Nah....someday it will be euthination! They already have that in parts of Europe. I mean why not? We kill 'em before they are even born. Let's kill 'em when they're old!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Employees made to pay for health risks BY LISA CORNWELL The Associated Press
CINCINNATI — First they tried nudging. Now companies are penalizing workers who have high health risks such as obesity and high blood pressure or cholesterol as insurance costs climb. Lee Morrison, 51, doesn’t mind the push, which came in the form of added insurance charges from his employer, Western & Southern Financial Group. “I knew if I wanted to be healthier and pay less, it was up to me to do something about it,” said Morrison, who has lost 54 pounds and lowered his body mass index enough to earn refunds the past two years. A small number of companies have linked health factors to what employees pay for benefits, but the practice is expected to grow now that some federal rules have been finalized, spelling out what’s allowed by law. Employee advocates worry that other anti-discrimination laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act won’t cover the person who is 20 or 30 pounds overweight. The businesses are deducting from employees’ paychecks, adding insurance surcharges or offering insurance discounts or rebates only to low-risk workers. “Employers know they have to do something,” said Garry Mathiason, a senior partner at the national employment and labor law firm Littler Mendelson, based in Boston. “I believe that in just the next two years more employers will turn to penalties to change employee behavior.” Mathiason said more than 300 companies have sought advice on creating more aggressive wellness programs since the firm released a study in April on legal issues and trends associated with requiring healthy practices. Health care spending in the United States is estimated to reach $2.2 trillion this year, with at least 54 percent of spending in the private sector, and is expected to nearly double by 2016, according to the National Coalition on Health Care. A 2003-04 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed about two-thirds of adults in the United States were overweight and almost one-third obese. A U.S. surgeon general’s report said health care costs of obesity totaled more than $117 billion in 2000. More employers have charged higher insurance premiums the past few years for tobacco-using employees. Otherwise, wellness programs had been primarily voluntary, offering in-house fitness centers and free health screenings, for instance. But many employees of Indianapolis-based Clarian Health didn’t use the programs, hospital spokesman James Wide said. In 2009, the company will start reducing pay for employees in its health plan by $10 per paycheck if their BMI — a measurement of body fat through a height and weight ratio — is in the obese range of more than 29.9. The deduction will be $5 per check if they don’t meet required cholesterol, blood pressure or blood glucose measurements. Workers will be required to complete an annual health risk assessment and can appeal to have their fees dropped if they show improvement. “We want more people to participate so that they can take control of their health,” Wide said. Some workers and employee advocates say companies are intruding in workers’ private lives. The National Workrights Institute says employers adopting the charges are trying to control private behavior and amassing huge amounts of personal health information. “It’s a backdoor approach to weeding out expensive employees,” legal director Jeremy Gruber said. Employers wary of risking legal problems feel more confident after federal regulations were finalized July 1 covering how wellness programs can comply with non-discrimination requirements under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Rewards (and therefore penalties) based on health factors cannot exceed 20 percent of the total cost of employee health coverage. Employers also are warned that they must consider other federal and state laws, including the American with Disabilities Act. Businesses acknowledge they are trying to cut health care costs but say they also want to help employees get healthier. Each company determines what qualifies as high risk, but they generally follow traditional health standards. Cincinnati-based Western & Southern Financial Group adds between $15 and $75 monthly to the insurance cost of health plan participants according to their BMI scores. A fitness center, weight loss programs and health screenings are provided, and employees reducing their BMI receive refunds, said Noreen Hayes, senior vice president of human resources. Fifteen percent of employees who paid surcharges in 2006 received refunds this year, and about 40 percent of employees in the company’s health plan pay the charges. The surcharges help cover some of the costs the company incurs as a result of those employees’ conditions, Hayes said. Roselyn Bryant, 61, of Cincinnati, doesn’t face any of the health risks but still is glad that the bank where she works in the mail department doesn’t charge for them. “I think it’s too harsh to charge people for things they can’t always control” she said. Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, representing more than 200 of the nation’s largest employers, thinks most employers prefer positive incentives. “I think it’s a mistake to use penalties for something as complicated as maintaining weight in a society that does everything to make you inactive,” she said. “It can make people mad, and we are in a war for talent.” Scott’s Miracle-Gro Co., a lawn and garden company based in Marysville, Ohio, charges $40 more per month in health premiums for employees who don’t complete annual risk assessments. The company charges $65 more for workers who don’t try to reduce any high health risks that show up. “We think that personal accountability is a big part of driving overall wellness, but we also provide our associates with the tools they need,” spokesman Jim King said. “We think our program is a good balance of the carrot and the stick.” King said participation rose from 70 percent to 95 percent after the charge was added. Scott’s earlier stopped hiring tobacco users in states where that is allowed and reserves the right to fire employees who use tobacco. A Brookfield, Wis.-based financial information services and technology company uses rebates. Fiserv Inc. offers a $35 monthly rebate to full-time employees in its health plan who complete health assessments and $25 rebates for spouses. Those at high risk for a chronic disease such as diabetes must participate in a disease management program to get the rebate, company spokeswoman Lori Stafford said.
