Cigna has released the latest of its reports on the experience of its consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs). The study of 655,000 CIGNA enrollees found:

• Immediate and sustainable cost savings: CDHP medical costs are 14% less than traditional plans the first year, cumulative cost savings rise to 19% in the second year, 23% in the third year and 26% in the fourth year.
• Higher levels of care: People with CIGNA Choice Fund received recommended care at compliance rates that were similar or better than those covered by traditional CIGNA health plans. Key indicators such as use of preventive care, evidence-based care and disease management program participation were measurably better among those in CIGNA CDHPs than those in PPOs and HMOs.
• Less cost for those with chronic conditions: Medical cost trend was substantially less for CIGNA Choice Fund customers with hypertension (27% less), joint disease (21% less), and diabetes (15% less), than for individuals with either of those diseases in traditional CIGNA health plans. According to the study data, these cost savings were achieved without sacrificing care.

Study: There has been no significant reduction in accident claims in states that have banned the use of hand-held cellphones behind the wheel.

When we say “I’m looking forward,” guess which direction we tend to lean.

The hormone that has been implicated in anxiety, obesity, addiction and even Alzheimer’s disease may have a far more positive use: a new way to treat diabetes.

More than one in five (22.7%) nonelderly Americans is in a “high deductible” health plan.

Massachusetts insurance companies pay some hospitals and doctors twice as much money as others for essentially the same patient care.

This is Megan McArdle at her blog:

I am very sympathetic to the plight of the mentally ill. Unfortunately, most of the people who will tap the benefits are not severely ill people who need intensive care; they’re people who are unhappy. Unhappiness is not a condition for which psychotherapy, or antidepressants, have been shown to be very effective. (Severe clinical depression, yes. But contrary to the belief of people who felt awfully down the time their boyfriend left them, these two conditions are not the same thing.) Since the moderately unhappy and dissatisfied are much more prevalent than those with serious disorders, that’s most of what we’ll be paying for:  someone to listen to complaints. That’s what Senators are supposed to be for.

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The sedentary older subjects had telomeres that were on average 40 percent shorter than in the sedentary young subjects, suggesting that the older subjects’ cells were, like them, aging. The runners, on the other hand, had remarkably youthful telomeres, a bit shorter than those in the young runners, but only by about 10 percent. In general, telomere loss was reduced by approximately 75 percent in the aging runners. Or, to put it more succinctly, exercise, Dr. Werner says, ‘‘at the molecular level has an anti-aging effect.’’

Full article on the anti-aging benefits of exercise.

In a previous Health Alert I argued that the real issue in health reform is not health care. It is collectivism. The natural follow-up question is: Why is anybody a collectivist? It’s easy to understand why people are individualists. We’re all the product of selfish genes. But where does collectivism come from? Why does it persist?

To answer that question, I first need to explain the problem that needs to be solved.

In a world of rational, self-interested robots, there would not be what we conventionally think of as a collectivist. There would never arise a Lenin or a Stalin or a Hitler or a Mao Tse Tung. There would not be millions of entities subscribing to their various ideologies. Nor would there be any Franklin Roosevelts or any welfare state liberals.

With God on Our Side

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What does Obama’s spending freeze look like? (video)

Virginia’s Democratic-controlled state Senate bill makes it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance. Does that mean they can imprison violaters?

More than half of Americans look up health information on the Internet. But only 5 percent e-mail their doctors.

The Lancet retracts its study linking measles-mumps-rubella vaccines to autism. About 12 years too late.

Study: Blows to the head cause Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The study was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association on Oct. 13, 1928.

Deaths from heart attacks rose in Los Angeles on the day the Rams lost the Super Bowl and for two weeks afterward.

13-year-old football player commits to University of Southern California.

One study estimates that employees would be willing to forego 10 to 40 percent or more of the amount their employer spends on their health insurance for the right to apply the remainder to a plan of their choosing. Hat tip to Arnold Kling at Econlog.

A Canadian study of 17,000 adults [gated, but with abstract] also found a consistent link between chair time and deaths from heart disease: The more people sat, for any reason, the more likely they were to die of heart disease within 12 years — even if they were slim and exercised regularly.

Full article on the negative health effects of prolonged sitting.

Posner’s comments:

The President is asking Congress to enact a one-year $33 billion job-subsidy plan. An employer would receive a $5,000 tax credit in 2010 credit for increasing his labor force by one person and an additional subsidy for giving an employee a wage increase greater than the inflation rate. The total subsidy would be limited to $500,000 per employer, in the hope that the principal recipients would be small businesses. I do not know why the ceiling should be expected to have that effect. Even big businesses like $500,000 windfalls. If a big business happens to be increasing its hiring or its wages, why wouldn’t it claim the subsidy?

That point to one side, and disregarding also the abundant possibilities of gaming the program, stressed by Becker, the proposal is unlikely to be effective because it violates the economic principles that ought to guide stimulus programs.

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