ATLANTA - The number of Americans with diabetes has grown to about 24 million people, or roughly 8 percent of the U.S. population, the government said Tuesday.
A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on data from 2007, said the number represents an increase of about 3 million over two years. The CDC estimates another 57 million people have blood sugar abnormalities called pre-diabetes, which puts people at increased risk for the disease.
The percentage of people unaware that they have diabetes fell from 30 percent to 25 percent, according to the study.
Dr. Ann Albright, director of the CDC Division of Diabetes Translation, said the report has "both good news and bad news."
"It is concerning to know that we have more people developing diabetes, and these data are a reminder of the importance of increasing awareness of this condition, especially among people who are at high risk," Albright said in a statement.
"On the other hand, it is good to see that more people are aware that they have diabetes."
A message left Tuesday night seeking further comment from the CDC wasn't immediately returned.
The disease results from defects in insulin production that cause sugar to build up in the body. It is the seventh leading cause of death in the country and can cause serious health problems including heart disease, blindness, kidney failure and amputations.
Among adults, diabetes increased in both men and women and in all age groups, but still disproportionately affects the elderly. Almost 25 percent of the population 60 years and older had diabetes in 2007.
After adjusting for population age differences between various groups, the rate of diagnosed diabetes was highest among American Indians and Alaska Natives (16.5 percent). This was followed by blacks (11.8 percent) and Hispanics (10.4 percent), which includes rates for Puerto Ricans (12.6 percent), Mexican Americans (11.9 percent), and Cubans (8.2 percent).
By comparison, the rate for Asian Americans was 7.5 percent, with whites at 6.6 percent.
Article from:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008015370_apdiabetesrates.html
ATLANTA - The Southwest has the lowest rate of health insurance coverage in the country, with 30 percent of non-elderly adults and 18 percent of children uninsured, according to a new government study.
New England — with a rate of uninsured people less than half that of the Southwest — has the largest proportion of its population covered, the study found.
The study marks the first time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has compared different regions of the country by health insurance status, said Robin Cohen, the lead researcher.
Cohen declined to theorize why Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma together have higher rates of uninsured people than other parts of the country.
But another expert said it likely comes from a combination of factors, including state policy decisions and the fact that many jobs in the Southwest are service, construction or other jobs without good health benefits.
Aggressive steps by states such as Massachusetts to increase coverage of their uninsured may widen the gap between regions like New England and the Southwest, said the expert, Ken Thorpe of Atlanta's Emory University.
"There are substantial inequities in coverage depending where you live, and they seem to be getting worse," said Thorpe, a health policy researcher.
The CDC study's results are based on a national, in-person household survey of more than 106,000 families in 2004 through 2006.
The researchers focused on non-institutionalized people under the age of 65, the age when Medicare insurance for the elderly kicks in.
The study presented estimates for the 41 states that had at least 1,000 respondents. But the researchers pooled data from the other states as well to come up with regional estimates.
Among those states for which there were data, Oklahoma had the highest percentage of people uninsured — more than 33 percent. Hawaii and Massachusetts were tied with the lowest percentage, at 9.5 percent.
The Southwest has a large American Indian population served by the Indian Health Service. The Indian Health Service was not counted as a form of insurance, in keeping with definitions used in other health insurance studies. But even if it had been counted as coverage, the Southwest still would have had the highest uninsurance rates, Cohen said.
In the six-state New England region, 11 percent of non-elderly adults were uninsured, as were a little under 4 percent of children.
Next best? Three regions that include the Great Plains, Great Lakes in the upper Midwest and the Northeast each had uninsurance rates of 14 to 15 percent for adults and about 6 to 7 percent for children.
The Southeast was the second-worst region, with nearly 23 percent of adults uninsured. The Rocky Mountain states were second worst for children, with nearly 12 percent uninsured.
For the nation as a whole, nearly 17 percent of people under 65 were uninsured at the time they were interviewed.
A second study by the CDC, also released Wednesday, presented 2007 data from the same annual survey. It found about 16.5 percent of Americans were uninsured at the time they were interviewed that year. That survey only covered 20 states and did not give a regional breakdown.
The CDC estimates that as many as 54 million Americans went uninsured during at least part of the year, and nearly 31 million were uninsured for a period of more than a year.
Article from:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=5243386
TUESDAY, June 10 (HealthDay News) - The number of American adults who had inadequate health insurance to cover their medical expenses rose 60 percent from 2003 to 2007, from 16 million to more than 25 million people.
