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Three GOP Senators Say They Will Vote Against Sotomayor Confirmation
Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) -- along with committee members John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) -- recently said that they will oppose Sonia Sotomayor"s confirmation to the Supreme Court, USA Today reports. The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Sotomayor"s nomination on Tuesday.In an opinion piece published Monday in USA Today, Sessions wrote that he questions Sotomayor"s "fidelity to the law," adding, "I don"t believe that Judge Sotomayor has the deep-rooted convictions necessary to resist the siren call of judicial activism. She has evoked its mantra too often." In reference to what Sessions said were discrepancies between her statements before the panel and her judicial record, he wrote, "Which Sotomayor will we get?" (Page, USA Today, 7/27).On Friday in floor remarks, Cornyn said, "While her record was generally in the mainstream, several of her decisions demonstrated the kind of liberal judicial activism that has steered the court in the wrong direction over the last few years." He added that "many of her public statements reflected a surprisingly radical view of the law." Cornyn also said that "those speeches contain very radical ideas on what the role of a judge is," noting that Sotomayor expressed a belief that there "is no objectivity in law; courts should change the law to make new policy; and ethnicity and gender can and even should impact a judge"s decision-making" (Bolton, The Hill, 7/24).Hatch, in a statement released Friday, said, "I reluctantly, and with a heavy heart, have found that I cannot support her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court," adding, "Although Judge Sotomayor has a compelling life story and dedication to public service, her statements and record were too much at odds with the principles about the judiciary in which I deeply believe" (Stanton, Roll Call, 7/24).
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Data Demonstrates Long-Term Reduction In Seizure Frequency With Novel Once Daily Anti-Epileptic Zebinix(R)
Data presented yesterday, in Budapest, demonstrated that add-on treatment with the novel, once-daily anti-epileptic Zebinix®* (eslicarbazepine acetate; ESL) resulted in a marked and sustained decrease in seizure frequency over the long-term. Results from the one-year extension of a pivotal Eslicarbazepine Acetate phase III study were presented at the International Congress for Epilepsy in Budapest, Hungary. Patients not controlled with existing anti-epileptic drugs who were given eslicarbazepine acetate as an add-on treatment experienced a mean reduction in seizure frequency of more than 61% (95%CI: -68.2%, -55.5%). Nearly 65% of patients were classified as responders, meaning that they had achieved at least a 50% reduction in seizure frequency with Zebinix® treatment1.
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Tesco Reveals Dental Map Of Britain
Research from a survey by Tesco Dental Insurance has revealed Brits are finding it increasingly difficulty to find an NHS dentist. The results also show that rising dental costs are putting people off visiting the dentist.
Mental Health

As Obama Wades Into Health Debate, Tough Choices Await

"As the legislative debate over health care intensifies on Capitol Hill, there is growing clamor for President Obama to step in," the Washington Post reports. The administration has so far left the crafting of legislation in the hands of Congress, but a series of tough choices await the President, who at some point must define "what he"ll accept and what he won"t" in a final bill. His job is made more difficult by recent cost estimates. "A preliminary estimate of the Senate Finance Committee"s draft bill put the price tag of universal coverage at $1.6 trillion over 10 years. That was considerably more than anyone anticipated and forced the committee to delay work on the bill. The cost of the incomplete plan drafted by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was pegged at about $1 trillion over 10 years, but the CBO said that would still leave 30 million (rather than the current 46 million) people without coverage." Among the toughest of those decisions: - Whether to tax employer-sponsored health benefits. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, championed the idea during last year"s campaign and organized labor "an Obama constituency" strongly opposes it, creating political risk. However, the Senate Finance Committee has identified it as a key, untapped of revenue. - Whether to create individual mandates for people to buy insurance. Obama also opposed this idea as a candidate, but proponents say it may be necessary to achieve universal coverage, and by extension, get insurers, who would pick up millions of new customers, on board for broader reforms. - Whether to create a public insurance plan. Republicans appear "unalterably opposed" to the plan, so achieving a bipartisan bill could require a playing down the idea. However, administration sees the plan "as critical to holding onto liberal support" and as "an essential weapon in holding down" costs in the private sector (Balz, 6/21). Though the administration hasn"t yet left its mark on the bill by demanding Congress move on any of these controversial ideas, House Democrats said their bill, released Friday, "was written based on the vision President Obama set forth during his 2008 campaign and in recent months," CQ Politics reports. The bill includes several contentious ideas, such as the public plan, and "Republicans have complained that they had no involvement in drafting the bill, despite Obama"s calls for bipartisanship" (Armstrong, 6/19). Despite GOP objections, a recent New York Times/CBS News Poll shows strong public support for "government administered insurance plan," with 72 percent in favor, and majorities saying the government would do better at both providing health coverage and holding down costs than the private sector, the New York Times reports (Sack, 6/20). In addition, Reuters/The Washington Post reports: "[O]pposition is building even as a group of senators tries this week to negotiate a proposal they hope will quiet critics and win bipartisan support." Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., a reform ringleader, "is working with only few Republicans and there are no guarantees he will succeed" as support for the sweeping reform and liberal measures like the public plan meet with deep anxieties about growing deficits and massive federal sending (Smith, 6/21). Associated Press/Boston Globe: "Congressional Democrats are off to a halting start, blindsided by a high cost estimate and divided over how to proceed. The confusion has emboldened Republican critics of the administration"s approach to its top domestic priority. While too early to rule out eventual success, it seems Obama will have to be more forceful and hands-on" (Babington, 6/21). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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