The uninsured get the worse health care. People who are uninsured received about half as much care as those who are fully insured, according to a report appearing in Monday’s online edition of Health Affairs. A person who is uninsured all year will average $1,686 in medical costs, while someone who is privately insured will average $3,915, says the report by Jack Hadley, of George Mason University, and John Holahan, Teresa Coughlin and Dawn Miller, of the Urban Institute, who analyzed figures on medical spending in people who are insured versus those who are uninsured. The uninsured pay an average of $583 (35 percent) of their costs, while the insured pay an average of $681 (17 percent), the researchers point out. “The uninsured receive a lot less care than the insured, and they pay a greater percentage of it out of pocket,” study author Hadley, a senior health services researcher at George Mason, said in a news release from the journal. “Contrary to popular myth, they are not all free riders,” he added.  The researchers also estimated that the federal government pays for about three-quarters ($43 billion) of the uncompensated care bill, including roughly $18 billion in special payments to hospitals by Medicare and Medicaid; $15 billion in tax appropriations and indigent care programs by state and local governments; and almost $10 billion in spending by the Veterans Health Administration, the Indian Health Service, community health centers and similar direct-care programs, Forbes online points out. “From society’s perspective, covering the uninsured is still a good investment,” Hadley says. “Failure to act in the near term will only make it more expensive to cover the uninsured in the future, while adding to the amount of lost productivity from not insuring all Americans.”

One in four Americans struggles with health care costs. Roughly one in four Americans (24 percent) continues to struggle with health care costs, according to the latest Kaiser election 2008 tracking poll. Health care ranks as a “serious problem,” above paying for food (18 percent), problems with debt (16 percent) and paying the rent or mortgage (15 percent), and below paying for gas (37 percent) or getting a good-paying job or raise in pay (26 percent). Half of the people who were uninsured say that paying for health care is a serious concern. Members of two minority groups, Hispanics (39 percent) and African Americans (35 percent), say problems paying for care are particularly a concern.

Mercer University gets $3.1 million to fight diabetes. The National Institutes of Health awarded Dr. John Boltri, a physician at the Mercer University School of Medicine, $3.1 million for church-based diabetes-prevention and education programs. Mercer medical professors will be working with The Medical Center of Central Georgia in a five-year study that will launch next spring, said Boltri, who conducted earlier research showing that the rate of diabetes was 50 percent higher in Blacks than in Whites. “We’re going into African-American churches and doing screenings for diabetes,” said Boltri, a physician at the Family Health Center in Macon. “We’re looking to see who has pre-diabetes.” Boltri said his research started a few years ago when he was looking at ways to prevent diabetes. His studies showed a higher risk in Blacks. Working with researchers from the University of Connecticut-Hartford, Boltri and his team developed a detailed program, which will use a combination of education and religion to try to reduce the risk of the disease. The educational component involves improving diets, reducing fat, increasing physical activity and making the participants more aware of the complications diabetics face. “We’re going to ask people to keep a diary of the foods they eat and switch to lower-fat foods,” he said. Monique Davis-Smith, another researcher from Mercer’s Department of Family Medicine, said religion will also play a part in the program. “We’re going to encourage prayer as part of the program and bringing knowledge of one’s own faith [to the program],” she said. “We’re encouraging people to lean on their faith.”

The uninsured get the worse health care. People who are uninsured received about half as much care as those who are fully insured, according to a report appearing in Monday’s online edition of Health Affairs. A person who is uninsured all year will average $1,686 in medical costs, while someone who is privately insured will average $3,915, says the report by Jack Hadley, of George Mason University, and John Holahan, Teresa Coughlin and Dawn Miller, of the Urban Institute, who analyzed figures on medical spending in people who are insured versus those who are uninsured. The uninsured pay an average of $583 (35 percent) of their costs, while the insured pay an average of $681 (17 percent), the researchers point out. “The uninsured receive a lot less care than the insured, and they pay a greater percentage of it out of pocket,” study author Hadley, a senior health services researcher at George Mason, said in a news release from the journal. “Contrary to popular myth, they are not all free riders,” he added.  The researchers also estimated that the federal government pays for about three-quarters ($43 billion) of the uncompensated care bill, including roughly $18 billion in special payments to hospitals by Medicare and Medicaid; $15 billion in tax appropriations and indigent care programs by state and local governments; and almost $10 billion in spending by the Veterans Health Administration, the Indian Health Service, community health centers and similar direct-care programs, Forbes online points out. “From society’s perspective, covering the uninsured is still a good investment,” Hadley says. “Failure to act in the near term will only make it more expensive to cover the uninsured in the future, while adding to the amount of lost productivity from not insuring all Americans.”

One in four Americans struggles with health care costs. Roughly one in four Americans (24 percent) continues to struggle with health care costs, according to the latest Kaiser election 2008 tracking poll. Health care ranks as a “serious problem,” above paying for food (18 percent), problems with debt (16 percent) and paying the rent or mortgage (15 percent), and below paying for gas (37 percent) or getting a good-paying job or raise in pay (26 percent). Half of the people who were uninsured say that paying for health care is a serious concern. Members of two minority groups, Hispanics (39 percent) and African Americans (35 percent), say problems paying for care are particularly a concern.