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Hardest hit were families with middle and higher incomes, those whose income was 200 percent above the federal poverty level or those with an annual income of $40,000 or more, a new report by The Commonwealth Fund found.
"Insurance coverage is the ticket into the health-care system," Karen Davis, president of The Commonwealth Fund, said during a Monday teleconference. "For too many, that ticket does not buy financial security or genuine access to care.
"We need to extend effective, affordable health insurance to all," added Davis. "Shifting costs to patients is not an equitable or effective solution to rising health-care costs. It is time for serious consideration of changes in the way we pay for and deliver health services. Ultimately, we need a national solution to the problem of millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans."
The report is published in the June 10 issue of Health Affairs.
To make their estimates, the researchers conducted a national survey in 2007 of 3,501 adults. They found that among adults aged 19 to 64, 25.2 million were "underinsured." That number was based on out-of-pocket health-care costs as a proportion of income.
"Overall, the study finds a startling 60 percent increase in the number of underinsured working age adults over the past four years," said study co-author Cathy Schoen, a senior vice president at The Commonwealth Fund. "A jump up to 25 million underinsured in 2007, compared to only 16 million in 2003."
Approximately 42 percent of adults aged 19 to 64 years old — 75 million people — were either underinsured or didn't have health insurance in 2007. That represents an increase of 33 percent since 2003, when the last survey was done, Schoen said.
People who are underinsured are people who have health insurance but spend 10 percent or more of their income on out-of-pocket medical expenses. For people below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, being underinsured means spending more than 5 percent of income on out-of-pocket medical costs.
Being underinsured also means paying deductibles of 5 percent or more of family income.
The researchers found that people who were underinsured were more likely to go without needed health care and have problems paying medical bills, compared with people who have adequate health insurance.
In fact, 53 percent of the underinsured and 68 percent of those without health insurance had to forgo needed medical care, such as not seeing a doctor when sick, not filling prescriptions, and not getting recommended diagnostic tests or treatments. "The underinsured look a lot like the uninsured," Schoen said.
Among the underinsured, 45 percent reported having difficulty paying bills, being contacted by collection agencies for unpaid bills, and curtailing their way of life to pay their medical bills, compared with 21 percent of people with adequate health insurance.
Also, underinsured people were more likely to have insurance plans that limit payments. They were also more likely to have high deductibles. For example, one quarter of underinsured people had deductibles of $1,000 or more, the report found.
However, premiums for the underinsured were similar to or higher than those paid by people with adequate insurance, the researchers found.
"Today in the United States you can have health insurance all year long but still go into medical debt or face bankruptcy when you get sick," Schoen said. "This erosion of insurance protection is putting patients, families and the nation's health and economic security at risk."
Kim Bailey, a senior policy analyst at Families USA, a health-care advocacy group, said she thinks the trend toward greater out-of-pocket costs for health care is likely to continue.
"It is clear that American families are facing a growing burden of out-of-pocket costs, and this is consistent with a decay in the comprehensiveness of health benefits being offered," she said.
Bailey noted that between 2000 and 2007, the average family premium for employer-sponsored insurance rose more than 90 percent. "We are getting to a place were a number of people are feeling the squeeze," she said. "This report highlights the thinning of benefits on higher income people and that is new. That indicates to me that a call for change is likely to be strengthened."
Another expert said the new report probably underestimates the problem of underinsurance.
"There are a whole lot of ways to be underinsured that the report does not capture," said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program.
The deductible is only a fraction of the total amount one has to pay out-of-pocket, Woolhandler said. "In addition to the deductible, there are issues such as co-insurance and the issue of uncovered services, which are not part of the deductible," she said.
Woolhandler also noted that many people lose their job and their health insurance when they become disabled. "At least 25 percent of employers terminate employment the day you become disabled," she said.
SOURCES: Kim Bailey, senior policy analyst, Families USA, Washington, D.C.; Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., associate professor, medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and co-founder, Physicians for a National Health Program; June 9, 2008, teleconference with Karen Davis, president, and Cathy Schoen, senior vice president, The Commonwealth Fund, New York City; June 10, 2008, Health Affairs
Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
By Steven Reinberg
As published on
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=90152
NEW YORK - Employer health care costs are poised to rise almost 10 percent in 2008 - more than double the annual inflation rate - and nearly that much again in 2009, according to an industry report released Tuesday.
The study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers predicts that medical costs will increase 9.9 percent in 2008 and an additional 9.6 percent in 2009.
