Advocates of universal health care are watching American politics more closely than at any other time in history. Most of them are hopeful of a Democratic victory because of the Republican's seeming intransigence on the issue of government involvement in health care.

This was clearly demonstrated by the presidential veto late last year of a bill providing support for state child health insurance programs (SCHIP). Conservatives, including doctors with lucrative practices as well as private health insurance and other shared-risk health financing providers (such as health maintenance organizations or HMOs), fear that passage of such legislation would inevitably lead to government take-over of the American healthcare system.

Because there is little real difference between Obama and Clinton on the issue of universal health care, a Democratic victory in November will ensure a major shift toward greater federal and state government participation in funding if not actual delivery of health services for most Americans.

The more radical advocates of health reform in the United States are still hopeful that their fallen Democratic candidate, John Edwards, will continue to have great influence in the final definition of the party's policy moves in the health sector. This is because Edwards, who spent most of his professional career as a lawyer fighting vested interests of physicians, drug companies and health insurance providers, had promised reforms that would practically socialize medical care in that bastion of capitalistic free enterprise.

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Back in the Philippines, the adage about politics and strange bed-fellows is truer than ever as shifting political alliances have confused discussions on the principles of universal health care, the participation of government, and the degree of regulation of health-related industries. The case of the so-called "Cheaper Medicines Acts" pending in the bicameral committee of the legislature emphasized this confusion more than ever.

More than a week ago, the bicameral committee adjourned without resolving the issue of whether or not to include the provision on "generics only prescribing". The provision, which would prohibit doctors from writing brand names on their prescriptions, had been originally proposed by the Department of Health. The withdrawal of support from the DOH caused uproar among the House contingent members who continued to insist on the provision despite solid opposition by their Senate counterparts.

The result was a strange situation in the bicameral committee where House members, mostly identified with the Arroyo administration, were attacking the government position against the provision while the Senate members, two out of three of whom are seen as oppositionists, defended the administration's anti-generics stand.

If the deadlock stands, the beneficiaries will once again be the health sector provider interests especially private medical practitioners and the pharmaceutical industry (both local and foreign). The losers, as usual, will be the majority of the Filipino people who are poor and unable to afford the cost of even the most basic medications.

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The February 18th issue of Time Magazine featured an article by the well-known medical journalist, Sanjay Gupta, on the relationship between exercise, alcohol intake, and heart disease. The article cited a study showing significantly lower risk of heart disease among people who exercise and consume alcohol than among those "who either drink without exercising, exercise without drinking, or do neither".

The cited study, by a Danish epidemiologist, uncovered data that supports this conclusion. It also quoted an American cardiologist who offered an explanation by saying that "alcohol and exercise affect the heart in similar ways." They both help to increase high density lipoproteins aka HDL or "good" cholesterol which cleans out the circulatory system by removing fatty deposits created by "bad" cholesterol aka LDL.

The studies do not differentiate between the kind of drink taken in (wine, beer or hard liquor) but the Time article advocates moderation, defined as one drink a day for women and up to two for men.

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