Studies show exercise:
- Reduces the risk of colds and flu by 25% to 50%
- Lowers the risk of stroke by 27%
- Reduces the incidence of diabetes by approximately 50%
- Reduces the incidence of high-blood pressure by approximately 40%
- Can reduce mortality and the risk of recurrent breast cancer by approximately 50%
- Can lower the risk of colon cancer by over 60%
- Can reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by approximately 40%
- Can decrease depression as effectively as Prozac or behavioral therapy
More on the possible hidden benefits of exercise.
Did you know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month? I didn’t either. But with such distractions as President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize who can blame us? Consider:
The breast is something of an orphan in our health care system. We have cardiologists, nephrologists, hepatologists, proctologists and neurologists — but we have no “mammologists.” How did the breast get lost?
This is from a study by June and David O'Neill for the Employment Policies Institute:
- Among US women age 40 to 64, 87% of those with insurance had a mammogram within 5 years, compared to 65% of those without insurance.
- The rate for Canadian women is 65% – the same as for uninsured women in the US.
- Canadian women also have the same rate of screening for cervical cancer as uninsured US women (80%), over five years. Among insured US women, the rate is 92%.
- Among uninsured US men, 31% were screened for prostate cancer, compared with 16% in Canada. For insured US men, the rate is 52%.
This is from an Associated Press story:
- In Britain, cancer researchers announced that as many as 15,000 people over age 75 were dying prematurely from cancer every year.
- When the breast cancer drug Herceptin was proven to be effective in 1998, it was available almost immediately in the U.S. But it took another four years for the U.K. to start buying it for British breast cancer patients.
- Last week, Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised that patients unable to see cancer experts within two weeks would get cash to pay for private care. Brown had previously argued against paying for private providers and some say the reversal may be a gimmick to boost his sagging popularity.
We have previously warned about this here, here and here. This is Virginia Postrel. Full article is worth reading.
- Private infusion clinics have been springing up all over Canada, offering cancer drugs to patients who either can pay themselves or have private health insurance, usually through an employer, that will cover the cost.
- In the U.K., some regional authorities threatened to exclude patients from all NHS coverage if they pay private providers for pricey cancer drugs.
- Until July 2007, New Zealand wouldn’t fund the anticancer drug Herceptin for early-stage breast cancer…. To pay for treatments, women who could do so have mortgaged their homes, dipped into their retirement savings and held fundraisers among their neighbors. Many have cut their treatments short to save money.
Where third-party payers foot the bill, of course. How could you doubt. "Health insurers are required by federal law to cover reconstructive breast surgery after mastectomies." Yet a New York Times article finds that:
Even as promising new operations are gaining traction at academic medical centers, plastic surgeons often fail to tell patients about them. One reason is that not all surgeons have trained to perform the latest procedures. Another reason is money: some complex surgeries are less profitable for doctors and hospitals, so they have less of an incentive to offer them, doctors say.
A National Health Service (NHS) survey of 500 senior hospital doctors found that 41 percent had private insurance in 2006. The fraction rose to 55 percent in 2007 [link].
According to the British Medical Association spokesman, private medical coverage does not demonstrate a lack of commitment to the NHS. Instead, British doctors want speedy treatment so they can get back to their NHS patients as soon as possible. Continue reading Breast Cancer →
Cancer is not cancer, it turns out. For breast cancer, there are seven distinct diseases. All the new research is focused on tailoring drugs to each cancer subtype. Herceptin is an example. It costs $40,000 for a 12-week course. Even then it only helps half the patients.
A movie, Living Proof, about the developer of Herceptin will appear on Lifetime this Saturday at 9 p.m. ET/PT. [link]
Health Care Policy and Reform Insights | NCPA
