Politics are inevitable and the best solution is to learn how to use the media to hold politicians accountable for their voting record as well as other actions they take (such as holding bills in committee and never letting them get voted on)

Money on the other hand is not necesarily as much an evil as you oaint it. As for pharmaceutical companies, HMO’s etc. they exist to make money, so every venture they undertake much be done in such a way as to make a profit. That reality, and until we become a Communist country, must be accepted (and I perfer it to the alternative). As for government fudning of screening, there is the factor that each governmetn agency has a finite amount of money to spend on what they do. Spending x amount of dollars on one project means that much money must be taken away from other project. So therefore there is a price put on life. If the overall budget of a certain state’s department of health is computed to be spendng $10,000 for each life saved, and a proposed project will cost $500,000 for each life saved, obviously doing so would cost 49 lives for every life saved through the new project.

The solution is for those of us who work to implement newborn screening to do as much of the footwork as we can to determine how much money per life such screening costs, and maybe find methods of reducing the cost. Having worked in the media, I know that if you want a reporter to cover a story, your best bet is to do most of his work for him. Have the pertinent facts, the names, the angles, etc. all laid out before you toss the idea. His reaction will be to favor a story that takes less work for him. Politicians work the same way. Do the work for them, and they’ll gladly take the ball and take credit for it. In the end you get what you want and they get what they want.