Health insurance cost rises 6.1 percent BY EMILY FREDRIX The Associated Press
The increasing cost of health insurance is putting coverage out of reach for many small to midsize companies and their workers, even though the rise in premiums this year was the lowest increase in eight years. Since 2001, the cost of premiums has gone up 78 percent, far outpacing a 19 percent increase in wages and 17 percent jump in inflation, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care research group that annually tracks the cost of health insurance. This year, the cost of premiums paid by workers and their employers was up 6.1 percent, while wages rose an average of 3.7 percent and inflation went up 2.6 percent, the survey said. Kaiser estimates that between 1 million and 2 million people join the ranks of the uninsured every year. “There’s no scientific tipping point that you can point to at which health insurance becomes unaffordable,” said Drew Altman, the foundation’s president and CEO. “But it does seem like we’ve crossed a threshold where health insurance is increasingly unaffordable for medium-sized employers, particularly smaller employers and average people this year.” Insurance costs probably will rise again next year, according to the survey. Many of the more than 3,000 companies surveyed said they planned to make significant changes to their health plans and benefits, and nearly half said they were very or somewhat likely to raise premiums. This year, premiums averaged $12,106 for a family of four, with workers paying, on average, $3,281 of that. Premiums to cover a single person cost $4,479, with employees paying $694. Families typically pay 28 percent of their premiums, while single people pay 16 percent, the survey said, and those proportions have been stable. But the amount workers have been paying has nearly doubled since 2001. This year, monthly contributions averaged $273 for families and $58 for single workers. The companies surveyed reported that premiums for families increased 6.1 percent, on average. That’s the lowest growth rate since 1999, when premiums rose 5.3 percent and cost an average of $2,196 for individuals and $5,791 for families. Health care premiums rose 7.7 percent last year, when individuals paid an average of $4,242 and families paid $11,480. This year also marks the fourth year that the increase has slowed. But Altman said it doesn’t mean much when it outpaces wages and inflation, and now companies and employees are dropping insurance. He said that’s why the number of uninsured Americans continues to rise. The Census Bureau estimates 15.8 percent of Americans were uninsured last year, up from 15.3 percent the year before. As costs rise for workers and companies, revenues for health care insurers continue to soar. But health insurance companies are still paying out roughly the same as they have for years, said Charles Boorady, an equity research analyst with Citigroup. So when insurers charge more for premiums, they’re trying to cover what they pay out in claims, he said, and that means profits are fairly level. “The price increase doesn’t looked aimed at expanding margins, it looks aimed at preserving margins,” Boorady said. WellPoint, the nation’s largest health insurer, reported profi ts were up 11 percent in the most recent quarter, to $835.2 million and revenue rose nearly 8 percent to $15.3 billion. Bob McIntire, senior vice president of health care management for the Indianapolis-based company, said it’s trying to keep costs down by helping consumers understand their own spending and even negotiating longer term contracts with hospitals to keep costs in line. UnitedHealth spokesman Greg Thompson said premiums are rising because of the increasing cost for hospital stays, and people’s desire for costly, new state-of-the-art treatments. UnitedHealth, the nation’s second-largest insurer, said earnings rose 22 percent to $1.2 billion, during the most recent quarter. The Minnetonka, Minn.-based company saw revenue increase 5.9 percent to $18.93 billion. Some 158 million people have health insurance through their employers. Sixty percent of companies offer health insurance to their employees, about the same as last year but down from 69 percent in 2000, the survey said. Nearly all companies with 50 or more employees offer coverage, with firms with more than 200 employees particularly stable over the years, Kaiser said. But only 45 percent of firms with three to nine employees offer health care, down from 57 percent in 2000.
UnitedHealth spokesman Greg Thompson said premiums are rising because of the increasing cost for hospital stays, and people’s desire for costly, new state-of-the-art treatments.
I have yet to meet the 200year old man.......would he be considered 'elderly' or a miracle??
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
UnitedHealth spokesman Greg Thompson said premiums are rising because of the increasing cost for hospital stays, and people’s desire for costly, new state-of-the-art treatments.
