Dr. Hebrang, Everything is Forgiven

I read another day an article (I lost the link) about more and more US veterans not having health insurance. The article also complained that those who are covered through VA enjoy less than stellar level of care. An VA official retorted along these lines:

Veterans insured through VA enjoy approximately same level of service as general population on a HMO plan: for example, they rarely wait for a primary care physician appointment for more that 30 days.

I felt that systematic destruction of Croatian health care system done during last decade by our homegrown right-wing morons put as at something like 189. place among world nations. However, there seems to be long way to go to catch the most powerful country in the world. Dr. Hebrang, everything is forgiven, you weren't so effective.

Who Gets Hit on the Head

'Forbes' has an article on steroids being more harmful than useful in treating head injuries. While mildly interesting as kind of medical trivia I like to read about, what makes the article appearing in the blog is this:

In general, Roberts said, "there is little clinical research in brain injuries. Most treatments for brain injuries are unproven. They may be useless or harmful as well."
Roberts contended there is a lack of interest in head injury research because "the people who suffer these injuries tend to be poor." Many of the injuries are caused by person-to-person violence, he said, and "there is a strong relationship between pedestrian injuries and poverty. Poor people are the ones who walk around, and they are the ones most likely to by hit by an automobile."

In other words, better to spend research money on something important, like liposuction.

Family Values

I recently found this article on Bush administration health information policy that is (policy, not article) either formulated by utter morons or intended to facilitate spread of AIDS and other STDs, teenage pregnancies and abortions. While this is something to be expected by Dubya and his handlers, the source of the article is surprising: CONSCIENCE, A Newsjournal of Catholic Opinion. I would certainly be glad to find similar open-minded publication by Croatian Catholics, but I am not holding my breath....