One of the biggest reasons health care costs are rising is because of the increasing shift of costs to private citizens because Medicare and Medicaid keep paying doctors and hospitals less and less. Reports last fall put the amount at almost $90 billion per year.
If you follow political coverage, you’ve no doubt heard about the AARP lobby. The AARP’s opponents like to paint the organization’s lobby as one of the most powerful back-room forces in Washington. While this charge is open to question, it’s a narrative that many reporters have bought into — lock, stock and barrel.
These days, terms such as Wii-itis, iPod finger, BlackBerry thumb and cell phone elbow syndrome have grabbed an increasing amount of attention as more and more people complain about aching fingers, palms, elbows and wrists. As we have mentioned in the previous post, technology comes with a price although it does not really need to be too high to cause considerable health damage to its users.
Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), the category under which all the nerve disorders mentioned fall, is a condition resulting from overusing the hands to perform repetitive or prolonged tasks. RSI can occur when we subject our joints to the same repeated actions or to a single position for extended periods of time, especially when the action or position exerts pressure on a particular point, causing the nerve to choke. The effects may be more pronounced for older patients who may already have developed degenerative joint disease.
Truly, we must have known that technology does not come without a price. With the wide use of computers came the carpal tunnel syndrome. Along with Wii gaming was Wii-itis. Now, researchers have found another illness brought by one of the recent advancements the modern world enjoys the cell phone elbow syndrome. In truth, this is nothing new, but is on the rise due to the increasing popularity of cell phones.
Cubital tunnel syndrome, often referred to as the cell phone elbow syndrome, is now considered as the second most common compression syndrome. This disorder is characterized by numbness, tingling and pain in the forearm and hand and is believed to be caused by the prolonged bending of the elbow while holding a cell phone.
The sad and unexpected passing of the King of Pop Michael Jackson is initially being attributed to cardiac arrest. Diseases that involve the heart are usually taken to mean the same thing; what people may not know is that a cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack, although a heart attack can eventually lead to cardiac arrest. Although the official cause of death will not be determined until after toxicology tests are conducted and the results of these come in, for now, the superstars passing is being attributed to cardiac arrest.
A feature on WebMD sheds a bit more light into the condition. As explained by Douglas Zipes, M.D., a past president of the American College of Cardiology and a professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, a cardiac arrest is broadly defined as a condition in which the heart ceases to work properly.
Is there any chance on God's green earth that the White House and ABC News are going to let the head of a private insurance company put Barack Obama on the defensive in front of a national television audience? When Ron Williams, president of Aetna, was handed the microphone at the infomercial last Wednesday night, he may have thought so. But before he could get a word out, Diane Sawyer bushwhacked him with this obviously-prepared-carefully-choreographed zinger: Why Mr. Williams should your company be allowed to make billions in profits while there are so many people who cannot afford health care?
As long as we're bushwhacking Aetna, let me get in my shot. Why does Aetna refuse to support the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) and other organizations that made possible Health Savings Accounts and other consumer-driven products and continue to defend Aetna's right to make the profits that flow from them?
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Wednesday pitted me (defending capitalism) against single-payer advocates Sidney Wolfe and Steffie Woolhandler. The hearing can be viewed here and it was streamed in real time over the Internet. Rumor has it that, following my opening statement, fans across the country did The Wave. We haven't been able to confirm that, though.
Tomorrow has been declared as National HIV Testing Day, and activities that involve free testing for HIV are being organized across the country. In some places, free HIV testing has already begun. In Asheville, North Carolina, the following testing sites have been identified:
Western North Carolina Community Health Services
10 Ridgelawn Rd., Asheville, 28806
Phone 285-0622
Over ten years, that is. Steve Parente estimates that 97% of the population will get insurance (a result I have a hard time accepting). In any event, that works out to about $75,000 per newly insured person, or $300,000 for a family of four. 64 million people will lose their private coverage to join a "public" (Medicare-like) plan.