The Health News USA August 16 2017
Overview
- Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and AmeriHealth of New Jersey are proposing higher premiums for the people of New Jersey who buy coverage in the federal health insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act.
- Suicides among US children under thirteen are rare, but perhaps more frequent than you think. The CDC says that from 1990 through 2015, 1,309 children ages 5 to 12 committed suicide in the United States. This means that one child under 13 died of suicide nearly every five days, on average, over those 17 years.
- According to a new study, American are drinking more and more. The prevalence of alcohol abuse disorders has risen nearly 50%. The study also created a picture of long-term drinking habits that led to findings, that in light of the national opioid abuse crisis.
News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 16th of August 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health News
Two insurers are proposing higher premiums for the people of New Jersey who buy coverage in the federal health insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has proposed raising premiums next year by twenty two percent on average, while AmeriHealth of New Jersey wants increases ranging from six to fifty nine percent. They are the only insurers offering such coverage, though another firm plans to return to the market.
Horizon cited the uncertainty about ongoing efforts to repeal or replace the health care law as a main reason for the proposed increase, which would be its largest price hike since the law went into effect. AmeriHealth says nearly half of its proposed increase is driven by changes to health-care provider fees. The proposed increases must be approved by the state Department of Banking and Insurance.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/14/health/child-suicides/index.html
Suicides among US children under thirteen are rare, but perhaps more frequent than you think. And eight is hardly the youngest. From nineteen ninety nine through two thousand fifteen, one thousand three hundred nine children ages five to twelve committed suicide in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. That means one child under thirteen died of suicide nearly every five days, on average, over those seventeen years. The frequency was higher from two thousand thirteen to two thousand fifteen — once every three point four days — thanks mostly to a fifty four percent spike in the suicides of eleven- and twelve-year-olds compared to the three years prior.
By far, most children under thirteen who commit suicide are boys: seventy six percent of those who died in nineteen ninety nine to two thousand fifteen were male.
Lead study author Arielle Sheftall and her team said found something else: thirty six point eight percent of the five to eleven set who committed suicide were black — nearly double the rate reported in the same demographic group between nineteen ninety three and two thousand and two.
Sheftall said more research is needed, both to understand the increase in suicide rate in black children, and to determine whether and how suicide prevention efforts should be tailored to preteens.
Pre-thirteen suicides have been understudied, Sheftall said, largely because it’s hard to imagine children this young want to kill themselves.
Americans are drinking more, a lot more, according to a study sponsored by a federal agency for alcohol research. The prevalence of alcohol abuse disorders has risen nearly fifty percent, creating a public health crisis. According to a new study published in JAMA Psychiatry, an estimated one out of every eight Americans struggles with an alcohol disorder. Tracking the alcohol consumption habits of forty thousand Americans, the study examined how drinking habits have changed between two periods of time, between two thousand two to two thousand three and two thousand twelve to two thousand thirteen. The study also created a picture of long-term drinking habits that led to findings, that in light of the national opioid abuse crisis, make the alcohol abuse problem even more shocking.
Drinking alcohol, in general, saw a dramatic increase over that time period, while problem drinking saw a huge rise, particularly among women, minorities and senior citizens. The study used criteria established by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. High-risk drinking in the study referred to those women drinking four or more alcoholic drinks a day, or men drinking five or more alcoholic drinks per day. In this study, high-risk drinking in women rose fifty eight percent. In older adults, it rose an astounding sixty five percent. The cost of excessive alcohol use in the United States reached two hundred forty nine billion dollars in two thousand ten or about two point zero five dollars per drink, according to data published by the CDC in two thousand sixteen. Most of the loss was in workplace productivity, accounting for seventy two percent of the two hundred forty nine billion dollars. Health care expenses in treating alcohol abuse disorder amounted to eleven percent of the total.
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