whether exchanges make sense and more about trying to repeal the whole law." As a result, outlook is unclear for a state with 361,000 uninsured residents.

There is a bright spot for Obama and backers of the law.

An additional 17 states have made substantial progress, although that's no guarantee of success. Last week in Wisconsin, GOP Gov. Scott Walker abruptly halted planning and announced he will return $38 million in federal money.

The AP defined states making substantial progress as ones where governors or legislatures have made a significant commitment to set up exchanges. Another important factor was state acceptance of a federal exchange establishment grant.

That group accounts for just under one-third of the uninsured, about 16 million people.

It includes populous states such as New York, Illinois, North Carolina and New Jersey, which combined would add more than 3 million people to the insurance rolls.

Several are led by Republican governors, including Virginia and Indiana, which have declared their intent to establish insurance exchanges under certain conditions. Other states that have advanced under Republican governors include Arizona and New Mexico.

For uninsured people living in states that have done little, the situation is demoralizing.

Gov. Rick Perry's opposition to the law scuttled plans to advance an exchange bill in the Texas Legislature last year, when Perry was contemplating his presidential run. The Legislature doesn't meet this year, so the situation is unclear.

McCuistion and her husband, Dan, are among the nearly 6.7 million Texans who lack coverage. Dan is self-employed as the owner of a specialty tree service. Vicki works part time for two nonprofit organizations. The McCuistions have been uninsured throughout their 17-year marriage, although their three daughters now have coverage through the Children's Health Insurance Program. Dan McCuistion has been nursing a bad back for years, and it only seems to get worse.

"For me it almost feels like a ticking time bomb," his wife said.

Dan McCuistion says he doesn't believe Americans have a constitutional right to health care, but he would take advantage of affordable coverage if it was offered to him. He's exasperated with Perry and other Texas politicians. "They give a lot of rhetoric toward families, but their actions don't meet up with what they are saying," he said.

Perry's office says it's principle, not lack of compassion.

"Gov. Perry believes 'Obamacare' is unconstitutional, misguided and unsustainable, and Texas, along with other states, is taking legal action to end this massive government overreach," said spokeswoman Lucy Nashed. "There are no plans to implement an exchange."

___

Online:

AP interactive: http://hosted.ap.org/interactives/2011/healthcare

Urban Institute estimates: http://tinyurl.com/86py8nd

Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight: http://cciio.cms.gov

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-23-Health%20Overhaul-States/id-d2b90cc98829477d869329f722fa68d3

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Italian Nanni Moretti to head Cannes jury (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) ? Acclaimed Italian actor and director Nanni Moretti will head the jury at the 2012 Cannes film festival in May, organizers said on Friday.

The 58-year-old has had a long association with the world's most important cinema showcase, appearing in competition in 1978 with "Ecce Bombo."

He was back in 1994 with "Caro Diario" (Dear Diary), for which he won the best director award, and in 2001 with "La Stanza del figlio" (The Son's Room), which won the coveted Palme d'Or for best picture.

Five years later came "Il Caimano" (The Caiman), a film that criticized aspects of Italian political life in the era of Silvio Berlusconi.

"This is a real joy, an honor and a tremendous responsibility to preside over the jury of the most prestigious festival of cinematography in the world," said Moretti, who served on the Cannes jury in 1997.

"As a spectator, fortunately I still have the same curiosity that I had in my youth and so it is a great privilege for me to embark on this voyage into the world of contemporary international film," he added in a statement.

The 2012 festival runs from May 16-27.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120120/en_nm/us_cannes_moretti

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