Amid an ever-more-left-leaning field, Democratic contender Rep. John Delaney (Md.) issued a dire warning Wednesday night about his opponents’ plan to socialize medicine through Medicare for All.

“If you go to any hospital in this country and ask them one question: how would it have been for you last year if every one of your bills were paid at the Medicare rate, every single hospital administrator said they would close,” Delaney said during the first Democratic debate. “To some extent we are basically supporting a bill that would have every hospital close.”

Delaney is in the minority among 2020 contenders. Of the 23 candidates that the Washington Post has tracked, 13 support some version of Medicare for All, while Delaney and most of the remaining 10 support a public option. But would putting every American on Medicare actually run hospitals out of business?

“No one can say but the data are absolutely consistent with that concern,” Charles Blauhous, an economic policy expert at the Mercatus Center, told the Washington Free Beacon.

Under current Medicare payment rates, medical providers are compensated 87 to 89 cents on the dollar on average, compared to roughly $1.45 from private insurers. This means that if all Americans were to switch from market insurance to Medicare, taking patients would become a losing financial proposition for hospitals.

Research from the office of the Medicare Actuary bears this out. Using current payment rates, they estimate that four in five hospitals will have negative margins on Medicare payments by 2027. If everyone becomes a Medicare patient, therefore, it is reasonable to predict that something like 80 percent of hospitals would begin losing money.

It is of course possible that things play out differently, especially as a hypothetical future Democratic administration comes face-to-face with the declining supply problem. A PolitiFact fact-check of Delaney’s claim noted that Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I., Vt.) Medicare for All bill does not actually require that hospitals be paid at Medicare rates.

On the other hand, higher Medicare payment rates would likely offset the potential benefits of Medicare for All. Blahous published a paper in July of last year estimating that such proposals would cost roughly $32.6 trillion over ten years of implementation. But, as many on the left were quick to note, he also found that national health expenditures — the total amount of money spent by the government and private actors on healthcare — would fall by about $2 trillion in the same period.

Yet Blahous’s final estimate turns on the assumption that hospitals would be paid Medicare reimbursement rates. In a different paper, he estimates that higher rates would increase national health expenditures by roughly 7 percent over the status quo. Raising rates to preserve the existence of providers would lead to not only more government spending, but a net increase to total healthcare spending in the economy — already the highest per capita in the developed world.

When it comes to Medicare for All, there is one thing everyone can agree on: It would disrupt the healthcare economy. As Blauhous put it, “no one can really say how facilities would adapt or react,” especially as universal first-dollar coverage drives an increase in demand for medical services across the population. Still, many of Delaney’s opponents remain unwilling to address the potential negative effects of this disruption.

A man from Winnipeg contracted the measles while he was travelling in the Philippines and brought it home with him, potentially affecting hundreds of people.

Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer confirmed Friday that the travel-related case of measles is in Winnipeg.

The man, in his 30s, is recovering in hospital, however, people who travelled on the same flights or were in the same airports have a risk – albeit low – of contracting the virus.

“Pregnant women, people who have severely compromised immune systems and infants under 12 months of age are at higher risk of complications,” the province said in a release. “Treatment to prevent measles may be recommended for these individuals if given within six days of exposure.”

People or parents of infants in these categories who believe they may have been exposed should contact Health Links–Info Santé at 204-788-8200 or 1-888-315-9257.

Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter

There are plenty of times my friends or family reference specific moments in my childhood, and I just can’t for the life of me remember what they’re talking about — it’s very interesting what we end up remembering about our lives. There are, however, certain things I can perfectly pinpoint about my childhood, no matter what age I was at the time, like how my mom reacted to my grandfather passing, the chunk of time my dad was working in another state at a new job and missed my school play, and the way my mom would greet my dad when he got home from work.

Because there are certain things that tend to stick with kids as they grow up, these seven things are worth thinking about as you raise your littles.

A teenage girl from Argentina has gone into a coma while vacationing in the Dominican Republic, with doctors pointing to a life-threatening diabetic condition — even though her family says she has no history of diabetes.

Candela Saccone, 15, had been scheduled to return home from Punta Cana on June 19 after traveling there earlier in the week, but she reportedly got sick that morning.

Her mother, Natalia Knetch, told CNN’s Spanish-language news channel that she rushed the teen — who was displaying symptoms of dizziness, dehydration and vomiting — to a local medical center, where doctors diagnosed her with diabetic cetoacidosis.

The condition is described online by the Mayo Clinic as a “serious complication of diabetes that occurs when your body produces high levels of blood acids called ketones.” It normally develops “when your body can’t produce enough insulin,” the clinic says.

Candela was reportedly transported from Punta Cana to the General Hospital of the Plaza de la Salud in Santo Domingo — with Argentine officials claiming that the initial medical center “did not have sufficient equipment to treat her.” It’s unclear when she went into the coma, only that the teen was still unconscious and in critical condition on Tuesday, yet stable and showing signs of improvement, according to CNN.

The Argentine foreign ministry confirmed the details of Candela’s situation with the network on Monday. Her mother said Candela had suddenly gotten sick the night before their departure. She reportedly lost her appetite and was suffering from extreme discomfort in her throat — to the point where she couldn’t swallow, her mom said.

The Dominican Minister of Health visited with Candela’s family on Monday and told CNN that she was “under control in a high-quality hospital center.”

The teen’s hospitalization couldn’t have come at a worse time for the DR, which has seen a disturbing trend of tourist deaths and illnesses being reported recently. Health minister Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas insists the cases are unrelated.

“What do we have here? Tourists who arrive with preexisting conditions and die in this country as they do in all countries,” Cárdenas told CBS News on Monday through a translator.

