Health Care

Anti-Abortion Group, Planned Parenthood Agree: Leave Abortion Images at Home

Filed under: Health Care

In 2006, anti-abortion group Vote Yes For Life attempted to essentially ban abortion in South Dakota. They put the ban to the voters, who rejected the measure 55 percent to 44 percent. Vote Yes remained undeterred and has accrued enough signatures to return the issue to the voting booth again this year. And in a strange political and ideological marriage, Vote Yes and Planned Parenthood agree on one thing for this year's showdown: Activists should leave their dead baby pictures at home.

'Those images are offensive, that we can agree on for sure,' says Kathi DiNicola, director of media

relations for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. 'Those don't help start the real conversation about preventing unintended pregnancy and reducing the need for abortion.'

'In South Dakota, that doesn't work,' Leslee Unruh, executive director of Vote Yes argues. 'Certainly people have a right to do what they want. But as leader of this campaign, I'm asking people to not come to South Dakota with pictures of dead babies.'

Unruh says that last time around, graphic images of aborted fetuses that appeared on the sides of trucks and being flown behind airplanes offended and upset many South Dakotans, which she suspects might have turned the tide away from the anti-abortion movement. In 2006, she says Vote Yes conducted polls that showed people convincingly didn't want to be subjected to the photos, and that many people, even voters willing to vote for the ban, voted the other way out of rage. In addition to turning voters off, Unruh says that pictures of tiny aborted fetuses are harsh on post-abortive women like herself that support the abortion ban.

Leslee Unruh with Vote Yes for Life petitions and South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson.

'It's very difficult to have to look at those pictures for women who've had abortions,' Unruh says. 'I feel that they cause a lot of us to have serious backlashes. It brings us back to that experience. A lot of us have gotten to a point of healing, where we don't see the child that way. When I think of my aborted child, that's not what I want to think of.'

And although Unruh requested anti-abortion activist organizations not to blanket the state with grisly images, it happened anyway. 'I pleaded with them not to come, and they still came,' she says.

Troy Newman of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, which operates a fleet of ten 'truth trucks' plastered with images of dismembered and bloody aborted fetuses, says his rigs will probably not show up in South Dakota during the campaign. Operation Rescue was one of the groups Unruh was targeting with her request to leave graphic images out of South Dakota. Newman endorses Vote Yes on their Web site, and says this year the vote is more about uniting anti-abortion activists behind one cause, rather than trying to win voters' hearts with gore.

'I think the polls show that South Dakota already is pro-life. And they have a strategic vision for how to overturn Roe,' Newman says. 'I don't think the people of South Dakota need to be convinced to be pro-life. So I'm going to focus our resources elsewhere.' Newman also initially denied that his trucks were in South Dakota in 2006. 'Mine weren't, no. I'm not aware of that,' he says. But he later softened that response, ' I can't say that (they definitely weren't in South Dakota), I do not believe they were. We've got ten trucks, we traverse the country. I suppose it could be, but I don't see the relevance.'

'Not everybody is going to agree with every tactic, but as a movement, we agree on the ultimate goal. Obviously we believe that those trucks are incredibly powerful in changing a person's heart and mind. But again, in South Dakota, the polls are pretty clear that the overwhelming majority of people are pro-life,' Newman says.

DiNicola, of Planned Parenthood, says Vote Yes is playing with fire, and that by putting the near ban up to another vote, South Dakota might be too irresistible for anti-abortion supporters to not use upsetting images. 'By filing another initiative, when the people have already spoken, she's inviting them.'

Meanwhile, Unruh is holding her breath and hoping that demonstrators heed her request for a soft-sell approach as the campaign inches closer to the national media spotlight. She says that unlike in 2006 when Vote Yes had less funding, less experience and didn't know how to handle extremist demonstrators, this time they will be ready. 'There were some situations last time in which I asked some of them to leave,' she says. 'But I've come a long way since then. Hopefully this time, they'll know I mean business.'

Posted by Ben Palosaari at April 28, 2008 4:08 PM | Comments (5)

 

Pork plant tied to mysterious illness wins top tier award

Filed under: Health Care

It seems like mysterious worker illness and butchered pig brains would be any PR flack’s nightmare. But, despite Quality Pork Processors's bad press as of late, the Austin, Minn. plant was recently given a top tier workplace safety award.

A spokesman for the American Meat Institute, who gave the plant its highest award, told the AP, that the recognition applauded the plant’s overall health and safety program, not its handling of a single situation.

Only in America can the fried nervous systems of 18 workers be seen as a single issue problem. Check out this lady's story.

As Minn Post's David Brauer puts it:

She just got free of her walker. But I guess she still has her thumbs, so it's a great safety victory for the packers.

Posted by Beth Walton at April 17, 2008 11:10 AM | Comments (0)

 

U of M: Your kids are fat because they don't eat breakfast

Filed under: Health Care

NBC Nightly News yesterday featured a report on a new University of Minnesota study that finds a link between obesity and skipping the bowl of Fruity Pebbles.

Consumer Affairs has a good summary of the findings:

Your mother always told you to eat a good breakfast. Maybe there's something to that.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health have found further evidence to support the importance of encouraging young people to eat breakfast regularly. They found that kids who ate breakfast on a regular basis were less likely than their peers to be overweight.

The study examined the association between breakfast frequency and five-year body weight change in more than 2,200 adolescents, and the results indicate that daily breakfast eaters consumed a healthier diet and were more physically active than breakfast skippers during adolescence.

Five years later, the daily breakfast eaters also tended to gain less weight and have lower body mass index levels – an indicator of obesity risk – compared with those who had skipped breakfast as adolescents.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at March 4, 2008 9:32 AM | Comments (3)

 

Suspecting Fraud, NY Attorney General Investigates United Health Care

Filed under: Health Care

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced today that he has opened an investigation into whether Minneapolis-based United Health Care, the nation's largest health insurer, has been fleecing patients on out-of-network charges for the last decade.

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at February 13, 2008 4:47 PM | Comments (1)

 

Disgraced Healthcare Tycoon Pays Up

Filed under: Health Care

As you've probably heard, Dr. Bill "Your copay going up to $40 for an office visit is the sound of the market working" McGuire agreed yesterday to pony up $420 million he raked in from likely illegal (and unquestionably shameful) backdated stock options and other perks of running UnitedHealth Group, the largest private "health care provider" in the country.

