shAARP Talk: Observations from AARP

CNN Health Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is reported yesterday that she recently learned her insurance company was storing her health records online. She seemed a little concerned she didn’t know about that—and she has a point. It’s tough to know what standards her insurance company is using and how secure her records really are.

At the same time, AARP was on Capitol Hill yesterday talking to congress about how to make sure medical records are safe, but also make sure your doctors have access to the information they need to keep you healthy.

Electronic health records and health information technology (or Health IT if you're saving time) have been proven to reduce mistakes and improve efficiency when it comes to health care. That saves lives and money, but only if the government sets standards for security and interoperability.

Now, your bank card wouldn’t be very useful if it didn’t work at all ATMs and your health records won’t do much good if they’re locked on a computer in Albuquerque while you’re on vacation in Hawaii.

Senator Obama has received a good deal of coverage recently as he has taken the time to detail many of the policies he would advocate if elected President. On the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog, Scott Hensley outlined Obama's plans for health care which apparently include whupping Congress into shape with a stick given to him by a supporter at a rally in Virginia. Aside from talking about what he wanted to do to increase health care coverage, Obama also told the audience what he wouldn't cover...liposuction.

At the same time, the blog Obscurity Calls noted that Senator McCain was chastising his political opponents for using delaying tactics rather than dealing with Social Security now. It's great to see influential politicians forcing this issue to the forefront rather then pushing it onto the back burner. Now let's see if anything gets done.

While Congress recently passed the budget, for a whopping three trillion dollars, it failed to address the key financial and health care concerns facing the country in the future. Fire Dog Lake picked up on a Reuters piece which notes that it will most likely be up to the new President to deal with the most important and troubling issues our nation faces.

We all know that gas prices are going up, up, up, and that as a result more people are riding mass transit. But what about commuting to work on your bike? According to this blog post from Freakonomics, Dutch workers can use up to $750 of pre-tax income triennially to purchase bikes. In offering this subsidy, the Dutch government aims to incentivize short-distance commuters and decrease air pollution. Added bonus: a more active and healthy population. Makes sense to me.

Do you ride your bike to work? If not, would you if (OK, when) gas prices rise even higher?

A lot of attention is being paid to the diminishing savings of many Americans and the challenges we face in stashing money away for retirement. In her blog for US News And World Report, Michelle Andrews talks about health care costs after age 65. She says that while many retirees believe that Medicare will cover their expenses, they should really be planning on spending as much as $500,000 or more in out of pocket health care costs. Ow! That will put a real crack in your nest egg.

Aside from the challenges that exist for those in retirement, there are many expenses that can draw away from that retirement fund of yours before you even reach an age where you can say goodbye to work. Responding to an article in Monday's Wall Street Journal, Alexis Glick describes the retirement cruch and some unanticipated costs that can strain savings that would otherwise go toward retirement. So while the costs during retirement are on the rise, so are those we face before we can even get to that point. Hopefully the 2008 election will offer some better solutions than our current strategy of crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.

Check out Newsweek.com’s "A Guide for Caregivers." Author Joan Raymond offers tips on medical, financial, legal, and housing issues you can discuss with your aging relatives and points to additional helpful resources. Before you join the ranks of the approximately 20 million Americans taking care of their families and their aging parents – what we at AARP call the sandwich generation – it’s important to open a dialogue about these issues with your parents. You can also visit AARP's caregiving page or pick up our book, Caring for Your Parents, at Borders for more information.

’It's kind of odd to think of Woodstock in terms of AARP…But that's probably the magazine we're going to advertise in,’ said Woodstock museum director Wade Lawrence in a recent Chicago Tribune article.

Woodstock seemed like a bookend to such a tumultuous decade – one filled with political turmoil and social change. My parents certainly didn’t get to experience Woodstock and its three days of “peace and music,” but it's been a marker for their younger years. Something by which to gauge the changing world around them. The generation that came of age during the 60s is redefining what the new 50, 60 and heck, even 70, looks and feels like now.

Any good Woodstock stories to share? Send us your pictures and we’ll post them up.

Peace, man.

USA Today: Reports Suggest Economy "Stagnant But Not Collapsing."

"The Institute for Supply Management's purchasing managers index that tracks manufacturing rose a point in May to 49.6." However, the number remains "below 50, indicating a contracting manufacturing sector." Also, the ISM said that "rising commodity prices could leave manufacturers caught between rising costs and weakening demand." Still, the report was "slightly better...than economists predicted," so "few seem to think that" the Fed will lower short-term interest rates.

Forbes: Wharton Professors Emphasize Uncertainty In Oil Prices

Forbes interviewed Wharton School of Business professors Jeremy Siegel and Witold Henisz on the causes of increased oil prices. Siegel says it "would be presumptuous to even theorize about whether we are near the top" of oil prices. Siegel also says he "just did some kind of 'back of the envelope' type of calculations and it was pretty sobering." The price of "oil was occupying 2%, and now it's gone to 4%" of total GDP," meaning "this whole process so far would cost a whole year's productivity gain into the U.S. economy." Henisz adds, "The other side is the demand uncertainty. How much more will demand in China, India and other countries grow? The other side of the equation is also a lot of unknowns."

US News And World Report: New Study Turns Understanding Of Intensive Care On Its Head

"If you are very, very sick -- so sick you have to be admitted to an intensive care unit, draped with tubes and IVs and catheters and sensors, fluids going in and coming out -- what kind of physician should be at your side?" An intensivist, of course." But if the value of having intensivists on hand is well-researched, most exhaustively in a 2002 JAMA article, then "how to explain an unsettling study, out Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, that reaches exactly the opposite conclusion?" The conclusions in the new report "might turn out to be flat wrong or right on, but the upside-down results of this study are too important not to follow up. When discussing hospital quality and safety, it is vital to keep asking: What do we know? What, on the other hand, do we only think we know?"

UPI: Number Of Young Adults Lacking Heath Insurance Rose In 2006, Report Suggests

UPI reported that according to a Commonwealth Fund study "U.S. young adults ages 19 to 29 are one of the largest and fastest-growing segments of the population without health insurance." The report "found 38 percent of high school graduates who do not attend college and 34 percent of college graduates will spend some time uninsured in the year after graduation." In 2006, "66 percent of young adults who went without insurance coverage...had gone without needed healthcare because of cost and one-half reported problems paying medical bills or were paying off medical debt over time."

USA Today: Rise In Pump Prices Boosts Mass Transit Ridership

"More people are riding the nation's buses and trains, breaking records for the first quarter of the year. Transit operators expect the increase to be greater in the second quarter as gasoline prices soar. A report set for release today by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) shows trips on public transit January-March rose 3% over the same period last year to 2.6 billion rides." And [e]arly figures for April show ridership going even higher as gas hovers near $4 a gallon, APTA President William Millar says."

AP: Retailers Report Little Boost From Stimulus Checks

"The first round of economic stimulus checks gave a boost to personal incomes in April but a huge question remains: Will people spend the checks quickly enough to keep the economy afloat? The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending barely budged in April, rising a tiny 0.2 percent, and income growth was just as weak, increasing a similar 0.2 percent. The growth in incomes, restrained by four straight months of job losses, would have been just 0.1 percent had it not been for the first wave of economic stimulus payments the government started sending out April 28."