The N.C. Medical Society plans to consider a resolution to support a tax on "high calorie, low nutrition" foods.

The proposal will be considered, but not necessarily voted on, at the group's annual meeting in Raleigh at the end of the month. The resolution urges that any money from a tax on Pepsi, french fries and the like should be spent on "health and dental care, nutrition education, school nutrition and subsidization of 'healthy food.'"

"Obesity is our number one health issue, as far as chronic issues are concerned," said Scott Donaldson, a Hendersonville urologist who supports the resolution. The resolution includes a series of "whereases" that discuss the rise of obesity in the state (rank - 12th in a recent report), the costs of treating it and its link to various ailments such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer.

The resolution is expected to be discussed in committee on Saturday, Oct. 31. If the committee sends it to the society's House of Delegates, they'll vote the next day.

Democratic Senate candidate Kenneth Lewis of Durham didn't show up at a health care forum Friday morning with Republican Sen. Richard Burr, when he learned he would not be allowed to participate.

"There was no reason to play games here," Lewis said.

It was Lewis who threw down the challenge in the first place, telling Burr that all he needed to do is "show up and debate."

Lewis had challenged Burr to a health care debate, and Burr accepted, setting up a forum at the N.C. Medical Society in Raleigh, Rob Christensen reports.

But Burr said he would only agree to a forum if the three main potential Democratic candidates participated; Lewis, former state Sen. Cal Cunningham, and Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. When only Lewis agreed, Burr said he would talk to the doctors by himself.

Lewis initially said he planned to show up at the Medical Society headquarters anyway, but he said he later changed his mind.

"We took the position that we were the only candidate who has filed in the race and therefore we were going to show up and debate," Lewis said.

Lewis said he looked forward to debating Burr on health care in the future and believes that Burr's health care bill, the Patient's Choice Act, "goes in exactly the wrong direction."

Republican Sen. Richard Burr said he expects the Democratic-backed health care plan to quickly pass the U.S. House, but said it could face a fight in the Senate.

"We are at half time. We are going into September which is the second half of the game," Burr told reporters after addressing a group doctors at the N.C Medical Society Friday morning, Rob Christensen reports.

"They (supporters) intend to launch a $160 million ad campaign," said Burr, a strong opponent of legislation backed by President Barack Obama and the Democratic congressional leaders. "I certainly can't forecast what the outcome of that is. I think the future of the legislation depends on how engaged the American people will be in the process. If August is over and there are no more town meetings and they sort of forget about it, (the legislation) with $160 million ad campaign probably gets the votes it needs."

Burr said he expects the U.S. House to pass the measure largely unchanged by Sept. 15, but the measure could face a more difficult road in the Senate.

He said if the Senate Democratic Senate leadership tries to push the bill through with a simple majority of 51 votes, rather than a filibuster-majority of 60 votes, "it would cause a backlash in this country from the American people that I think would be life altering to a lot of members of Congress."

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Paul Shumaker, Burr's consultant, wrote a letter to Democratic Senate candidate Kenneth Lewis of Durham, saying he could not participate in a forum with the N.C. Medical Society on Friday in Raleigh, Rob Christensen reports. Burr is scheduled to appear before a group of about 75 doctors.

Lewis, the only announced Democratic candidate, had challenged Burr, a Republican to a debate on health care. Burr had discussed a forum and had even talked about televising it with NBC-17.

But Shumaker said Burr decided to appear before the doctors alone, when Lewis was the only Democrat to respond to Burr's invitation.

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Sen. Richard Burr will appear before the N.C. Medical Society on Friday morning in Raleigh to talk about health care, but it won't with any of his possible Democratic opponents.

At one point, the Medical Society extended an invitation to include the Democrats considering running against Burr in 2010, Rob Christensen reports. But when the Democrats expressed no interest, the doctors decided to go back to their original format of just having Burr discussing the issue with a group of physicians.

In declining to participate, one of the Democrats, former state Sen. Cal Cunningham of Lexington, also got in a gig at Burr.

Cunningham wrote to Burr: "PS. You really should give up dipping snuff. I've found there is no future in it."

Update: A spokesman for the Medical Society said the organization decided to limit the event to Burr since it were unable to get a slate of Democratic candidates to attend. Kenneth Lewis, who previously said he wanted to debate Burr, says he intends to show up Friday ready to debate.

