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For best healthcare, location matters: study

in.reuters.com

For best healthcare, location matters: study

The quality of healthcare Americans receive depends largely on where they live, with insurance coverage, access to preventive medicine and disease treatment varying widely from state to state, according to a study released on Thursday by the Commonwealth Foundation.

“Where you live matters,” said the foundation’s Vice President Cathy Schoen, who co-authored the study for the private research group, in a conference call with reporters. “And it shouldn’t.”

The report found that all of the states that have made healthcare reforms provide better access to medical treatment and prevention and mostly avoid costly hospital procedures.

Residents of Vermont have the best healthcare in the country, the foundation said. The small northern state, which embarked on a radical plan to provide all citizens with healthcare less than a decade ago, also leads the nation in “equity,” or making sure that people of lower income groups have healthcare.

The report comes as the U.S. Congress inches closer to finalizing a plan to reshape healthcare. So far, drafts of the plan have emphasized relying on the states to operate insurance exchanges and possibly to extend more health insurance to families with lower incomes.

“The patterns indicate that public policies, plus state and local health care systems, can make a difference,” according to the report, which was also conducted by Joel Cantor, director of the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University.

Hawaii followed Vermont, and Iowa was ranked third on the scorecard. Neither state has a plan to reform healthcare, but Minnesota, which has created public-private collaborations on healthcare, ranks fourth, followed by Maine, which has also implemented sweeping reforms. Massachusetts — the Vermont neighbor that recently began a universal health insurance program — was seventh.

At the other end of the spectrum, Mississippi has the worst healthcare, according to the scorecard. Oklahoma fares mildly better, followed by Louisiana and Arkansas.

Generally, the report found, states in the South, Southwest and lower Midwest have worse insurance rates and less access to good medical treatment.

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Senate health bill costs pegged at $829 billion

fnf-20090626-climate

Senate health bill costs pegged at $829 billion

A U.S. Senate Finance Committee health plan would cost $829 billion and cut the budget deficit by $81 billion over 10 years, nonpartisan budget analysts said on Wednesday in a report that could bolster President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform drive.

The preliminary estimate from the Congressional Budget Office also said the bill would reduce the number of uninsured people in the United States by about 29 million by 2019.

The bill would meet Obama’s push for a healthcare plan that does not increase the budget deficit, according to the CBO. The estimate could ease the way for committee approval of the measure in the next week.

“This is another important step forward for health reform,” White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said.

Republicans, saying they were concerned about the bill’s costs and potential impact on the budget deficit, had demanded the estimate before they cast a vote on the proposal to transform the $2.5 trillion healthcare system.

The bill, one of five pending in Congress on Obama’s top domestic priority, would require individuals to have health insurance and would offer subsidies to some people to help pay for it.

Insurers would face stiff new regulations — including a prohibition on rejecting coverage for people due to pre-existing medical conditions — and the bill would impose a tax on higher-cost insurance plans.

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U.S. pre-term babies die despite medical care: study

in.reuters.com

U.S. pre-term babies die despite medical care: study

Very early pre-term babies kept alive with ventilators, chest tubes and drugs to support the heart may live a little longer than they did 10 years ago, but are just as likely to die before ever going home, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Their study suggests the emotionally taxing and expensive care given these tiny newborns, delivered at 22 to 24 weeks gestation, does not in the end save their lives. Babies born at 22 weeks included in the study all died as infants, regardless of care.

“This is a very difficult ethical dilemma for everyone involved,” Pamela Donohue of Johns Hopkins Childrens Center in Baltimore, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

Most pregnancies last about 40 weeks, and babies born earlier than 37 weeks of pregnancy are considered premature.

Donohue’s team studied 160 women who gave birth at 22-24 weeks during separate two-year periods — 1993-1995 and 2001-2003.

Those who gave birth during the current decade were more likely to receive higher-level care around the time of delivery, including sonograms, antibiotics and steroids to help with fetal lung development.

After birth, their children were more likely to be put on ventilators, drugs to boost heart and blood pressure rates and to have chest tubes inserted.

Infants born in 2001-2003 lived longer on average — seven days, compared to two days in the 1990s.

But mortality rates did not fall, and the researchers urged greater discussion and further study both on intervention and the degree of suffering imposed on children, their families and healthcare providers.

Very early pre-term babies kept alive with ventilators, chest tubes and drugs to support the heart may live a little longer than they did 10 years ago, but are just as likely to die before ever going home, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Their study suggests the emotionally taxing and expensive care given these tiny newborns, delivered at 22 to 24 weeks gestation, does not in the end save their lives. Babies born at 22 weeks included in the study all died as infants, regardless of care.

“This is a very difficult ethical dilemma for everyone involved,” Pamela Donohue of Johns Hopkins Childrens Center in Baltimore, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

Most pregnancies last about 40 weeks, and babies born earlier than 37 weeks of pregnancy are considered premature.

Donohue’s team studied 160 women who gave birth at 22-24 weeks during separate two-year periods — 1993-1995 and 2001-2003.

Those who gave birth during the current decade were more likely to receive higher-level care around the time of delivery, including sonograms, antibiotics and steroids to help with fetal lung development.

After birth, their children were more likely to be put on ventilators, drugs to boost heart and blood pressure rates and to have chest tubes inserted.

Infants born in 2001-2003 lived longer on average — seven days, compared to two days in the 1990s.

But mortality rates did not fall, and the researchers urged greater discussion and further study both on intervention and the degree of suffering imposed on children, their families and healthcare providers.

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