The CEOs of the 23 top health insurance companies received $14.9 billion in compensation over a five year-period. You can provide a lot of health care for $14.9 billion.
Pacific Health Online
Because ya gotta be proactive about Health: Issues and News
June 18, 2009
June 16, 2009
In Health Care United States is last.
Aloha Politics
Senator McConnell, has suggested that health care in the United States is something to be proud of and that health care is these countries is flawed. Well, let’s look at some facts.
First, let's look at per capita health care spending in those three countries, and in the United States:
United States: $5,274
Canada: $2,931
United Kingdom: $2,160
New Zealand: $1,857
Let's look at the figures from a slightly different standpoint, total health care spending as a percent of GDP:
United States: 15.4%
Canada: 9.8%
New Zealand: 8.4%
United Kingdom: 8.1%
On the theory that you get what you pay for, our health care system certainly SHOULD be the best in the world? Here are the number of children, per thousand live births, who die in their first year of life in these same four countries:
United States: 6.3
Canada: 5.08
New Zealand: 4.99
United Kingdom: 4.93
Here are the years of life expectancy at birth for the total population (in all cases, the average woman lives a little longer than this, and the average man a little less than this):
Canada: 80.18 years
New Zealand: 79.62 years
United Kingdom: 78.95 years
United States: 77.71 years
Personally, I care a lot less about how many years I live than how many years I live in reasonably good health. Here are the years of heathy life expectancy in these three countries and the United States:
New Zealand: 70.3 years
Canada: 69.9 years
United Kingdom: 69.6 years
United States: 67.6 years
Here are the figures on the average man's probability of making it to age 65 in those three countries and the United States:
Canada: 82.3%
United Kingdom: 81.5%
New Zealnad: 80.9%
United States: 77.4%
But Senator McConnell is right on at least one thing. Government health care spending, as a percent of total health care spending, IS higher in those three countries than it is here. Here is the public health care spending as a percent of the total in those three countries and the United States:
United Kingdom: 83.4%
New Zealand: 77.9%
Canada: 69.9%
United States: 44.9%
This suggests to me that perhaps government is more effective at limiting costs and improving results in the health care field than is the vaunted private sector, and that increased government involvement in health care would be a good, rather than a bad, thing.
What DOES make sense is to compare the overall outcomes of one system with another, and on that basis, it is simply impossible to deny that New Zealand, Canada, and Great Britain have health care systems that deliver better results, at far lower cost, than the system we have here in the United States. ;
June 14, 2009
Fears of swine flu strains mixing and much more flu woes
Swine flu cases jump in Thailand, New ZealandFears of flu strains mixing – Nationmultimedia.com
Public health authorities yesterday expressed worries that the new influenza type-A H1N1 virus could mix with the upcoming seasonal flu strain, possibly making it more dangerous to humans.At least five more schools in Bangkok and nearby provinces as well as in the northern province of Chiang Mai would also partially or completely close starting today as the swine flu has spread.
The annual flu season runs from this month to September.
The government reported 44 fresh cases of swine flu, bringing Thailand’s confirmed tally to 150.
Community epidemic declared in Nueva Ecija village
abs-cbnNEWS.com as of 06/14/2009 8:44 PM
RP H1N1 cases climb to 147
MANILA – The first community-level outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) in the Philippines has been declared by the Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday in a village in Jaen town, Nueva Ecija province.
And more in Vietnam: Super flu may lead to drop in tourism (13-06-2009) HA NOI Super flu may lead to drop in tourismThe tourism authority is calling on travel firms not to send tourists to areas affected by super flu, dealing another blow to the industry that is already reeling from the global financial crisis and higher oil prices. Last Monday, the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism Deputy General Director Nguyen Manh Cuong signed Decree 347/TCDL-LH saying that all travel agencies should suspend tours to countries affected by the A H1N1 virus, which the World Health Organisation declared a pandemic on Thursday.
June 9, 2009
Two Taiwanese returning from Thailand infected by flu
Two Taiwanese returning from Thailand infected by flu – Nationmultimedia.com
Taiwan has alerted Thailand that two Taiwanese who returned from Thailand were found infected by the influenza 2009, Thai Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadia said Tuesday.
