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HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today welcomed Deputy Secretary Bill Corr and Indian Health Service Director Dr. Yvette Roubideaux to the Department of Health and Human Services. Corr and Roubideaux were confirmed unanimously by the Senate on Wednesday evening.
"Bill Corr's policy expertise and management experience will be invaluable as we work together to manage the Department and pass and implement comprehensive health reform," Secretary Sebelius said. "Bill knows our department inside and out, and I look forward to partnering with him in the years ahead."
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In a year 2008 report released Tuesday, the American Lung Association gives the federal government a failing grade on tobacco regulation.
In addition, the report faults the federal government for failing to require Medicaid coverage of smoking cessation treatments; and failing to raise the federal cigarette tax. The American Lung Association also wants the Senate to ratify an international tobacco control treaty.
All of it is likely to happen on Barack Obama's watch. For starters, Obama on Monday named Willliam Corr to serve as deputy secretary at the Health and Human Services Department. . . .
In announcing Corr's appointment, Obama said overhauling the nation's health care system would be a top priority and a key to putting the economy back on track.
"Under the leadership of Tom Daschle and Bill Corr, I am confident that my Department of Health and Human Services will bring people together to reach consensus on how to move forward with health care reform," Obama was quoted as saying in a prepared statement. . . .
"Our new leaders in Washington have an unprecedented opportunity to change the direction of public health by taking steps that ultimately will save millions of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars for the American economy," said Charles D. Connor, president and CEO of the American Lung Association.
"During these economically challenged times, it simply cannot be ignored that investing in tobacco prevention and cessation programs is one of the most cost effective ways to improve our nation's health while trimming the bottom line," Connor said in a news release on Tuesday.
Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sent the following letter to Secretary Michael Leavitt raising concerns over the conduct of political appointees in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Senator Kennedy said, "Dr. Carmona's strong testimony yesterday is yet another disturbing account of how the Bush Administration has put ideology ahead of the health needs of the American people - this time in the Office of the Surgeon General. Americans want their families to be safe and healthy. As we consider the President's nominee for Surgeon General tomorrow, we owe it to the American people to be sure that he will base his policies on sound science and best medical practices, and not the politics and ideology that have put our health care at risk." . . .
Dear Secretary Leavitt:
I am writing about information that has come to my attention which raises concerns about the conduct of political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services. Specifically, former United States Surgeon General Richard Carmona has indicated that political appointees at the Department inappropriately sought to censor his public comments and restrain his public advocacy for ideological reasons unrelated to the Surgeon General's public health mission. ...
Specifically, Dr. Carmona stated that administration officials blocked an important report on stem cell research, prevented him from discussing the effectiveness of comprehensive sex education, insisted that he mention the President’s name frequently in speeches, and sought to prevent him from testifying about the dangers of tobacco use in the government’s lawsuit against tobacco companies. Other information obtained by my office corroborates Dr. Carmona’s account, indicating that political appointees hampered the work of the Surgeon General for ideological reasons.
In light of these events, I ask that you provide to my office information and documents concerning certain political appointees’ interaction with the Office of the Surgeon General. Please see the attached Document Request for specifics. I ask that you coordinate the production of documents with Nicholas Bath or Sandra Gallardo, Counsel to the Committee, at (202) 224-3112.
Smokers and tobacco users trying to quit will soon have a potent ally - fellow smokers. On September 26, 2006, The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), both agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the "Quit Now" Challenge, a new initiative featuring the inspirational stories of people who want to quit smoking. Submissions were received from cigarette smokers and other tobacco users explaining, in their own words, why they want to "Quit Now!" Successful quitters whose stories were chosen will be announced on February 1, 2007 and are featured on the website, 1800quitnow.cancer.gov.
"Since 1-800-QUIT-NOW was launched in 2004
The Regulatory Right-to-Know Act calls for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to submit each year to Congress “an accounting statement and associated report” . . .