People 'desire' and have the right to 'state of the art medical treatments'. Isn't that what it's there for? How stupid are these people? People come from other countries just because we have the 'new state of the art medical treatments'. This Greg Thompson from the United Health Group must be a numbskull!!! >
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Cuomo urges registry of home health aides The Associated Press
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a legislative proposal Wednesday that would create a statewide registry of certified home health aides. The measure is intended to address the fraud and theft in the home health care industry that his office has investigated recently. “The extensive fraud we have uncovered in the home health care industry has endangered New York’s most vulnerable population, cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, and has been going on far too long,” Cuomo said. Among the abuses discovered in Cuomo’s ongoing investigation was the widespread issuing and purchase of fraudulent home health agency certificates, resulting in workers who lacked proper training. The investigation also found that multiple agencies submitted bills for the same aide or didn’t list the name of the actual home health aide — often resulting in overpayment. Another problem was poor record-keeping, which limited the ability to re-create accurate billing information. Christine Johnson, president of the New York State Association of Health Care Providers, had previously urged officials to establish a central state registry of certified aides. Medicaid is a program for those who can’t afford to pay for medical care. Home health care costs Medicaid $1.3 billion a year and 83,000 residents have an aide come into their home to provide care each month in New York state, according to Cuomo’s offi ce. Cuomo said the only way to know how many people are working as home health aides for the elderly and infirm of New York is to create a registry that would be developed and maintained by the state Department of Health. Cuomo will also testify at a joint Senate and Assembly hearing on the issues affecting the home health care industry.
Hospital merger should uphold faith-based rights First published: Friday, September 14, 2007
Alan Wechsler's Aug. 17 article, "Abortion policy at Ellis in doubt," gave reason to hope that the upcoming merger of St. Clare's Hospital and Ellis Hospital would result in a new, abortion-free hospital in Schenectady County. Predictably, the Aug. 31 letter penned by Paul Drisgula of Planned Parenthood argues that the new entity formed from the proposed merger should provide abortions, despite the core values held by St. Clare's as a religious institution.
Mr. Drisgula makes it appear that the existence of a newly established, abortion-free hospital in Schenectady County would threaten women's rights. In reality, the only right being threatened by this merger is the First Amendment right of St. Clare's Hospital to abide by its own deeply-held beliefs by refraining from performing abortions.
Mr. Drisgula notes that "public dialogue" regarding the proposed merger is needed. We agree. However, the role of Planned Parenthood -- an organization responsible for the deaths of 250,000 unborn children throughout the nation each year -- in any such dialogue should be minimal, and its self-serving, anti-life propaganda should be seen for exactly what it is.
The rights of faith-based organizations to abide by their core values are under attack from organizations like Planned Parenthood. Pro-life and faith-based communities throughout the Capital Region will be watching carefully to see that the proposed St. Clare's-Ellis merger is accomplished in a manner that respects and upholds those rights.
WILLIAM F. CARLSON The Association of Politically Active Christians Albany
I have. They are all over the country. Don't know if they do much good, but they are out there!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a legislative proposal Wednesday that would create a statewide registry of certified home health aides
If they were paid more...like the Certified Nurses Aides--that already are certified and tracked by NYS, you wouldn't have the problem....the insurance company's made the 'levels'....we will only pay this for that, you are over educated, we want someone dumber so we can pay them less...etc......
So,,,,,, let the insurance companies pay for the schools and registrations/certifications, and let them pay for the care they 'promised to insure'.......they could even pass on the 'education' to the family allowing them to receive the pay from the insurance.........
This is nothing new.....if you have the cash---you can do what ever you want......if you use insurance $$----you follow their rules........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Probe follows woman’s death after volunteering for study BY CARLA K. JOHNSON AND LINDSEY TANNER The Associated Press
TAYLORVILLE, Ill. — A few hours before she died this summer at the age of 36, Jolee Mohr lay in a Chicago hospital so swollen by internal bleeding and her failing kidneys that her husband decided against bringing their 5-year-old daughter to say goodbye. The girl wouldn’t have recognized her mother. Robb Mohr couldn’t bring himself to watch her die, and he spent his wife’s last hours talking with her helpless and puzzled doctors. One vowed to get to the bottom of the illness, and there were several clues to go on. The most unusual was this: Jolee Mohr got sick the day after her right knee was injected with trillions of genetically engineered viruses in a voluntary experiment to find out if gene therapy might be a safe way to ease the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. She was dead three weeks later. The sponsor of this nationwide experiment, Targeted Genetics Corp. of Seattle, has halted the work, and 127 patients are being evaluated, according to a company spokeswoman. No other problems have been reported, and the company believes patients were adequately informed of the treatment’s risks. U.S. health