The money is in addition to $198 million the former CEO, shameless crook, and all-around disgraceful human being had already returned to the Minnetonka-based company, and is on top of a record-breaking $7 million fine paid to the SEC to get the feds off his back already. (Don't start feeling too sorry for the guy: Dr. Bill is still keeping more than $800 million in shady stock options—or, looked at another way, his customers' ever-skyrocketing monthly premiums and copays—for himself.)

All told, former UnitedHealth execs have returned more than $900 million in ill-gotten gains to the company's coffers in the backdating scandal.

Given that UnitedHealth is the proud taker of pre-tax dollars from the paychecks here at humble old City Pages, the whole thing feels a bit, um, personal? But dispassionate observers that we are, we've decided it best to just let the numbers speak for themselves.

In a nod to improving customer relations, the company announced the $900 million will go toward eliminating monthly premiums to 681,000 customers for an entire year. Oh wait. We mean, the money will go to lining the pockets of the company's aggrieved shareholders. Our bad.

In light of all this glum news for old man McGuire, we thought it best to give him the last word.

"The last 18 months have been an extraordinarily challenging period for my family, and I am pleased to have reached a resolution," the thieving, free-market-uber-alles preaching evildoer said in a statement.

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at December 7, 2007 1:02 PM | Comments (5)

 

Nine-Year-Old Chooses to Amputate Own Leg

Filed under: Health Care

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams today picked up the amazing story--from local affiliate KARE-11--of Nick Nelson, a nine-year-old boy who requested that his leg be amputated.

Nelson was born with a rare inherited condition called Popliteal Pterygium Syndrome that caused a web of skin to connect the back of his leg to his heel. Because of that webbing, Nelson was not able to straighten his leg and was confined to a wheelchair.

So he made a decision no young boy should ever face: He asked to have his leg amputated so that he could be fitted with a prosthesis.

"Sometimes you have to make hard choices in your life," Nick told KARE-11 reporter Joe Fryer. "And that's one of them."

NBC Nightly News isn't the end of the national exposure for this inspiring local story--tomorrow morning, Nick will appear on the Today show.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at November 20, 2007 10:58 PM | Comments (1)

 

Boy, Interrupted: One Man's Struggle With An Eating Disorder (Web Extras)

Filed under: City Pages , City Pages , City Pages

Eating disorders destroy lives, and new research suggests that men are affected in greater numbers than was previously assumed. This week, Kevin Hoffman tells the story of Jeremy, a 36-year-old man who has struggled with the illness for most of his life.

Check out the accompanying audio slideshow, which features Jeremy reading from his private blog, and an additional photo gallery. Plus, download MP3 files of Jeremy telling his own story. You can also use the comment feature on this post to discuss your reaction to the story.

In His Own Words
Hear Jeremy read posts from the private blog he has kept for the past few years.

* Part one (:25) Jeremy introduces himself and summarizes his adolescence.
* Part two (:18) "I am not only starving for food, but also for human touch."
* Part three (:45) "Some people say that the body is a temple. My body is a dungeon."
* Part four (:35) A description of days consumed by an eating disorder.
* Part five (:30) "If I ever make it through this eating disorder alive ... which I hope I do not ..."
* Part six (:40) A harrowing description of the role vomiting plays in Jeremy's life.
* Part seven (1:00) This series of blog entries track Jeremy's dropping weight and the specific physical consequences associated with his condition.
* Part eight (:15) What Jeremy wants.

Elsewhere on the Web
From Our Story
* Our story references a recent Harvard study about eating disorders, the first national survey of its type. Here is a summary of the study's findings.

Eating disorder treatment in the region
* Methodist's Hospital Eating Disorder Institute
* Rogers Memorial Hospital's Eating Disorder Center
* The Emily Program, an outpatient treatment program

National Eating Disorder Organizations
* NEDA, the National Eating Disorders Association
* Something Fishy, a pro-recovery website
* National Institute of Mental Health's facts about eating disorders

UPDATE: In this week's cPod, Ward Rubrecht talks to Kevin Hoffman about the Boy, Interrupted story. Ward and I also speak about creating the audio slideshow as well as future plans for the site.

UPDATE 2: We have now posted a YouTube documentary of Jeremy filmed one year ago.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at November 3, 2007 1:44 PM | Comments (28)

 

From the Department of Things Better Left Unsaid

Filed under: Health Care

According to a New York Times investigation published last week, Minnesota psychiatrists who receive payments from pharmaceutical companies to study or lecture about their drugs are three or more times as likely to prescribe powerful—and controversial—anti-psychotic drugs to children.

After introducing readers to a Minnesota teen suffering from a painful, disfiguring side effect of one of the drugs, the Times asked the doctor who oversaw the team treating her to defend his relationship to the drug's maker. University of Minnesota Psychiatry Professor George Realmuto didn't remember the girl, but he did allow that he wanted "to be seen as a leader in my specialty."

The good doctor didn't stop there, though. "Academics don't get paid very much," he told the paper. "If I was an entertainer, I think I would certainly do a lot better." According to the Times, Realmuto's UM salary is $196,310.

By press time, Realmuto had not returned City Pages' call—which might be a wise move on his part.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at May 14, 2007 11:15 AM | Comments (1)

 

House passes $10 billion health care bill, includes money for 70,000 uninsured kids

Filed under: Health Care

For three years, Children's Defense Fund Minnesota has fought for funding to provide health care for all the state's children. Each year, the organization watched its proposal die in the Republican-controlled house.

Until last week, that is.

In an 86-45 vote, the (now Democratic) house passed a $10 billion health care bill that included funding for Minnesota's 70,000 uninsured kids. The senate passed a less generous health care package of its own, and the differences will have to be ironed out in a conference committee.

The real test, though, will likely come when the bill arrives at desk of the governor, who is not a fan of taxpayer-funded largesse.

"It's good news," said Marc Kimball, spokesman for Children's Defense Fund Minnesota, of the house bill's passage. "Hopefully as they move along in negotiations, we can hold most of it there."

Stay tuned.

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at April 23, 2007 3:53 PM | Comments (0)

 

Department of Health concerned about rising HIV cases in MN women

Filed under: Health Care

In 1990, women represented only 11 percent of the AIDS cases in the U.S. In 2005, that number rose to 26 percent. This increase is partially represented in the 1,289 HIV cases that have been reported among women and an estimated 1,168 that are currently living with HIV in Minnesota. Peter Carr, director of the STD and HIV Section of the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), quoted on the MDH's website: "The proportion of HIV cases among women has been a growing concern over the past couple of decades in Minnesota. Women represented just two percent of our HIV infections in 1985, 19 percent in 1995, and now 29 percent in 2005." The STD and HIV Section of the MDH currently funds 22 programs through 19 agencies aimed at preventing the spread of HIV in adults and young people. National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day will be held this Saturday, March 10, to draw attention to the growing cases of HIV/AIDS in American women.

