The United Nations recently did a health study which clearly linked the bad health problems of developed nations to those in poorer nations. The differences in the developed countries’ diets and lifestyles have transferred to the poorer nations, according to Reuters’ Kate Kelland. In the article, “WHO warns of high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity,” it says that one out of every three adults around the world is suffering from high blood pressure. This high blood pressure causes half of the deaths related to heart disease and stroke. Some countries in Africa actually have half of their adult population suffering from high blood pressure.
In a World Health Organization (WHO) study, they found that one out of every ten adults in the world is diabetic. Not only does diabetes affect the health and life of those suffering from it, it costs billions of dollars each year in medical care and treatments. This means that health insurance rates will be higher not only for diabetics, but for everyone as health insurance companies have to pass their increasing costs on to consumers.
Traditionally, people think that most cases of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer happen in wealthy countries because we eat high fat diets, smoke, and drink more alcohol. But 80% of the deaths from these chronic diseases occur in low and middle income countries. They obviously don’t have the health care opportunities that exist in most of the wealthier nations, but this shows how much more prevalent these chronic conditions are now in low and middle income countries. They have seen increases in smoking as well as more Westernized diets and less exercise in recent years.
Low cost drugs and an increase in diagnosis of high blood pressure has reduced the deaths from this condition in wealthy countries, but those things haven’t been available in lower income countries. Obesity is another worldwide chronic health condition on the rise. From 1980 to 2008, obesity rates doubled in every region in the world. Twelve percent of the overall world population is obese, another cause of higher health insurance rates. Americans are the worst with 26% of the population being obese, while only 3% of the Asian population suffers from obesity. Now that we know this information, it is up to health insurance companies and governments to figure out what to do with it.
Most health insurance companies do not pay for fertility treatments, but they do insure any resulting baby under the parents’ plans. Recent research out of Australia makes an interesting claim that could make health insurance companies wary of their members undergoing certain fertility treatments. Yahoo! Health article “Fertility treatment babies prone to ‘serious defects’” says that Australian researchers have found a significant increase in serious birth defects for babies born through certain fertility treatments. Serious defects for the purpose of this study included those that required treatment or handicapped the child, such as cerebral palsy. While 5.8% of babies conceived naturally had serious birth defects, the number increased to 8.3% of babies conceived through certain fertility treatments. The researchers believe this to be a very significant difference.
After reading this article by the AP, it’s no wonder that people are so irritated with America’s health care system. In “Appendix removal: Huge sticker shock in study,” the AP’s Lindsey Tanner says that a recent study done in California found a crazy discrepancy between the cost of an appendix removal at different hospitals. While some people paid around $1,500 to get their appendix removed, others actually paid $180,000. Since you don’t have much of a choice in the treatment given to you when you come into the hospital ill, it really is disheartening to see that there are times when you can’t trust that you are being fairly charged.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Inc.
I just found a great article with infographics about how the Affordable Care Act will change your individual insurance situation. Right now, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments against many facets of this health care reform act, which has now been in place for 2 years. According to Yahoo! Finance’s Lisa Scherzer, there are 4 main complaints being discussed in the Supreme Court’s hearings. In “How will the affordable care act affect you?,” Scherzer gives examples of how individuals and families will be affected.
