On Health Care, Who Needs Congress? NYT Aug 2017
US Health care is provided to
147 million via employers
50+ million via Medicare
50+ million via Medicaid
If definine health care affordability as < 9.7% of income
Health care will NOT be affordable to HALF of the population in a decade
% of families where health care premiums and deductable will exceed 9.7% of income
Note: These costs do not seem to include
- employer share of health costs
- cost of time-off from job
- cost of training a new employee (if they are not able to return to work)
Health Transformation Alliance is a consortium of 41 employers trying to lower the costs of healthcare
HTA employers have only 6.5 million employees (4% of the 147 million listed above)
- mentioned in VitaminDWiki US Healthcare is 2X more expensive than in other countries - what can be done
Video by the CEO June 2017
- He mentions the impact of strokes and heart attacks to employers
- Death within 2 years of surviving an ischemic stroke 10X less likely if high vitamin D – July 2017
- Stroke 74% less likely if high vitamin D (7,295 women 20-50 years old) – July 2017
- Major heart problems if have less than 15 ng of Vitamin D – Nov 2015
- Ischaemic stroke – Vitamin D doubled survival (Injection followed by monthly 60,000 IU) – RCT Aug 2016
- Major Heart attacks occur 40 percent more often if vitamin D lower than 7 ng – Feb 2013
- Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes helped by Vitamin D – most 2013-15 studies agree
No mention of prevention on website or video
They appear to mainly focus on the following options for employers
- Reducing costs of drugs by combined purchase (hope to save $600 million over three years))
- Have employees go to the "better" hospitals
- Use of Dr. Watson (IBM) soon - such as increase Cancer diagnosis (but not Cancer prevention)
"We and our employees spend more than $5 billion each year on four procedures and ailments:
knee replacements
hip replacements
back pain
diabetes"
VitaminDWiki
Knee pain reduced, faster recovery if have replacement
- Reduced knee osteoarthritis if consistently supplement with vitamin D for 2 years – April 2017
- Knee osteoarthritis treated with vitamin D, weekly 50,000 IU – May 2015
- Knee osteoarthritis pain reduced by 60,000 IU monthly vitamin D following loading dose – RCT Nov 2013
- I needed more than Vitamin D to treat my knee osteoarthritis Founder of VitaminDWiki needed to also use Magnesium
- 4 fewer days in hospital after hip or knee replacement if good level of vitamin D – June 2016
- Fewer Complications Following Revision Hip and Knee Arthroplasty in Patients with Normal Vitamin D Levels – March 2017
Hip fracture - prevention, replacement, recovery
- Hip fracture 58 percent more likely if low vitamin D – meta-analysis March 2017
- Vitamin D and fractures – 24 meta-analyses and counting – Dec 2014
- Fractures reduced with any amount of vitamin D and some Calcium - Cochraine April 2014
- Hip fractures reduced 30 percent with 800 IU of vitamin D – meta-analysis July 2012
- Vitamin D and exercise after hip fracture surgery – far fewer deaths – July 2016
- UK would save as least 636 million dollars annually by giving 800 IU vitamin D free to all seniors – June 2014
- Guideline following hip fracture – 50000 IU vitamin D daily for 7 days – Jan 2013
- 1 in 3 died after hip fracture but only 1 in 14 if add Vitamin D and exercise – RCT April 2017
- Few Fractures if high Magnesium intake – 2X fewer for men, 2.6X for women – June 2017
- Many fractures in France could be avoided with Vitamin D – Oct 2016
Back Pain 17 studies as of Aug 2017
- Chronic Back Pain relieved by weekly 60,000 IU of vitamin D – Jan 2017
- Back pain extremely associated with low level of vitamin D – May 2014
- Back pain cured with vitamin D – Book May 2014
- Back pain reduced for 95 percent of those who took vitamin D - 2003 file, not web page
This single study resulted in the creation of VitaminDWiki - Long-term lower back pain greatly reduced by Magnesium - RCT 2013
Diabetes - a few studies
- Diabetes treated if given enough vitamin D (example: 50,000 IU weekly) – review of RCT - Jan 2017
- Vitamin D injection is far better than oral for diabetics (poor gut) – RCT March 2017))
- Diabetes treated by vitamin D when levels exceeded 61 ng – Sept 2015
- Diabetes (Type II) reduced by single injection of 300,000 IU of vitamin D3 – RCT March 2014
- Prediabetics 60 percent less likely to become diabetic if given some vitamin D – Jan 2014
- Magnesium is associated with prevention and treatment of Diabetes – Meta-analysis Aug 2016
- Prediabetes reduced in half by those getting Magnesium Chloride – RCT April 2015
- Type II Diabetes might be prevented and treated with Magnesium – Review Feb 2015
Overview Diabetes and vitamin D contains the following summary
- Diabetes is 5X more frequent far from the equator
- Children getting 2,000 IU of vitamin D are 8X less likely to get Type 1 diabetes
- Obese people get less sun / Vitamin D - and also vitamin D gets lost in fat
- Sedentary people get less sun / Vitamin D
- Worldwide Diabetes increase has been concurrent with vitamin D decrease and air conditioning