It was Burr who invited the Democratic candidates. Lewis accepted that invitation.

"In your letter of August 18th, you expressed your 'intent to offer a forum for a substantive debate with the hopes of better educating the public on the issue before the Congress," Lewis said in a statement. "Senator Burr, the North Carolina Medical Society has offered such a forum. Now all you need to do is show up and debate."

A provision that "has given everybody heartburn" was removed Wednesday from a Senate bill that seeks to change the way the N.C. Medical Board investigates doctors for bad care or ethical breaches.

Sen. Martin Nesbitt Jr., a Democrat from Asheville who sponsored the bill, took out a particularly contentious requirement that the board line up two expert witnesses to agree on a practitioner's misbehavior, Sarah Avery reports.

Currently, the board gets one outside expert, and board officials vehemently opposed the additional requirement.

The bill moves forward in the Senate, but is likely to face additional changes and obstacles. In its current incarnation, the bill would require more communication between the board and doctors it investigates, board approval before investigations are launched, and a six-month timeline to begin and end probes.

Backed by a group of doctors who practice alternative medicine, the bill recently gained the support of the N.C. Medical Society. The doctor's lobby has increasingly been at odds with the medical board over doctor discipline issues.

Sen. Phil Berger hopes to get the death penalty back on track.

The Senate Republican leader has again filed a bill that would end a de facto moratorium on capital punishment in North Carolina.

The N.C. Supreme Court is considering a case involving a Catch 22 that led to the moratorium: Doctors are required to be present at executions, but the N.C. Medical Society has objected to allowing doctors to attend.

Berger's bill would forbid any group from disciplining a doctor for attending at an execution.

He said he was not hopeful that the bill will go anywhere in the Democratic-dominated Senate unless the Supreme Court's decision forces its hand.

"What the Supreme Court says may determine whether or not there's some pressure to do something with the bill," he said. 

Beverly Perdue has received $98,500 from health care-related PACs.

Political action committees representing drug companies, health care providers, insurance companies and industry associations were the single largest group of PAC donors to the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, according to campaign finance reports.

They made up about a fourth of the $376,293 she raised from PACs since her re-election in 2004. Other politicians' campaign committees were a close second, contributing $91,933, with about a third of that coming from other Democratic senators.

The biggest donors were the N.C. Hospital Association and the NP PAC, which represents nurse practitioners. Both gave $8,000. PACs for the Asheville Anesthesia Associates and the Association for Home and Hospice Care of N.C. gave $5,000 apiece. 

Drug companies whose PACs donated included GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Roche, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Wyeth, Pfizer and Abbott Labs. Pharmacy chains such as Kerr Drug, pharmacist managers Medco Health and Caremark and the PILL PAC, which represents pharmacists, also gave.

Perdue also received money from trade groups: The N.C. Medical Society, the N.C. Health Care Facilities Association, the N.C. Association of Nurse Anesthetists, the N.C. Assisted Living Association, the N.C. Association of Long Term Care Facilities and the N.C. Orthopaedic PAC. 

Perdue previously worked at a hospital and has made health care one of the signature issues in her campaign.  

The Doctor of the Day is part of the fabric of the legislature, an opportunity for a visiting physician to be recognized by lawmakers and treat minor injuries that might occur while the sausage is being made.

But The Charlotte Observer's David Ingram reported this weekend that Dr. Bob Crummie of Rutherfordton had a little more to offer during his stint last week - copies of his book, in which he advocates greater use of the lobotomy, argues that penicillin and certain other antibiotics should be sold without a prescription, and that schizophrenia is linked to rejection by one's mother.

Perhaps his most controversial opinions relate to gays and lesbians.

"There is no such thing as a homosexual. The Gay Movement is a hoax," Crummie writes. "Individuals who act out homosexually are at best very neurotic and at worst psychotic. Most of them are character disorders."

In what he describes as "one of my funniest stories," Crummie tells how he once put a stop to homosexuality at an N.C. prison when, as superintendent, he threatened to give electric shock therapy to anyone caught in the act. With several inmates present, he demonstrated the procedure on one inmate who was severely depressed, he writes.

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