officials are investigating Mohr’s death, and the case is expected to be discussed Monday by advisers to the National Institutes of Health during a meeting in Bethesda, Md. There’s a lot at stake, including answers for Robb Mohr and the interests of Targeted Genetics. But there are also questions about how medical studies are done and how much study volunteers are told of the risks. “To me, it’s an avoidable death,” Mohr said during an interview at his home amid the cornfields of central Illinois. “And you’re going to have to really show me a lot of stuff to convince me that it wasn’t.” LITTLE GOOD, LITTLE HARM There have been more than 800 gene therapy studies involving 5,000 U.S. patients since the NIH approved the nation’s first human gene transfer study in 1989. Yet there are no approved therapies despite 17 years of research, and the only major success — a cure for the rare inherited immune disorder known as “bubble boy disease” — came with a high cost: leukemia linked in 2003 to the virus that delivered the treatment. Still, the 1999 death of Arizona teenager Jesse Gelsinger is the only reported fatality that has been definitively linked with a U.S. gene therapy study, an NIH spokesman said. And Dr. Theodore Friedmann, who once headed the NIH committee that oversees gene therapy experiments, said developments in medicine often come with problems, even death. Even if gene therapy is found to be the cause of Jolee Mohr’s death, Friedmann said, the method remains promising. “There’s no question that this event is tragic for the family and the woman involved,” he said. “It does simply point to the fact that we have a lot more to learn.” When Dr. Robert Trapp of the Arthritis Center in Springfield told Jolee Mohr about the gene therapy study, she had lived with rheumatoid arthritis for 14 years, her husband said. She kept the pain, stiffness and swelling in her joints under control with medication and rarely missed time at her data entry job for the Illinois secretary of state. The study used a genetically engineered virus that can infect cells without causing human disease. In simple terms, the virus is used as a vehicle to carry a new gene into the body. Targeted Genetics hopes the gene will help the body make a protein that would ease arthritis pain. To enroll in the study, every patient had to have some form of inflammatory arthritis. Jolee Mohr had faith in Trapp, her doctor for seven years, her husband said. “You trust your physician. He’s your doctor. You trust him like you do your minister,” Robb Mohr said. QUESTION OF SAFETY Bioethicists talk of a “therapeutic misconception” — a belief among patients in early-stage research that they will get better. Jolee Mohr thought the experimental treatment might relieve the chronic pain in her right knee, her husband said, though this stage of the study was simply to fi nd out if the treatment was safe. Jolee Mohr signed a 15-page consent form Feb. 12. T h e f o r m mentioned some scary possibilities. It said that the genetically altered viruses in the study — called tgAAC94 — “could spread to other parts of your body. The risks of this are not known at this time.” Altered viruses can “damage the DNA in the cells of your body by inserting itself into your genes,” it went on. “If this happens, it could put you at risk for developing cancer.” And on page 9, it said unknown side effects could result in “pain, discomfort, disability or, in rare circumstances, death.” Mohr was randomly assigned to get the highest dosing level. By all accounts, everything was fine after the first shot, in February. But she got sick the day after her second injection, on July 2, vomiting and running a fever. “She got the injection on the second, we were in the emergency room on the seventh; she was admitted on the 12th,” Robb Mohr said. He pointed on a calendar to July 18, the date of his wife’s 200-mile ambulance ride from a Springfield hospital to Chicago; July 23, when he agreed to a “do not resuscitate” order; and July 24, the date she died. Trapp, who did not respond to several requests for an interview, enrolled “seven or eight” patients in the gene therapy study, according to his attorney, David Drake. He described Trapp’s enrollment procedures only as “standard,” and he declined to comment on how much money Trapp’s clinic received from Targeted Genetics, fees meant to reimburse costs. Trapp, 59, has not faced state disciplinary action, and his license is active. RISKY BUSINESS The investigation into Mohr’s death could have steep consequences for Targeted Genetics. The company, which employs 70, has no products on the market and several years ago cut workers and several of its programs. “A very exciting lead product with the possibility to meet signifi - cant unmet need could be jeopardized,” said CEO H. Stewart Parker when asked what was at stake for the company. She said the company believes that the study was conducted with the “highest level” of responsibility and that it followed federal guidelines. Targeted Genetics believes Mohr might have died of a fungal infection that could be blamed on anti-arthritis drugs she was taking, Parker said. She noted that key tests have not yet been done that could link Mohr’s death to the gene therapy study; a spokesman at the University of Chicago, which is handling the tests, said that they are under way but that several are needed to determine the cause of death. Mohr’s family asked the university to lead the investigation into her death, but the FDA is also investigating, spokeswoman Karen Riley said. The NIH began developing guidelines on gene therapy in the mid-1970s and formed the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee to review studies, procedures and safety. Mohr’s death tops the agenda for the committee’s regularly scheduled quarterly meeting Monday in Bethesda, Md. University of Chicago doctors will present autopsy results, though the cause of death and what role the gene therapy might have played are not expected to be ready by then. Robb Mohr will be there.
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