Posted by Corey Anderson at March 7, 2007 9:55 AM | Comments (0)

 

A Pandemic of Disinterest

Filed under: Health Care

Most of the time, public health officials complain that news media handling of medical news is shallow, sensationalistic, and otherwise long on distortions and short on science. But the headlines sparked by the flu deaths of a Minneapolis firefighter and four children in the last couple of weeks may actually be underkill, suggests Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Osterholm has long cautioned that we're dangerously unprepared for a flu pandemic, and sooner or later we're guaranteed to have one.

Case in point: Less than a month ago, public health officials across the country were worried that millions of doses of flu vaccine would go unused this season. That would mean more cases of the flu, and more flu deaths, too. But beyond that, the glut could cause vaccine manufacturers to cut back on production next year and beyond, ultimately stymieing efforts to ramp up our capacity to produce vaccine.

According to information posted on the website for Osterholm's center, in 2002 vaccine manufacturers produced a record 95 million doses, but were left with 12 million unsold. Consequently, in 2003, producers cut back to 87 million doses. This flu season, manufacturers had shipped more than 102 million doses by the end of December.

Hundreds of people die of flu in Minnesota every year. But alarm about the deaths of the children--three of whom were otherwise healthy and unvaccinated, the other vaccinated but "medically fragile"--caused enough of a stampede to pediatricians' offices and supermarket clinics that Minnesota public health officials ordered thousands more doses of flu vaccine.

"If you want to pick all our ancestral buttons, have children die," says Osterholm. "If we'd had 10 deaths in nursing homes, this would never have made the news."

Posted by Beth Hawkins at February 16, 2007 12:54 PM | Comments (8)

 

Congressman Walz raises concerns about funding for VA medical care

Filed under: Health Care

Freshman Congressman Tim Walz from the First District yesterday delivered testimony in front of the House Budget Committee regarding the Bush Administration's budget proposals on veterans' programs. The 24-year veteran of the Army National Guard and son of a Korean War veteran, Walz raised numerous concerns about the shortfalls he sees in the funding of VA clinics and hospitals and the proposed enrollment fees that would affect those most in need of care. Read Walz's testimony to the committee following the jump.

 

Congressman Tim Walz (MN-01)
Budget Committee Testimony
Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Chairman Spratt, Ranking Member Ryan, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on some of the budgetary matters facing America's veterans today. Your willingness to hear testimony from me, as well as so many of my colleagues and other concerned citizens demonstrates your strong commitment to writing a fiscally sound budget that fulfills the needs of our veterans. I hope that my testimony today can aid you in your work.

Mr. Chairman, I am here today to discuss veterans' priorities within this budget from my perspective as a 24 year veteran of the Army National Guard and the son of a Korean War veteran. Last week, the President released his FY2008 budget request for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and while I am pleased to see at least slight increases in some important areas, the majority of his budget request leaves me deeply concerned. During his 2002 State of the Union speech, this President spoke of the need to care for our nation's veterans. He went so far as to ask Congress to "approve an historic increase in spending for veterans' health."

Since then, Mr. Chairman, the President has not followed through on his promises to America's veterans. In fact, President Bush has not mentioned veterans' issues in his last four State of the Union addresses. And in 2005, only a few short years after his 2002 promise to fund an historic increase in veterans' health care, the Department of Veterans Affairs was left so dangerously underfunded that Congress had to appropriate an emergency fund of $1 billion to keep the doors of our VA clinics and hospitals open.

This year, in his FY2008 budget request, the President has again placed veterans far too low on his list of priorities, underfunding VA medical care by $3.5 billion over five years. The President has requested a 6 percent increase in funding for VA medical care which is wholly inadequate. While certainly an improvement over his .4 percent increase request in FY2006, the FY2008 request does not meet the needs of a rapidly growing number of new veterans needing VA medical care, coupled with rapidly escalating health care costs. As a practical matter, that means that the VA will not be able to provide the care that our nation's retired servicemen and women are entitled to. You don't have to take my word for it: this request is a full 6.7 percent below the recommendation of the Independent Budget, a report put out by a group of veterans' service organizations.

Mr. Chairman, you don't need me to read you the statistics. What I need to express to this committee is the human impact of these budgetary decisions. It is not acceptable for us to exclude entire classes of veterans from the VA system. The men and women we call Priority 8 veterans served this country in the same ways other veterans did. The lack of a combat injury is no excuse for excluding them from the health care system they were promised access to. Barring 1.6 million veterans from their own health care system is unfair and unacceptable.

Mr. Chairman, the President's budget request proposes increased co-payments on prescription drugs and new enrollment fees for priority 7 and 8 veterans. These fees will drive out the veterans who need the system most, adding to the 47 million Americans who now lack health insurance.

If fees don't drive our veterans out, access to care just might. In my district, there are less than a half dozen primary care veterans clinics in operation. Mr. Chairman, my district is 300 miles wide - it stretches from the border of South Dakota to the border of Wisconsin. Veterans from my district who need more than a regular physical must charter vans through their Veterans Service Officers in order to make the drive to the VA Hospital in Minneapolis. A three hour ride is an excessive hardship, only made worse by the fact that this President is asking our veterans to pay more for those services when they finally arrive at the hospital. We can do better.

Mr. Chairman, the President's FY2008 budget request for the Department of Veterans Affairs represents the wrong priorities for our nation's veterans. However, the responsibility to do right by veterans does not lie with the President alone. We, the United States Congress, have the solemn responsibility and duty to create a budget that fulfills the promises we made to those who served.

We are responsible for caring for those who gave of themselves in years past and to care for those who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan in the future. The President's budget asks for only minimal increases in mental health services for Iraqi veterans despite recent studies that show 1 in 6 soldiers in Iraq report symptoms of depression, serious anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder. At a time when the VA expects to treat 5.8 million patients, including 263,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming year, it is Congress' duty to increase funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs and specifically to increase funding for both research into and treatment of the mental health conditions that plague many of our veterans.

At a time when Harvard University and the American Customer Satisfaction Index are recognizing the VA for its quality medical care, it is Congress' duty to ensure the VA does not veer from this upward trend and that it continues to improve not only quality of care but access to care.

