Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Study Reveals Problems in Costs and Quality of American Health Care System

A study from the Commonwealth Fund reported on the website Cover the Uninsured, a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that "chronically ill Americans are more likely to forgo medical care because of high costs or experience medical errors than patients in other affluent countries," reports Reuters. "Fifty-four percent of Americans surveyed said high costs prevented them at some point from getting recommended medical care, filling prescriptions or seeing a doctor when ill." Read more of the Reuters' article. Submitted by Dr. Bob Flashman.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Giving Children Cough Medicine

The new FDA recommendations are to NOT give children under 4 cough medicine. One year ago, the FDA began looking into the hazards of using over the counter cold medicines in children and last month, the FDA and manufacturer's of cough-cold medicines announced that products will have new labels warning against their use with children under 4.

Will parents who grew up being given these medications, pay attention to the labels? As a mother who kept children's cough medicines on hand, I understand the prevalent use of such medications. That is why the FDA according to their press release dated October 9, 2008 made the decision to not ban these medications. The fear being that parents would give adult cough medicines to children.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Osteoporosis Tool Kit Available on Line

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services' Kentucky Osteoporosis program has made available on-line a tool kit for Extension Agents, Health Department educators and others wanting reliable information for teaching community members about the importance of Bone Health for adults and children. HEEL staff members serve on the state advisory committee and contributed to the development of this tool kit. Access the tool kit at: http://www.chfs.ky.gov/dph/ach/cd/osteotoolkit.htm

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Health Confidence Survey

More than half of Americans with health insurance coverage experienced an increase in health care costs in the past year, according to the 2008 Health Confidence Survey released by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Most who experienced cost increases also reported that these increases had a negative effect on their household finances. In particular, increased health care costs resulted in decreased contributions to retirement and other savings and difficulty in paying for necessities and other bills.
Source: Family Economics News -- Nov. 2008

Bob Flashman

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

What Does It Cost to Eat a Healthy Diet?

The New York Times reports that he average American spends $7.00 a day on food cost. The World Bank says nearly a billion people around the world live on a dollar a day, or even less. It is difficult to determine the costs to eat healthy. According to the New York Times "many people don’t know how to prepare foods from scratch, or lack the time." Sounds like a good opportunity for the Cooperative Extension Service.