Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 17th 2017
This study aimed to estimate associations between combined measurements of BMI and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) with mortality and incident coronary artery disease (CAD). This study followed 130,473 UK Biobank participants aged 60-69 years (baseline 2006-2010) for 8.3 years (n = 2974 deaths). Current smokers and individuals with recent or disease-associated (e.g., from dementia, heart failure, or cancer) weight loss were excluded, yielding a "healthier agers" group.
Ignoring WHR, the risk of mortality for overweight subjects was similar to that for normal-weight subjects. However, among normal-weight subjects, mortalit...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 16, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
What is the Goal of Treating Aging as a Medical Condition?
Thanks to a great deal of hard work and advocacy, there is now a much greater enthusiasm and public discussion in the research community regarding treatment of the causes of aging than was the case at the turn of the century. This is as opposed to continuing the past strategy of attempts to patch over the late stages of age-related diseases without addressing their root causes. Nonetheless, many researchers are still reluctant to openly advocate for significant extension of human life spans, and bury that goal in favor of talking about compression of morbidity, shortening the period of disability at the end of life.
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Source: Fight Aging! - July 10, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Medicaid Under Block Grants: Lessons From Welfare Reform
Both proposed versions of the Republican health care bill—the American Health Care Act (AHCA) and the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA)–create an option for states to receive Medicaid funds in the form of a block grant (in the BCRA, the Medicaid Flexibility Program). The lessons from welfare reform can provide valuable insights into the potential impact of Medicaid block grants: namely, states may have a considerable incentive to pursue block grants, because they pose an attractive opportunity to cut state spending and allocate Medicaid dollars for other uses should the state desire that outcome.
In 1996, A...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - July 7, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Michelle Ko and Marianne Bitler Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP ACA repeal and replace AHCA BCRA Medicaid block grants tanf Source Type: blogs
Three Lessons from the Tax Defeat in Kansas
Leftists don ’t have many reasons to be cheerful.Global economic developmentskeep demonstrating (over andover again) that big government and high taxes are not arecipe for prosperity. That can ’t be very encouraging for them.They also can ’t be very happy about the Obama presidency. Yes, he was one of them, and he was able to impose a lot of his agenda in his first two years. But that experiment with bigger government producedvery dismal results. And it also was a political disaster for the left since Republicans won landslide elections in2010 and2014 (you could also argue thatTrump ’s election in 2016 was a repudi...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 22, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Daniel J. Mitchell Source Type: blogs
The Macro View – Health, Financial And Political News Relevant To E-Health And The Health Sector In General.
June 15, 2017 Edition.A big week internationally with Theresa May almost getting booted out – it may still happen – and President Trump being beaten up by the James Comey (Former FBI Boss) testimony. Trump is now saying he will testify under oath – always the sign of desperation. My guess is that all this will not end well for him.On the Australian front we have seen a new energy pla n from Alan Finkle and we still seem to have increasing talk of an economic slowdown. Time will tell just where all this will land up.The two most interesting bits of news this week were these:http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/marke...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - June 15, 2017 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David More MB PhD FACHI Source Type: blogs
The Macro View – Health, Financial And Political News Relevant To E-Health And The Health Sector In General.
June 8, 2017 Edition.It is all back on again now on the Trump front as he has finished wandering around the world causing trouble with climate change control, defence policy and a range of other issues. Of course he also came out of the Paris Agreement last week to everyone seemingly saying he was wrong.The current week will be fascinating with more leaks happening and the Comey testimony due on June 8.On the Australian front we seem to have increasing talk of an economic slowdown. Time will tell just where we land up.The most interesting bit of news this week was this:http://www.afr.com/markets/fund-manager-hands-bac...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - June 8, 2017 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David More MB PhD FACHI Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 15th 2017
Fight Aging! provides a weekly digest of news and commentary for thousands of subscribers interested in the latest longevity science: progress towards the medical control of aging in order to prevent age-related frailty, suffering, and disease, as well as improvements in the present understanding of what works and what doesn't work when it comes to extending healthy life. Expect to see summaries of recent advances in medical research, news from the scientific community, advocacy and fundraising initiatives to help speed work on the repair and reversal of aging, links to online resources, and much more.