- Elderly get 4X less vitamin D from the same amount of sun
Elderly also spend less time outdoors and have more clothes on - All items in category Diabetes and Vitamin D
553 items: both Type 1 and Type 2 Vitamin D appears to both prevent and treat diabetes
- Appears that >2,000 IU will Prevent
- Appears that >4,000 IU will Treat , but not cure
- 90% less T2 Diabetes in the group having lots of Vitamin D
- Appears that Magnesium helps both Prevention and Treatment
- Many diabetics would be better treated if Gut-Friendly Vitamin D were used
Number of articles in both categories of Diabetes and:
- Dark Skin
24 ; Intervention 57 ; Meta-analysis 40 ; Obesity 36 ; Pregnancy 44 ; T1 (child) 39 ; Omega-3 11 ; Vitamin D Receptor 24 ; Genetics 13 ; Magnesium 30 Click here to see details Some Diabetes studies
- Take Vitamin D to prevent prediabetes from progressing into diabetes – American Diabetic Association – 2024
- Diabetes and Vitamin D meta-analyses - many studies 39+ as of Nov 2024
- 99.7% of people who got Diabetes had been regularly consuming food emulsifiers - May 2024
- Type 2 Diabetes treated by Vitamin D (often 50,000 IU weekly) – meta-analysis July 2023
- Diabetic inflammation synergistically decreased by Vitamin D and exercise – RCT June 2022
- Incidence of Type-2 Diabetes increased 3X in 30 years (by the way, Vitamin D helps) – July 2022
- Vitamin d treats Type II Diabetes in many ways (14 article review) - Sept 2021
- T2 Diabetes 30 percent more likely if poor Vitamin D Receptor – meta-analysis of 47 studies – July 2021
50 ng of Vitamin D fights Diabetes
- Saudi study defines normal Vitamin D level to be 50 to 70 ng (diabetes, etc.) - June 2020
- Diabetes 5X less likely if more than 50 ng of Vitamin D – April 2018
T1 Diabetes
- T1 Diabetes 3X lower risk if high vitamin D (over 40 ng) – Meta-analysis Nov 2020
- Type 1 Diabetes is prevented and treated by Vitamin D – review of 16 studies – Sept 2019
- Type 1 Diabetes prevention with Vitamin D and Omega-3 – Symposium April 2019
Pre-Diabetes
- 4X reduction in prediabetes progressing to T2D if more than 50 ng of vitamin D – RCT March 2023
- Prediabetes reduced by weekly 60,000 IU of Vitamin D – RCT Jan 2021
- Prediabetes 1.5 X more likely to go away if take Vitamin D – meta-analysis July 2020
Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Magnesium - many studies
Vitamin D and Magnesium separately prevent & treat these health problems, using BOTH should be even better
The TOP articles in Cost Savings and Vitamin D are listed here:
- Vitamin D is needed before most surgeries – many studies and RCTs
- Diabetes Prevention Program funded by many (Vitamin D would be much better) – Aug 2018
- Health Insurance company still giving free Vitamin D to members who are deficient – Oct 2023
- Perhaps 4,000 dollars annual less health care costs if supplement with 5 dollars of Vitamin D
- Adding Iodine to salt added 11 percent to goiter states income (how much might vitamin D add) – July 2018
- Emotional Value of a Product (such as Vitamin D)
- ICU cost reduced by at least 27,000 dollars if get high dose vitamin D in first week - April 2017
- Costs of Pregnancy much reduced by Vitamin D
- Increasing the vitamin D level of all Canadians to 40 ng would save 6 to 18 billion dollars a year – Grant Nov 2016
- UK patients given vitamin D for 3 months were 16 percent less likely to be readmitted – Sept 2016
- Vitamin D once during pregnancy reduced infant health care costs (300 times ROI) – RCT Dec 2015
- 18 fewer hospital days if given 500,000 IU of vitamin D while ventilated in ICU – RCT June 2016
- Do not expect a doctor to recommend a pill which will eliminate his job (vitamin D)
- Surgical outcomes are better for higher levels of Vitamin D – systematic review May 2015
- UK would save as least 636 million dollars annually by giving 800 IU vitamin D free to all seniors – June 2014
- VA showed increased vitamin D associated with lower health costs - Lancet May 2012
Employers could easily give Vitamin D to employee families via Amazon delivery service
Amazon permits employees to buy specific products and charge them to their company
So, employees could have vitamin D for their families delivered by Amazon to their homes
This totally eliminates the distribution cost and problems with delivery via employers or doctors/hospitals
Comcast is reducing Healthcare Cost of their 225,000 employees and families - Aug 2018
- You’ll Never Guess Which Company Is Reinventing Health Benefits
While deductables are typcially $1500 in other companies, Comcast lowered its deductible to $250 for most of its workers - " . . . roughly a fifth of big companies continue to see annual cost increases of more than 10 percent"
- Comcast increases only ~1% average is 3% annual increase
- Comcast is using such companies as (https://www.accolade.com/|Accolade]to help their employees understand options
Employer alliance is trying to reduce the cost of health care – Aug 2017Printer Friendly Follow this page for updates10199 visitors, last modified 22 Sep, 2018, This page is in the following categories (# of items in each category)