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...experts say the huge disparity comes because most diarrhea victims are poor children--invisible to politicians--and because diarrhea itself makes people squeamish. As Time pointed out in an international cover story three years ago, celebrities don't hold concerts for diarrhea. "Compared with malaria and AIDS, we are totally underfunded," says Fontaine. "This is truly a neglected disease...
...based on a single currency (the U.S. dollar) that has no link to gold. This arrangement was shaky in its early days, in the 1970s, but seemed to work passably well for the next two decades. Lately, though, the dollar standard has been blamed for everything from China's huge buildup of dollars to the financial crisis of 2007 and '08 and a future of rampant inflation that hasn't materialized yet but that many doomsayers are convinced is on the way. And while there's been talk of the dollar being supplanted as the world's reserve currency...
...Comparative Effectiveness After a huge behind-the-scenes fight last winter, Congress allocated $1.1 billion of the economic-stimulus measure to "comparative effectiveness" studies, which evaluate which medical treatments and tests work best. Both the House and Senate bills would set up institutes to compare the efficacy of various procedures. Proponents say the studies are essential to ending medical treatments that juice up fees without adding much benefit. But it is far from clear whether Congress would allow such studies to affect health care costs. Opponents say they are a precursor to medical rationing. Indeed, both the House and Senate...
...Medicare Commission When Obama began his push for reform, he asked Congress to create an independent commission to regulate Medicare costs. Medicare, which spends more than $450 billion a year, is such a huge health care player that any changes it makes can lead the way for reforms in the private market. As originally envisioned, the new agency would essentially take over Congress's current authority to set Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and other health care providers. It would use a process like the military-base-closing commission, whose recommendations automatically go into effect unless Congress...
...period," says Maria Freese, the organization's director of government relations. "This is not supposed to be a bill that shrinks Medicare." Administration officials are working to get the teeth restored to the commission idea - "We've got to have it," says an official - but that will be a huge challenge. The White House will need to find 60 Senate votes to reinsert the provision and faces another big battle when the bill reaches a conference committee with the House...