Cost of the War in Iraq

The opportunity costs associated with this war are staggering.

The Need for Improved Payment Systems (Commonwealth Fund Report)

A growing number of health care professionals around the country are increasingly frustrated by health care payment systems that do not reward efforts to improve health care quality, and that often penalize them financially. There is fairly widespread agreement that one reason for high costs and quality gaps is that current health care payment systems impose significant financial penalties and offer disincentives to providers (hospitals, physicians, and others) who supply quality, efficient care (e.g., lower-cost services, higher-quality care, cognitive services, preventive care, etc.), while they offer significant incentives for providing expensive, inefficient care (e.g., invasive treatment, use of technology, etc.) irrespective of outcomes.

War Costing $720 Million Each Day

The money spent on one day of the Iraq war could buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity, according to the American Friends Service Committee, which displayed those statistics on large banners in cities nationwide Thursday and Friday.
The war is costing $720 million a day or $500,000 a minute, according to the group's analysis of the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard public finance lecturer Linda J. Bilmes.

Higher Costs, Worse Outcomes for Previously Uninsured Medicare Beneficiaries

Research published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine underscores the importance of having health insurance coverage—not only for ensuring access to needed care, but also for controlling overall health care costs and promoting good health outcomes.
The Commonwealth Fund-supported study, Use of Health Services by Previously Uninsured Medicare Beneficiaries, found that among U.S. adults ages 59 to 64 who had been diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, or stroke, those lacking insurance coverage had much higher medical costs—51 percent higher—after becoming eligible for Medicare at age 65, compared to those with insurance coverage.

Many Massachusetts hospitals will pay for errors

About half of Massachusetts hospitals say they have adopted policies to waive charges for serious medical errors such as wrong-site surgery and harmful medication mistakes, and others say they plan to, amid growing resistance from government and health insurers to paying for poor outcomes.

Bill makes drug-makers financial link to doctors known

Your doctor says you have high blood pressure. And he knows exactly which drug is perfect for you. You head home and hit a few keys on your computer. Instantly, you see the full picture: The medicine he wants you to take is going to help him a whole lot more than it's going to help you.

States Differ Widely in Spending on Health Care, Study Finds

A new federal study shows huge variations in personal health spending among states, ranging from an average of nearly $6,700 a person in Massachusetts to less than $4,000 in Utah.
The study, published on Monday in the Web edition of the journal Health Affairs, said that Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Alaska and Connecticut had the highest per capita spending on health care in 2004. The lowest-spending states were Utah, Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico and Nevada. Per capita spending in Utah was 59 percent of that in Massachusetts.

Senate Passes Mental Health Parity Bill

The Senate passed legislation Tuesday night that would require equal health insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses when policies cover both. The bill, which passed by unanimous consent, moves advocates one step closer in their years-long quest for a concept known as mental health parity.
"The passage tonight of the Mental Health Parity bill underscores our commitment to treat all patients facing all diseases with the dignity and respect they deserve," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. "This new legislation will bring dramatic new help to millions of Americans who today are denied needed mental health care and treatment." Passage came on the same day that supporters inundated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, urging a vote on mental health parity legislation in the House.

Medicare-for-all would keep everyone covered

The number of uninsured Americans has jumped by 2.2 million to 47 million. This rise in the number of people without health insurance is the biggest jump reported by the Census Bureau since 1992. There are now more uninsured people in the United States than at any time since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in the mid-1960s.

Clinton unveils universal health care plan

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton called for universal health care on Monday, plunging back into the bruising political battle she famously waged and lost in her husband's administration on an issue that looms large in the 2008 presidential race. "This is not government-run," the party's front-runner said of her plan to extend coverage to an estimated 47 million Americans who now go without. Her declaration was a clear message to Republicans, the insurance industry, businesses and millions of voters who nervously recall what sank her effort at health care reform 13 years ago — fear of a big-government takeover.

How Are You Likely to Die?

This is a graphical way of displaying relative risk for dying from a variety of causes.

