Uninsured Projections
The plight of the uninsured isn't likely to be resolved anytime soon. More than one in four American workers under the age of 65 will be uninsured in 2013—nearly 56 million people—driven by the increasing inability to afford health insurance, reports a Health Affairs Web-exclusive article. Because growth in per capita health spending is expected to outpace median personal income by 2.4% every year, health care coverage will continue to decline because more Americans will find it unaffordable. “It is unlikely that we will be able to solve the problem of the uninsured without some form of universal health insurance requiring contributions from some combination of employers, employees, and taxpayers,” the study indicated. The researchers based the estimates of the uninsured on federal projections of health spending, personal income, and other population characteristics.
Seniors Don't Take Their Medicine
Four in 10 seniors don't take their medications as prescribed—either because the drug regimens were too complex and costly, they didn't think the drugs were helping them, or they didn't think they needed them, a survey of 17,685 Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older revealed. The 2003 survey, which was conducted prior to the enactment of the Medicare Modernization Act, found that drug coverage made a substantial difference in adherence rates. Thirty-seven percent of seniors without drug coverage reported cost-related nonadherence, compared with 22% of seniors with drug coverage. “Urging doctors and patients to talk more about these issues and developing systems to monitor quality and safety” could improve compliance, said Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis. The survey was conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, and Tufts-New England Medical Center and was posted as a Health Affairs online article.
Unreadable Privacy Forms
Privacy forms used by major health care institutions are often lengthy and too difficult for patients to read, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2005;293:1593–4). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requires that health care institutions inform patients in detail about the use of information obtained during medical care, through a notice of privacy form “written in plain English.” The median length of the forms was six pages, and often used inappropriately small type, and complex language that was unlikely to be understood by a “considerable proportion” of the populations served by these institutions, the report said. Privacy practice notices from 185 institutions listed in the 2004 U.S. News & World Report “best hospitals” issue were collected for the study.
Obesity in African Americans
Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have awarded $1.2 million to fight obesity among African Americans. The money will be used by a coalition of national organizations to fund prevention, education, public awareness, and outreach activities aimed at promoting a greater understanding of the impact of obesity. Nearly two-thirds of Americans are considered overweight or obese but the problem appears to be more prevalent in the African American community. Adult African American women have age-adjusted obesity rates of 49%, compared with 31% for adult white women, according to 1999–2002 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. African American girls and boys also had higher rates of overweight than did white children in the same age groups. HHS plans a second phase of the initiative targeting the Hispanic community.
Bill on Livestock Antibiotics
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) have introduced a bill to cut down on the amount of antibiotics used in livestock, citing evidence that increased antibiotic use in animals leads to reduced effectiveness in humans. “Antibiotics are among the greatest miracles of modern medicine, yet we are destroying them faster than the pharmaceutical industry can create replacements,” Sen. Kennedy said in a statement. “If doctors lose these critical remedies, the most vulnerable among us will suffer the most—children, the elderly, and persons with HIV/AIDS, who are most in danger of resistant infections.” The measure would require the Food and Drug Administration to withdraw approval for nontherapeutic use of eight classes of antibiotics in food-producing animals after 2 years if the use has not been proved harmless during that time. It also requires manufacturers of animal drugs or drug-containing feed to make their sales records available to government regulators for tracking emerging antimicrobial resistance.