Ever wonder what policy makers were thinking when the Health Care Reform Bill was drafted?

Original Post

(source: Kaiser Health News)

Pay attention: The “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” — better known as the Senate health care overhaul bill – is chock full of interesting but little publicized provisions affecting consumers. Sure, the bill is mainly a blueprint for overhauling the insurance system. But look closely and you’ll see a variety of items that would affect people from the cradle to old age – from breast pump use to retiree health benefits. It’s a congressional tradition, adding pet interests that otherwise might not pass to a big bill that at least will be put up for a vote.

Marriages at later ages was a micro-trend that I was brought to my attention over a year ago. Later data supports this continuing trend. So what does it mean for communities where raising a family at an early age is expected?

Original Post

(source: Gap Minder)

There are large differences across the world in the age at the first marriage for girls. Some regions have experienced a dramatic increase. This can be seen in the new dataset compiled by Gapminder. Arab women who used to marry very early, now marry later and later. Today a couple is expected to have their own place to live as married. Hence, many families are forced to save for a long time before the young ones are able to marry. This social norm is a relative new phenomenon and is a major explanation for the increased marriage age.

Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise – how and when

(source: TED)

Hans Rosling was a young guest student in India when he first realized that Asia had all the capacities to reclaim its place as the world’s dominant economic force. At TEDIndia, he graphs global economic growth since 1858 and predicts the exact date that India and China will outstrip the US.

About Hans Rosling

(source: TED)

Even the most worldly and well-traveled among us will have their perspectives shifted by Hans Rosling. A professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, his current work focuses on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world, which (he points out) is no longer worlds away from the west. In fact, most of the third world is on the same trajectory toward health and prosperity, and many countries are moving twice as fast as the west did.

What sets Rosling apart isn’t just his apt observations of broad social and economic trends, but the stunning way he presents them. Guaranteed: You’ve never seen data presented like this. By any logic, a presentation that tracks global health and poverty trends should be, in a word: boring. But in Rosling’s hands, data sings. Trends come to life. And the big picture — usually hazy at best — snaps into sharp focus.

Rosling’s presentations are grounded in solid statistics (often drawn from United Nations data), illustrated by the visualization software he developed. The animations transform development statistics into moving bubbles and flowing curves that make global trends clear, intuitive and even playful. During his legendary presentations, Rosling takes this one step farther, narrating the animations with a sportscaster’s flair.

Rosling developed the breakthrough software behind his visualizations through his nonprofit Gapminder, founded with his son and daughter-in-law. The free software — which can be loaded with any data — was purchased by Google in March 2007. (Rosling met the Google founders at TED.)

Rosling began his wide-ranging career as a physician, spending many years in rural Africa tracking a rare paralytic disease (which he named konzo) and discovering its cause: hunger and badly processed cassava. He co-founded Médecins sans Frontièrs (Doctors without Borders) Sweden, wrote a textbook on global health, and as a professor at the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm initiated key international research collaborations. He’s also personally argued with many heads of state, including Fidel Castro.

Original Post by Jason Shafrin

(source: The Health Care Economist)

The CMS’ Office of the Actuary estimates the impact of the House health care reform bill on insurance coverage 10 years in the future:

One can see that the number of uninsured drops dramatically, but there will still be over 20 million Americans without insurance. The most interesting and difficult part of the analysis is the impact on employer-provided insurance.  According to OACT:

“By 2019, an estimated 15 million workers and family members would become newly covered as a result of additional employers offering health coverage and a greater proportion of workers enrolling in employer plans. However, a number of workers who currently have employer coverage would likely become enrolled in the expanded Medicaid program or receive subsidized coverage through the Exchange. For example, some smaller employers would be inclined to terminate their existing coverage, and companies with low average salaries might find it to their—and their employees’—advantage to end their plans, thereby allowing their workers to qualify for heavily subsidized coverage through the Exchange. Somewhat similarly, many part-time workers could obtain coverage more inexpensively through the Exchange or by enrolling in the expanded Medicaid program.“

Original Post

(source: Medical News Today)

Sexually spread diseases continue to rise, with reported chlamydia cases setting yet another record in 2008, officials at the Centers for Disease Control recently reported. The CDC estimates that approximately 19 million new STD infections occur each year. Approximately half of them occur in young people between 15 to 24 years of age.