WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
Some of the ideas proposed for U.S. healthcare reform could cost patients thousands of dollars a year out of their own pockets, and premiums could end up being too high, according to two reports.

One analysis for the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network showed a plan now offered to federal employees, including members of Congress, sometimes costs patients $7,000 a year in out-of-pocket expenses -- many of which a seriously ill patient would have no way of avoiding.

The Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance plan, operated by Wellpoint Inc, has been called a "Cadillac" plan for its generous benefits by healthcare reform advocates, who compare it to the luxury car. They say it should form the minimum basis of what is offered to Americans under a reworked system.

But Karen Pollitz and colleagues at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute who analyzed the plan for the Cancer Action Network found that even this plan leaves many gaps.

"It offers good protection by covering the most important benefits without caps and with an overall limit on cost-sharing liability. However, it is certainly not 'Cadillac' coverage," their report reads.

For instance, a breast cancer patient could pay $13,000 for her own care over two years, the analysis found.

President Barack Obama has made reform of the patchwork U.S. healthcare system his administration's showpiece priority and Congress is working on several ideas.

But Congress has run into problems over how to pay for a $1 trillion, 10-year overhaul. Much of the debate focuses on how to provide coverage for 46 million Americans who do not have private insurance and do not qualify for government programs such as Medicare or Medicaid.

A free, government plan is not even being discussed, and both Republicans and Democrats want consumers to pay at least part of their own way. Most proposals include expanding options for personal health insurance.

BANKRUPTED BY MEDICAL BILLS

But advocacy groups such as the Cancer Action Network point out that more than half of all U.S. bankruptcies were linked to medical debt -- and most of these people had health insurance.

"Too many cancer patients are delaying or forgoing lifesaving screenings and treatments because of access problems," said the group's president, Daniel Smith.

One such patient is Angela Kegler McDowell of Conway, South Carolina, a small business owner whose insurance company raised her premiums from $293 a month to $804 a month when her breast cancer returned. In January, the company stopped her coverage completely.

"It took my entire life savings," McDowell, 38, said in an interview. Even with insurance, McDowell estimates her cancer treatments cost her $42,000 out of pocket over five years.

Another report issued this week by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund found that 73 percent of people who tried to buy insurance on their own in the last three years did not because the premiums were too high.

According to the report, 64 percent of adults with individual insurance spend $3,000 or more per year on premiums, compared to 20 percent of those with employer insurance.

It said patients using employer-provided insurance spent $2,250 out of pocket on average, including premiums, while those with individual market insurance spent $6,750.

A graphic showing state-by-state breakdowns of the uninsured can be seen at http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/JUL/HEALTH1.jpg)