This content is...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 14, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Shrinking the Balance Sheet: Where Fed Officials Stand
In March, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)signaled it could begin shrinking the Fed ’s balance sheet sometime later this year. However, with limited official details about what that means and none forthcoming fromlast week ’s FOMC press release, many questions remain:How will the Fed decide exactly when to begin shrinking its balance sheet, and will the move be data or date dependent?Once the wind-down begins, how rapidly will the balance sheet shrink and to what new normal level?How will the Fed dispose of its assets: by simply refraining from reinvesting the proceeds from maturing securities, passively shrink...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 9, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Tate Lacey Source Type: blogs
Lessons from the Reagan Tax Cuts
In acolumn in today ’s New York Times, Steven Rattner attacks Trump ’s tax plan for being unrealistic. SinceI also think the proposal isn ’t very plausible, I ’m not overly bothered by that message. However, Rattner tries to bolster his case by making very inaccurate and/or misleading claims about the Reagan tax cuts.Givenmy admiration for the Gipper, those assertions cry out for correction. Starting with his straw man claim that the tax cuts were supposed to pay for themselves.…four decades ago…the rollout of what proved to be among our country’s greatest economic follies — the alchemistic belief that hug...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 1, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Daniel J. Mitchell Source Type: blogs
No, Higher Deficits Don ’t Raise Long-Term Interest Rates
According to former Reagan adviserMartin Feldstein, “Higher projected budget deficits could raise long-term interest rates, potentially triggering… a serious economic downturn.”Has thateverhappened?From 1977 to 1981 10-year bond yields nearly doubled, rising from about 7.4% to 13.9%, but budget deficits were relatively small, around 2.5% of GDP. Budget deficits were doubled from 1984 to 1993 (about 5% of GDP), yet bond yields were nearly cut in half, falling from 12.4% to 5.9%. Bond yields were no lower from 1997 to 2000 when the budget moved into surplus. But yields fell dramatically in 2008-2012, a period of rec...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 27, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Alan Reynolds Source Type: blogs
The Future Of Delivery System Reform
Over the past several years, the federal government has put billions of dollars into a variety of programs aimed at improving the way health care is delivered. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) authorized a broad agenda of reform projects, including accountable care organizations (ACOs), bundled payments, value-based purchasing, primary care initiatives, and other payment and service delivery models. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015 established new ways of paying physicians intended to promote high-quality patient care.
What will happen to these initiatives under a Congress where Republicans are...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - April 20, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Joseph Antos and James Capretta Tags: Costs and Spending Insurance and Coverage Medicare Payment Policy Accountable Care Organizations ACOs Affordable Care Act HMOs MACRA Medicare Advantage supplemental insurance reform Source Type: blogs
Trump Advisers Are All Wrong about South Korea Trade Deal
The Wall Street Journal reports: “Mr. Trump’s nominee for U.S. Trade Representative singled out Mexico and South Korea during his Senate confirmation hearing as sparking American trade deficits. ‘In some cases, the rules don’t seem to be working as well as others,’ Robert Lighthizer said. Critics say the deal has led to a flood of South Korean cars, auto parts, memory chips, motors and pumps into the U.S., weighing on American competitors and jobs. A U.S. Trade Representative report this month said the pact… doubled the U.S. trade deficit in goods with South Korea.”National Trade Council bossPeter Navarro has...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 30, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Alan Reynolds Source Type: blogs
The Economic Doom-Mongers Have Been Wrong on Brexit So Far
For an economist, it ’s rare that events occur enabling us to directly test our economic theories and assess them against outcomes. Britain’s Brexit vote last year was one such moment. As the formal Article 50 process for EU withdrawal begins today, it’s worth re-examining the consensus view on what a “Leave” vote would mean. Those warning of impending doom today are many of the same people who predicted a decision to exit would bring immediate economic slowdown.The Economists for Brexit group of which I was a founding member was busy refuting anti-Brexit reports pre-referendum. Britain ’s Treasury led the w...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 29, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Ryan Bourne Source Type: blogs
The Unfolding Medicaid Story: Congress, Governors, And The Trump Administration
Anyone who has had the chance to witness (or be part of) any of the epic health reform dramas that continually play out in Washington D.C. will agree: in the end, it always comes down to Medicaid. We have once again arrived at one of those moments.
The typical starting point for this continuing drama is the initial reaction to Medicaid’s sheer size and reach—16 percent of all health care spending in FY 2014, and 74 million people enrolled as of December 2016. These figures are especially astonishing to the newly initiated when one compares them to where Medicaid was only 37 years ago in 1980—fewer than 20 mil...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 21, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Sara Rosenbaum Tags: Costs and Spending Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP block grants governors per capita caps States Source Type: blogs
2016-2025 Projections of National Health Expenditures Data Released
National health expenditure is expected to grow an average of 5.6% annually from 2016 through 2025, according to a report published by Health Affairs (authored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Office of the Actuary (OACT)).
National health spending growth is projected to outpace projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth by 1.2%. The report also projects that the health share of GDP will rise from 17.8% in 2015 to 19.9% by 2025. Growth in national health expenditures over this period is likely to be largely influenced by faster growth in medical prices, as compared to recent historically low...
Source: Policy and Medicine - March 19, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
