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Also: 23andMe is hunting for genes linked to Parkinson’s disease in data from personalized DNA tests; and Maryland hospitals and regulators are discussing raising hospital prices for private insurers and businesses to make up for suggested Medicare and Medicaid cuts.

Continued here:  A.M. Vitals: India Patent Fight and Parkinson’s Genes

Cornell Univ. Law Professor and Former Supreme Court clerk Michael Dorf on The News Hub discusses the legal justification behind today’s decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the individual mandate of the 2010 health-care law. Photo: Getty Images

Go here to see the original:  Why Supreme Court Found Health Mandate to be a Tax/a>

Does Congress have the power to mandate that everyone in the U.S. have health insurance? The Manhattan Institute’s Avik Roy and Columbia University’s Gillian Metzger discuss the Supreme Court’s hearing of the case with WSJ Legal reporter Ashby Jones.

Excerpt from: The Constitutionality of Health-Insurance Mandate/a>

By Joe Palazzolo

A federal rule that requires tobacco companies to display pictures of diseased lungs or other graphic images on cigarette packs is unconstitutional, a judge in Washington ruled Wednesday.

Regulations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would have required tobacco companies to display the images on the top half of cigarette packs, front and back. It was scheduled to take effect in September.

Roche’s Genomics Bet: Roche’s $6 billion hostile bid for DNA-sequencing company Illumina represents a bet that the technology will filter down from academic and government research centers to doctors’ offices and hospitals, the WSJ reports. Roche believes sales of genetic mapping machines will almost double to $2.1 billion by 2015, but some analysts say widespread use is by no means certain.

Three Days in March: The Supreme Court said it will hear five and a half hours of arguments concerning the health-care overhaul law over three days, starting Monday, March 26, the WSJ reports. There will be two hours of argument covering the individual mandate — which requires most Americans to purchase insurance or pay a penalty — scheduled for March 27.

WSJ’s Emily Maltby and Jess Bravin join the News Hub to discuss the legal challenges to President Obama’s health care initiative and the hurdles facing Mary Brown, who has argued strongly against the policy. WSJ photo.

Read more here: One Woman’s Fight Against Obama’s Health Plan/a>

Is donating bone marrow more like giving blood or a kidney?

According to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, it’s the former. The court ruled today in favor of plaintiffs including a California nonprofit, MoreMarrowDonors.org, that planned a pilot project to offer incentives such as a $3,000 charitable gift or scholarship to help sway more people to donate. (We wrote about compensating bone-marrow donors last year.)

The Obama administration announced yesterday that a dozen more states have crossed the first big threshold in setting up health insurance exchanges — including seven of the states that are suing the administration to overturn the health-care law passed last year.