June 6, 2009
Key to blood clotting discovered
BBC NEWS | Health | Key to blood clotting discovered
Scientists have discovered a molecular mechanism that is key to regulating the way blood clots.The team from Harvard University, writing in the journal Science, said the finding could help treat people who have blood-clotting disorders.
If blood clots too much, people can develop a potentially fatal thrombosis; too little and they can bleed to death.
April 26, 2009
The virus in all of us: It’s Normal!
Daily Kos: The virus in all of us: It’s Normal!
It wasn’t created from some “animal human hybrid experiment” (as certain GOP congresspersons might suggest) or deliberate bioterrorism, but by a process that viruses have conducted for billions of years. Viruses were probably the primary engine in evolution.…viruses, as an evolutionary lineage, predate both the formation of modern cellular life and use of DNA, but that they developed after the three main branches had already split. Forterre argues that DNA was a viral innovation, developed after the hosts had evolved defenses that targeted viral RNA. The initial DNA viruses would have been generalists, and could have freely exchanged their DNA metabolism genes, or adopted RNA metabolism enzymes from hosts in any of the three branches. As they specialized to infect a specific branch, they locked an idiosyncratic combination of DNA enzymes in place. Eventually, in each of the three branches, an infection would fail due to a defective virus, and the resulting DNA genome would be trapped in a proto-cell. Due to its chemical stability, selective pressure would favor moving host genes to the DNA genome, eventually resulting in a complete, DNA-based cell. Life would be off and running.
The process of gene translocation has many (almost always negative) effects on today’s human genes besides infection. Moving a specific gene from a chromosome to another where there is not an adjacent “control segment” can mean that it has unpredictable functions in the cell, such as turning an otherwise healthy cell into a malignancy. That’s why viruses are suspected as the cause or one of several causes of diseases like cervical and head/neck cancers and lymphoma.
It’s clear that pandemic viral infections aren’t new. Now that researchers are looking for them, evidence of past infections that have run rampant and then lost their virulence seem to be everywhere. Here’s one report:
April 25, 2009
WHO Chief: Swine Flu Has “Pandemic Potential”
WHO Chief: Swine Flu Has “Pandemic Potential”
MEXICO CITY — A new swine flu strain that has killed as many as 68 people and sickened more than 1,000 across Mexico has “pandemic potential,” the World Health Organization chief said Saturday, and it may be too late to contain the sudden outbreak.The disease has already reached Texas and California, and with 24 new suspected cases reported Saturday in Mexico City alone, schools were closed and all public events suspended in the capital until further notice _ including more than 500 concerts and other gatherings in the metropolis of 20 million.
A hot line fielded 2,366 calls in its first hours from frightened city residents who suspected they might have the disease. Soldiers and health workers handed out masks at subway stops, and hospitals dealt with crowds of people seeking help.
The World Health O
April 6, 2009
Did you see that 60 Minutes segment on Health Care?
Daily Kos: Did you see that 60 Minutes segment on Health Care?
Helen Sharp’s answer to “What do I do?” and the answer to every victim in this story of outrage is “I don’t know.” Everywhere they turn as their cancer eats more and more of their bodies all they hear is “I don’t know.”No matter what Nevada’s politics are this is a story for Washington to address. This is a story that can change the national debate from politicians talking about escalating health care cost, people’s bankruptcies, lost homes, and small businesses closing their doors to what American’s are really facing today.
This should be addressed by the Federal government immediately and our Democratic leaders better be willing to acknowledge these Americans just like hurricane or flood victims in what sounds like another case of government sponsored negligent homicide.
April 3, 2009
Active Ingredient in Marijuana Kills Brain Cancer Cells
Active Ingredient in Marijuana Kills Brain Cancer Cells – Forbes.com
Active Ingredient in Marijuana Kills Brain Cancer Cells
March 21, 2009
What’s for Dinner – Flatbreads and pan breads
Daily Kos: What’s for Dinner – Flatbreads and pan breads
There are hundreds – probably thousands – of variations on flatbreads. These are just a few of the ones I make at home, and I left out several favorites. (Currently my absolute favorite is buckwheat potato flat bread, crusted with sesame seeds. Rather like a buckwheat flavored potato pancake, delicious topped with sour cream, with or without a sprinkle of chopped green onions… mmmmm.) Flatbreads are easy to experiment with and modify, and unless you’re interested in the exotics, the ingredients are cheap.
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