Health News and Scoops

By Karin Zeitvogel
(AFP)
–
13 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The struggling US Medicare program is about to be swamped as the post-World War II generation becomes eligible for the government-administered health insurance for seniors.

Thousands of the oldest of the so-called baby boomers — people born between 1946 and 1964 — will Saturday turn 65, the age at which they become eligible for the Medicare program for older Americans that has been run by the US government since 1965.

A baby boomer will turn 65 every eight seconds in 2011, meaning Medicare will gain some 7,000 potential new beneficiaries a day next year, according to the AARP, a non-profit organization that aims to improve the quality of life for older Americans.

That would mean more than 2.5 million potential new Medicare recipients next year alone.

Over the next two decades, more than 70 million people are projected to become eligible for Medicare, which covered 45.2 million people in 2008.

As the number of Americans who are eligible for Medicare grows, spending on the program is projected to expand from 3.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2009 to 6.4 percent in 2030.

That is largely because health care costs rise faster than inflation but also because of the increased demand placed on the program by an aging population.

Those two factors combined have raised concerns that the health program for US seniors could become insolvent during the lifetime of baby boomers, who have paid into Medicare throughout their working lives.

But John Rother, executive vice president for policy at the AARP, said those concerns were alarmist and there was no need to sound Medicare’s death knell just yet.

“We do need to do better at getting higher value for the dollar in all health care programs, including Medicare, and it’s true that so many boomers enrolling in the program is going to add a sense of urgency to that,” Rother told AFP.

“But it’s also true that people who are 65 and first eligible for Medicare statistically do not use much in the way of health services. It’s only when they get into their mid-70s and 80s that they’re likely to need intensive and expensive health care,” he added.

“We have some time to make adjustments.”

Medicare doesn’t pay for all of a person’s medical costs, but the AARP says it can still be a “very welcome 65th birthday present.”

The program is backed by a majority of Americans, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which says that “meeting the health care needs of an aging population is a pressing challenge for the nation.”

To keep Medicare afloat, US lawmakers have proposed raising the age at which people can receive benefits from the program.

But Rother said that would “just change who pays the bill,” while newspaper commentator John Curtis wrote in the Los Angeles City Buzz Examiner that raising the eligibility age would be “no fix at all.”

Curtis suggested a means test to determine whether a person is eligible for Medicare.

“If beneficiaries have the means to provide for their own retirement income and health insurance, then the government should not pay for it,” Curtis wrote.

“Millionaires and billionaires earning retirement incomes above 250,000 dollars must forego Social Security income and pay for Medicare premiums.”

But given the kerfuffle raised by Republicans over hiking taxes on Americans who earn 250,000 dollars or more, which saw President Barack Obama strike a compromise deal with them to avoid seeing middle class Americans pay higher taxes, a Medicare means-test looks unlikely.

And Rother said the Medicare system already takes into account the fact that the wealthy can afford to pay more and charges them higher premiums for prescription medications and other services not covered by the portion of payroll taxes that they paid into Medicare during their working lives.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.
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A new analysis suggests babies who are obese at 9 months could have later health problems.

The new study showed infants with early obesity were among the heaviest by age 2, putting them at risk for later health issues that include heart disease, diabetes and emotional problems.

Lead author Brian G. Moss of Wayne State University and William H. Yeaton of the University of Michigan analyzed data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort to find 32% of children were either obese or overweight and at risk by 9 months of age.

Data for the study included height, weight, socioeconomic and demographics of 8,900 9-month-old babies and 7,500 toddlers age 2. By the time 9 month olds reached age 2, 34% were found to be either obese or teetering on the edge of obesity, defined as being in the 95th percentile for body-mass index in their age group.

Even though the 9 month olds were found to be at risk for obesity, no one suggests putting infants on a diet. The researchers wanted to understand what factors contribute to obesity in hopes of finding ways to intervene with parents and health advocates.

The researchers found Hispanics and low socioeconomic status children were at highest risk for obesity, while females and Asian/Pacific Islanders had the lowest risk.

There was no uniform risk for found in subgroups of infants, leading the authors to conclude obesity at age 9 months raises the chances of health problems and obesity later in life, “suggesting that health policy might focus on those children at greatest risk.”

American Journal of Health Promotion

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by Lorna Benson, Minnesota Public Radio

St. Paul, Minn. —
Gov.-elect Mark Dayton on Friday appointed a long-time Minnesota health leader as the state’s new health commissioner.

Dr. Ed Ehlinger has directed the University of Minnesota’s Boynton Health Service for the past 15 years. He is also the University’s Chief Health Officer. Prior to his work at the university, he served in the Minneapolis Department of Health for 15 years as Director of Personal Health Services.

Ehlinger said he is taking the helm of the Minnesota Department of Health at time of great opportunity, but he also expects some big challenges.

“We’re also coming in at a time when health care reform is going to be so huge in this state and throughout the country,” he said. “I think we have an opportunity to implement health care reform with the state health department’s role in that, in a way that will be a model for the rest of the country.”

Ehlinger said he wants to get people in public health and the medical care community working together on prevention and spending health care resources more wisely.

He will begin his new job on January 14.

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GAUHATI, India (AP) – Tea growers in northeastern India say climate change has hurt the country’s tea crop, leading not just to a drop in production but also subtly altering the flavor of their brew.

