Eeyore's news and view

Social Security Benefits Not Expected to Rise in ’10
WASHINGTON — For the first time in more than three decades, Social Security recipients will not get any increase in their benefits next year, federal forecasts show.
The absence of a cost-of-living adjustment, calculated under a formula set by law, will be a shock to older Americans already hit by plummeting home values, investment losses and rising health costs. More than 50 million people receive Social Security.
“Most seniors have never been through a year in which there was no Social Security COLA,” said David M. Certner, legislative counsel at AARP, the lobby for older Americans. Beneficiaries have received automatic cost-of-living adjustments every year since 1975. The increase this year was 5.8 percent.
In theory, low inflation is good for people on fixed incomes. But it is creating political and policy problems for Congress, which is just learning of the implications for Social Security and Medicare. The forecasts, by the Obama administration and the Congressional Budget Office, indicate that Social Security beneficiaries will not receive any cost-of-living increase in 2010 or in 2011. The COLA is intended to preserve the purchasing power of Social Security, by increasing benefits to keep pace with consumer prices. In the last year, overall inflation has been low, largely because of the economic downturn and a decline in energy prices.
A freeze in Social Security benefits would have major implications for Medicare because the COLA, in effect, puts a cap on premiums for Part B of Medicare, which covers doctors’ services.
If there is no cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security, about three-fourths of beneficiaries will not see any change in their basic Part B premiums, federal officials said. But some beneficiaries do not have this protection and could face substantial increases in their Part B premiums.
In addition, millions of beneficiaries could see higher premiums for drug coverage, provided under Part D of Medicare.
Social Security and Medicare trustees will describe the outlook for benefits and premiums in their annual reports this month.
Officials have already said the condition of Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund is deteriorating because of the recession, which has reduced payroll tax revenues, the main source of money for the fund. Spending on Social Security and Medicare totaled more than $1 trillion last year, accounting for more than one-third of the federal budget.
Most people on Medicare have Part B premiums deducted from their monthly Social Security checks. These premiums have historically increased much faster than Social Security benefits.
Under federal law, most Medicare beneficiaries have some protection. Their basic Part B premiums cannot rise more than the dollar amount of the cost-of-living increase in their Social Security checks. So if there is no COLA, their basic Part B premiums will not increase.
But one-fourth of Medicare beneficiaries are not protected by the law, and their premiums could increase.
Most Medicare beneficiaries pay a monthly Part B premium of $96.40. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the basic premium will rise to $119 next year and $123 in 2011 for those who are not protected under federal law.
Douglas W. Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, predicted that inflation would remain low for several years, so Social Security might not pay a cost-of-living increase until January 2013. President Obama’s budget assumes no increase in 2010 or 2011, then a 1.4 percent COLA in 2012.
Mr. Certner, from AARP, described the outlook for consumers: “If, as expected, there is no COLA in Social Security next year but premiums for drug coverage increase, as expected, millions of beneficiaries will see their Social Security checks reduced for the first time.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/us/politics/03benefits.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=social%20security&st=cse

HIV patients at higher risk from flu, WHO says
02 May 2009 11:53:21 GMT Source: Reuters
* HIV patients at high risk from flu, need antivirals most
* WHO fears complications if HIV and H1N1 viruses combine
(Adds background on HIV, seasonal influenza, antivirals)
By Laura MacInnis
GENEVA, May 2 (Reuters) - People with HIV are at high risk from the new flu strain that the World Health Organisation said is on the verge of a pandemic, the WHO said on Saturday.
The United Nations agency said people with immunodeficiency diseases -- including the AIDS virus -- will most likely be vulnerable to health complications from the H1N1 strain, as they are from regular seasonal flu, which kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people a year.
HIV and the new flu strain could also mix together in a dangerous way, as has occurred with HIV and tuberculosis, the WHO said in guidance for health workers on its website.
"Although there are inadequate data to predict the impact of a possible human influenza pandemic on HIV-affected populations, interactions between HIV/AIDS and A(H1N1) influenza could be significant," it said.
"HIV-infected persons should be considered as a high risk and a priority population for preventive and therapeutic strategies against influenza including emerging influenza A(H1N1) virus infection," it said.
The virus widely known as "swine flu" has been most severe in Mexico, where government authorities say it has killed more than 100 people, and caused more mild symptoms as it spread around the world to countries including the United States, Austria, Israel, New Zealand and South Korea. [L2430119]
Although the outbreak remains tiny in scale compared to other epidemics such as malaria, hepatitis, and meningitis, the WHO has raised its pandemic alert level to 5 out of 6 due to its rapid spread as well as the possibility that the flu could cause more devastation in poor and disease-prone communities.
Countries with high rates of HIV -- most of which are in Africa -- should work to ensure that vulnerable people get the drugs they need to fight off the flu infection, the WHO said.
Antiviral medicines such as Tamiflu and Relenza decrease the duration of virus excretion and the severity of illness when used for treatment of ill patients, and may also prevent illness when used for prophylaxis.
"Patients at higher risk for complications of influenza including those with HIV infection should be among those prioritised for antiviral treatment with oseltamivir or zanamivir which shortens illness duration and severity in seasonal influenza," the WHO guidance read.
It is best if people infected with the flu strain start to take the antivirals within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms, according to the WHO. There are no known problems with taking those drugs alongside the anti-retrovirals that HIV patients take to suppress their virus.
According to WHO estimates, there are 33 million people infected with immune-weakening HIV worldwide.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2516414.htm