"Health care providers, insurers and employers will have to monitor medical costs carefully if we are to avoid a resurgence of the double-digit annual increases seen in the past," said Dr. David Chin, leader of the Health Research Institute at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
The report identified two factors driving the increase:
_A hospital building boom, as hospitals replace facilities and add private rooms and centers for outpatient treatment.
_An increase in the expenses those with insurance are paying for those without. Cost-shifting from the uninsured, Medicare and Medicaid will account for nearly one in every five dollars spent by private insurers in 2009, according to the study, as the federal government underfunds public insurance programs and the number of people with private insurance continues to decrease.
One of the things employers are doing in response is increasing wellness, prevention and disease management programs, which they say not only keeps employees healthy but also raises productivity.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers surveyed more than 500 employers and health plans, with total coverage of more than 11 million people, for the report.
As published on new.yahoo.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080617/ap_on_bi_ge/healthcare_costs
WASHINGTON - Bolstering the performance of the U.S. health care system is one of the biggest challenges facing the country, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday.
New medical technologies and treatments are allowing people to live healthier, longer and more productive lives. However, the aging of millions of baby boomers coupled with rapidly rising heath care costs are accounting for an ever-growing share of both personal and government budgets - strains that will become increasingly burdensome unless changes are made, the Fed chief warned.
Challenges, he said, fall into three major areas: improving access to health care for the 47 million Americans -or about 16 percent of the population -who lack health insurance; bolstering the quality of care; and controlling costs.
"Improving the performance of our health care system is without a doubt one of the most important challenges our nation faces," Bernanke said in remarks to a summit on health care reform organized by a Senate panel on Capitol Hill.
The Fed chief didn't talk about the Fed's next move on interest rates or the state of the U.S. economy in his speech or during a brief question and answer session afterward.
Many economists believe the Fed will hold a key interest rate steady at 2 percent, a four-year low, when it meets next week. Bernanke and other Fed officials have sent strong signals that the Fed's rate-cutting campaign, started last September to shore up the ailing economy, was probably over because of mounting concerns about inflation.
Wall Street investors and some other believe that the Fed might be forced to raise rates later this year to thwart a dangerous inflation flare-up. Others, however, still think the Fed will be able to hold rates steady through the rest of this year.
It's a difficult spot for Fed policymakers. They are trying to aid an economy that has been badly bruised by the blows of a housing, credit and financial debacles. At the same time, they don't want inflation to take off. If the Fed were to start boosting rates too soon to fend off inflation, that could deal a set back to already fragile economic growth.
On the health care front, Bernanke didn't recommend specific solutions, saying the difficult choices involved with improving access and quality, and controlling costs were best left to policymakers in Congress, the White House and elsewhere.
"Taking on these challenges will be daunting," he said. Given the complexity of health care matters, he suggested that it might be better for policymakers to consider an "eclectic approach," rather than one single set of reforms to address all concerns.
"We may need to first address the problems that seem more easily managed rather than waiting for a solution that will address all problems at once," Bernanke offered.
When policymakers contemplate changes, Bernanke urged them to "not lose what is good about our system." The system has produced innovations in basic science, in the understanding and diagnosing of disease and in advancements in medical technology, he pointed out. These advances have produced more effective treatments and significant reductions in mortality across a wide spectrum of diseases, he added.
Bernanke, once again, warned high health care costs will put an increasing strain on people's and government's budgets, unless those costs are curbed.
Spending on health care is the single-largest component of overall consumer spending -larger than spending on either housing or food, Bernanke said. For the federal government, spending on health care accounts for about one-quarter of total spending. By 2050, it will account for almost one half, Bernanke said.
"Per capita health care spending in the United States has increased at a faster rate than per capita income for a number of decades," he said. "Should that trend continue, as many economists predict it will, the share of income devoted to paying for health care will rise relentlessly," Bernanke predicted. That will make health insurance and out-of-pocket payments increasingly unaffordable, he said.
However, if the government doesn't rein in the growth of entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, those exploding costs in time will balloon the U.S. budget deficit, which would hurt the country's long-term economic vitality and could lead to higher interest rates, Bernanke said. "Certainly, it will have effects on interest rates, it will have effects on economic growth and on stability," he said.
The government, he said, needs to move ahead sooner, rather than later, because these issues "are not going to get better" and instead will only "get worse."
As published on New.yahoo.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080616/ap_on_go_ot/bernanke
