Daily check up: Censorship in VT drug law

An emergency dispute: Municipal officials yesterday held a press conference to protest a decision by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts not to pay out-of-network ambulance services. Instead, the insurer would pay the patient directly and leave it up to the ambulance services to chase down their payment, the State House News Service reports. Blue Cross said the policy is intended to encourage ambulance companies to sign network contracts leading to lower costs. Municipal officials said the change amounts to a reduction in local aid and could force them to sue residents who haven't paid.

How much would you spend on cancer?: A study in the journal Cancer polled 4,100 people newly diagnosed with lung and colon cancer. The authors found large racial disparities when they asked whether the patients would opt for treatment that would extend their lives as long as possible if it would also cause them to go broke. About 54 percent of whites and 80 percent of blacks said they would, compared with 72 percent among Asians and 69 percent of Hispanics, the Associated Press reports.

Vertex drug aces review: Globe reporter Robert Weisman reports that a hepatitis C drug made by Cambridge-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and waiting on approval this week, received a strong review from the Food and Drug Administration. The staff briefing calculated the cure rate of the drug at 79 percent, compared with 46 percent for patients taking older drugs.