Currently, I am reading Maggie Mahar’s Book – "Money-Driven Medicine" for my next book review and I became more curious about physicans’ perspective on why U.S. health care costs are so high. Fortunately, I happened to stumble onto Dr. Bob’s Blog (DB’s Med Rants ) and found a discussion board about this exact topic.
"Costs – Why They Are Too High"
(source: DB’s Med Rants)
1) State Public Health Official, Dr. Alvin Jackson, Brings Public Health Practices to White House (source: ASTHO.org)
"President Barack Obama met with Dr. Alvin Jackson, Director of the Ohio Department of Health, yesterday to discuss "Take Charge! Live Well!" an Ohio program that is reducing health risk factors for state workers. The meeting was part of President Obama’s initiative to meet with employers and unions whose health and wellness innovations have produced promising results."
2) The Social Security COLA and Medicare Part B Premium: Questions, Answers, and Issues (source: Kaiser Family Foundation)
"Social Security recipients are not expected to receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the first time in 2010, with no or low COLAs projected through 2012. The absence of a COLA will result in higher Medicare Part B premiums for roughly a quarter of all Medicare beneficiaries, with a particularly steep increase in premiums expected between 2010 and 2011."
3) The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care (source: The New Yorker)
"The explosive trend in American medical costs seems to have occurred here [referring to McAllen, Texas] in an especially intense form. Our country’s health care is by far the most expensive in the world. In Washington, the aim of health-care reform is not just to extend medical coverage to everybody but also to bring costs under control. Spending on doctors, hospitals, drugs, and the like now consumes more than one of every six dollars we earn."
National Perspective (U.S.A.)
Loss of Jobs Equates to Higher Numbers of Uninsured ( source: Center for American Progress)
According to a national report released by the Center for American Progress, an estimated "2.4 million workers have lost the health coverage their jobs provided since the start of the recession." Employee reliance on employer based insurance (EBI) has decreased to less than 60% in 2007 compared to 64.2 % in 2000. However, access to adequate and affordable health insurance for most Americans depends on their employment status.
"Health Care Costs" Fact Sheet (source: National Coalition on Health Care)
Data from this fact sheet provides reasoning why health care costs are on the rise. The document looks at three variables to provide reasoing: 1) the national health care spending, 2) employer and EBI costs, and 3) the impact of rising costs
Global Perspective
An International Perspective on Health Care Reform (source: The Green Party)
The "ability to evaluate proposals for US health care reform would be furthered by an understanding of how other industrialized countries succeed in providing universal, comprehensive coverage with more health care and better outcomes at about half our per capita costs. Interestingly, the major factor in understanding this capacity of other industrialized countries relative to the US is not to be found in pay differentials, or the differential use of surgery, lab tests or high tech procedures; but rather, in the nature of the health insurance funded as well as how that insurance is paid for and administered."
Managing Employee Health in Asia (source: Mercer)
"Asian-based employers who believe that they are immune from employee health care issues because of a young and healthy work force, low health care costs and few employer obligations are starting to feel some intensifying pain."
1) Reforming Long-Term Care and Post-Acute Care Could Save Billions by (source: The Health Care Blog )
"Despite the extreme inside-the-Beltway focus on healthcare reform, there’s been hardly a mention of tackling reform of our long-term care system. This is curious when you stop to consider that these services are used by the same seniors who use the most healthcare resources and that they account for hundreds of billions of dollars of personal and federal spending. Our existing system strains already-stretched government resources and family networks and will become only more expensive as our nation ages."
2) Medicaid and Long-Term Care Services and Support (source: Kaiser Family Foundation)
"This updated fact sheet provides an overview of long-term care services, delivery of such services, and the large role Medicaid plays in financing long-term care."
3) US Senators begin Writing Healthcare Overhaul Bill (source: VisitBulgaria.info)
"Leaving tough decisions like how to cover the uninsured and pay for it until later, U. S. Senators in an effort to revamp the U. S. healthcare system have begun fleshing out proposals aimed at improving the quality of healthcare."
I wanted to update my readers on national findings released by the United States Department of Health Department (USDH).
1) Stem Cells Spur New Eggs in Ovaries of Mice (source: Ji Wu, Ph.D. et al)
“Researchers in China have demonstrated that female ovaries may be capable of producing new eggs in adulthood and subsequently producing offspring.”
2) The USDH’s Cancer Newsletter (source: USDH)
Here are a slew of articles related to various cancers.
3) The USDH’s Hearth Disease Newsletter (source: USDH)
Information to keep you updated on findings related to hearth disease.
You may visit the USDH’s webpage for more news articles.