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Bicycle Helmet Laws For Kids Effective But Not Yet The Norm
Studies have shown wearing a helmet while riding a bicycle reduces one"s risk of death by more than 50 percent, yet every three days, a child in the United States is killed while riding a bicycle, and every day at least 100 children are treated in emergency rooms due to bicycle-related head injuries.

Psychiatrists Begin Revising Diagnostic Manual For Mental Illnesses
Over the next 18 months, psychiatrists will revise the American Psychiatric Association"s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is used to determine how U.S. residents" mental health is assessed, diagnosed and treated, the Los Angeles Times reports. Since the manual was last updated in 1994, technologies such as brain imaging and new understandings of the biological and genetic causes of many disorders have "almost guaranteed alterations" in the number of mental disorders included in fifth DSM volume, which is scheduled to be published in 2012, the Times reports.While some psychiatrists argue the manual should be broad enough to determine treatment for those who need it, others are concerned that if too broad, the manual will diagnose conditions that would otherwise be considered normal human behavior. David Kupfer, a psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh"s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinics and chair of the DSM-V task force, said the DSM-V will recognize variations of disorders that have not been seen as part of "classic" illnesses, and will describe disorders in more detail, including how they differ based on race, gender, age, physical health and culture. Health insurance companies use the manual to determine coverage options for certain treatments.People involved in the revisions said the manual will be a better reflection of mental conditions of "real" people, rather than just those with the most severe cases of disorders or obvious diagnoses, the Times reports (Roan, Los Angeles Times, 5/26).
News of the day
Association of American Medical Colleges Lauds American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funds For National Health Service Corps
AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., issued the following statement today on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius"s recent announcement that the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) would provide nearly 3,300 new loan repayments for health professions training. The $200 million in repayment funds were made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA):
Nutrition

Sebelius: Single-Payer Health Care Not In Plans

In an interview with NPR, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stressed that talk of a public plan doesn"t mean that a single-payer option is a possibility. "This is not a trick. This is not single payerò€¦ That"s not what anyone is talking about - mostly because the president feels strongly, as I do, that dismantling private health coverage for the 180 million Americans that have it, discouraging more employers from coming into the marketplace, is really the bad, you know, is a bad direction to go," she said. Sebelius added that a public insurance option would pressure private insurance companies to lower costs, which she says is "a good thing for the American public. Medicare right now has lower overhead than private insurers." Some Republicans have argued that Americans currently in private plans would flee to the public option, but Sebelius countered that expanding health insurance would potentially create "50 million-plus new insurance customers, whether you"re talking about a private plan or public option." Republicans have also "raised the specter that a public option could evolve into a single-payer health care system where funding comes from one -- usually the government," leading to rationing in care and long treatment delays. But "asked if the administration"s program will be drafted specifically to prevent it from evolving into a single-payer plan, Sebelius says: "I think that"s very much the case, and again, if you want anybody to convince people of that, talk to the single-payer proponents who are furious that the single-payer idea is not part of the discussion." She adds that, "the whole idea of the public option has been difficult, in part, because some of the opposition has described it as a potential for a, you know, draconian scenario that was never part of the discussion in the first placeò€¦ so, disabusing people of what is not going to happen is often difficult, because there"s no tangible way to do that" (6/16). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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