The correction requests received in FY 2006 were as diverse and interesting as those received in previous years. For instance, . . . . the Department of Health and Human Services received two requests from the National Legal and Policy Center regarding disseminations made by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) concerning the health effects of smokeless tobacco; . . .
As shown below, this year we are categorizing how agencies responded to requests in a more detailed manner. For instance, we are including the category of “other corrections.” This category is used when the agency response does not provide the specific changes that were requested, but instead makes other changes. For example, instead of modifying information on the webpage related to smokeless tobacco, SAMHSA chose to remove the information completely while the agency works on revisions. Because the requestor asked for revisions to the information rather than removal, this has been classified in the “other corrections” category.
I applaud the decision by the Pizza Hut and KFC restaurant chains to ban smoking nationally in all their restaurants. We've known for decades that smoking is bad for your health and is the leading preventable cause of death and disease. What starts as a single puff can become a death sentence for millions of Americans. In fact, the most recent Surgeon General's report* on tobacco confirms that smoking causes diseases in nearly every organ of the body.
Furthermore, second-hand smoke is also harmful and hazardous to the health of the general public and is particularly dangerous to children. If we are going to be serious about improving health and preventing disease, we must continue to drive down tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke in this country. Efforts such as these are vital to our success.
But if you smoke, it is never too late to stop. And HHS can help.
In recognition of National Nurses Week, May 6 - 12, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today is releasing a new tool that will give nurses evidence-based information that they can use to help their patients quit smoking. The pocket guide, Helping Smokers Quit: A Guide for Nurses, was developed by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in collaboration with Tobacco Free Nurses, a national initiative funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to increase nurses' participation in tobacco control.
The free pocket guide gives nurses easy access to information based on the "5 As" approach to cessation intervention: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange. It also includes a current listing of smoking cessation medications approved by HHS' Food and Drug Administration and a referral to HHS' National Quitline, 1-800-QUIT NOW.
Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange "5 As" approach to cessation intervention, according to the new DHHS release, "Helping Smokers Quit: A Guide for Nurses."
The Health and Human Services Department will ban the use of tobacco on its campuses starting in January as part of Secretary Tommy G. Thompson's initiative to get Americans to quit smoking, officials said.
HHS will provide employees who use tobacco with free counseling and products for coping with withdrawal, such as gum and patches, if such assistance is not covered by their health insurance. The "tobacco cessation program" will be operated by Federal Occupational Health, a branch of the Public Health Service, the officials said.
The department does not have an estimate of how many smokers work at its facilities, HHS spokesman Bill Pierce said. The department has about 66,000 employees. . . .
Areas previously designated for outdoor smoking will be eliminated.
A presidential order and the Public Health Service Act permit HHS to prohibit the use of tobacco products on its property as a means of discouraging unhealthy behaviors, officials said.
The Bush administration has ordered that government scientists must be approved by a senior political appointee before they can participate in meetings convened by the World Health Organization, the leading international health and science agency.
A top official from the Health and Human Services Department in April asked the WHO to begin routing requests for participation in its meetings to the department's secretary for review, rather than directly invite individual scientists, as has long been the case.
Officials at the WHO, based in Geneva, Switzerland, have refused to implement the request thus far, saying it could compromise the independence of international scientific deliberations. Denis G. Aitken, WHO assistant director-general, said Friday that he had been negotiating with Washington in an effort to reach a compromise.
The request is the latest instance in which the Bush administration has been accused of allowing politics to intrude into once-sacrosanct areas of scientific deliberation. It has been criticized for replacing highly regarded scientists with industry and political allies on advisory panels. A
At least 10 percent of U.S. smokers would quit and 3 million premature deaths would be prevented if 10 policy changes were instituted nationwide.
So says a federally appointed panel that culled available scientific evidence on tobacco addiction and how to curb it. The panel's report, "A National Action Plan for Tobacco Cessation," includes six recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services, and four recommendations to achieve the end through public-private partnerships. . . .
