WASHINGTON, D.C. — Town hall meetings on health care reform being held in home districts by members of Congress during their summer recess seem to be mellowing from a week ago, according to the New York Times.
In a Letter from Washington feature, the Times said anti-health-care reform demonstrators astroturfed Congress people’s town hall meetings during the first week of the recess, putting Democrats and health care reform proponents on the defensive and causing them to cancel some meetings. But attendees of the meetings were more respectful and balanced during the second week — last week.
Though Democrats and proponents of a health care overhaul were still underdogs in the meetings being held across the country, a counteroffensive was gaining ground, according to the Times. On the economy, and to a lesser extent, on health care reform, Democrats were giving as well as getting, the Times said.
Rep. Joe Donnelly, a second-term Democrat who represents an industrial slice of Indiana, said the passion in his district is palpable, the Times said. Last weekend, 300 constituents showed up at a supermarket to talk about health care. Last week on Aug. 12, he expected 70 people to show up at a meeting in Kokomo; 500 showed up, and the event had to moved to the street, the Times said.
Though the gatherings continued to be intense, they were more “respectful” and there was “more of a balance” on health care last week, Donnelly said, according to the Times. There likely were two reasons for the more balanced meetings, which also was observed by other lawmakers:Â
 The Obama administration caught a break on the economy. The July unemployment numbers were better than anticipated. And several national economists said they felt the economy was on the mend, the Times said. The other reason: the oft-criticized federal stimulus package appears to be getting some results. Mayors and local officials nationwide are saying the package is saving jobs.
The fate of health care is inextricably linked to the economy, the Times said. So the economy has become a test of the administration’s competence: If it can’t get the federal stimulus right, how can it successfully tackle health care reform — a much more complex problem?
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
More stories worth a read:
- Health care debate fails to ignite Obama’s grass roots (New York Times)
- Drug firms cost lobbyist his position (New York Times)
- In Arkansas, a Democrat navigates the health fight (New York Time)
- Health care bill: Senate panel to drop end-of-life provision from its version of legislation (Chicago Tribune)
- Small businesses queasy from health care proposal (Austin Business Journal)
- Eli Lilly details payments to docs(Pittsburgy Business Times)
- A bitter pill: Massachusetts’ stringent health care gift ban is putting a major crimp in doctors’ ability to network (Boston Business Journal)
- FDA approves Extavia — the first in a new portfolio of planned multiple sclerosis therapies from Novartis(PRNewswire)
- Nation’s schools gear up for swine flu shots (Associated Press/Detroit News)
- Hospitals, doctors embrace Web ‘visits’ (Detroit News)
- Innocentive raises $7 million — one more time — to keep building problem-solving network (Xconomy | Boston)
- On mission to sue medical-technology makers (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune)
- Specter and Grassley tweet tough on ‘death panels’ (NPR)
- Poor medication adherence costs $290 billion a year (mobihealthnews)
- Former pharmacist Eric Cropp gets six months in jail in Emily Jerry’s death from wrong chemotherapy solution (Cleveland Plain Dealer video)
- Health care debate: Sorting the facts from fiction (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- Drugmaker can’t find patients to test, but no worries (Wall Street Journal Venture Capital Dispatch blog)