Tropical Assam state, with its high humidity and lush greenery, is India’s main tea growing region, producing nearly 55 percent of the country’s enormous tea crop. Overall, India accounts for 31 percent of global tea production. But a gradual rise in Assam’s temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns and a dip in tea production have plantation owners scared.

The area in northern India is the source of some of the finest black and British-style teas. Assam teas are notable for their heartiness, strength and body, and are often sold as “breakfast” teas.

Rajib Barooah, a tea planter in Jorhat, Assam’s main tea growing district, called the changes “worrisome developments,” and said they had weakened the potent taste of Assam tea. “We are indeed concerned,” he said. “Assam tea’s strong flavor is its hallmark.”

The numbers are stark. Assam produced 564,000 tons of tea in 2007, slipping to 487,000 tons in 2009. The 2010 crop was estimated to be about 460,000 tons, said Dhiraj Kakaty, who heads the Assam Branch Indian Tea Association, an umbrella group of some 400 tea plantations.

Mridul Hazarika, director of the Tea Research Association, one of the world’s largest tea research centers, blames climate change for the dropping numbers.

He said temperatures have risen two degrees in Assam the past eight decades. “We feel this is leading to a shortfall in production,” he said Friday.

Scientists at the Tea Research Association are analyzing temperature statistics to determine links between temperature rise, consequent fluctuations in rainfall and their effect on tea yields.

“Days with sunshine were far fewer during the (monsoon) rains this year, leading to a shortfall in production and damp weather unfavorable for tea,” Kakaty said.

Dampness also aggravates bug attacks on the tea crop.

“A pest called the tea mosquito bug multiplies in damp and cloudy weather and attacks fresh shoots of the tea bush, preventing the plant’s regeneration,” Kakaty said.

Restrictions on pesticide use because of environmental concerns have added to the planter’s woes.

But even more disturbing for growers is the change in the brew’s taste. They want the government to fund scientific studies to examine the flavor fallout from climate change.

“Earlier, we used to get a bright strong cup. Now it’s not so,” said L.P. Chaliha, a professional tea taster.

Rising temperatures are also affecting other crops. Wheat farmers in northern India report — and scientists confirm — that warmer temperatures in recent years have cut sharply into their grain yield, as the crop matures too quickly.

India has proposed a system for sharing technologies between rich and poor countries designed to start freeing up funding and technologies for poor nations that need help coping with a warmer world. These projects include building barriers against rising seas, shifting crops threatened by drought, building water supply and irrigation systems, and improving health care to deal with diseases.

The U.N. science network foresees temperatures rising by up to 6.4 degrees Celsius (11.5 degrees F) by 2100. NASA reported earlier this month that the January-November 2010 period was the warmest globally in the 131-year record. U.N. experts say countries’ current voluntary pledges on emissions cuts will not suffice to keep the temperature rise in check.

Developing countries such as India and China need help moving to low-carbon energy systems, such as solar and wind power, and away from the fossil fuels whose emissions are blamed for global warming.

Last year, industrial countries pledged $30 billion in emergency funds through 2012 to help poor countries prepare for climate change, and promised to raise $100 billion a year starting in 2020. Developing countries say at least half of those funds should go to adaptation measures, and the other half toward helping their economies shift to low-carbon growth.

The U.S. has long refused to join the rest of the industrialized world in the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 adjunct to the climate treaty that mandated modest emissions reductions by richer nations. The Americans complained it would hurt their economy and exempt emerging economies such as China and India.

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Overall, about one in four women who smoke while pregnant deny it, a new study hints. The numbers could be even higher in certain groups of women, like those in their early 20s.

In the United States, smoking by moms-to-be is one of the most common preventable causes of illness and death among infants, Dr. Patricia Dietz from the division of reproductive health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues note in their report.

In their study, they estimated how many pregnant and nonpregnant smokers aged 20 to 44 years did not disclose their habit on a health questionnaire.

How did they catch the deception? They took blood samples from the women to measure levels of cotinine — a byproduct of nicotine that serves as a marker of exposure to tobacco smoke. Their analysis included 994 pregnant women and 3,203 nonpregnant women.

Overall, 13 percent of pregnant women and 30 percent of nonpregnant women were active cigarette smokers. The pregnant smokers smoked an average of 11 cigarettes a day, while the nonpregnant smokers averaged close to 14 cigarettes a day.

According to the investigators, far more pregnant than nonpregnant smokers failed to disclose their habit – 23 percent versus nine percent – and were identified by their cotinine concentrations.

For a variety of reasons, such as the fact that pregnant women’s bodies break down cotinine faster, the researchers think the results “likely underestimate” the true number of pregnant women who smoke and don’t say so.

Among both pregnant and nonpregnant smokers, those most likely to keep this information to themselves were women aged 20 to 24, as well as those with Medicaid or other source of government-funded health insurance and those with less than a high school education.

Race also factored in. Pregnant smokers who failed to report their habit were most likely to be non-Hispanic black. In women who weren’t pregnant, nondisclosure was most common among Mexican-American women and non-Hispanic blacks.

Writing in the American Journal of Epidemiology, Dietz and her colleagues say their findings may have important implications for researchers studying how smoking during pregnancy affects the developing baby, as roughly one in four pregnant smokers, and one in 10 nonpregnant smokers, deny smoking.

Studies and surveillance systems that rely on people to accurately state their smoking status may get inaccurate information, “especially among pregnant women,” they warn.

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