When five militants, all Russian citizens, were shot and killed in a gun battle at a remote military checkpoint near Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan, the Tajik government was quick to label the dead as "members of an organized terrorist group." The group has not been named, but the shootings highlight the grim irony of the struggle against terrorism in Afghanistan. With the U.S. increasing military pressure in Afghanistan and Pakistan mounting security operations along its border with the country, fighters from Russia and the ex-Soviet republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia are returning home. And while that trend decreases the number of foreigners fighting American soldiers in Afghanistan, authorities fear it could export the violence into Central Asia, upsetting the fragile peace in the region's poorest republics.
The July 16 battle was just another recent example of the growing instability along Tajikistan's 830-mile (1,335 km) border with Afghanistan. Two weeks ago, members of a narcotics-smuggling ring - which included a former Tajik government minister and rebel commander - were killed after a skirmish with security forces in the Tavildara Valley, a strategic east-west transit route through Tajikistan and an Islamic stronghold opposed to the government. "The group included several Russian citizens ... aiming to transport large amounts of money through Tajikistan to support terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan," the government told the press, claiming that the ring was part of an "international terrorist" network with links to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which the U.S. government has designated a terrorist organization. (See pictures of Afghanistan's dangerous Korengal Valley.)
The spate of bombings, mass arrests and gunfights in Tajikistan over the past few months connected to militants fleeing the increased fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan has caught the attention of the international community. "The European Union is highly concerned about the situation in Pakistan and its reflection on Tajikistan," said Ambassador Pierre Morel, the E.U.'s special representative in Central Asia, at a news conference in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on July 14. "We support the current politics of [Tajikistan] directed towards the eradication of armed terrorist groups and drug traffic to [the country]."
Earlier this year, the Tajik military launched the Poppy-2009 operation, which the government says is aimed at combating the smuggling of drugs from Afghanistan across Tajikistan's porous, mountainous borders into the Rasht Valley and Badakhshan regions. Some believe that Poppy-2009 is actually a front for operations against Tajik opposition leaders. The government has publicly denied the charge, but observers say that if Dushanbe is indeed trying to put down suspected opposition forces under the cover of an anti-drug-smuggling operation, it only confirms that Central Asian militants are leaving Afghanistan and returning home, since many of the fighters are former opposition commanders or soldiers who fled Tajikistan after losing in the civil war between 1992 and 1997. (Read "Afghanistan's Great Film Hope.")
In an attempt to bring calm back to the border, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, Russian President Dimitri Medvedev and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon will meet in Dushanbe on July 28 to discuss plans to increase regional cooperation on trade and counterterrorism. Russia, which sees Central Asia as its backyard, is especially worried about the uptick in violence along its borders. In the meantime, the Russian government announced early in July that it would be basing rapid-deployment forces in the south of Kyrgyzstan. From there, the forces would be able to respond quickly to any unrest in the entire region, including along Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan. (Read "Tajikistan's President: No Photos, Please.")
But Central Asia faces a complex and potent mix of religious conflict, political corruption, ideological violence and increasing poverty - not to mention factionalism within the governments of the region and the countries' distrust of one another. Add to all that fighters returning home to escape the war in Afghanistan, and it's unlikely that declarations of concern from Western diplomats or the presence of the Russian military will soon slow the rising tide of violence.
Read "Could Central Asia Be the Next Flash Point?"
See TIME's Pictures of the Week.
View this article on Time.comRelated articles on Time.com:The Aimless War The Aimless War: Why Are We in Afghanistan? Pakistan: Negligent on Terror? Why the World Should Be Watching Central Asia The Truth About Talibanistan

WASHINGTON – The Senate voted Tuesday to halt production of the Air Force's missile-eluding F-22 Raptor fighter jets in a high-stakes showdown over President Barack Obama's efforts to shift defense spending to a new generation of smaller F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.
The 58-40 vote reflected an all-out lobbying campaign by the administration, which had to overcome resistance from lawmakers confronted with the potential losses of defense-related jobs if the F-22 program was terminated.
"The president really needed to win this vote," Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said. Levin said it was important not only on the merits of the planes but "in terms of changing the way we do business in Washington."
The top Republican on the committee, John McCain of Arizona, agreed that it was "a signal that we are not going to continue to build weapons systems with cost overruns which outlive their requirements for defending this nation."
Supporters of the program cited both the importance of the F-22 to U.S. security interests — pointing out that China and Russia are developing planes that can compete with it — and a need to protect aerospace jobs in a bad economy.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other Pentagon officials have determined that production of the F-22, which has not been used in Iraq and Afghanistan, should be stopped at 187 planes in order to focus on the F-35, which would also be available to the Navy and Marine Corps.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, countered that the F-35 is designed to supplement, not replace, the F-22, "the "NASCAR racer of this air dominance team." Supporters of the F-22 have put the number needed at anywhere from 250 to 380.
The defense bill has funds to build 30 F-35s. The plane is currently being produced in small numbers for testing purposes. The single-engine plane will eventually replace the venerable F-16 and the Air Force's aging fleet of A-10s. Its primary purpose is to attack targets on the ground.
The twin-engine F-22 Raptor is a jet the Air Force would use for air-to-air combat missions.
McCain said the voting margin of victory was "directly attributable" to Obama, his opponent in the last presidential election, and Gates, who has pushed for termination of the F-22 and other weapons systems he says have outlived their usefulness.
The vote removed $1.75 billion set aside in a $680 billion defense policy bill to build seven more F-22 Raptors, adding to the 187 stealth technology fighters already built or being built.
The Senate action also saved Obama from what could have been a political embarrassment. He had urged the Senate to strip out the money and threatened what would have been the first veto of his presidency if the F-22 money remained.
Immediately after the vote, Obama told reporters at the White House the Senate's decision would "better protect our troops."
White House officials said Vice President Joe Biden and chief of staff Rahm Emanuel lobbied senators, as did Gates.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Tuesday that spending on the stealth fighter would "inhibit our ability to buy things we do need," including Gates' proposal to add 22,000 soldiers to the Army.
"I've never seen the White House lobby like they've lobbied on this issue," said Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, an F-22 supporter whose state would be hit hard by a production shutdown.
According to Lockheed Martin Corp., the main contractor for both planes, 25,000 people are directly employed in building the F-22, and an additional 70,000 have indirect links, particularly in Georgia, Texas and California.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., a strong backer of the program, said his state stood to lose 2,000 to 4,000 jobs if F-22 production ended.

