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Study Estimates Cost Added To Private Health Insurance Premiums To Cover Uncompensated Care
The average U.S. family and their employers paid an additional $1,017 in health care premiums in 2008 to pay for care of the uninsured, according to a study released on Thursday by Families USA, USA Today reports (Kim, USA Today, 5/28). According to the study, which examined federal data, the uninsured received $116 billion in health care from hospitals, physicians and other providers in 2008 and paid 37% of that amount. Government programs and charities covered an additional 26%, which left another 37%, or about $43 billion, unpaid. The study then estimated how those costs are when spread across the insured through higher premiums, the study found. According to the study, prepared by the actuarial firm Milliman, the average additional amount paid under private coverage for single individuals was about $370 per year (Werner, AP/Austin American-Statesman, 5/28). Families USA Executive Director Ron Pollack said, "This is a hidden tax on all insurance premiums, whether it is paid by business for their work or by families when they purchase their own coverage" (USA Today, 5/28).The study is available online.
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Proposed House Amendment Would Impact Needle Exchange Programs In Washington, D.C.
A proposed amendment to Washington, D.C."s federal appropriation for 2010 "would prohibit the city from using federal funds to distribute needles for the "injection of illegal drugs ò€¦ within 1,000 feet of a public or private day care center, elementary school, vocational school, secondary school, college, junior college, university, public swimming pool, park, playground, video arcade or youth center,"" the Washington Post reports. Local HIV/AIDS advocates "are concerned that [the] proposed amendment ò€¦ would drastically reduce public funding for needle exchange programs and take away a weapon in the fight against HIV and AIDS," according to the Post. A companion bill in the Senate does not contain language prohibiting the use of federal dollars for needle exchange programs. "Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) urged her colleagues to fight the amendment which is before the full House this afternoon," the article states. The district has provided $700,000 in the past year to four non-profit organizations for needle exchange programs (Fears, 7/16).
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Prescription Drug Use Dropped In 2008, Though Spending Increased, Medco Research Indicates
Use of prescription drugs in the U.S. declined in 2008 -- the first such decrease in a decade -- but total spending on such treatments increased by 3.3%, according to a report released on Wednesday by Medco Health Solutions, the AP/Washington Post reports. The report attributed the decline in sales to fewer new drugs being introduced in 2008, popular medications becoming available as non-prescriptions and concerns about certain drugs" safety. Total spending increased largely because of increased use of "specialty" medications for chronic and complicated illnesses, which often are more costly and sometimes require special considerations for storage or delivery to patients, according to the AP/Post. Profits on specialty drugs in 2008 increased by about 16%. The average costs for other brand-name drugs increased by more than 8% in 2008, the largest increase in five years. According to the report, spending on prescription drugs would have been higher but less costly generic medications accounted for 64% of all prescriptions in 2008.The report predicted that prescription drug use in the U.S. will increase by no more than 1% in 2009 and 2010. However, price increases are expected to contribute to an increase in total spending of 3% to 5% in 2009 and 4% to 6% in 2010 (Seaman, AP/Washington Post, 5/13).
Cardiovascular

Exploring The Complexity Of Symbiosis In DNA And Cell Biology

The unique association between microorganisms and their hosts, whether insects, plants, or mammals, provides a fascinating view into how microbial symbionts adapt to changing biological environments. Insights into the diversity and complexity of symbiotic relationships are the focus of the current special issue of DNA and Cell Biology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The issue is available free online at http://www.liebertpub.com/dna "Symbiosis is one of the most rapidly growing fields in biology.... After decades of focusing on bacteria in pure culture, it is evident that to manage them for our benefit, we need to understand bacteria in association with the complex biological environments with which they contend in the natural world," write Jo Handelsman, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of DNA and Cell Biology, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and President of the Rosalind Franklin Society, and Guest Editor Margaret J. McFall-Ngai, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in their Editorial. The issue contains articles representative of the broad range of scientific topics and disciplines related to microbial symbiosis. These include "The Oral Microbial Consortium"s Interaction with the Periodontal Innate Defense System," which describes a process called "local chemokine paralysis," in which the membership and characteristics of the bacterial community that populates the gingival crevice in the human mouth affect the ability of the natural immune defenses in the mouth to detect the presence of harmful bacteria and orchestrate their destruction. Author Richard Darveau, PhD, from the University of Washington in Seattle, describes this phenomenon as "another mechanism by which the action of a single bacterial member of the oral consortium can affect the host responses to a wide variety of different bacteria." The term "symbiont plasticity" describes the mechanisms by which symbiotic microbes adapt to changes in host development, immune responses, and the changing external environment. Jennifer Wernegreen, PhD, from the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA, and Diana Wheeler, PhD, from the University of Arizona, in Tucson, use the example of mutualism between Blochmannia and their ant hosts to illustrate how the bacteria rely on genetic, ecological, and physiological means to maintain the functional flexibility that allows them to meet the needs of an ant colony rather than the individual ants that make up the colony. Their thought-provoking review of the impact of symbiotic lifestyle on genetic variation and microbial adaptation is entitled, "Remaining Flexible in Old Alliances: Functional Plasticity in Constrained Mutualisms." Adam Silver and Joerg Graf from the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, explore the role of virulence factors and specific toxins produced by members of the Aeromonas veronii bacterial group in the article "Prevalence of Genes Encoding the Type Three Secretion System and the Effectors AexT and AexU in the Aeromonas veronii Group." These bacteria can cause a range of infections, from diarrhea and wound infections to life-threatening septicemia and meningitis. The authors demonstrate the presence of the type-3 secretion factors AexT and AexU in a variety of Aeromonas veronii strains and propose different functions for these two toxins. Vicki Cohn Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News


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