These recommendations, which the panel suggests should go into effect by fiscal year 2005, would cost more than $5 billion each year. Funding would come from the $2-per-pack tax. Half of the estimated $28 billion in annual revenue generated by the tax will be earmarked for programs that help people to quit smoking or prevent them from starting.
By comparison, in 2001, the six largest tobacco companies spent $11.2 billion on advertising and promotions. (See details.)
The panel, established by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, was a subcommittee of the department's Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health (ICSH). It was led by Michael C. Fiore, M.D., M.P.H.
Efforts to promote smoking cessation have the potential to prevent substantial mortality and morbidity in the U.S. One year after quitting, a person's additional risk of heart disease is reduced by half, and after 15 years, this risk equals that of a person who never smoked. Within 10 years of quitting smoking a former smoker's risk of developing lung cancer is 30 to 50 percent below that of a current smoker. The benefits are even greater for individuals who quit smoking before the age of 50. Their risk of dying in the next 15 years is half that of a person who smokes.(141) . . .
It is ironic that in this day of high-tech, complex, and costly medical procedures and treatments, simple, inexpensive, easily-understood actions, such as increasing physical activity, controlling weight, and quitting smoking, could have such a huge impact on the quality of life and the cost of health care. While there always will be legitimate debate over the costs and benefits of particular health promotion and disease prevention endeavors, the Nation simply cannot afford not to step up efforts to reverse the growing prevalence of chronic disorders. Resources and energy need to be marshaled in all sectors and at all levels of society-federal, state, tribal, and local governments, foundations, associations, health care providers and insurers, businesses, communities, schools, families, and individuals-to control and prevent the chronic conditions that threaten the Nation's physical and financial well-being.
Tommy Thompson - Bush's Secretary of Health and Human Services - has announced his support for authorizing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco as though it were a drug. The Clinton Cabinet would be pleased. Zealots long to see tobacco succumb to federal regulation; FDA oversight is the last thing the industry needs.
As recent news from the Justice Department suggests, the Thompson position might not reflect the Bush position. But when a leading member of an administration whose chief benefitted from votes cultivated in the tobacco fields endorses FDA regulation, then the future for John Rolfe's descendants does not look bright.
So fast was Whitman grounded that it is clear Tommy Thompson will be next on the clipping block. . .
When Thompson was nominated to run Health and Human Services, health activists were angry because of his tobacco ties. Now, he is the best thing the activists have going in the Republican Party. By invoking "our" mothers, grandmothers, sisters and wives, he made tobacco a far more personal issue than Whitman did with global warming and far more difficult for Bush to do Big Tobacco's bidding without being seen as a lieutenant of the slow-motion gas chamber.
Thompson, despite his tobacco past, has put Bush in an untenable position. Rather than listen to Thompson, expect to watch another hawk drop from the sky. Expect to see another chicken cowering in the corner. No birds must escape the aviary.
Newly installed as Health and Human Services secretary, Tommy Thompson promised Friday to launch a national campaign within 100 days to increase organ donation.
In his first day on the job, Thompson also told his new employees he expects quick work on patients' rights legislation that can pass Congress. He suggested the way to prevent HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is to look for a cure, and he said he will review federal policy over use of embryonic stem cells for medical research.
Repeatedly pledging to bring a passionate, aggressive attitude to issues, Thompson said he would continue a variety of Clinton administration efforts, including reducing racial disparities in health care, discouraging smoking and improving child support collection.
Thompson, who resigned Thursday as governor of Wisconsin, was sworn into his new job at HHS Friday morning. . .
While awaiting confirmation, Thompson was criticized for having close ties to tobacco companies, but he said Friday he will work aggressively to discourage smoking. He suggested that he and Surgeon General David Satcher travel the country, much like during a political campaign, to promote a soon-to-come report on women and smoking. [This graph only]