Despite pressure from the right wing, ABC says it will not allow the Republican National Committee to run a series of Obama-bashing ads during the network’s healthcare special next week. Brushing aside criticism that the special would be nothing but an Obama healthcare infomercial, an ABC spokeswoman said, “ABC Television Network has a longstanding policy that we do not accept advocacy advertising.” Read more.

A twittering Republican on the Senate Finance Committee said Sunday that President Obama has no right to tell Congress “to deliver on healthcare” because the president is chilling in Paris while lawmakers are working away to resolve the issue. “Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us ‘time to deliver’ on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND,” an angry Sen. Charles Grassley fired off in one of his mass text-messages, which he calls “tweets.” Read the rest.

Debt-linked stress may cause more premature deliveries.  A women’s worry over financial matters can increase a woman’s risk for preterm delivery, but most kinds of stress have no effect, a new study finds. The study, released by the research institute RTI International, looked at 18 types of stressful situations and concluded that only four may be associated with preterm birth: being in debt; being injured by a partner; having someone close attempt suicide; and being divorced. Women in debt were the most consistently at risk for preterm delivery, reports HealthDay. They were 9 percent more likely to deliver at 35 to 36 weeks of gestation, 14 percent more likely to deliver at 33 to 34 weeks, and 16 percent more likely to deliver at less than 33 weeks, the study said. On the other hand, having a partner who lost his or her job was associated with a decreased risk of preterm delivery, said study author Nedra Whitehead, an RTI epidemiologist who examined stressful events such as legal conflicts, changes in relationships, financial problems, physical conflicts, and family illness or death. “Stressful life events have been associated with preterm delivery in some studies but not in others. This study provides some limited support for an association of some life events with preterm delivery, but it is not clear why only these four of the 18 events studied were associated with preterm delivery as they are not similar in type of stress or expected severity,” Whitehead said in an RTI news release. For more on handling finance-related stress, go to Vital Signs.

Voters: Major changes are needed in U.S. Health Care.  Seven in 10 registered voters say major changes are needed in the U.S. health care system, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health and the Kaiser Family Foundation say. “Voters want a major change in health care,” said Robert J. Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health, in the second article of a series of reports published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). “But a new administration is going to have to face the very real divide that exists between McCain and Obama supporters on the shape of future reform,” Blendon added. Health care is a major economic worry for many families, the researchers say. “People are having major problems getting and paying for health care and, if this trend continues, addressing health care as part of the nation’s economic turmoil may be a priority for the nation’s next president,” said Drew Altman, Kaiser president and CEO. While voters are dissatisfied with the current health care system, they have very different views about how the next president should fix it, particularly those who say they plan to vote for Sen. John McCain versus those intending to vote for Sen. Barack Obama. When asked to choose the most important issue relating to their vote choice, health care ranked second among Obama voters and tied for fourth among McCain voters. Further, while a large majority of voters favor changes in health care, supporters of the two candidates differ greatly on how to do it or how much of a change is necessary, the researchers found. The findings, however, confirm what surveys have shown in the past: that there is wide support for a variety of approaches to health care reform, though there may not be agreement on the best way to move forward.

Federal health officials say that more Americans than ever should get flu shots, including, for the first time, individuals 6 months old to 18 years old. Health officials are also concerned about adults age 50 and older. While two-thirds of those over age 65 were vaccinated against the flu last year, only 36 percent of those between 50 and 64 were immunized. Experts urge health-care providers to get more of their patients vaccinated. “The message is not getting out to those in the 50-plus category,” said Dr. Cora L. Christian, a member of the AARP board of directors, who spoke Tuesday on a panel sponsored by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. “Many myths exist about influenza vaccination, but the evidence is clear – vaccines, regardless of age, offer the best method to prevent disease.” So, people looking after their elderly relatives should make sure they get vaccinated, experts say, and get the shot themselves. This year, officials have added more people to those who should be vaccinated to include young people ages 6 months to 18 years. That’s another 30 million people recommended for flu vaccinations. However, school-age children have the highest rate of flu infection, officials say. Yet, only 21 percent of children were vaccinated against the disease, said Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Getting vaccinated early is important for children ages 9 and younger, who need two doses of the vaccine if they are receiving it for the first time, said Daniel B. Jernigan, deputy director of the CDC’s influenza division. “The time to get vaccinated is now,” he said.

Americans are paying more for less health care. American workers are paying more for their employer-backed health insurance and getting “skimpier” benefits, a troubling trend that authors of a new study say exacerbates modest premium increases last year. Health insurance premiums rose 5 percent this year from 2007, the lowest increase since the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation started releasing its annual gauge of employer-sponsored health benefits 10 years ago. But considering the cost of insurance has more than doubled since 1999 and wages have increased just 34 percent during that time, rising costs continue to hit workers in the pocketbook, the study found. “We may be seeing the tip of an iceberg of a trend toward less comprehensive, skimpier health insurance for working people with less coverage and higher out-of-pocket costs,” said Drew Altman, president and chief executive officer of the foundation based in Menlo Park, Calif. “Premiums have risen 3 1/2 times faster than wages. That’s why people are feeling the pain, and that’s why they say paying for health coverage is one of their top concerns today.” More than half of all Americans get their health insurance through an employer. The average premium for family coverage increased to $12,680 a year, with individual coverage costing $4,704, according to the study, which was also produced by the Health Research & Educational Trust. Of that amount, employees with families are contributing about a quarter of the costs – $3,354, double the amount they paid in 1999. This year, individuals are paying $721 of their total premium costs. The Bush administration has backed high-deductible plans coupled with savings accounts, but the study’s authors said they saw a shift toward employers offering the plans without a savings account, which increases out-of-pocket spending and the chance workers will opt out of coverage altogether. “The slowing rate of growth in health insurance premiums shows we are moving in the right direction, but much more needs to be done to make health care coverage more affordable for consumers and employers,” said Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the insurers’ trade group.

In a related matter… The Center for Studying Health System Change released reports showing that a growing number of Americans are having difficulties paying their medical bills. The nonpartisan group based in Washington, D.C., found that the number of Americans in families having difficulty paying medical bills increased to 19.4 percent in 2007, up from 15.1 percent in 2003. More than 57 million Americans live in families struggling with medical bills, up 14 million people since 2003, the study released Wednesday found. Of those in trouble, the vast majority – 42.5 million – had some form of health insurance coverage.

Obama, McCain take different approaches to health care reform.  
Vital Signs: Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have laid out very different plans for how they’d fix the health care system, according to the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution’s estimates. Which one covers the most people, and when will the candidates actually provide details? Read more at Vital Signs.

Salmonella outbreak over, FDA says. U.S. health officials declared Thursday that the nationwide salmonella outbreak has ended and lifted a consumer advisory against eating raw jalapeno and serrano peppers grown in Mexico, reports HealthDay news. “Based on the available information and reports, it appears that this outbreak is over,” Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s division of foodborne, bacterial and mycotic diseases, said during a teleconference. The CDC’s announcement was based on the falling number of new cases since early July, Tauxe said. “By early August, the number of cases was down to the number of cases we would expect to see anyway in the absence of a major outbreak. There are some cases of this infection that occur every year,” he added.

Race and abortion rear their ugly heads in Washington
Vital Signs: A group of African-American pastors, led by the niece of Martin Luther King Jr., is telling Democratic and Republican Party leaders today that they don’t want candidates to accept Planned Parenthood donations. Find out why at Vital Signs.