YouTube helped father deliver baby
Marc Stephens said he had to act quickly when his wife Jo went into labour three weeks early as she had a history of fast births with her previous three children.
The 28-year-old Royal Navy air engineer, from Redruth, Cornwall, searched "how to deliver a baby" on the internet and after viewing a few clips said he was ready to help deliver healthy baby Gabriel.
Mr Stephens said: "I didn't even have time to panic. She started complaining of pain around 10.30pm. I went on Google and watched a couple of clips on YouTube.
"At 2.30am she woke me up, but when I rang the midwife to come out she said they were busy at the hospital.
"The next thing I know she is coming through the bedroom doorway on all-fours. I looked down and the baby's head was showing."
After delivering baby Gabriel safely all the family, including daughters Jasmine, two, Sophie, five and Zoe, six, waited for an ambulance to take them to the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Truro.
They were all home again by 6.30am.
Mrs Stephens, 28, said she and baby Gabriel are doing well and being looked after at home.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23684595-details/YouTube+helped+father+deliver+baby/article.do

Quote comes to mind. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Obama revelling in U.S. power unseen in decades
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama is revelling in presidential power and influence unseen in Washington for decades.
Barely 100 days in office, the U.S. president and his Democratic Party have firm control over the White House and Congress and the ability to push through ambitious plans.
Now, with the coming retirement of a Supreme Court justice clearing the way for him to appoint a successor, Obama already is assured a legacy at the top of all three branches of government -- executive, legislative and judicial.
On the corporate front, the federal government's pumping of billions of dollars in bailout money into banks and auto companies has given Obama the power to force an overhaul in those industries, a remarkable intervention in capitalist industries by the state.
Americans are giving him leeway as well. His job approval ratings are well over 60 percent, giving him political capital to undertake big challenges.
His political opponents, the Republicans, are in disarray, reduced in numbers and engaged in an internal struggle over how to recover from devastating election losses in 2006 and last year.
Experts speak of Obama in the same league as such transformational presidents as Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, who led the United States through the Great Depression and World War Two, and Republican Ronald Reagan, who led the country to victory in the Cold War.
"I cannot in my memory remember a time when a president of the United States has had more influence," said Democratic strategist Doug Schoen, who worked in the Clinton White House.
"Not only is it his moment, it is a level of influence and power for a president that is literally unprecedented from any time since the New Deal and Franklin Roosevelt. If he handles it right, it could be his century."
STROKE OF LUCK
Obama is seeing evidence that with power comes the occasional stroke of luck.
A gift came in the party switch this week by Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter from the Republicans to the Democrats.
It could give the Democrats unfettered authority. If and when Minnesota Democrat Al Franken overcomes a recount battle and takes his Senate seat, Democrats will have a 60-vote supermajority in the 100-member Senate.
The announced retirement of Supreme Court Justice David Souter has given Obama the opportunity to put his imprint on the highest U.S. court and replace one of the court's liberals with another liberal voice.
Although he will not be able to change the court's balance of power from a conservative majority any time soon, he will be able to select a justice likely to remain on the bench long after Obama has left the White House.
How long will his luck last?
With the U.S. economy reeling and millions of Americans without jobs, Obama has his work cut out for him. He has a long list of challenges, and spoke of them at a news conference this week.
"If you could tell me right now that, when I walked into this office that the banks were humming, that autos were selling, and that all you had to worry about was Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, getting healthcare passed, figuring out how to deal with energy independence, deal with Iran, and a pandemic flu, I would take that deal," Obama said.
Pollster John Zogby said that after his first 100 days, Obama now embarks on another weighty period in which Americans will want to see evidence that his $787 billion economic stimulus approved in February is working.
"I think by late June, they are going to have to start seeing some of these economic indicators stabilizing or at least some orange cones and hard hats out on the roads -- something that indicates either a stemming of the tide or some kind of progress," Zogby said.
Those who keenly watch the poll numbers also point out that while Obama is personally popular, some of the items on his agenda are less so.
"I think he will always stay personally popular," said Republican strategist Charlie Black, who was a senior adviser on Republican John McCain's presidential campaign last year. "But when you test the individual policies, a majority will tell you we're spending too much money."
"On the policy proposals the jury is out as to how popular they will be," he said.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/motoringAutoNews/idUKTRE5406CF20090501