Health stories in the news

CDC’s H1N1 predictions less dire than President’s Council of Advisors

New York Times reporter By Donald G. McNeil, Jr. reports that officials at the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention seemed to be playing down the dire predictions released by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology yesterday that projected that as many as 90,000 Americans may be killed by the H1N1 “swine” flu when it returns this fall.

McNeil writes:

. . . officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency with the most expertise on influenza pandemics, suggested that the projections should be regarded with caution.

“We don’t necessarily see this as a likely scenario,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

A press officer for the disease centers, speaking carefully to avoid a feud with the White House press office, said, “Look, if the virus keeps behaving the way it is now, I don’t think anyone here expects anything like 90,000 deaths.”

To learn more:

• Read McNeil’s article: Agency Urges Caution on Estimates of Swine Flu.
• Read the article by Rob Stein about the President’s Advisors’ report: Swine flu to hit 50% of us?, which ran in the Seattle Times.
• Read the White House press release about the Advisors’ report, which has links to the text of the full report as well.

How much money can health reform save?

Advocates for health reform proposals being advanced by President Obama and Congressional Democrats say health reform will save billions, savings they say will help pay for covering the uninsured.

But opponents point to the estimates made by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s that project far lower savings.

But just how good is the CBO’s at predicting the savings when it comes to health-care legislation?

According to an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times, not very.

In the article, Jon R. Gabel of the University of Chicago, looks at the CBO’s track record and finds that it consistently underestimated the savings of various federal cost-control initiatives by billions.

Gabel concludes:

The Congressional Budget Office’s integrity is beyond questioning. But the record shows that it has substantially overestimated the cost of health care reform three times out of three. As Congress now works on its greatest push for reform in generations, the budget office needs to revise the methods it uses to make predictions about costs.

To learn more:

• Read Gabel’s op-ed piece Congress’s Health Care Numbers Don’t Add Up.
• Visit the CBO’s health-reform Web page, which includes links to its analyses.

VA proposes to make it easier for vets to get PTSD benefits

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has proposed a rule change that will make it easier for veterans to claim benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Under current rules, veterans with PTSD must document that they experienced traumatic events during service that caused the disorder.

Providing such documentation can be difficult especially for veterans who served behind the lines providing logistical support but who might still have been subject to traumatizing attacks, such as roadside bombs and mortar bombardment.

Under the proposed rules, veterans with PTSD would only show that they served in areas and performed duties where such traumatic events occurred and that their symptoms are consistent with the experiences they claim caused their disorder.

To learn more:

• Read James Dao’s New York Times article: Proposal to Ease Aid for G.I.’s With Stress Disorder.
• Read the VA’s press release announcing the proposed rule changes.
• Read the National Library of Medicine’s information page on PTSD, which has links to additional information and resources.

Tags: CDC, H1N1, Health Insurance, Health Policy, Health-care Reform, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Swine Flu, VA

Category: Health Insurance, Health-care Policy, Healthcare Reform, Insurance, News