Daily Archives: March 25, 2011

Healthcare, Healthcare Information, Healthcare Insurance, Healthcare Services, Public Health, Society

PruHealth Finds The Nation Believes People Should Take More Responsibility For Their Own Health

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PruHealth has revealed new research that shows a third of Britons want people to pay for ‘self-inflicted’ health issues, two thirds believe the nation is unhealthier now than ten years ago and half expect the range and quality of NHS care to decline over the next few years.

Two thirds (66%)* of Britons believe the nation is unhealthier now than it was ten years ago, and taking more personal responsibility (69%) could be the best foot forward.

The latest findings from PruHealth, the insurer that rewards people for engaging in healthy behaviour, found respondents to be in line with Cameron’s ‘Big Society’. More than two thirds (69%) of the nation believe people should take more responsibility for their own health, while just 19 per cent feel it should lie on the shoulders of the NHS. Nearly a third of Britons (30%) even go as far as believing those with ‘self-inflicted’ health concerns caused by smoking, alcohol abuse or being overweight should pick up the bill themselves.

While half of respondents (50%) feel the NHS currently offers a good level of care, many believe the range (67%) and quality (49%) of services are likely to decrease in the next few years.

Dr Katherine Tryon at PruHealth said: “People have realised that the nation’s health is worse than even a decade ago and now the issue is whose responsibility is it to change this – which is particularly crucial at a time when there is increased pressure on healthcare finances. The key for both the public and private sector will be to remove the barriers to healthy living – for example, increasing access to healthy activities and providing stronger motivation through both financial and non financial incentives.”

What Brits consider as the nation’s problems are not necessarily ones they would class as their own. For example, over half of respondents (52%) state obesity and being overweight as the greatest risk to the UK. According to 2008 data from the latest Health and Social Care Information Centre report** a quarter of adults (25% men, 24% women) are obese, and 42% and 32% of men and women are overweight, yet in this nationally representative survey less than one in ten (9%) of respondents consider it a personal healthcare concern.

Via EPR Network
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Health 2.0, Healthcare, Healthcare Information, Healthcare Insurance, Healthcare Services, Public Health, Society

Bupa Boosts Cancer Cover

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In an industry first, Bupa, the leading international healthcare group, has announced plans to improve the quality of its cancer cover by no longer selling corporate health insurance schemes which feature overall cost or time limits for cancer treatment.

Cancer treatment costs increased sharply in 2005 and 2006 due to the introduction of new drugs. In response to the concerns this caused about rising costs, the health insurance market developed financial benefit caps and time limits to restrict financial exposure for client businesses.

However, experience has shown that these limits mean that patients who claim on their policies can be left vulnerable at critical points in their treatment.

Once employees reach their benefit ceiling they face the possibility of having to change their treatment mid-stream. The varying cost of cancer drugs also makes it very difficult for patients to make informed choices about their treatment path, and its likely cost, at the point of diagnosis.

Dr Natalie-Jane Macdonald, managing director, Bupa Health and Wellbeing explained: “We work closely with our clients to help them to provide their employees with the best quality healthcare at a sustainable affordable cost, and this remains a priority for us. We have developed better, fairer ways of controlling healthcare costs without compromising the experience and outcomes of patients at a difficult time in their lives.”

In 2010 Bupa spent £18m on drugs that are not widely available elsewhere and it routinely funds cancer treatments that are approved by the European Medicines Agency. Bupa also makes prompt decisions to pay for experimental drugs when clinically appropriate.

Via EPR Network
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Addictions, Clinics, Diagnostics, Drugs, Healthcare, Healthcare Information, Healthcare Services, Medicine, Rehab, Society, Therapies

Foreign Study Shows Early Age Drinkers, Stressful Situations Result In Heavy Drinkers

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A study out of Germany shows that young adults who consumed their first drink of alcohol at an early age, and also were subject to stressful situations, tended to become heavy drinkers.

The study, which will be released in the June edition of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research , sampled young adults who took their first drink at early ages. The earliest age reported was 8; most, however, had taken their first drink before the age of 14. The research highlighted that, those who took an alcoholic drink earlier in life, when experiencing stress, they used alcohol as a coping mechanism when dealing with that stress.

“In general, stress can be a large factor in alcohol consumption,” begins a spokesperson for Mountainside Drug Rehab and Alcohol Treatment Center. “Studies such as this one reinforce the working hypothesis that states: ‘the younger the exposure to alcohol, the greater the chance of dependence’. And, the dependence doesn’t necessarily come from routine use but, as this study suggests, as a response to emotional stress. Most alcohol abuse grows from the need to have a coping mechanism to deal with every day issues. Instead of traditional therapies, many turn to the bottle: a quiet, secluded way to cope. We need to help our youth by providing proper ways for them to talk about their frustrations and confusion and by showing them that there is a way to deal with stress that doesn’t involve drugs or alcohol.”

The cited research did not show that any particular event had any greater effect on alcohol use than any other. The researchers have stated that more research is needed to make those determinations.

Via EPR Network
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