More Health and Health Care Links

Here's the chart examining the 100+ causes of obesity that we discussed in class

A new study at convenience stores in low-income Baltimore neighborhoods posted the caloric values of soft drinks in various ways.  Posting absolute caloric count and percentage of recommended daily intake had no statistically significant effect on consumption, but posting the physical activity equivalent of the calories resulted in only half as many youths buying soft drinks.

NYT health writer Mark Bittman asks the authors of a new book if a calorie is really a calorie.  Their answer is that it is for weight loss purposes (eating 1500 calories of junk food will result in a lower weight than eating 1600 calories of healthy food every day, assuming no differences in behavior), but that a.) the types of foods you eat affect your behavior (it's easier to consume 500 calories of Coke than of apples); and b.) calories are not equal for overall health.  Some policy options are discussed.

The LA Times recounts the history of conservative proposals to mandate health insurance.  Here's a detailed history of conservative proposals both including and not including a mandate.

We briefly discussed the immense health care costs of the last few months of one's life in class.  Here's a Doctor's reflection on why we have such a difficult time letting loved ones die.  Among other explanations, he argues that urbanization has shielded Americans from seeing death in nature and that

Rising affluence has allowed us to isolate senescence. Before nursing homes, assisted-living centers and in-home nurses, grandparents, their children and their grandchildren were often living under the same roof, where everyone's struggles were plain to see. In 1850, 70 percent of white elderly adults lived with their children. Today, that figure is only 16 percent. Sequestering our elderly keeps most of us from knowing what it's like to grow old.

Ezekiel Emanuel discusses various plans to reduce growth in Medicare spending.

To solve the contraceptive debate, Sally Kalson argues that guys should stop having sex instead of focusing on what women are doing.

Paul Krugman says "Hurray for Health Reform" (any of these arguments sound familiar?):

The fact is that individual health insurance, as currently constituted, just doesn’t work. If insurers are left free to deny coverage at will — as they are in, say, California — they offer cheap policies to the young and healthy (and try to yank coverage if you get sick) but refuse to cover anyone likely to need expensive care. Yet simply requiring that insurers cover people with pre-existing conditions, as in New York, doesn’t work either: premiums are sky-high because only the sick buy insurance.
 The solution — originally proposed, believe it or not, by analysts at the ultra-right-wing Heritage Foundation — is a three-legged stool of regulation and subsidies. As in New York, insurers are required to cover everyone; in return, everyone is required to buy insurance, so that healthy as well as sick people are in the risk pool. Finally, subsidies make those mandated insurance purchases affordable for lower-income families.

Meanwhile, Tyler Cowen argues that the mandate is a bad idea -- in part because it may lead to Americans continually demanding higher subsidies and politicians and interest groups will keep creating more expensive health plans as minimum coverage.

And a WSJ journal op-ed argues for dropping the health insurance mandate because adverse selection will happen anyway and there are other ways to prevent consumers from gaming the system.

House Republicans released a new budget that proposes changing Medicare from a publicly run insurance program to a flat subsidy to be used by senior citizens to purchase private health insurance.

Medicare announced last year that they would start paying for weight loss programs, so now -- much like pharmaceutical companies -- various weight loss programs are advocating that doctors refer patients to them.

Health insurance companies and other firms are beginning to try to make medical pricing more transparent by proving customers with the costs of a procedure at various facilities.  Progress has been slow.

A NYT editorial argues that reducing Medicare reimbursements for doctors has resulted in doctors performing more tests and procedures, increasing waste.  They recommend cutting reimbursement rates only for specialists, and particularly for procedures deemed overused and wasteful.