At a time when our VA system is straining under the weight of both an aging veterans population and an entirely new group of veterans returning from the War on Terrorism, we must ensure funding matches not just monetary inflation but also the inflation in the number of veterans eligible for service.

Mr. Chairman, I am here today to ask you to help fulfill this duty by increasing the President's request for veterans' programs. The President's $86.75 billion request is simply not enough. As a veteran and the descendent of a long line of men who served this country, I can say with authority that properly funding our VA system does more than just provide veterans with the health care they were promised. Properly funding our VA ensures a new generation of soldiers will enlist and it helps to keep our communities both physically and economically healthy.

Thank you.

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 15, 2007 10:07 AM | Comments (0)

 

Free will or flat broke?

Filed under: Health Care

Today Business insider section of the Strib has an interesting story on the rising number of gainfully employed people without health insurance, including this revealing pull quote: "Thirty-nine percent of private-industry workers earning less than $15 an hour participated in employer health plans in 2005 according to federal labor statistics. That compares with 72 percent of everyone else in private industry."

Later in the piece, however, a pair of paragraphs says that "The number of insured Americans fell by 5 million from 2000 to 2005, according to a nationwide analysis covering 1996-2004 by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

"It's not that fewer employers are offering coverage, according to the analysis. Instead, two-thirds of the decline is employees choosing not to join their employers' plans through this period of high cost increases." (emphasis added)

This is like saying I am "choosing" not to buy a new Cadillac tomorrow. Employers may still be offering coverage, but clearly, fewer of them are offering affordable health insurance coverage.

And what about the remaining one-third of that roughly 5 million more uninsured, the approximately 1.67 million workers who had no "choice" in whether or not they were covered? According to the Federal Reserve analysis cited by the Strib, they have been bumped off the insurance rolls because of "tighter eligibility requirement by employers (longer waiting periods, more extensive health screening prior to receiving coverage, etc.)."

Posted by Britt Robson at January 8, 2007 7:13 PM | Comments (0)

 

Heal Thyself

Filed under: Health Care

Price of health insurance outpaces the cost of care

It seems like every time you turn around there's another headline announcing that they're drowning in money at UnitedHeath's Minnetonka headquarters. The healthcare giant is the nation's second-largest, with some 65 million subscribers and annual sales topping $45 billion--a 22 percent increase over last year. Juicy numbers, to be sure, but lately Wall Street is sounding a little concerned that the party may be starting to wane.

The Wall Street Journal today carries a terrific analysis of the health insurance industry's paradoxically pale prospects:

Last year, the top seven U.S. health insurers earned a combined $10 billion -- nearly triple their profits of five years earlier. The windfall came as insurers raised their prices faster than underlying health costs.

Now the good times may be rolling to a halt. Health insurance has become so expensive that many smaller employers are dumping insurance altogether. If insurers don't do something, they may find their business shriveling. Yet if they restrain price increases, or appear to, they get hammered by Wall Street.

The story quotes a consultant who calls aggressive pricing a "long walk off a short pier," noting that no one stays in business long if their prices erode their customer base. Insurers have gotten away with raising prices even as costs go down, the consultant adds, because most employers don't realize healthcare inflation is decelerating. And why would they? UnitedHealth has entire divisions peddling health-savings accounts and other insurance "products" that purport to save money for employers by creating incentives for workers to seek less care.

If you wondered where the booty at the heart of the stock-options probes underway came from, there it is. And while the booty will remain considerable, particularly in the eyes of the wage-slaves who can no longer afford health insurance, all signs are that it's poised to dwindle. At the beginning of the year, for instance, CEO Bill McGuire's options were worth a cool $1.6 billion. UnitedHealth stock was trading at its 52-week high at the time: 64.61. It's trading at 47.83 right now, quite possibly in part because the company recently reported it expects to add only 850,000 new members this year instead of the 1 million to 1.2 million originally forecast.

Operating margins used to hover around four or five percent in a good year, but now average eight percent at a large insurer, the Journal reports. And if you think this means there's room for a price war, think again: "WellPoint's chief financial officer says that if the company's profit margin fell by just 0.2 percentage point, 'We'd have to gain 2 million lives to make it up. It doesn't take much analysis to ask, 'From where?'"

Posted by Beth Hawkins at July 31, 2006 2:59 PM | Comments (0)

 

Juan Valdez wants to save your life

Filed under: Health Care

Earlier this month, researchers at Kaiser Permanente reported that alcoholics reduce their chance of getting cirhossis of the liver by a whopping 80 percent if they drink four cups of coffee a day. Today comes news that drunks aren't the only ones who stand to reap health benefits from routinely gulping large amounts of joe. In an 11 year study involving some 28,000 subjects, scientists at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health have concluded that women who drink six cups of coffee a day cut their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 33 percent. All hail the bean!

Posted by Mike Mosedale at June 27, 2006 9:16 AM | Comments (3)

 

A sorry excuse for grassroots

Filed under: Health Care

Few things are more disheartening than a well-time rally for a righteous cause against a notorious villain on a beautiful day...that turns out to be a big dud.

The righteous cause is affordable health care. More than 46 million Americans (over 15% of the total population) are without health insurance. Two and half years ago, Governor Tim Pawlenty convened an 18-person task force known as the Minnesota Citizens Forum on Health Care Costs, chaired by former U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger. They conducted a statewide survey that revealed a whopping 91 percent of Minnesotans believe health care should be made available to all citizens, with 80 percent supporting a tax increase to make it happen. A majority of those surveyed, 56 percent, supported a "single-payer" health care system operated by the government.

The notorious villain is United Health Group Co. CEO William McGuire, whose ability to cash in literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of company stock options in recent years finally became too much for folks to stomach. This week, the California Public Employees Retirement System, which owns stock in United Health, announced it would refuse to vote for four members of the company's board of directors who approved the exorbitant stock option plan. Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch also protested the huge payments.

The timing was propitious because United ironically chose "Cover the Uninsured Week" to hold its annual shareholders meeting at its Minnetonka headquarters on Bren Road this morning, under the first sunny skies this area has seen in nearly a week.

As for the protest rally, called by the Minnesota Univeral Health Care Coalition and convened at the edge of United's property about 50 yards away from the headquarters, well, about 50 people showed up, about half of them either members of the media or Green Party candidates running for office. They sang songs with clever health-care related lyrics based on the melody of "God Bless America," passed a camera bag in lieu of a hat to raise money for themselves, and railed about the huge contrast between the millions of dollars United Health execs get paid and the millions of people who are uninsured. But to say they were preaching to the choir is to besmirch the size--and the racial diversity--of most choirs.