Levin suggested that some workers might be shifted to F-35 production. "We have to find places for people who are losing their jobs," he said.

The House last month approved its version of the defense bill with a $369 million down payment for 12 additional F-22 fighters. The House Appropriations Committee last week endorsed that spending in drawing up its Pentagon budget for next year. It also approved $534 million for an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, another program that Obama, backed by the Pentagon, says is unwarranted and would subject the entire bill to a veto.

The defense bill authorizes $550 billion for defense programs and $130 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and for other anti-terrorist operations.

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The defense bill is S. 1390.

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Allen Stanford's women stand by their man
HOUSTON (Reuters) –
Most men would not want to be in a room with their estranged wife, current girlfriend and two former mistresses, but Allen Stanford is not most men. The women, who have enjoyed million-dollar homes and luxury lifestyles, appear united in their loyalty to the Texas financier who faces criminal charges for an alleged $7 billion (4.2 billion pound) Ponzi scheme.

How do you sneeze in a spacesuit? Aim low!

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Veteran spacewalker David Wolf had some advice on Tuesday for those wondering how to sneeze in a spacesuit. "Aim low, off the windscreen, because it's going to mess up your view and there's no way to clear it," said Wolf, who admitted being in just that predicament during Monday's spacewalk outside the International Space Station.

Almost extinct Galapagos tortoise mates at 90

QUITO (Reuters) - Lonesome George, the last remaining giant tortoise of his kind, may soon be a father to the delight of conservationists. Unhatched eggs have been found in his "bachelor" pen in the Galapagos Islands, his keepers said on Tuesday.

Indian farmers fight bad monsoon with frog marriage

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Indian farmers are falling back on a trusted local method to bring badly needed monsoon rains -- marrying off two frogs. Villagers in West Bengal state pooled their money together this week to marry Ram and Sita, two frogs named after India's most revered mythological couple from the epic Ramayana.

Toilet back in service on crowded space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - After a tiring day of spacewalking, astronauts can enjoy at least one creature comfort: a working toilet. While spacewalkers David Wolf and Thomas Marshburn worked outside the International Space Station on Monday stashing spare parts, crewmates repaired the outpost's broken toilet.

World's first camel-milk chocolates going global

DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai's Al Nassma, the world's first brand of chocolate made with camels' milk, plans to expand into new Arab markets, Europe, Japan and the United States, its general manager said Tuesday. Martin Van Almsick said the United Arab Emirates company planned to enter Saudi Arabia first, followed by Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United States within the next few months.

Antiguan straggler almost misses medal ceremony

OSTIA, Italy (Reuters) - Antigua's open water swimmer Kareem Valentine finished over half an hour behind the world champion in Tuesday's 5km ocean race -- but at least he made it just in time for the medal ceremony. Valentine was so far behind the rest of the field that world championship organisers were already preparing to give Thomas Lurz his gold medal when the straggler clambered ashore to wild applause.

Hawks deliver go-away message to Canada Post

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Two nesting hawks have managed to do what Canada's blizzards usually can't -- halt delivery of the mail to a few dozen homes in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Canada Post said it stopped delivering to 54 Moose Jaw homes after hawks swooped down on a letter carrier and after a supervisor who came in to inspect the area had to dive for cover. Later, another carrier was attacked two blocks away.

"Vegan streaker" held over attack plans

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch animal rights activist, known in the Netherlands as the 'vegan streaker', has been arrested on suspicion of planning an attack against Queen Beatrix because she wears fur. The prosecution office said Tuesday it was investigating whether the man was planning an attack against Queen Beatrix following a witness statement alerting authorities.

Police catch underwear thief

BERLIN (Reuters) - German police uncovered over 1,000 pairs of underpants and more than 100 pairs of swimming trunks after catching a thief nabbing another three pairs for his collection. The 46-year-old man was caught Sunday pinching three pairs of pants from a sports hall in the western town of Gelnhausen. Police then came across the enormous collection of underwear while searching his flat.