Women who smoke triple their risk of dying early, but quitting early enough might just wipe out that risk

A new study of more than a million women found that smokers have more than triple the risk of early death than nonsmokers, and that quitting can virtually eliminate the increased risk. Smoking is still the most preventable cause of death in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The University of Oxford study, published this week in the British medical journal The Lancet, included 1.3 million women between the ages of 50 and 65, making it one of the largest ever conducted on smoking. At the start of the study, in 1996, 20 percent of the women were smokers, 28 percent were former smokers and 52 percent had never smoked. "Each of the women was registered in the U.K.’s national health system, so their deaths and cause of death were recorded," explains Alexandra Sifferlin of Time magazine. "By 2011, 66,000 had passed away." Researchers found that even smokers who smoked as few as nine cigarettes a day had twice the mortality rate of nonsmokers.

"More encouraging, however," writes Sifferlin, "was the positive effect that quitting seemed to have on the women’s life span. Those who quit smoking before they reached 40 avoided more than 90 percent of the increased risk of premature death from cigarettes, while women who stopped even earlier -- before age 30 -- avoided 97 percent of the added risk." (Read more)

Here are the seven factors driving health care cost increases

Escalating health care costs are everybody's problem and no one entity's fault. Julie Appleby at Kaiser Health News reports that the United States spends about18 percent of its gross domestic product -- or about $2.6 trillion a year -- on health care costs. So what's making that figure rise? A Bipartisan Policy Center study took on the task of finding out and came up with it believes are seven major factors:

1. Paying our doctors, hospitals and other medical providers in ways that reward doing more, rather than being efficient. Even insurers like Medicare pay on a fee-for-service system. New efforts in the federal health law look to change that.
2. Growing older, sicker and fatter as a nation.Medicare is set to grow by an average of 1.6 million people annually. With two-thirds of adults are either overweight or obese, lots of additional medical spending looms.
3. Wanting the latest drugs, technologies, services and procedures. Prices for newer treatments are often higher than for the products they replace.
4. Employers and employees get tax breaks on health insurance, and it costs employees little to seek care. Appleby writes, "The majority of people with insurance get it through their jobs. The amount employers pay toward coverage is tax deductible for the firm and tax exempt to the worker, thus encouraging more expensive health plans with richer benefits, the report says. How that coverage is designed also plays a role: Low deductibles or small office co-payments can encourage overuse of care, the report says. Increasingly, however, employers are moving toward high-deductible coverage as a way to slow premium growth and require workers to pay more toward the cost of care."
5. Not having enough information to make decisions on which medical care is best for us.
6. Hospitals increasingly gain market share through consolidation and demand higher prices.
7. Legal issues complicate efforts to slow spending. Doctors sometimes prescribe tests or treatment out of fear of facing a lawsuit, the report says. Fraudulent billing is another concern. The report notes that laws sometimes limit the ability of medical professionals to do work for which they are trained but that more highly paid doctors must do. (Read more)

To read the entire Bipartisan Policy Center report here.

Kentucky to get $811,000 from drug company as settlement of federal suit alleging unfounded promotion of three medications

Attorney General Jack Conway has confirmed that the state will receive almost $811,000 for its share of recoveries in a settlement reached in a lawsuit filed by the federal government against Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. In all, the drug company has agreed to pay $95 million to settle allegations that it promoted three drugs for uses in Kentucky and other states that were not medically accepted.  The Associated Press reports that the stroke-prevention drug Aggrenox, the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease drug Combivent, and the high-blood-pressure drug Micardis are the drugs named in the suit. The Justice Department said the company also promoted the use of the heart drug Atrovent at doses exceeding those covered by federal health programs. (Read more)

Anthem funds program to fight childhood obesity in Louisville area

A $35,000 Anthem Foundation grant to the American Academy of Pediatrics will allow a program that fights childhood obesity in Louisville and northern Kentucky counties to continue, reports Darla Carter of the The Courier-Journal. The grant provides free YMCA memberships and fitness and nutritional guidance to families of 9- to 17-year-olds with weight issues who have been referred by member physicians. The foundation is a philanthropic arm of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Kentucky. 