It is hard to chide folks who work hard for a just cause. But despite all the talk about "grassroots" this morning, this was an embarrassing turnout. And if it is a harbinger of the health of the Green Party, I'd say that the organization is in need of a shakeup, or at least more cajoling of family and friends to help pad the house on what should be a signature issue for both the party and many many Minnesotans who have been getting knee-capped at the Capitol on an annual basis since 2003.

Posted by Britt Robson at May 2, 2006 5:43 PM | Comments (2)

 

H.I.V. cases spike amongst gay men

Filed under: Health Care

The level of new H.I.V. infections statewide remained almost level last year, according to statistics released by the Minnesota Department of Health today. There were 304 cases of H.I.V. reported in Minnesota last year, compared to 307 in 2004.

But there was a serious jump in reported cases involving men who have sex with men. New H.I.V infections in gay men jumped by 21.5 percent, accounting for roughly 60 percent of all new cases.

The spike is not surprising given the increases in syphilis infections among gay men in recent years. Such cases nearly tripled last year, from 34 to 99.

In announcing the results, the Minnesota Department of Health indicated a number of factors leading to the increase. "This increase, in combination with a four-year increase in new HIV infections among young gay and bisexual men, a tripling of syphilis cases in 2005 and a nationwide methamphetamine epidemic in which users more frequently engage in riskier sexual behavior, is a recipe for disaster in this community," noted Kip Beardsley, director of the STD and HIV section at the agency.

Posted by Paul Demko at April 17, 2006 4:18 PM | Comments (1)

 

Minneapolis by the numbers: Tops in STDs

Filed under: Health Care

It's a fair bet that Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak won't be boasting about this next time he has to give a speech to the Rotary Club: The Minnesota Department of Health has released its 2005 statistical report on the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases and the Mill City has swept every category. That's no small feat, given the fact that 2005 was a banner year for bacterial STDs in Minnesota; statewide, according to the report, there were more cases of STDs than ever documented previously. The MDH says that spike is partly attributable to improved monitoring techniques, but concludes that "true increases in the level of disease are most likely the driving factor."

Among the findings: in Minneapolis, there were 717 cases of chlamydia per 100,000 residents. That compares with 598 for St. Paul, 184 for suburbs, and 158 outstate. Minneapolis also lead in incidence of gonorrhea (333 per 100,000 residents), compared to 238 for St. Paul, 46 for the 'burbs, and 22 outstate. For syphillis, Minneapolis had an incidence of 11 cases per 100,000 residents, compared to 2.8 for St. Paul, 0.9 for the burbs, and 0.1 for outstate.

Will Minneapolis retain its dubious distinction as the state's leading outpost of venereal distress? Probably, at least in the near term. But, the report notes, the biggest percentage leaps in chlamydia occured in the 'burbs (9 percent) and outstate (6 percent).

Posted by Mike Mosedale at April 7, 2006 1:13 PM | Comments (0)

 

Syphilis spikes

Filed under: Health Care

Syphilis cases among gay men increased by nearly 200 percent last year, from 34 to 99, according to a report released yesterday by the Minnesota Department of Health. In 2001 there were just five cases of syphilis in men who have sex with men, but that number jumped to 56 and 71 over the next two years.

"We certainly have been experiencing higher levels of syphilis in the gay and bisexual population, but this is by far the most significant increase in the last several years," says Kip Beardsley, director of sexually transmitted diseases at the Minnnesota Department of Health. "It's something that's happening in major metro areas all across the county in this population as well."

The overwhelming majority of gay men in Minnesota diagnosed with syphilis (some 95 percent) lived in the Twin Cities. They ranged in age from 18 to 61. Many of them reported using the internet to locate sexual partners.

Most disturbingly, 37 percent of the gay men testing positive for syphilis were also infected with HIV. Because syphilis infection often results in open sores, it makes HIV transmission more likely. "It creates a point of entry for the HIV virus," says Beardsley. "It increases the efficiency of HIV transmission."

Bob Tracy, director of development at the Minnesota AIDS Project, says that use of crystal meth is also leading gay men to engage in risky sex practices. "That's kind of an emerging element of this," he says.

The Red Door Clinic in Minneapolis has been given a $75,000 grant by the state health department in order to do syphilis prevention work. The program will include expanded testing opportunities and online outreach.

But Tracy worries that effective outreach work will be hampered by attacks from conservative critics. Last year Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Delano) introduced a measure that would have stripped Minnesota AIDS Project of all funding because he was offended by the group's sexually explicit prevention materials.

"Rather than be able to use effective strategies that we know change behavior," he says, "we're in an environment where we're being told that we should not being doing the things that we know are effective."

Posted by Paul Demko at March 7, 2006 2:40 PM | Comments (1)

 

Press release of the day: Don't shit yourself for St. Paddy's this year

Filed under: Health Care

Dear Dara,

St. Patty's Day is more than the leprechauns, clovers, and green galore. It's also a time to celebrate the luck of the Irish, and partiers this holiday will consider themselves lucky--that is, if they don't go home wearing brown. Green beer, corn beef and cabbage, and sweet Irish treats may sound yummy for some, but the side effects can be not so pleasant.

Interview Bill Downs, one of the world's foremost experts on diet and digestion, and find out how you can avoid gastrointestinal distress this St. Patty's Day. Bill can discuss what foods and beers are safer and which ones tax the GI tract, and should therefore be avoided when celebrating this holiday.

Downs has over twenty years of expertise in diet, digestion, nutrition science, and biological chemistry. He has also published several peer-reviewed studies, and is the author of the Trafon blog (http://www.Trafon.org), the first 'fart blog' to promote serious discussion about digestive disorders, gastrointestinal diseases, and what people can do about them.

Downs can also discuss:

* The unalterable biochemical processes that cause indigestion

* The little-known reason why dieters and diabetics suffer from uncontrollable gas far more than the general population

* How most people can control indigestion, without resorting to over-the-counter medications

* What causes flatulence (farting)

* Why farts are funny to everyone except the person suffering with them

To arrange an immediate interview with Downs, contact Jackie Zima at 610-642-8253 x138, or at Jackie@GregoryFCA.com.

Thanks for your consideration!

Posted by Steve Perry at March 2, 2006 3:35 PM | Comments (0)

 

Vets to Nicholson: Where is that money?

