A Sick Healthcare System
A Sick Healthcare System
When it comes to healthcare, American women know what they want. They're just not getting it.
Given the choice, American women want a healthcare system that is timely, personal, convenient, and coordinated. Instead, a Harris Interactive poll finds they experience a disjointed system that results in confusion, duplication and contradictory recommendations by their doctors.
It's a big problem. Americans visit their family physicians 215 million times a year, accounting for about a quarter of all doctor visits.
Sixty percent of those surveyed said it was a "challenge" to obtain healthcare for themselves and/or family members; and when they do, more than a quarter said the burden of informing one medical provider what another had recommended or diagnosed fell on their shoulders. READ MORE on RedwoodAge.com
The Whole Life
The Whole Life
Like anyone else, I get tired of hearing about "National Fill-in-the-Blank Week." There are weeks for everything these days, and whatever message they're trying to sell almost always gets lost. But I've decided to learn CPR and it's purely because of "National CPR/AED Awareness Week." Even though that's the worst title for a week I've ever heard, the facts behind it really hit home. Turns out 166,200 people die of sudden cardiac arrest in the US each year. Unless you happen to be in a hospital already, the survival rate is 6 percent. If you have an attack - and anyone can, even young, healthy folks - your chances of survival drop by up 10 percent a minute without CPR, yet only one-third of the victims get CPR. The rest die while people stand around saying "What should we do?" Well, we know what we should do. We should learn CPR. Or, more specifically, I should learn CPR. And so should you.
The Whole Life
The Whole Life
By Tom Murphy,
RedwoodAge.com
Boomers should be the last ones to complain about how younger people don't listen. It was the boomers who didn't listen about Vietnam, marijuana, premarital sex, segregation, health food and so many other things. "Never trust anyone over 30," they said. Well, now workers under 30 - even those under 43 - don't listen to the boomers, and there's some concern that might hurt businesses as the more experienced workers retire. I tend to think life will go on, perhaps in a new and better way, as younger workers find their own ways of doing things. Companies that obsess about passing on old procedures won't change, and change is good.
PS: A week ago, we speculated that oil prices will fall as speculators start to get cold feet. Since then, they've fallen about 5 percent. Look for much steeper drops in the months ahead. We can't say what oil's really worth right now, but it clearly isn't $138 a barrel.
Past Articles
Finally, News For Grown-ups
Finally, News For Grown-ups
Where We're Coming From...
The generation that came of age in the '60s and '70s changed the way we think about music, race, women, war, food, fashion, poverty, marriage, the environment and politics. Now it's going to change the way we look at aging, and RedwoodAge.com wants to help. Please visit our site!
Named for the majestic trees that grow to hundreds of years of age in Northern California, RedwoodAge publishes news, information and blogs. We're building community forums and networking tools to share and test ideas. And we urge people to take action--personally and socially--to enhance the quality of life for everyone, young or old.
Our site follows four principles that inspired our motto:
"Think. Share. Act. Live."
Critical Thinking: The best ideas emerge by challenging established thinking.
Sharing Information: Share insights, opinions, joys and frustrations so that others will benefit from your experiences.
Social Activism: Help to shape a future in which everyone ages with companionship, respect and health.
The Whole Life: A balance of intellectual strength, physical fitness and spiritual meaning is essential to living a satisfying life.
Freaky stuff? Not really. Our team consists of veteran journalists, skilled artists, pragmatic businesspeople, experienced professionals and others who just want to make the world a little better. RedwoodAge sells ads to support our work. Our employees have a stake in our company and take pride in being a part of the RedwoodAge community.
Please let us know what you think of our still-developing site. Tell us if you'd like to work with us, or if you would like to advertise. And please help others benefit from RedwoodAge by commenting on our stories and participating in our forums (they're coming soon). As we grow, we'd like to hear from you. Afterall, we're all in this thing together.
Tom Murphy
Editor-in-Chief and Chairman
| Grade | Region | Language |
|---|---|---|
| Higher Ed | North America | English |
We're looking for boomers (ages 44-62) who are interested in subjects like health, caregiving, financial planning, retirement alternatives, cohousing, and aging in general. We're also interested in the boomer perspective on political issues, spiritual health, physical fitness, longevity and other subject of interest to "readers of a certain age." Write to us at PNN or at Editor@RedwoodAge.com. We'd love to hear from you.
NPR Topics: Health & Science
A study in Nature shows that egalitarianism begins to appear in most kids between ages 3 and 8. Scientists who studied 229 Swiss children found that at age 3, 9 percent were willing to share candy with another person. But by age 8, that number rose to 45 percent.
Painkillers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs are being prescribed to out-patients in high doses, without the oversight of a doctor. A new study found that in the last 20 years there has been a 500 percent increase in the death rate from medication errors made at home.
Last week we reported on a study that showed that self breast exams don't help prevent death from breast cancer in women. The interview generated quite a response from listeners. Several women wrote in to say that they had found cancerous lumps in their own breasts and wouldn't be alive today if not for breast self exams.
A new Web site called "Hospital Compare" evaluates hospital death rates around the country and shows how individual hospitals stack up against the national average. Guests discuss the reliability of the data on the site and describe the measures hospitals are taking to improve performance.
The recent arrest of a popular woman who happens to be an illegal immigrant has some North Carolina doctors concerned. The woman's immigration status apparently was turned over to authorities after she received medical care. Doctors worry that illegal immigrants will be afraid to seek care, which might lead to public health problems.
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