Category: Health Care Policy (Page 7 of 22)

      The Cost Of Aging Is Outpacing Resources

      April 15, 2012 /

      As we are living longer the cost of aging increases.

      A strain on private pensions, social security and on health services could prove problematic.

      Raising the retirement age, increasing taxes to fund public pension plans and lower benefits could hep mitigate the strains of an aging population.

      Educating citizens better on how to prepare for their retirements and by promoting retirement products that protect people against the risk that they outlive their assets.

      Already the cost of caring for aging baby boomers is beginning to strain government budgets, particularly in advanced economies where by 2050 the elderly will match the numbers of workers almost one for one. The IMF study shows that the problem is global and that longevity is a bigger risk than thought.

      “If everyone in 2050 lived just three years longer than now expected, in line with the average underestimation of longevity in the past, society would need extra resources equal to 1% to 2% of GDP per year,” it said in a study to be released in its World Economic Outlook next week.

      Health Care Policy, Medicare, Quality Control

      Dental X-Rays Linked To Certain Brain Tumors

      April 14, 2012 /

      There is concern over exposure to dental x-rays and the threat that they may pose.

      Meningioma and thyroid cancer have been connected to dental x-rays, however, there is no causal relationship established and dental professionals are calling for more research.

      “It’s a cautionary tale … we do know that radiation can cause tumors, and we have to be judicious with its use,” said Dr. Donald O’Rourke, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the study.

      Meningiomas are the most frequently occurring tumor in the head. They are located in the meninges, the tissues covering the brain. The vast majority are “benign” – or noncancerous – but, depending on their location, could cause blindness or other serious neurological damage. Those in the skull base are more difficult to remove in their entirety. Depending on the tumor, surgery may not be required.

      There is always caution against excessive radiation exposure from x-rays.

      Health Care Policy, Quality Control, Research, Wellness

      Diabetes Is An American Crisis

      April 11, 2012 /

      Gastric bypass surgery may sound drastic but diabetes has become a serious health issue for millions of Americans.

      The health care costs alone pose a threat the system not to mention the toll the disease takes on families and society at large.

      Getting this epidemic under control should be a top priority, however, is life threatening surgery the answer?

      Doctors, Health Care Policy, Health Insurance, Nutrition, Quality Control, Research, Resources, Wellness

      Doctors Recognize The Need To Test Less

      April 4, 2012 /

      Doctors urge their colleagues to perform less tests.

      When you consider that the majority of insurance dollars are spent in the last 6 months of a patient’s life we have to consider if this is money well spent.

      This goes for testing, as well.

      The Choosing Wisely project was launched last year by the foundation of the American Board of Internal Medicine. It recruited nine medical specialty societies representing more than 376,000 physicians to come up with five common tests or procedures “whose necessity … should be questioned and discussed.”

      The groups represent family physicians, cardiologists, radiologists, gastroenterologists, oncologists, kidney specialists and specialists in allergy, asthma and immunology and nuclear cardiology.

      Doctors, Health Care Policy, Health Insurance, Hospitals, Quality Control, Research, Resources, Wellness

      Breast Cancer Over-Diagnosis From Too Many Mammograms

      April 3, 2012 /

      The potential for over-diagnosis and over-treatment from too many mammograms too early has become the subject of a recent study.

      The Norwegian Study included nearly 40,000 women with invasive breast cancer.

      The study allowed the researchers to compare the rate of breast cancers diagnosed through mammograms and those found because a tumor was palpable or produced symptoms.

      Norway has data on virtually all women who get a diagnosis of breast cancer.

      The researchers concluded that 15 percent to 25 percent of breast cancers were overdiagnosed — meaning 6 to 10 women were overdiagnosed for every 2,500 offered screening mammograms.

      – Dr. Joanne Elmore of the University of Washington and Dr. Suzanne Fletcher of Harvard, in an editorial
      Under current practice, those women get biopsies and treatment for breast cancers that would never have been detected otherwise. Either the cancers would have grown very slowly or not at all and never caused symptoms, or women would have died from something else before their breast cancer was diagnosed.

      Health Care Policy, Quality Control, Research, Wellness

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