Filed under: Health Care

When secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson visited the Minneapolis VA hospital earlier this week, a 72-year-old vet had only one issue he wanted to discuss with the Bush-appointee: "Why is the funds taken away from the VA? We don't have enough nurses, we don't have enough people to help the veterans when they come in here for surgery," asked Virgil Kinnumen, according to a story by MPR. "Why can't we get funds to help the VA hospitals, instead of spending it on some other goofy things?"

Nicholson's response to the man, whose recent surgery incision was visible on his chest, was that he's heard mainly positive responses from the staff. "Actually, it gets a lot of funding," Nicholson said. "VA funding increased 57 percent in the last four years. The Congress and president have been very supportive of the VA."

"Where is that money?" Kinnumen asked. "I don't see it. We're always behind on everything here."

Despite Nicholson's assurances that the VA gets "lots of funding," the lack of VA funding has caused a heated debate in Congress this year, and critics in the House and Senate charge that Nicholson's short-sidedness and inexperience are a few of the reasons the VA has become so strapped. In fact, in June, after only two months earlier assuring Congress that the VA did not need emergency funding, Nicholson confirmed the VA needed another $300 million to fund Fiscal Year 2005.

Last month, the Democratic Staff of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs released a response to the Fiscal Year 06 budget (which began in October), noting that again the appropriated budget falls $2.2 billion short of the Democratic recommendation. Supplemental emergency funding, which can only be requested by the Bush administration, was added in the amount of $1.225 million, but the House Committee staff says it still falls $475 million short of the original recommendation.

In April, the Minneapolis VA hospital became a designated polytrauma unit, one of only four in the country designed to treat soldiers sustaining multiple and life-altering injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan. As noted in a November City Pages story on the Minneapolis VA and one soldier's battle to come back from a brian injury suffered in Iraq, the cost to treat these severely injured patients can range anywhere from $80,000 to more than $500,000.

In the past year, the Minneapolis VA has had to increase its staff by more than 200. And according to MPR, the Minneapolis VA's budget alone has increased $90 million, to $390 million in Fiscal Year 05. But in April, like the crisis facing the rest of the department of Veterans Affairs, the Minneapolis VA was hit with a $7 million budget shortfall of its own. Though the number of soldiers with serious injuries is increasing and baby boomers are aging and seeking more VA assistance, the VA healthcare Fiscal Year 06 budget only increased by $600 million, to $29.9 billion in appropriated dollars.

Posted by at January 13, 2006 1:16 AM | Comments (2)

 

The Foxes in Pharma's Henhouses

Filed under: Health Care , Health Care , Health Care

One more way profits trump science in drug trials

The author of the highly literate and widely lauded 2003 book, "Better than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream," Carl Elliot is well positioned to comment on pharma's ceaseless search for new maladies--which can, of course, then be treated profitably. In today's Slate, Elliot, who is a professor at the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics, has co-authored a terrific piece on the mechanics and dangers of allowing researchers conducting clinical drug trials to hire their own for-profit overseers.

Drug companies spend $14 billion a year testing new drugs. The products need to be tested for safety on healthy people, and the healthy people most willing to ingest them are usually those with plenty of time and little money. Nearly 10 years ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that Eli Lilly and Company was recruiting homeless alcoholics to take part in drug trials in Indianapolis. In 2003, a previously healthy college student named Traci Johnson committed suicide in Lilly labs after being paid to take a new version of an antidepressant. Now Bloomberg is reporting that three years ago, Garry Polsgrove, a homeless Vietnam veteran, checked into the Fabre Research Clinic, a for-profit testing center in Houston. Polsgrove was in good health when he entered the study and started taking clozapine, an antipsychotic drug, in order to get some cash and a place to sleep. Twenty-two days later he was dead of myocarditis.

The piece adds one more layer to the growing body of evidence that the pharmaceutical regulatory system in the United States is in desperate need of a wholesale overhaul.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at December 14, 2005 1:22 PM | Comments (0)

 

The miracles of modern medicine

Filed under: Health Care

A friend in San Francisco sends this note about his attempts to register his toddler for an appointment with a medical specialist:

I am not kidding about learning the importance of dealing with insurance companies. Astonishing bureaucracy and ineptitude, among other enjoyable attributes--took them 6 tries, and 5 phone calls, to send me an authorization letter with the correct spelling of the name, address, and phone number of one doctor.

Gives new meaning to the term "preventative medicine"...

Posted by Michael Tortorello at November 30, 2005 12:27 PM | Comments (1)

 

Pharmaceuticals propaganda goes literary, backfires

Filed under: Health Care

Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer have a staggering little tale of pharmaceutical-business disinformation posted at Slate. They report that the industry lobbying group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) hired a pair of ghostwriters to crank out a thriller about the import of tainted drugs from, yes, Canada. But a fatal wrinkle in the plot soon developed: Mark Barondess, the PhRMA flack who had dreamed up the project, didn't like the manuscript of the resulting novel and killed the project. Brownlee and Lenzer write that Barondess then offered the writers $100,000 to forget the whole thing ever happened. They declined, and their novel The Karasik Conspiracy will be published in December with a new heavy: the American pharmaceutical industry.

Read the Slate story here.

Posted by Steve Perry at November 30, 2005 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

 

Allegory in the Making

Filed under: Health Care

What do these three stories about health insurance add up to?

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-Mart is pondering ways to cut its benefits costs by hiring healthier workers and imposing policies that make working for Wal-Mart less attractive to people who can't get or stay healthy. The Journal's site is subscription-only, but here's a taste:

The Wal-Mart memo to the company's board of directors proposes incorporating physical activity in all jobs to discourage the infirm from applying. For example, the memo suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for "all cashiers to do some cart gathering." The memo also promotes health-savings accounts, which are funded by workers' pretax dollars and can be diverted to retirement accounts or rolled over to pay for health care the following year. Health-benefits specialists say these accounts are most appealing to younger, healthier workers. "It will be far easier to attract and retain a healthier work force than it will be to change behavior in an existing one," says the memo, which was previously disclosed in the New York Times yesterday. "These moves would also dissuade unhealthy people from coming to work at Wal-Mart."

This latest example of the corporate compulsion to dunn people for the fact that their health care costs money got me to thinking of a story published two months ago in the New Yorker. In it, Malcolm Gladwell argues that thinking like Wal Mart's is the reason this country can't come up with anything resembling a rational approach to providing health care to everyone.

