Notable & Quotable

“We need to review and reform Medicare policies from a disability perspective. For example, how can we expect the [Americans with Disabilities Act’s] goals to be fulfilled when the largest purchaser of health care in this country, Medicare, pays only for wheelchairs that are appropriate for use in a person’s home — giving no consideration to the need for mobility in the community and in the workplace? This so-called ‘in the home’ policy has got to be changed.”
— Sen. Thomas Harkin, D-Iowa, at a Washington briefing on disability policy issues last month. Harkin, who chairs the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the ADA needs to be restored because the law has been interpreted more narrowly than Congress originally intended. 15 Number of minutes per day of moderate exercise that can make children 50 percent less likely to be obese than inactive children

Source: Public Library of Science Medicine 56 million Projected number of uninsured people in the U.S. by 2013 if changes are not made to the health care system

Source: Commonwealth Fund 14,899 Number of people age 65 and older who died as the result of a fall in 2004, the latest year for which statistics are available

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention $37.6 billion Amount U.S. health care spending on DME is expected to reach by 2016, up from $24 billion in 2005

Source: Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, National Health Statistics Group 113 million U.S. residents searched for health care information online in 2006.

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project 13% Number of retirees and pre-retirees in a recent survey who actually worked beyond age 65, though almost half said they planned to do so

Source: The McKinsey Quarterly