House appropriations bill to terminate AHRQ and prohibit funding patient-centered research

Update 7/18/12, 3:30 PM eastern:

The Hill has reported here that the bill has cleared the subcommittee. It will be going to the full committee next week.

The $150 billion bill cuts $6.3 billion from current levels of spending in the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Departments and is part of Republican efforts to rein in government spending – an important message for the GOP on the campaign trail. [...] But other areas are slashed. The bill ends President Obama’s signature Race to the Top education initiative and cuts millions from advanced appropriations for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS. The agency that monitors child labor abroad is cut by 68 percent and the agency that distributes Social Security payments gets cut by $764 million. It also would cut funding for Planned Parenthood if the organization continued to provide abortions. (Hat tip to Michael Millenson for the above link)

Yes, folks, you read that right: The House of Representatives has drafted an appropriations bill that will dissolve the AHRQ and prohibit any funding for patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). The AHRQ is an agency that spearheads and funds healthcare safety and quality research, as well as ways to rein in the costs while expanding access. If it is eliminated, there will be no one to focus on these critical issues. This bill is truly anti-patient and the reps must be informed that they have gone too far.

Here are the names of the Appropriations Committee members, with the subcommittee members responsible for this bill in bold (via STFM):

Democratic Members

• Norman D. Dicks, Washington
• Marcy Kaptur, Ohio
• Peter J. Visclosky, Indiana
• Nita M. Lowey, New York
• José E. Serrano, New York
• Rosa L. DeLauro, Connecticut
• James P. Moran, Virginia
• John W. Olver, Massachusetts
• Ed Pastor, Arizona
• David E. Price, North Carolina
• Maurice D. Hinchey, New York
• Lucille Roybal-Allard, California
• Sam Farr, California
• Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Illinois
• Chaka Fattah, Pennsylvania
• Steven R. Rothman, New Jersey
• Sanford D. Bishop, Jr., Georgia
• Barbara Lee, California
• Adam B. Schiff, California
• Michael M. Honda, California
• Betty McCollum, Minnesota

• Republican Members

• Harold Rogers, Kentucky, Chairman
• C.W. Bill Young, Florida
• Jerry Lewis, California
• Frank R. Wolf, Virginia
• Jack Kingston, Georgia
• Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, New Jersey
• Tom Latham, Iowa
• Robert B. Aderholt, Alabama
• Jo Ann Emerson, Missouri
• Kay Granger, Texas
• Michael K. Simpson, Idaho
• John Abney Culberson, Texas
• Ander Crenshaw, Florida
• Denny Rehberg, Montana
• John R. Carter, Texas
• Rodney Alexander, Louisiana
• Ken Calvert, California
• Jo Bonner, Alabama
• Steven C. LaTourette, Ohio
• Tom Cole, Oklahoma
• Jeff Flake, Arizona
• Mario Diaz-Balart, Florida
• Charles W. Dent, Pennsylvania
• Steve Austria, Ohio
• Cynthia M. Lummis, Wyoming
• Tom Graves, Georgia
• Kevin Yoder, Kansas
• Steve Womack, Arkansas
• Alan Nunnelee, Mississippi

 Call yours at 202-225-3121!

Here are some pertinent links, courtesy of Kenny Lin, MD, and others:
-The House press release (note they brag about defunding ObamaCare and "protecting" life in the same breath)
-The draft of the bill (see page 90)
-AcademyHealth announcement (where I learned about the PCOR prohibition)
-Statement from Mary Wooley, the President of Research!America about why this is a stupid move
-The Incidental Economist blog is compiling a list of useful projects funded by the AHRQ here

So please please please call your reps to stop this insanity!


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The drag queens of the conservative right

(I apologize in advance to my drag queen friends for putting them in the same sentence as the conservative extremists -- I merely do this to make a point) 

Who among us can forget the 1980s? I would guess that most of my readers were conscious adults during that glorious decade. Having come to this country as a young teen in the late '70s, I enjoyed the '80s as my time of initiation into the American culture. It was then that I became aware of such iconic symbols as the Brady Bunch, The Doors, and... drag queens. Yes, drag queens. As the struggle for gay equality permeated our collective consciousness, I began to notice a plethora of drag queens in the press's coverage of gay pride events. And a lot of very tough women in leather jackets on motorcycles. Just like most people in that era, I was not aware of any gay people in my immediate circle, so I had to assume that these flamboyant and memorable images were representative of the gay community at large. 

Well, my views grew up. As I learned more, I realized that the lovely drag queens and the charming biker lesbians were but the tip of the gay iceberg, images that in those days had sure shock value and sold news. The vast majority of the gay community, as it turned out, was virtually indistinguishable from heterosexuals. And for this reason, they were not newsworthy. 

I find the attention-grabbing efforts of the conservative extremists at hijacking our national healthcare discussion akin to the coverage of gay pride during the '80s: just the drag queens (though not nearly as charming and genuine) and no average gay people. Does Sarah Palin really represent the entire Republican party? Don't tell me that the hatred spewed hourly by the likes of Rush, Glenn and Bill does not make an average Republican cringe! Where are the voices of reason?

Another group that amazed and surprised my immigrant sensibilities in the 1980s was The Moral Majority. I remember finally someone coming out with the slogan "Moral Majority is neither". Today we have the extreme right purporting to represent the Republican majority and fiscal conservatism. In fact, they do neither. This emperor has no clothes.