The real answer to our health care woes

Yesterday, as the Supreme Court was declaring that Obamacare is a tax, some researchers in Canada were announcing a step toward a cure for diabetes.

University of British Columbia scientists, in collaboration with an industry partner, have successfully reversed diabetes in mice using stem cells, paving the way for a breakthrough treatment.

After the stem cell transplant, the diabetic mice were weaned off insulin, a procedure designed to mimic human clinical conditions. Three to four months later, the mice were able to maintain healthy blood sugar levels even when being fed large quantities of sugar. Transplanted cells removed from the mice after several months had all the markings of normal insulin-producing pancreatic cells.

According to the American Diabetes Association, 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—have diabetes. Another 79 million people have prediabetes. The total cost of diabetes in 2007 was $218 billion.

You won't improve your health care by funneling your taxes through bureaus and agencies in Washington, which will take their share and make decisions on how or if to send it back to your doctor's office.

The current tsunami of medical discoveries will make Obamacare obsolete before it's fully implemented.

Oh, yesterday we also learned that:

• Johns Hopkins researchers have generated stem cells from skin cells from a person with a severe, early-onset form of Huntington's disease (HD), and turned them into neurons that degenerate just like those affected by the fatal inherited disorder. By creating "HD in a dish," the researchers say they have taken a major step forward in efforts to better understand what disables and kills the cells in people with HD, and to test the effects of potential drug therapies on cells that are otherwise locked deep in the brain.

• Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced positive final results from a Phase 2 combination study of Kalydeco™ and a potential cystic fibrosis drug called VX-809. Cystic fibrosis patients with two copies of the most common mutation, Delta F508, showed significant improvements in lung function while taking the combination therapy.