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Health Highlights: Dec. 4, 2008
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay: Bed Sore-Related Hospitalizations Up 80 Percent: Report Between 1993 and 2006 there was an 80 percent increase inhospitalizations for pressure ulcers -- better known as bed sores, according to the latest News and Numbers from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The agency's analysis of data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample found that of the 503,300 pressure ulcer-related hospitalizations in 2006:
Bed sores typically occur among patients who can't move or who have lost sensation. Older patients, stroke victims, and people who are paralyzed,have diabetes or dementia are at high risk for bed sores. ----- Medicare, Social Security Said to Owe $52Trillion Medicare and Social Security currently owe up to $52 trillion to people who have already earned these benefits, a figure that's up to 3.5 times greater than the entire U.S. economy ($14 trillion), according to a National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) study released this week. According to the study, $9.5 trillion is owed to current retirees, anamount equal to almost $250,000 per person 65 years of age or older in 2008. Adding those aged 55 and older brings that figure to $20.6 trillion andadding in benefits earned by younger workers over the age of 22 brings thetotal to as much as $52 trillion. Currently, Medicare and Social Security combined spend more than theyreceive in premiums and dedicated taxes. By 2012, one of every 10 income tax dollars will be needed to close the funding gap for Social Security andMedicare. That will increase to half of all income tax dollars by 2030 andalmost 80 percent of tax dollars by 2070, according to the study. "Without reform, paying for elderly entitlements will crowd out otherfederal spending or will require substantial tax increases. The longer wepostpone reform, the worse the financial picture becomes," said study co-author Andrew Rettenmaier, a senior fellow at the NCPA, which promotesmarket-driven solutions to issues. ----- Americans' Health May Decline: Report Americans' health improved by 18 percent between 1990 and 2000, but has leveled off over the past four years and may be about to decline, according to the 2008 America's Health Rankings report released Wednesday. Weight gain, tobacco addiction and rising rates of chronic diseases are the most serious threats to previous advances in the nation's health, USA Today reported. "This is a perfect storm," said Reed Tuckson, of the United Health Foundation, one of the report sponsors, along with the American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention. Researchers analyzed 22 health measures, including access to medical care, immunizations, prenatal care, infant mortality, heart disease deaths, infectious disease deaths, smoking cessation, violent crime, and occupational fatalities. Vermont, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Utah were the healthiest states while Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana were the least healthy, said the health rankings report, USA Today reported. Vermont, the healthiest state, had a lower smoking rate than the national average (17.6 percent vs. 20 percent), a slower increase in obesity than the national rate, and a higher percentage of people with health insurance.Louisiana, the least healthy state, had a high infant death rate, high cancer death rates, and high rates of racial disparities in health care, according to the report. ----- Cleveland Clinic to Disclose Doctors' Business Ties In what's believed to be a first for a major U.S. medical center, the Cleveland Clinic this week started to publicly report business ties between its 1,800 staff doctors and scientists and drug and medical device makers. Disclousure of such financial links are posted on the Web site of the clinic, one of the nation's leading medical research centers. "They are breaking a new path here," Dr. David J. Rothman, president of the nonprofit Institute on Medicine as a Profession, told The New York Times . The Columbia University-based group studies potential conflicts of interest. In the United States, doctors' and scientists' connections to industry are often kept secret, a practice that can harm the integrity of medical research and patient care, according to critics. The Cleveland Clinic's move was praised by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R- Iowa), who's introduced legislation to force drug and medical device makers to disclose payments they make to doctors. "Patients deserve easy access to information about their doctors'relationships with drug companies and the Cleveland Clinic is making that possible," Grassley said in a statement, the Times reported.
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