In the past few decades a particular idea has taken hold among prominent American economists which has also been a powerful impediment to the expansion of health insurance. The idea is known as "moral hazard." Health economists in other Western nations do not share this obsession. Nor do most Americans. But moral hazard has profoundly shaped the way think tanks formulate policy and the way experts argue and the way health insurers structure their plans and the way legislation and regulations have been written. The health-care mess isn't merely the unintentional result of political dysfunction, in other words. It is also the deliberate consequence of the way in which American policymakers have come to think about insurance.

"Moral hazard" is the term economists use to describe the fact that insurance can change the behavior of the person being insured. If your office gives you and your co-workers all the free Pepsi you want--if your employer, in effect, offers universal Pepsi insurance--you'll drink more Pepsi than you would have otherwise. If you have a no-deductible fire-insurance policy, you may be a little less diligent in clearing the brush away from your house. The savings-and-loan crisis of the nineteen-eighties was created, in large part, by the fact that the federal government insured savings deposits of up to a hundred thousand dollars, and so the newly deregulated S. & L.s made far riskier investments than they would have otherwise. Insurance can have the paradoxical effect of producing risky and wasteful behavior. Economists spend a great deal of time thinking about such moral hazard for good reason. Insurance is an attempt to make human life safer and more secure. But, if those efforts can backfire and produce riskier behavior, providing insurance becomes a much more complicated and problematic endeavor.

Finally, and then I'll leave you to read these three stories and decide for yourself whether you don't think they add up to a bad case of blind men groping an elephant, consider Robert Kuttner's take on GM's attempts to blame workers' health care costs for its precarious financial position.

It would be a mistake to conclude that high wages or excess health benefits are bankrupting U.S. industry. Look at our competitors. Japanese labor costs in the auto industry are comparable to American ones and German wages are far higher.

There are, however, two offsetting differences. First, the Japanese and Germans are ahead technologically and have a knack for making reliable cars that consumers want to buy. Second, their healthcare is financed socially.

So GM's biggest problem is not labor costs; it's that except for its profitable SUVs (which are becoming white elephants as gas prices rise), too few consumers are buying GM's products. When management makes dumb decisions about design, quality, or marketing, autoworkers end up paying the price.

GM spends also $5.6 billion a year on healthcare -- more than it spends on steel. Its foreign competitors spend nothing on healthcare. So GM and the UAW are common victims of America's failure to have national health insurance.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at October 27, 2005 4:01 PM | Comments (2)

 

The Life and Hard Times of William McGuire

Filed under: Health Care

William McGuire, the CEO of the Minnetonka-based HMO United Health Care, should have another bountiful Christmas. Naturally, as chieftain of the second largest HMO in the nation, McGuire is handsomely compensated. But how, um, handsomely? According to Joel Albers, a health care economist with the organization Minnesota Universal Health Care Action Network, McGuire is the highest paid CEO in the history of Minnesota. Last year, McGuire reaped salary and stock options worth approximately $124 million; a hefty leap from his $94 million compensation package in 2003. By Albers' calculations, if McGuire were to accept a paltry $19 million for his past two years labors, there would be enough money left over to insure the 77,000 Minnesota children who currently lack coverage.

Posted by Mike Mosedale at October 21, 2005 10:37 AM | Comments (0)

 

Revolting pharmacists: Target edition

Filed under: Health Care

According to Planned Parenthood in St. Louis, a pharmacist working at a Target store in Missouri recently refused to fill a prescription for a 26-year-old woman who was seeking emergency contraception. Asked why, the pharmacist allegedly responded, "I won't fill it and I don't have to fill it and that my right!"

Not surprisingly, this caused considerable outrage in pro-choice circles. Among other things, Planned Parenthood complains that Target has consistently declined to elucidate its policies regarding the obligations of pharmacists. Contacted by City Pages today, Target spokeswoman Lena Michaud offered the following statement:

Like many other retailers, Target's policy ensures that a guest's prescription for emergency contraception is filled, whether at Target or at a different pharmacy [italics added] in a timely and respectful manner. This policy meets the health care needs of our guests while respecting the diversity of our team members.

Target places a very high priority on our role as a community pharmacy and our obligation to meet the needs of the patients we serve. Our guests deserve our best service, and our team members value working in an inclusive environment that respects their individuality.

You may have heard about an alleged incident at a Target store in Missouri. Please know that we have thoroughly researched the situation and determined that the organization has inaccurately portrayed the events that occurred. We are extremely disappointed by yesterday's Planned Parenthood protest at the Missouri store and the misinformation that is being perpetuated.

Target's mastery of progressive-sounding rhetoric is impressive. Note the graceful invocation of buzzwords such as "diversity," "individuality," "respect," "inclusive," and--most important--"community." But whatever the "inaccuracies" of the Planned Parenthood account, it is also clear from the Target statement that the retail giant has bowed to the refusal clause movement.

With that in mind, there are more frank ways to express the company policy. Like this: "As a corporation, we have decided to let religious zealots on our payroll send all harlots/guests packing. If you insist on not being fruitful and multiplying, we will give you directions to a more accomodating pharmacist."

As City Pages reported previously, there have been no publicized incidents of Minnesota pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for contraceptives. However, there have been repeated efforts to legislate so-called "conscience clauses" permitting such conduct. Meanwhile, it is also worth noting that CVS--the country's largest pharmacy chain and a fast growing presence in Minnesota--has formally adopted a policy allowing pharmacists to turn away patients based on "deeply held religious beliefs."

Posted by Mike Mosedale at October 19, 2005 4:00 PM | Comments (15)

 

Indonesia claims bird flu "epidemic"

Filed under: Health Care

Indonesia called an outbreak of bird flu in its teeming capital an epidemic on Wednesday as health and agricultural experts from around the world converged on Jakarta to help control the virus. Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said the emergence of sporadic human cases of bird flu in recent months in and around different parts of Jakarta, home to 12 million people, warranted the epidemic tag.

