Health junction

Diabetes Current-State and Changes to Come Unless you are Cro-Magnon-man and just emerged from a glacial field you are probably aware of some of the 2010 health care reforms. This article reviews how the United States got to be in such poor shape, health-wise and how some provisions of the 2010 reforms will create incremental changes. Since I am nearly finished with my second book, the Russell Guide for Diabetes: Type I or Type II This Could Happen To You , let me share some mind boggling information about this scourge. The American statistics on this disease have a huge impact on government funded health plans, including Medicare and these metrics from the CDC explain why : � The proportion of diagnosed diabetics in the United States has increased by more than 50% since 2007; 17.7 million in 2007 and 25.5 million in 2010 � Fully one third of the U.S. population is expected to be diabetic by 2025; 115 million � In 2010 18.7% of the 25,564,000 U.S. residents diagnosed as diabetic were ...

State Reactions to 2010 Health Care Reforms A virtual firestorm has ensued with state reactions to some of the federal government mandates under the health care reforms of 2010, from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Public Health Services Act, and the Affordable Health Care Act for America. This article reviews two of these bones of contention, including the consumer protection aspects, which impact the Office of Insurance Commissioners and the reproductive rights provisions. Consumer Protections under Federal Mandates The federal government has awarded thirty million dollars in grants to the states to shore up their consumer protection services for health insurance policy holders. Since the insurance commissioners of each state are already charged with this duty, are staffed for it, and are funded by a tax on the insurance premiums for each insurer, I struggle with the necessity of this award. The insurance commissioner�s office for each state are very well funded a...

Assessing the Real Cost of Health Care in America We can�t measure the real cost of any public program, unless we consider the economic factors, such as opportunity cost, which is the cost of spending excessive resources on health care that could otherwise go to something else. In order to do this, lets look at what other industrialized countries have in per capita income and what they are spending for health care. Based on 2006 income data the United States is no longer the wealthiest country per capita. Norway is the wealthiest country with $53,100 dollars of gross national income per person, compared to the USA�s $44,200 per person. Ireland is third with an income of $41,300 per person. What is interesting is both of these countries have national health care plans and higher taxes than in the United States. When you compare spending on health care, citing the Journal of Health Affairs article published in June of 2004, Norway spent $2,920 per person compared to the United States $4,...

Leading Presidential Candidates-Clinton, McCain, Obama Proposals for Health Care Reform This week�s column analyzes the leading presidential candidates Senators Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, and John McCain proposals on health care reforms and how their ideas would address these five questions: 1. Access to Care 2. Optimization of Government Purchasing for Medicare and other Programs 3. Reimbursement Alignment for Desired Clinical Outcomes 4. Streamlining the Health Care System Administratively 5. Financing Health Care for all Access to Care The three questions that must be addressed in order to answer the access question are: Do the proposed changes provide health care coverage for all residents, or at least a close approximation of that? Secondly, do their proposals address adequacy of reimbursements for health care clinicians and facilities? Thirdly, are there enough clinicians to meet the increased demand for primary care and other services from changes in health care access and if...