$1.4 Trillion Lost Annually Due To Illness, Study Estimates

The lack of productivity that accompanies the onset of diseases and other health conditions may deprive the U.S. economy of $1.4 trillion annually, a new report sponsored by the Advanced Medical Technology Association concludes.

“It’s obvious that disease and productivity are intrinsically linked,” report contributor Bryan Luce of the United BioSource Corporation (UBC) said during a presentation Monday marking the reports’ release. “[Disease is] obviously important to GDP if it’s important to productivity.”

The report estimates that cancer is responsible for the loss of $306 billion in productivity with substance abuse detracting an additional $225 billion. The study also highlighted billions in losses from hypertension, heart disease, and mental problems.

The report’s contributors explained that the data shows the need for further investment in preventative treatment, arguing that an aggressive prevention program is needed.

“There is a rationale for a national program on the order of putting a man on the moon,” report contributor Greg de Lissovoy of UBC said. “Certainly health care reform and better access to care...will make a great contribution to this.”

House GOP'ers Say Gov't Health Care Not The Cure

By Laura Woodhead - Talk Radio News Service

A government run health care plan will increase cancer mortality rates, said a group of GOP congressmen on Tuesday.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who survived bladder cancer after being diagnosed at age 19, said that the higher cancer mortality rates in the UK and Canada have shown him that a government run health care system will decrease cancer survival rates.

"We have a unique advantage as cancer survivors, that we can go through the bill and debate the bill knowing the personal consequences of what they are proposing would do to somebody just like us," he said. "We know for a fact that our survivability rates are going down."

Rogers warned Americans who have had cancer or are currently undergoing treatment to be wary of the current health care bill.

"85% of Americans have health insurance of some sort. What they are talking about doing is taking that away from you in order to fix 15% of the problem, and in order to do it we will have to ration health care for individuals," Rogers said. "There is no compassion in that, there is to extra treatment in that."

The congressmen spoke alongside a chart which depicted cancer survival rates in countries with government run health care plans versus the United States. Rep. Todd Atkin (R-Mo.) said that the statistics on prostate cancer speak for themselves.

"Among men between the UK and the US, we are talking about an 18% difference in survival rates. When its your life, 18% means an awful lot to you" Atkin said. "When the government takes over the health care system that's the kind of results you get."

Atkin added that he fully expects cancer patients to oppose the legislation.

Said Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a survivor of renal and prostate cancer, "If you want a system where your chances of surviving renal cancer are less that even....a government system, all throughout Europe, produces those lower survivor rates for cancer"

Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) said that better survival rates in the U.S. can be attributed to the speed at which diagnostic tests can be performed within the current system.

"Under a government health care plan like in the UK and Canada, I would not have had the advantage to get [diagnostic tests] done in such quick time. And it might have been too late."

"We need to focus on those good constructive policies that we all know are going to work, and continue to deliver the best health system in the world," Myrick said. "We don't need to create one that will limit people's choices and ability to go see their doctor."

McCain has a “radical” healthcare plan

ABC News political analyst Cokie Roberts spoke today about health care on the campaign trail at a convention on clinical chemistry among healthcare professionals. Roberts said the American people are going to see a “robust” debate on health care for the presidential campaigns, and that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has a more “radical” healthcare plan then Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Roberts said that John McCain’s plan to get away from employer based healthcare plans and put families on individual plans is “radical.” While this plan frees up tax money and may create an open market for lower insurance rates, a Democratically held Congress will not approve it and public opinion is that individually based health care will be much harder financially, she said.

However, Obama’s patchwork healthcare plan is much more plausible, Roberts said. Smaller changes will work better and get through Congress faster then a large overall change, and universal healthcare won’t happen anytime soon.

Voters want something done about healthcare, but they aren’t sure exactly what they want, Roberts said. There is a very significant number of people who make less then $30,000 a year who can barely make their medical insurance payments, if they speak up and demand change then healthcare will become an important part of the campaigns.

Don’t drop the medicine ball

Cancer is soon to be the number one killer in America, according to Lance Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour de France and founder of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. At a National Call to Action on Cancer Prevention and Survivorship conference, Armstrong said that America has taken their eyes ‘off the ball’ on cancer and needs to modernize its approach to the cause.

Dr. Antonia C. Novella, former U.S. Surgeon General, emphasized the importance of dispelling the notion that cancer is a death sentence. Novella said that cancer poses an economic burden and that uninsured as well as underinsured Americans are increasingly challenged financially due to a cancer diagnosis. According to Novella, cancer survivors should also be given a comprehensive health plan upon their discharge. Novella said that after Hurricane Katrina, several displaced cancer patients needed to resume treatment elsewhere but their new medical teams did not have medical histories because they had been lost after the disaster. Novella said that this comprehensive plan has not been put into place yet because oncologists would not be reimbursed for their efforts or simply did not have the time for all the paperwork.

Richard H. Carmona, former U.S. Surgeon General, doled out somber statistics regarding cancer in the United States. According to Carmona, nearly 4,000 Americans are diagnosed daily amounting to more than 1.4 million new diagnoses of cancer in 2008. Carmona also said that cancer is the leading cause of death for people under the age of 85 and the leading disease-specific cause of death for young adults. Carmona said that the National Call to Action’s four goals are to empower healthy lifestyles, apply what is known about cancer screening and early detection in all people, ensure that everyone can navigate through the health care system, and provide survivorship care plans and support systems to all cancer survivors. Carmona emphasized that the National Call to Action would ultimately save lives, save money and improve the lives of the 12 million cancer survivors across America.

U.S. health care system is not up to snuff

Today in a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, business owners from across the country met with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) about trends in employer-sponsored health coverage. Small and large business owners discussed their concerns with health care costs and urged Congress to make some changes in 2009.

Fixing health care is a top priority and an urgent priority, said Andrew Stern, from the Service Employees International Union. Stern advised Congress to create affordable alternatives to job-based health care that will provide more predictable costs to small business owners, workers and students. Under the new legislation, insurers should not be allowed to discriminate on the basis of health status, age or other factors.

About 60 percent of employees are insured through their employers, but this hearing showed that employers are concerned about the high costs they will have to pay in the future in private health care costs. Carl Redman, from Innovation Construction and Bear Electric, said that Congress and small business owners need to band together and negotiate plans with insurance agencies to get smaller premiums and more affordable health care coverage.