More Evidence Obamacare Is Lowering Numbers of Uninsured
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TUESDAY, June 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Michigan hospitals saw a rapid decrease in the number of uninsured patients after ‘Obamacare’ helped the state expand Medicaid, researchers report.
The Healthy Michigan Plan, launched in April 2014, enrolled hundreds of thousands of low-income adults in Medicaid, the government health insurance plan, under the Affordable Care Act.
Within three months, the proportion of uninsured patients seen at the state’s 130 hospitals fell by nearly 4 percent. The proportion with Medicaid coverage rose more than 6 percent, University of Michigan researchers found.
“This is evidence that broader availability of insurance coverage for residents of Michigan is translating into coverage at the time when people are most in need of it — namely, when they are sick enough to be in the hospital,” said lead author Dr. Matthew Davis.
“The Healthy Michigan Plan appears to be shifting the balance for almost all Michigan hospitals, to have a higher proportion of patients who have insurance coverage,” Davis, a professor of health management and policy, explained in a university news release.
Overall, 94 percent of hospitals treated fewer uninsured patients. And 88 percent had more Medicaid-covered patients in the last nine months of 2014 than in the same period in the previous two years, the researchers said.
But even though more patients had coverage, hospitals did not have a sudden increase in non-elderly adult patients. There were actually slightly fewer hospitalizations statewide in the year after Medicaid expansion than in the two years before expansion, according to the study.
Some critics of Medicaid expansion feared hospitals would be swamped with pent-up demand for care, the researchers noted.
The study authors said that the findings confirm that Medicaid expansion helps relieve hospitals of the burden of caring for patients with little or no means to pay.
“When uninsured individuals are so ill they need to be hospitalized, it poses financial risks to them as well as to the hospitals that they’re admitted to,” said Davis.
“Medicaid expansion in 31 states and the District of Columbia has reduced that risk,” he added. “Meanwhile, uninsured individuals in states that haven’t expanded the program continue to face that risk — as do the hospitals there.”
The findings were published June 21 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has more on Medicaid.
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• Facebook • Twitter • Delicious • LinkedIn • StumbleUpon • Add to favorites • Email • RSSExercise May Help Thwart Ovarian Cancer
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TUESDAY, June 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Lack of exercise is associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer and of death from the disease, two new studies suggest.
“Women may be overwhelmed with mixed messages about physical activity or exercise recommendations and opt to be inactive because they feel that they cannot meet the recommended amount of physical activity,” said Kirsten Moysich, senior author of both studies.
“Our findings suggest that any amount of regular, weekly recreational physical activity may reduce the risk for and improve survival from ovarian cancer, while a lack of regular exercise throughout adulthood is associated with an increased risk of developing and dying from ovarian cancer,” Moysich, a professor of oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, in Buffalo, N.Y., said in an institute news release.
In one study, the researchers analyzed data from more than 8,300 ovarian cancer patients and more than 12,600 women without ovarian cancer. Those who said they had done no recreational physical activity during their lives were 34 percent more likely to develop ovarian cancer than those who exercised regularly, the researchers found.
The link between inactivity and a higher risk of ovarian cancer was seen in both normal-weight women and those who were overweight or obese, according to the study. The findings were recently published online in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
The other study of more than 6,800 ovarian cancer patients found that women who were inactive in the years before the diagnosis were 22 percent to 34 percent more likely to die of the disease than those who had done at least some regular weekly exercise. Again, this was true in both normal-weight women and those who were overweight or obese.
The study was published online June 14 in the British Journal of Cancer.
“While the current evidence regarding the association between different amounts of physical activity and ovarian cancer remains mixed, our findings demonstrate that chronic inactivity may be an important independent risk and prognostic factor for ovarian cancer,” said Rikki Cannioto, first author of both studies and a research affiliate at the cancer institute.
Less than 45 percent of ovarian cancer patients survive five years, the researchers said in background notes. While these studies can’t prove that exercise would prevent these cancer deaths, they suggest regular exercise could be of benefit.
More information
The American Cancer Society has more on ovarian cancer.
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• Facebook • Twitter • Delicious • LinkedIn • StumbleUpon • Add to favorites • Email • RSS‘Love Hormone’ Gene May Be Key to Social Life
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TUESDAY, June 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Lower activity of a specific gene may affect a person’s social behavior, including the ability to form healthy relationships, researchers say.
The OXT gene is involved in the production of oxytocin, a hormone linked with a large number of social behaviors in people. It’s sometimes referred to as the “love hormone.”
The University of Georgia team assessed more than 120 people, conducting genetic tests and assessments of social skills, brain structure and brain function.
The investigators found that those with lower activity of the OXT gene had a harder time recognizing emotional facial expressions and tended to be more anxious about their relationships with loved ones.
These low-OXT people also had less activity in brain regions associated with social thinking. And they had less gray matter in an area of the brain important for face processing and social thinking, the study found.
“All of our tests indicate that the OXT gene plays an important role in social behavior and brain function,” lead author Brian Haas, an assistant professor of psychology, said in a university news release.
These are preliminary findings and further studies are needed, but this research could lead to new and better treatments for a number of social disorders, Haas said.
The study was published June 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
More information
The American Psychological Association has more on oxytocin.
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