--Reuters

Posted by Steve Perry at September 21, 2005 7:30 AM | Comments (0)

 

100 surgeons and paramedics held up by red tape

Filed under: Health Care

The Associated Press is reporting there are over 100 volunteer physicians assembled in a multi-million dollar state-of-the-art mobile hospital marooned in Mississippi. Apparently government officials have been unable to unravel red tape and get them assigned to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Many traveled 30 hours to get to the facility and are now just miles away from the disaster area. Dr. Preston "Chip" Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill calls it "mind-boggling." Read the story here.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 5, 2005 9:50 AM | Comments (2)

 

"A health care system that leaves its citizenry pulling out their teeth with pliers"

Filed under: Health Care

Anyone who pays much attention to such matters knows that there are terrible problems with the American health care system. But nobody explains it any better than the New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell. In "The Moral Hazard Myth," the redoubtable Gladwell dissects the flawed theoretical underpinnings of the private insurance model, which, as he explains, rests chiefly on an exceptionally dim view of human nature. Gladwell's treatise ought to be required reading for every member of the U.S. Congress; check that, it ought to be required reading in every high school civics class. But if you are in a rush to get your blood boiling, this stat-laden excerpt should tide you over until you have a chance to read the story in its entirety.

Gladwell writes:

[T]he United States has opted for a makeshift system of increasing complexity and dysfunction. Americans spend $5,267 per capita on health care every year, almost two and half times the industrialized world’s median of $2,193; the extra spending comes to hundreds of billions of dollars a year. What does that extra spending buy us? Americans have fewer doctors per capita than most Western countries. We go to the doctor less than people in other Western countries. We get admitted to the hospital less frequently than people in other Western countries. We are less satisfied with our health care than our counterparts in other countries. American life expectancy is lower than the Western average. Childhood-immunization rates in the United States are lower than average. Infant-mortality rates are in the nineteenth percentile of industrialized nations. Doctors here perform more high-end medical procedures, such as coronary angioplasties, than in other countries, but most of the wealthier Western countries have more CT scanners than the United States does, and Switzerland, Japan, Austria, and Finland all have more MRI machines per capita. Nor is our system more efficient. The United States spends more than a thousand dollars per capita per year—or close to four hundred billion dollars—on health-care-related paperwork and administration, whereas Canada, for example, spends only about three hundred dollars per capita. And, of course, every other country in the industrialized world insures all its citizens; despite those extra hundreds of billions of dollars we spend each year, we leave forty-five million people without any insurance. A country that displays an almost ruthless commitment to efficiency and performance in every aspect of its economy—a country that switched to Japanese cars the moment they were more reliable, and to Chinese T-shirts the moment they were five cents cheaper—has loyally stuck with a health-care system that leaves its citizenry pulling out their teeth with pliers.

Posted by Mike Mosedale at August 29, 2005 1:50 PM | Comments (0)

 

Land of 10,000 french fries

Filed under: Health Care

When it comes to porking out, Minnesota squeezes into the top half of the nation's most obese states, according to a report released today by the advocacy group Trust for America's Health.

Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the group noted that 22.7 percent of the nation's adults could be considered obese during the period from 2001-04, up from 22 percent during the period 2000-03.

Minnesota is almost exactly in the bulging middle of these statistics, ranking 25th nationally among the 49 states surveyed (Hawaii was not counted), with a obesity percentage of 22.6 among its adult population. When you add in people who are overweight but not obese, Minnesota's national ranking rises to 22nd, although its overall percentage of obese/overweight adults, 60 percent, is less than the national average of 64.5 percent. (Here is America's Trust look at Minnesota's specific obesity data, and here is the group's page for Minnesota health in general.)

The report indicates that among regions of the country, Dixie is tubby and New England is svelte. The top five is percentage of obese adults are Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana, and Tennessee. The five least-obese states are Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and Montana. Oregon was the lone state not to see its percentage of obese adults rise from last year.

Posted by Britt Robson at August 23, 2005 5:26 PM | Comments (0)

 

A long line at the old soldiers home

Filed under: Health Care

It is an axiom of modern American politics that everyone must profess, loudly and in unison, that they "support the troops." But how does the rhetoric stack up against the facts? Consider the plight of veterans who, owing to old age and infirmity, require skilled nursing care. At the Minnesota Veterans Home in Minneapolis, applicants for beds in the nursing home wing typically must wait between 10 and 12 months for one to open up. The 314 veterans on the waiting list alone could nearly fill the total number of beds available (341). Steve Musser, executive director of the Minnesota Veterans Homes, says circumstances have improvement from six months ago when the list hit 400. But Musser acknowledges the need to shorten the wait. After all, it's not as if the the typical veterans home user has that much time left: at an average age of 78, a majority of residents in the skilled care ward suffers from either Alzheimers or dementia. That fact notwithstanding, Minnesota's five veterans homes have had limited success in their appeals to the state legislature to expand services and facilities. Last session, for instance, lawmakers rejected a request for 21 new beds at the veterans home in Fergus Falls and approved just $5.5 million of the overall $17.6 million in projects submitted for consideration under the bonding bill. "Obviously you don't get everything you ask for," Musser adds. "But we wish more of these projects were funded. We'll just have to keep at it."

Posted by Mike Mosedale at August 17, 2005 5:00 PM | Comments (1)

 

Meth Mouth Madness

Filed under: Health Care

The "meth mouth" epidemic is now accepted fact. Pictures of recovering addicts with blackened, decaying teeth have become staples of newspaper articles and television reports. But is the main cause of these rotting incisors meth use--or simply poor hygiene and eating habits?

Jack Shafer has a provocative piece in Slate exploring this question. He scrutinizes numerous recent media reports, including articles in the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press, that posit a direct correlation between meth use and rotten teeth. Many of these stories, Shafer notes, provide scant (or erroneous) evidence to back up the connection. The most common claim is that the tooth decay rampant in meth addicts is cause by contaminants or acids in the drug. But Shafer shoots this theory down:

The contaminant angle is complete misinformation. Dr. John R. Richards M.D., who studied tooth damage among 49 users in the late 1990s and co-wrote a paper on his finding for the August 2000 issue of the Journal of Periodontology, says users could consume pharmaceutical-grade methamphetamine and still lose their teeth.

Richards concluded that the chief cause of meth mouth was a combination of factors, including poor dental care, sugar consumption, and tobacco use. "It's a lifestyle issue," he tells Shafer.

Of course, meth has become the de facto scapegoat for all of society's problems. As Shafer also notes, nobody would ever think to blame alcohol for people's rotting teeth.

The connections between drug abuse and tooth loss are established in the medical literature, even when the drug is booze. A recent study at the University of Buffalo found that alcohol abuse may lead to periodontal disease, tooth decay, and potentially precancerous mouth sores, but don't expect anybody to call it "Miller mouth."

(Mosedale wrote a nice meth primer for City Pages a couple of years ago.)

Posted by Paul Demko at August 10, 2005 11:54 AM | Comments (17)