Mercer University gets $3.1 million to fight diabetes. The National Institutes of Health awarded Dr. John Boltri, a physician at the Mercer University School of Medicine, $3.1 million for church-based diabetes-prevention and education programs. Mercer medical professors will be working with The Medical Center of Central Georgia in a five-year study that will launch next spring, said Boltri, who conducted earlier research showing that the rate of diabetes was 50 percent higher in Blacks than in Whites. “We’re going into African-American churches and doing screenings for diabetes,” said Boltri, a physician at the Family Health Center in Macon. “We’re looking to see who has pre-diabetes.” Boltri said his research started a few years ago when he was looking at ways to prevent diabetes. His studies showed a higher risk in Blacks. Working with researchers from the University of Connecticut-Hartford, Boltri and his team developed a detailed program, which will use a combination of education and religion to try to reduce the risk of the disease. The educational component involves improving diets, reducing fat, increasing physical activity and making the participants more aware of the complications diabetics face. “We’re going to ask people to keep a diary of the foods they eat and switch to lower-fat foods,” he said. Monique Davis-Smith, another researcher from Mercer’s Department of Family Medicine, said religion will also play a part in the program. “We’re going to encourage prayer as part of the program and bringing knowledge of one’s own faith [to the program],” she said. “We’re encouraging people to lean on their faith.”

National Urban League and Walgreens provides free health screenings. In an effort to promote early detection and raise awareness of preventable diseases in urban communities, the National Urban League and Walgreens have partnered to launch a nationwide, educational health screening bus tour. The tour will encourage consumers to act as their own health advocates by visiting the wellness bus when it visits New Orleans August 28-30. The National Urban League and Walgreens Wellness Tour will continue will raise awareness of various health issues and encourage individuals to seek the appropriate resources by providing free health screenings in 27 urban communities across the U.S. as part of a 12-month mobile health campaign. the 38-foot customized bus features five free screenings, including blood pressure, bone density, glucose levels, cholesterol levels and body mass index which total more than $100 in value. “Walgreen is delighted to partner with the National Urban League to provide resources that will empower Americans in urban communities to live healthier lives,” said Mark Wagner, executive vice president of store operations for Walgreen Co. “Many diseases can be detected through screenings long before any symptoms are noticed, which is why we are bringing this valuable service to residents of New Orleans.” People in urban communities, particularly minorities, experience disproportionately higher rates of preventable disease. “The National Urban League is pleased to offer these screenings and health information to people who otherwise may not have had access to these basic health resources,” said Marc H. Morial, NUL president and CEO. “We are excited to be taking this tour to major cities across the country , such as Chicago, New York and Miami.” The National Urban League’s State of Black America 2006 reports that Blacks are impacted by higher rates of obesity, substance abuse and diabetes.

Married folks are the healthiest. People who’ve exchanged wedding vows tend to be healthier than their single, divorced or widowed peers, but new research shows that health gap may be narrowing, reports HealthDay News. Interviews with today’s never-married men suggest they are healthier than never-married guys were three decades ago, researchers say. And that’s helping single males gain some ground, in terms of their health, compared to married people. “One of the most-often documented facts is that married people are healthier than non-married people, but the difference between married and unmarried people has changed over the past few decades,” said the study’s lead author, Hui Liu, an assistant professor and sociologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Liu said there are two theories as to why married people report better health. One is that being married gives you more access to social support and economic resources. The other is that being divorced or widowed hurts health. “In general, marriage tends to make people healthier, happier and richer, and that’s especially true for men,” Scott Wetzler, vice chairman of psychiatry and behavioral science, and head of the “Supporting Healthy Marriage” program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City told HealthDay.

Some overweight people can be healthy.

Some obese individuals do not appear to have an increased risk of heart disease, while some normal-weight individuals experience a variety of heart risks, according to two reports in the August 11 Issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA/Archives journal. “The prevalence of obesity is increasing worldwide, and this epidemic is accompanied by a high incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease,” the authors write as background information in one of the articles. But research shows that in addition to overall obesity, the way body fat is distributed may decide whether a person is at risk of heart disease and diabetes. For instance, individuals with fat around the tummy — estimated by measuring waist size —appear to be at higher risk for insulin resistance (a pre-diabetic condition that occurs when the body fails to respond to the hormone insulin) and for having an unhealthy cardiovascular risk profile. In one study, individuals in the obese–insulin sensitive group did not differ from the normal-weight group in insulin sensitivity or artery wall thickness, the authors note. “In conclusion, we provide evidence that a metabolically benign obesity can be identified and that it may protect from insulin resistance and atherosclerosis,” Norbert Stefan, M.D., and colleagues at the University of Tübingen, Germany, wrote about their study of 314 individuals age 18 to 69 (average age 45). The second study found that among U.S. adults 20 years and older, 23.5 percent (about 12 million adults) of normal weight had abnormal metabolisms, while 51 percent (about 36 million adults) who were overweight and 31.7 percent who were considered obese had healthy metabolisms. The average weight of individuals with slow metabolisms tended to be older, less physically active and had large weights. Bottom line, waist size had more to do with whether a person had an increased risk for heart disease or diabetes than their actual weight, the studies show.