Chiropractic Breakthrough

Middle-aged smokers are far more likely than nonsmokers to develop dementia later in life, and heavy smokers — those who go through more than two packs a day — are at more than double the risk, a new study reports. After adjusting for other factors, the researchers that pack-a-day smokers were 37% more likely than nonsmokers to develop dementia, and the risks went up sharply with increased smoking; 44% for one to two packs a day; and twice the risk for more than two packs.

With the elections less than one week away, ads making claims about the health law are flooding the airwaves. Many Democrats continue to not mention health reform, while Republicans criticize the law as too large, too expensive and intrusive into Americans’ lives. But President Barack Obama and some Democrats are promoting the law’s immediate consumer benefits and say it will improve the quality of health care for all Americans.

This election season, spending on anti-health reform ads has outpaced spending on pro-reform ads more than five to one. On the federal campaign level, candidates and outside groups have spent nearly $92 million on ads attacking reform, while voices in favor of reform have spent just over $19 million, according to Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group.

Nursing mothers will not be allowed to use their tax-sheltered health care accounts to pay for breast pumps and other supplies. That is because the IRS has ruled that breast-feeding does not have enough health benefits to quality as a form of medical care. With all the changes the health care overhaul will bring in the coming years, it nonetheless will leave those regulations intact when new rules for flexible spending accounts go into effect in January. Those allow millions of Americans to set aside part of their pretax earnings to pay for unreimbursed medical expenses.

Some of the sickest patients can run up hospital charges as high as $18,000 a day, with average stays of almost three weeks, according to a new government report on the cost of hospital care. The report, from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, used data from a nationwide sampling of patients in 2008 to analyze the two million most expensive stays.

November 15 marks the beginning of the open enrollment season for private Medicare plans, including Part D, the prescription drug plan. Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services say they have taken steps to streamline this year’s plan options – including eliminating some plans they consider duplicative. The changes, officials say, were part of an effort to ease seniors’ confusion.

The Obama administration will not be compiling a federal health record on all citizens, including each individual’s body mass index, as some candidates are claiming. The administration is offering incentives to doctors to record various vital statistics in electronic medical records and report the data in the aggregate, to help understand national health trends.

As many as 1 in 3 American adults could have diabetes by 2050, federal officials said Friday in a new projection that represents a threefold increase. The CDC estimates that 1 in 10 have diabetes now, but the number could grow to 1 in 5 or even 1 in 3 by midcentury if current trends continue. The last estimate put the number at 39 million in 2050. The new estimate takes it to the range of 76 million to 100 million.

: Insurance regulators unanimously approved controversial rules Thursday governing how much insurers must spend on patients’ medical care – without adopting any of several last-minute amendments some consumer advocates had feared would gut key provisions. The recommendations will now go to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who has final say.

All eyes will be on this week’s annual meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which is taking place in Orlando. When the state insurance regulators are expected to unveil their final recommendations later this week on how the nation’s health insurers will have to meet new spending standards under the new health care law.