Healthcare Leadership Council

Half of U.S. health spending goes toward the care of just 5 percent of patients, a government report says.

• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality finds that U.S. healthcare costs are concentrated on a small slice of patients.  USA Today recently ran a story on these findings.

• This fact indicates that Americans don’t necessarily overspend on their medical care.  In 2009, Americans devoted a total of $1.26 trillion to health care. More Details »

Insured Americans are also healthier Americans, a new poll finds.

• The Gallup polling company’s Healthy Behaviors Index – a component of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index — shows that those with health coverage have healthier habits than do those without insurance. More Details »

Supported by Health Affairs Report: “The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Should Consider a Broader Evidence Base in Updating Its Diabetes Screening Guidelines”

 (The Healthcare Leadership Council is a member of the Diabetes Advocacy Alliance.)

Washington, DC –America cannot stop the growing wave of type 2 diabetes—and its complications and costs—unless the recommendations for screening are broad enough to identify patients who are at risk for the disease. Screening people at high risk for diabetes can identify those with prediabetes, who can be referred to low-cost, community-based diabetes prevention programs.  Screening can also identify those who have diabetes but do not know it, and get them into treatment as early as possible.

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The life expectancy of Americans is actually better than that of other countries.

•  Forbes.com’s Avik Roy recently blogged on “The Myth of Americans’ Poor Life Expectancy.”
• Boosters of government-run healthcare cite statistics purporting to show U.S. life expectancy rates lower than those of other developed nations.  They imply countries whose government runs healthcare and spends a lot less yield longer-lived citizens.
• Their claim:  “Americans spend more money than other developed countries on healthcare, but don’t live as long.”
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Rolling back the heavy tax increases in the health reform law would help spur economic growth and job creation, two influential U.S. Senators said recently.

•  That’s what Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) opined in the Capitol Hill newspaper Politico recently.
• Doing so “could provide businesses much-needed certainty and address the job crisis.”
• The senators take issue with the massive taxes the health law imposes on health insurers, pharmaceutical makers and medical device manufacturers. More Details »