Jul 2009
Tom Harkin's wants to waste money on healthcare
Tom Harkin, Democratic Senator from Iowa, and one of the leading supporters of quack medicine is at it again. As the US Senator who forced the junk science NCCAM onto the National Institutes of Health and has drained precious scientific research dollars, he is now putting his pseudoscientific ideas into health care reform. As a member of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), he is trying to be sneaky, because he has the power to do so. He has been instrumental in attaching some amendments to the Affordable Health Choices Act (the formal name for the bill in Congress to reform healthcare policy), including:
I have no issue with the first two, especially since the cost of medical education is so large that some deferment is appropriate. I might add that other health care students (pharmacy, nursing, and other technical specialties in medicine) should receive a similar consideration. Read More...
- A provision to allow medical students to defer loan repayment until they finish their residencies
- Limits on the types of expenses medical students cover with loan funds
- An provision to promote and fund research on pain management
- Inclusion of alternative medicine workers in the bill's definition of "healthcare workforce"
I have no issue with the first two, especially since the cost of medical education is so large that some deferment is appropriate. I might add that other health care students (pharmacy, nursing, and other technical specialties in medicine) should receive a similar consideration. Read More...