ShAARP Session: Observations from AARP

Even if crustaceans are not your thing, the narrator's grizzly voice and baroque background music make this a video worth watching. Enjoy!

A couple of new reports show continued bad signs regarding the health of America's health care system. First off, a study by the National Opinion Research Center found that out of pocket health care costs for those with job-based health insurance jumped 34% between 2004 and 2007. This is an enormous increase and a particularly troubling development for those who don't earn a ton of money and people with expensive or chronic health troubles.

In a separate study, Merritt Hawkins and Associates found that wait times to get an appointment with a family doctor or specialist have spiked since 2004. In the past few years, people in major cities have had to wait, on average, an additional week beyond what they previously had. The study blames much of the increased wait on a lack of training for primary care physicians and some specialists. Experts say the government needs to take an active role in promoting the training of more doctors to address this glaring need. These are just two new signs of the troubles we face with our current health care system and they highlight the need for reform.

Traveling abroad for medical care, sometimes called medical tourism, has grown increasingly popular as Americans continue to seek alternatives to sky-high health care costs domestically. Another reason for seeking medical care outside of the U.S. can be to seek treatments that aren't approved for use domestically. For example, many stem cell treatments that the F.D.A. hasn't approved are being used abroad to treat diseases ranging from Parkinson's to Lou Gehrig's Disease and many others. However, the F.D.A. cautions Americans against traveling for these procedures as many haven't been thoroughly reviewed. For many people in need, leaving the country provides some hope that can't be found at home, but be careful and make sure you know what you're getting into before committing.

Non-profits such as the Peace Corps have seen a major upswing in applications recently. A big reason for the newfound popularity of these organizations is the rise of the second, or encore career for older Americans. Such careers are often undertaken after someone retires from their job. Encore careers can help pay the bills, especially for people who lost money in the recession. An equally important aspect of these second careers is that they allow people to give back.

Another factor credited for making non-profits hot again is President Obama. With his consistent message on the importance of service and his push for service legislation, President Obama and "the Obama effect" are cited as a big part of the reason for Peace Corp application submissions being up over 40% from a year ago. Whatever the reason, it's good to see Americans increasingly looking to making a difference in their communities and the world as a whole.

While it's far too early to say for sure, the latest studies seem to indicate that the efforts to treat cancer through vaccination have taken a big leap forward over the weekend. New studies show that researchers may have found the key to creating a vaccine that would enable the body's own immune system to attack and slow the growth of some cancers. Such a vaccine could reduce some of the powerful side-effects patients suffer from with current treatment methods such a chemo and radiation. Patients diagnosed with several types of cancer reported extended times between relapse when using the vaccine as compared to patients who didn't use it.

This news does not mean that any sort of cure has been created, however it does show a big first step in an area where scientists have struggled to make progress for years.