U. S. Critics Slam Canada's Health Care System

The birth of identical quadruplet girls to a Canadian woman in Montana last month has ignited debate in the United States with editorial writers and bloggers attacking the Canadian health-care system.
A shortage of neonatal beds in Calgary meant that Karen Jepp and her husband J.P. had to travel to Great Falls, Mont., for the birth of Autumn, Brooke, Calissa and Dahlia on Aug. 12.
The chance of giving birth to identical quadruplets is one in 13 million, so the event attracted widespread international attention and caused many Americans to focus on Canada's universal system of health care.

Abortion in the Philippines: a national secret

The backstreet abortions . . . may become more common as a United States government aid program plans to stop distributing contraceptives in the Philippines in 2008. This will leave birth control up to the government which under the influence of Catholic bishops advocates unreliable natural birth control methods rather than the pill and condoms.

Crisis on campus

Now, with the overall number of mentally ill college students rising, college administrators, mental-health professionals and students across the country are weighing that right to privacy against the need to assist those students who are deeply distressed or mentally ill. Several recent high-profile cases have pitted parents against colleges that refused to divulge details of students' mental-health status. A federal lawmaker has introduced legislation that could pave the way for colleges and universities to more easily share information with family members. And the April 16 massacre at Virginia Tech has provided a real-life worst-case scenario for what can happen when students don't get appropriate help and information is not shared among college officials and the student's family.

Bipolar disorder in youths may be over-diagnosed

The diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents has risen fortyfold since 1994, according to a study released Monday. But researchers partly attributed the dramatic rise to doctors over-diagnosing the serious psychiatric disorder.The report in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry said bipolar disorder was found in 1,003 of every 100,000 office visits from children and adolescents in 2002-03, compared with 25 of 100,000 office visits in 1994-95.The diagnosis of bipolar disorder among adults increased twofold during the same period, researchers said.

Mentally ill 'suffering neglect'

Mentally ill people in the developing world are being badly neglected, according to a study published in the Lancet medical journal. The authors say mental illness makes up about 14% of global disease, more than cancer or heart disease.
Up to 800,000 people commit suicide each year, mostly in poorer countries. Despite this, the authors say, 90% of sufferers in developing countries receive no care - and in some cases are chained to trees or kept in cages.

Many Immigrants Face Cultural Barriers, Other Obstacles to Psychiatric Treatment

The parents had tried with little success to cope with their son's accelerating deterioration. Unable to concentrate, he had dropped out of college and moved back home. When he could no longer function at the job he had held briefly, his parents kept him sequestered in their house, his condition a closely guarded secret. By the time the trio arrived in the emergency room, the youth was hallucinating and had assaulted his parents.
When psychiatrist Amir Afkhami asked why the couple had waited two years to seek treatment for their son's schizophrenia, the answer was simple: "We thought he was just spoiled."

Youth Suicides Increased As Antidepressant Use Fell

From 2003 to 2004, the suicide rate among Americans younger than 19 rose 14 percent, the most dramatic one-year change since the government started collecting suicide statistics in 1979, the study found. The rise followed a sharp decrease in the prescribing of antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil after parents and physicians were confronted by a barrage of warnings from the Food and Drug Administration and international agencies.

Suicide Trends Among Youths and Young Adults Aged 10--24 Years --- United States, 1990--2004

In 2004, suicide was the third leading cause of death among youths and young adults aged 10--24 years in the United States, accounting for 4,599 deaths. (MMWR Report)

Lancet Series (for those of you interested in international mental health)

The Lancet Series on Global Mental Health: Article Collection
Launching a new movement for mental health
“Despite the great attention western countries pay to the mind and human consciousness in philosophy and the arts, disturbances of mental health remain not only neglected but also deeply stigmatised across our societies.”
These are the introductory words of The Lancet's editor Dr Richard Horton, in a comment to introduce the series. He says: “For the most part, these organisations have done far too little, if anything at all?

Bill Bradley on Politics (New York Times Editorial)

A party based on charisma has no long-term impact. Think of our last charismatic leader, Bill Clinton. He was president for eight years. He was the first Democrat to be re-elected since Franklin Roosevelt. He was smart, skilled and possessed great energy. But what happened? At the end of his tenure in the most powerful office in the world, there were fewer Democratic governors, fewer Democratic senators, members of Congress and state legislators and a national party that was deep in debt. The president did well. The party did not. Charisma didn’t translate into structure.