The FBI is looking into whether any of the reported deaths are linked. Agents have been running toxicology tests on resort minibars to see if tainted alcohol is possibly to blame. They’ve honed in on at least three cases — all of which involved tourists dying at the popular Bahia Principe hotel chain.

So far, at least 11 people have died in the past year while vacationing in the DR. Dozens more have gotten sick.

source

In a world where saying “no” is usually a lot easier than saying “yes,” it is important to bring up children who don’t feel that negativity has a higher value than positivity. Encouraging words can have a truly lasting effect on your kiddos years and years after you’ve said them, so we should choose to use phrases that will make them feel good about themselves inside and out, things that will stick with them as words that got them through tough times.

Whether you want to tell them how great they were at their soccer game, or how much you love spending time with them, here are 66 positive and encouraging things to say to your child on a daily basis.

The study, carried out by experts from the University of Nottingham and funded by the NIHR School for Primary Care Research, found that there was nearly a 50% increased risk of dementia among patients aged 55 and over who had used strong anticholinergic medication daily for three years or more.

Anticholinergic drugs help to contract and relax muscles. They work by blocking acetylcholine, a chemical that transmits messages in the nervous system.

Doctors prescribe the drugs to treat a variety of conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bladder conditions, allergies, gastrointestinal disorders and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

These medicines can have short-term side effects, including confusion and memory loss, but it is less certain whether long-term use increases the risk of dementia.

The research, published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal and led by Professor Carol Coupland from the University’s Division of Primary Care, looked at the medical records of 58,769 patients with a diagnosis of dementia and 225,574 patients without a diagnosis of dementia, all aged 55 and over and registered with UK GPs contributing data to the QResearch database, between 1 January 2004 and 31 January 2016.

The study findings showed increased risks of dementia for anticholinergic drugs overall and specifically for the anticholinergic antidepressants, antipsychotic drugs, antiparkinsons drugs, bladder drugs and epilepsy drugs after accounting for other risk factors for dementia.

No increased risks were found for the other types of anticholinergic drug studied such as antihistamines and gastrointestinal drugs.

Professor Tom Dening, Head of the Centre for Dementia at the University of Nottingham and a member of the research study team, said: “This study provides further evidence that doctors should be careful when prescribing certain drugs that have anticholinergic properties. However, it’s important that patients taking medications of this kind don’t just stop them abruptly as this may be much more harmful. If patients have concerns, then they should discuss them with their doctor to consider the pros and cons of the treatment they are receiving.”

The 58,769 patients with dementia had an average age of 82 and 63% were women. Each dementia case was matched to five control patients of the same age, sex, and general practice.

Anticholinergic drug exposure was assessed using prescription information over a complete period of 10 years from 1 to 11 years before diagnosis of dementia or the equivalent dates in control patients, and was compared between the two patient groups. Further analysis looked at prescriptions for anticholinergic drugs up to 20 years before diagnosis of dementia.

This is an observational study so no firm conclusions can be drawn about whether these anticholinergic drugs cause dementia, and it is possible that the drugs were being prescribed for very early symptoms of dementia.

Professor Coupland said: “Our study adds further evidence of the potential risks associated with strong anticholinergic drugs, particularly antidepressants, bladder antimuscarinic drugs, anti-Parkinson drugs and epilepsy drugs.

“The risks of this type of medication should be carefully considered by healthcare professionals alongside the benefits when the drugs are prescribed and alternative treatments should be considered where possible, such as other types of antidepressants or alternative types of treatment for bladder conditions. These findings also highlight the importance of carrying out regular medication reviews.

“We found a greater risk for people diagnosed with dementia before the age of 80 which indicates that anticholinergic drugs should be prescribed with caution in middle-aged people as well as in older people.”

These results, along with those of a similar study published in 2018 help to clarify which types of anticholinergic drug are associated with the highest risks of dementia.

In the 1-11 years before the dementia diagnosis date or equivalent in controls, nearly 57% of cases and 51% of controls were prescribed at least one strong anticholinergic drug, with an average of six prescriptions in cases and 4 in controls. The most frequently-prescribed types of drugs were antidepressants, anti-vertigo and bladder antimuscarinic drugs—which are used to treat an overactive bladder.

The increased risk associated with these drugs indicates that if the association is causal around 10% of dementia diagnoses could be attributable to anticholinergic drug exposure, which would equate to around 20,000 of the 209,600 new cases of dementia per year in the UK.

This is a sizeable proportion and is comparable with other modifiable risk factors for dementia, including 5% for midlife hypertension, 3% for diabetes, 14% for later life smoking and 6.5% for physical inactivity.

Who doesn’t like a nice toasty bagel? Even the thought is enough to elicit fond scent memories of epic weekend brunches. But, given the high carb count and relative lack of nutrition (most are made from refined wheat flour), they may not be part of your regular breakfast rotation—especially if you’re on a keto diet.

The good news: Bagels are still on the breakfast table—as long as you’re willing to get a little creative. By making strategic ingredient swaps and adding in the appropriate keto-friendly foods, you can still find comfort in your favorite carby flavors and textures without sabotaging your keto goals.

To prove we’re not bluffing, scroll down for a totally drool-worthy Asiago Rosemary Bagel recipe from the cookbook Keto Gatherings by Kristie Sullivan. While we still consider it somewhat of a treat—after all, most functional nutrition experts recommend formulating your keto diet to be rich in nutrient-rich whole foods and heavy on the veggies—it’s a great way to make weekend mornings feel a little extra special without knocking you out of ketosis.