The absence of any responses to any of the direct
health care arguments indicates that we have again
managed to stretch your cranial ganglion to its limit.
So give it a rest for a while, eh?
Don't forget your assignment ;-)
Kujebaku neboj, Feeb te pod****i i kdyz budes placat (jako vzdy
piciciny).:-))))))))))))))))))))))))
US health insurance costs rise nearly twice as fast as pay:
survey
The cost of health insurance in the United States climbed
nearly
twice as fast as wages in the first half of 2007, with family coverage
costing employers around 1,000 dollars (714 euros) a month, a poll showed
Wednesday.
Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an
average
of 6.1 percent in 2007, while wages went up by 3.7 percent, the Employer
Health Benefits Survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the
Health Research and Educational Trust showed.
The 6.1 percent rise in health insurance premiums marked a
slowdown from the rate of increase last year, but also strongly outpaced
inflation, running at 2.6 percent.
"In 2007, the increase in health insurance premiums was about
twice the rate of inflation and not quite twice the increase in workers'
pay," Kaiser vice-president Gary Claxton said in a webcast.
Premiums for family coverage have surged by 78 percent since
2001, while wages have gone up 19 percent.
The average premium for family coverage in 2007 was just over
12,000 dollars, with workers having to pick up part of the cost.
Workers contributed, on average, 273 dollars a month towards
family health coverage packages, up from 248 dollars last year, the
survey,
which polled just over 3,000 public and private employers with three or
more
workers during the first five months of 2007, showed.
"Every year health insurance becomes less affordable for
families and businesses. Over the past six years, the amount families pay
out of pocket for their share of premiums has increased by about 1,500
dollars," Drew Altman, chief executive of Kaiser, said in a statement.
Employers in the United States offer health insurance packages
as a worker benefit.
In 2007, 60 percent of US firms offered health benefits.
That was down by nine percentage points on companies offering
health care packages in 2000, the survey showed.
Low-paid workers were found to have the fewest healthcare
options, because the small firms they tend to work for are less likely to
offer coverage.
The high cost of premiums was cited as a main reason firms
fail
to provide healthcare coverage to their employees.
A survey released last month by the US Census Bureau showed
that
47 million people had no health insurance in the United States last year,
up
from 44.8 million in 2005.
France is healthcare leader, US comes dead last: study
Jan 8, 2008
WA****NGTON (AFP) - France is tops, and the United States dead
last, in providing timely and effective healthcare to its citizens,
according to a survey Tuesday of preventable deaths in 19 industrialized
countries.
The study by the Commonwealth Fund and published in the
January/February issue of the journal Health Affairs measured developed
countries' effectiveness at providing timely and effective healthcare.
The study, entitled "Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating
an Earlier Analysis," was written by researchers from the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It looked at death rates in subjects
younger
than 75 that could have been prevented by timely and effective medical
care.
The researchers found that while most countries surveyed saw
preventable deaths decline by an average of 16 percent, the United States
saw only a four percent dip.
The non-profit Commonwealth Fund, which financed the study,
expressed alarm at the findings.
"It is startling to see the US falling even farther behind on
this crucial indicator of health system performance," said Commonwealth
Fund
Senior Vice President Cathy Schoen, who noted that "other countries are
reducing these preventable deaths more rapidly, yet spending far less."
The 19 countries, in order of best to worst, were: France,
Japan, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece,
Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, ****tugal, Spain, Sweden,
the United Kingdom and the United States.
Some countries showed dramatic improvement in the periods
studied -- 1997 and 1998 and again between 2002 and 2003 -- outpacing the
United States, which showed only slight improvement.
White the United States ranked 15th of 19 between 1997-98, by
2002-03 it had fallen to last place.
"It is notable that all countries have improved substantially
except the US," said Ellen Nolte, lead author of the study.
Had the United States performed as well as any of the top
three
industrialized countries, there would have been 101,000 fewer deaths per
year, the researchers said.
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