Bienvenido, HolaDoctor!
Welcome, HolaDoctor, to the growing roster of consumer-facing health portals. La differencia, this time, is that HolaDoctor is an entirely Spanish-speaking website of comprehensive health information. The site focuses on health content and tools highly targeted to Hispanics and health issues of most concern. Known previously as DrTango, founded in 1999, HolaDoctor has at least 1.3 million Hispanic consumers who have registered on its site, and operates over 500 multilingual health websites under its corporate umbrella. The morphing from DrTango to HolaDoctor has to do with the organization’s launch of its consumer-focused health and wellness portal reaching out to Spanish speakers in the
Technology innovation, aging and public expectations drive up health spending around the world: OECD 2010
The 30 most developed countries, on average, allocated 9% of their national budgets to health care in 2008, up from 7.8% in 2000. The U.S., in contrast, spent 16% of GDP on health care, nearly one-half of which came from public treasury coffers. The graph illustrates the statistics for each OECD member nation and the share of health care paid by public and private sectors. Note that the light-blue bar segment for the U.S. is a far larger proportion of the total bar compared to other countries: that’s the private sector’s contribution to health spending versus the dark blue, government
More money, less effective: the U.S. ranks last again in health system effectiveness
Among seven developed countries – Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America — it’s the U.S. that ranks dead last in the effectiveness of the nation’s health system. In particular, the U.S. rates poorly on the issues of coordination of health care, cost-related problems causing access challenges for health citizens, efficiency, equity, and long/healthy/productive lives for citizens. Of course, it also figures in that the U.S. spends more per capita on health care than any other country on the planet: $7,290 per person compared with Health Nation #1, the Netherlands, which
A healthier long life leads to greater health costs
There’s good news and bad news when it comes to living longer: the good news is, yes, you’ve lived a healthier life and thus, you’re living a longer life. The bad news is that your lifetime health costs are greater than those for a person who’s not had good health. While current health costs for healthy retirees are lower than those for the unhealthy, the lifetime health costs for healthy people are higher. This finding comes from a study asking the question, Does Staying Healthy Reduce Your Lifetime Health Care Costs?, from the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College. Here
A Renaissance for U.S. health care: broadband as the canvas
I’m in a country this week where 66% of health providers have adopted 9 of 14 critical electronic health applications, according to a study from The Commonwealth Fund. According to the same study, only 26% of U.S. providers have opted into these functions. As I amble across cobblestoned and craggy streets, looking up to frescoe’d facades on 500 year old palazzi, church domes and the bluest sky ever, the signs of the Italian Renaissance are everywhere in walkable Florence, Italy. But it’s not all art and architecture, gelato and chianti for me this week. It’s also the techno-reality
The US vs. The World in Health Care – Failing at #1
We’re #1! is a cheer usually reserved for a point of pride: for a class valedictorian, perhaps, or a winning ball team. But in the game of health economics, being #1 isn’t something to be proud of when the investment doesn’t net out to a reasonable return. The 2009 OECD Health Data set is out, and this year’s top line message doesn’t differ much from last year’s: the US spends a whole lot more money on health care, and gets a whole lot less in terms of life expectancy, infant morbidity, and epidemic obesity rates which inevitably lead to
Vaccines update – more news, less confusion, and part of economic stimulus
In 2008, mass media coverage of vaccines seemed more focused on pop celebrity fights, pro- and con-, versus scientific revelations. Will 2009 yield more knowledge and less confusion? 2008 was something of an Amanda Peet-versus-Jenny McCarthy show, pro v. con, taking place on the covers of People magazine and in YouTube videos. But just in the past few weeks, there’s been a subtle shift in news about vaccines toward more solid information. The headline points are: Minnesota children came down with the Hib virus, with blame going first to the Hib vaccine shortage and possibly, too, to 3 in 5
From Asheville NC to England — bribing people to seek health care
The National Health Service wants to launch a program in the UK that would provide cash payments to citizens to incentivize them to see their primary care doctors to deal with health problems such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity. National Health Service managers are looking to get higher-risk patients into the system sooner for prevention. As in the US, the UK suffers from health disparities between urban and rural populations, and between people from different socioeconomic classes. The idea is being promoted by the North-East Essex primary care trust. This area covers about 315,000 citizens of Colchester and Tendring.
In the health system popularity contest, the U.S. loses
In this season’s Health System Idol contest, the U.S. loses to most other developed countries. One in three Americans would like to “completely rebuild” the U.S. health system, according to The Harris Poll conducted in ten nations. And another 50% believe that, “fundamental changes are needed to make it work better.” Harris also measured ‘unpopularity’ with another metric: asking whether, “the system works pretty well and only minor changes are necessary.” Adding this yin to the other yang, the mash-up is still the same: the U.S. plays last fiddle to the rest of the world’s health system orchestra.
A View from the UK: Is Preventive Care "Worth It?"
I’m enjoying a weekend with London-based friends who travel the world and know what’s what. Today, we spent hours relishing (literally) the Borough Market in Southwark, located south of the Thames. This is London’s oldest food market, established when the Romans built the first London Bridge. The Market in its current state has been around for a quarter of a millenium. The Market boasts and hosts a glorious array of green grocers, bread bakers, Spanish food purveyors, brownie makers, organic tofu purveyors, and parmigiano reggiano vendors in one spot I’ve seen, perhaps ever. It is foodie heaven and a
Steel, Coffee Beans and Health Care
The UAW and GM have been debating health care as Friday’s deadline for their national contract approaches. This round of negotiation is about survival. Yesterday, I covered the rising costs of employer-sponsored health insurance. Today, let’s visit the intimately-related topic of retiree health benefits. These are eroding even faster than health benefits for employed workers. Many employers have significantly scaled back health benefits for retirees. Currently, one in three large employers offers retire benefits, compared with two in three in the late 1980s. Consider the predicament of the company ranked #3 on the 2006 Fortune 500 list, General Motors. Retirees
Jane joined host Dr. Geeta "Dr. G" Nayyar and colleagues to brainstorm the value of vaccines for public and individual health in this challenging environment for health literacy, health politics, and health citizen grievance. Click onto the Pfizer Value of Vaccines site and you can watch four episodes covering the challenges with adult vaccination, the employer and health plan member's journey to vaccination, reimbursement, and collaborating for proactive prevention.