Democratic ads accuse Republicans of supporting pill mills by voting against bill that all agree needs work

A bipartisan group of Kentucky lawmakers are looking ahead to fixing the much complained about "unintended consequences" of last spring's hastily passed bill aimed at curbing prescription drug abuse. Still, the House Democratic Caucus Committee has paid for political ads criticizing at least three Republican House members for not supporting the measure though they may have raised concerns about the very issues that now need legislative surgery.

Ryan Alessi of cn|2's "Pure Politics" reports that Rep. Mike Harmon of Boyle County and Rep. David Floyd of Bardstown are being targeted for not supporting the expansion of the use of the prescription monitoring system, KASPER, and requiring pain clinics to be run by physicians. Rep. Kim King of Harrodsburg has also been targeted; there may be othesr. Here is the ad:

Republican Floor Jeff Hoover of Jamestown, a supporter of HB 1, told Alessi that that need for changes in the bill now "vindicates lawmakers like Floyd and Harmon, who raised questions about whether the law would be overly restrictive for law abiding Kentuckians." (Read more, see more videos)

Health care is strong second to economy among concerns of Ky. registered voters; candidates compared on handling of issues

Health care ranks high among the concerns of Kentucky voters, according to the latest Kentucky Health Issues Poll taken for the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

The poll, taken Sept. 20 through Oct. 14, asked registered voters to name the two most important issues in the Nov. 6 presidential election. The economy was mentioned by 65 percent; health care was second, with 42 percent. Foreign policy was a distant third, at 21 percent. The error margin on the sample of 1,160 voters is plus or minus 2.88 percentage points.

The poll did not ask voters whom they favored for president, but did ask which candidate they trusted to do a better job on certain issues. Romney, who is considered certain to win Kentucky, had a clear advantage on two issue areas, listed first:

• Dealing with the federal budget deficit: Romney 49%; Obama 36%

• Dealing with the economy and jobs: Romney 48%; Obama 36%

• Dealing with the future of the health reform law: Romney 45%; Obama 40%

• Addressing terrorism: Romney 43%; Obama 42%

• Dealing with the situation in Afghanistan: Romney 42%; Obama 40%

• Improving education: Obama 45%; Romney 40%

• Looking out for the best interests of women: Obama 42%; Romney 40%

• Making decisions about women's reproductive health choices and services: Obama 41%; Romney 38%

"This poll gives us a reliable snapshot of the issues most important to Kentucky voters as they decide who they will vote for on Nov. 6," said Dr. Susan Zepeda, president/CEO of the foundation. "Regardless of the outcomes of the election, our foundation believes it is essential for our elected officials to know what Kentuckians think about these issues." To download the full report by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati, click here.

Statewide trauma system established; called 'most significant advancement in health of Kentuckians for the last 20 years'

Dr. Andrew Bernard, chair,
State Trauma Advisory Committee

Ten Kentucky hospitals have been recognized as part of the state's first official statewide trauma system. The announcement came during the 2012 Statewide Trauma and Emergency Medicine Symposium Friday in Lexington. Dr. Andrew Bernard, a University of Kentucky trauma surgeon and chair of the State Trauma Advisory Committee, called this "the most significant advancement in the health of Kentuckians in the last 20 years and lives will be saved because of it."

More than half of the states have such systems.  "The goal of the state trauma system is getting the right patient to the right place at the right time," said Bernard, explaining that the system provides education so that proper assessment can be made of severely injured patients, so that they are taken to the most appropriate facility as quickly as possible.

Trauma centers are graded I through IV, with Level I hospitals able to treat the most severely injured and most at risk.  Level I trauma centers are UK Chandler Hospital (Lexington), Kentucky Children's Hospital (Lexington), Kosair Children's Hospital (Louisville), and University of Louisville Hospital.  Level III  are Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center (Danville) and Taylor Regional Medical Center (Campbellsville). Level IV are Ephraim McDowell Fort Logan Hospital (Stanford), James B. Haggin Memorial Hospital (Harrodsburg), Livingston Hospital (Salem) and Marcum & Wallace Hospital (Irvine).