A look at the per capita health costs - U.S. compared to other OECD nations in 2000. Of course, since the year 2000 these costs have ballooned even further.

A poignant article in the respected journal, Health Affairs, put it best when it said that “a cycle of unsustainable spending growth followed by fervent cost containment initiatives has been a regular feature of the health care landscape for the past half-century.” As a result, the journal looked at health care spending per capita for thirty countries in the so-called “industrialized” Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) list of countries, all while record numbers of Americans choose to opt out of individual health insurance plans.

In 2002, U.S. citizens spent more than $5,260 per capita for their health care. This represented a 53% premium over any other country in the OECD list. That trend continues to this day, and it is a major catalytic factor in the health care reform movement championed by the Obama administration.

Health Affairs concludes that the two main factors in the high U.S. health care costs are:

• Defensive medicine (which leads to higher diagnostic rates and a hyper-sensitive population of doctors due to the fear of medical malpractice claims), and
• The high rates of emergency care resources vs other industrialized nations. Of course, the article in the journal tends not to oversimplify and cites numerous other potential reasons.

Whatever the case, health care spending has ballooned far beyond that of any other country (as the graph above illustrates). Where the proposed reform will take us from here is anybody’s best guess.

President Obama made a lot of promises in his 2008 Presidential campaign, and many of them were around changes he wanted to see happen in America’s health care and insurance system. Unfortunately, many time politicians will talk the talk in order to get voters to punch their ticket a certain way on election day.

Walking the walk as far as campaign promises doesn’t always happen. Just look at the Bush administration…don’t even get me started. It is refreshing to hear Obama say that he is welcoming ideas on how to reform the health care proposal he created during his campaign, and I am all for a system in which many have a say in ideas to find a solution that works for everyone in the current state of the economy.

But the real question is, especially after hearing President Obama’s State of the Union address: What is the buzz around Obama’s statement of “come one, come all” for hearing opinions on health care, and will it work in creating a just and successful health care system for America?

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“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” This is the opening line to the famous novel “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens, but to many Americans bidding adieu to 2008, it really just feels like the worst of times with no sunshine in sight.

About 1 million people lost their jobs in 2008, which means that over the course of a mere twelve months, 33% of the entire nation’s population found themselves jobless. That is pretty darn terrifying itself, not to mention the plethora of problems that come along with having no job. Not the least of these problems is losing your health insurance, if you were receiving it through your employer. As if worrying about making ends meet wasn’t problem enough, so many of us are worrying about keeping ourselves and our families healthy. Luckily, there are ways to cope with this situation, so don’t toss your health hopes out the window just yet.

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Breast cancer, contrary to popular belief, can occur in men. Although male breast cancer is a hundred times less common than with women, it is a dangerous disease. According to the American Cancer Society, 1,910 new cases of breast cancer in men were recorded in 2009. It is estimated that 440 men in the United States will die from the disease this year.

Really? Men Have Breast Cancer?

Although men are not thought of as having breasts, they do have breast tissue that exists in small amounts behind the nipples. As such, men are not immune from the occurrence of breast cancer. It is easier to detect cancer in men because an asymmetrical lump tends to appear. However, the problem is that men tend to ignore symptoms. The signs of male breast cancer are similar to those found in women: enlarged breasts, lumps, discharge, and pain. Men who experience or observe these symptoms are encouraged to avail of health insurance options for breast cancer and have themselves checked out.

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