We clearly have a health care crisis. Traditional politics are not solving the crisis. A weakened economy exacerbates the crisis. Read these reports - State budget cuts reduce flu vaccine stock for winter. This report comes from Boston

The Department of Public Health cut its purchase of flu vaccines by 19 percent this year - 132,000 doses - but the reduction is hardly catastrophic. With 560,000 doses expected to be on hand by November, state officials said yesterday they will not refuse anyone requesting vaccination at a state-run clinic.

The state public health department initially requested 700,000 doses costing $22 million based on vaccine use in 2001, a year when the threat of anthrax and its much-publicized flulike symptoms led to record immunization requests. The Legislature, contending this year with a slowing economy and dwindling tax revenue, budgeted $20 million for adult vaccines, $2 million less than the public health department's request.

Children's vaccine stocks, maintained separately from adult stocks, are unaffected by the funding reduction. But state supplies of vaccine for pneumococcal disease and hepatitis A and B will also be cut, though state officals yesterday did not release specifics.

State vaccine supplies account for about half of all flu immunizations in Massachusetts; the rest are administered by private health providers. State officals have traditionally targeted the elderly for vaccination. Those with kidney and blood diseases have also been the focus of past outreach efforts.

DeMaria said the state will urge community clinics to use their vaccine allotments on the elderly and the sick first.

California also has problems as noted in these two articles - A Messy Miracle for the ER

In a miracle of resuscitation, the state Legislature on Saturday approved a new way to pay for California's ailing emergency-care system. How it happened was messy, but the outcome is hard to fault.

Senate Bill 807, which now awaits Gov. Gray Davis' signature, would help pay for emergency care by adding a $200 surcharge to fines for reckless driving, speeding and drunk driving. It's almost a user fee, since so many of these folks end up needing trauma care.

The money raised--projected at $25 million--wouldn't cure the state's health-care woes; neither would it lift the pressure from Los Angeles County. But it would prop up the system facing the most immediate crisis, the one that all of us count on in the event of an accident injury or a heart attack.

If Hospitals Close, Research Flat-Lines : Funding crisis in Los Angeles County threatens clinical studies. I write about health care costs regularly. We need good medical input on understanding costs. Politicians do not have the answers. Talk to generalists, physicians who provide the important overall care of patients. They can help us understand how to address these issues.