S.Africa approves national health insurance scheme

South Africa on Thursday announced it has approved a national health insurance proposal aimed at overhauling weak public facilities that serve more than 80 percent of the population.

"We are building a health system that will offer decent health care for all our people. This is a right that large numbers of South Africans, over many generations, have never known," said Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.

Details of the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, which will be piloted in 10 areas next year and rolled out nationally over 14 years, will be published on Friday.

The ruling African National Congress last year estimated the fund would cost 128 billion rand ($18 billion, 12.5 billion euros) in 2012, rising to 267 billion rand in 2020.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan told a press briefing on Thursday that it will be funded through various sources including tax revenue, mandatory contributions from employers, and co-payments from individuals for services not covered by the scheme, and potential partnerships with the private sector.

South Africa's quality health services are currently heavily skewed toward the more expensive private sector.

Some 84 percent of the country's 50 million people depend on public hospitals and clinics, which are greatly overburdened and poorly staffed despite the state's health spending accounting for 8.5 percent of gross domestic product.

"It is true that the quality of care in public health institutions is often totally unacceptable and that radical measures are needed to put matters in order," said Motsoaledi.

The long-awaited proposal has drawn controversy over fears about costs and threats to the private health care industry.

But Motsoaledi said the scheme was not a war between the public and private sectors and that the government did not aim to abolish private health insurance. Individuals would still be able to enroll in private medical aid schemes, but would continue to have to pay NHI contributions.

The proposal was approved by the cabinet on Wednesday and will be gazetted for public comment on Friday before draft legislation is developed.

Spirits increase acute pancreatitis risk

Consuming one drink of hard liquor can increase the risk of an acute attack of pancreatitis, researchers in Sweden say.

However, the study published online in the British Journal of Surgery, found wine and beer do not appear to have the same effect.

Lead author Dr. Omid Sadr-Azodi of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and colleagues tracked 84,601 people from ages 46-84 from the general population in Vastmanland and Uppsala for a median of 10 years.

During the study period 513 developed acute pancreatitis.

"Our study revealed a steady increase between each measure of spirits a person drank on one occasion and the risk of having an acute attack of pancreatitis, starting at just under 10 percent for one drink," Sadr-Azodi says in a statement. "For example, drinking five standard Swedish measures of a drink on a single occasion increased the risk of an acute episode by 52 percent and the risk then continued to increase at that rate for every five additional units consumed. But drinking more than five glasses of wine or five beers on one occasion did not increase the risk."

Laughing may be bad for the lungs

Having a sense of humor has health benefits but the actual act of laughing can reduce lung function, at least in the short term, U.S. researchers suggest.

The researchers evaluated humor and laughter in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Participants who exhibited a greater sense of humor were more likely than others to report fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety, and better quality of life -- and tended to report that they had experienced fewer respiratory illnesses in the month before the study.

However, the study published in the journal Heart & Lung, finds patients who watched a 30-minute comedy video and laughed during the viewing had lower pulmonary function afterward than did patients who watched a home-repair video that did not prompt laughter.

"This study shows that humor is really more complex than people make it out to be," senior author Charles Emery, a professor of psychology at Ohio State University, says in a statement. "Yes, humor definitely has benefits, but the behaviors associated with humor in fact may not be good for all people all the time -- which is a useful thing to know."

COPD is a chronic, progressive disorder characterized by difficulty breathing, and especially in expelling air from the lungs.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/08/05/Laughing-may-be-bad-for-the-lungs/UPI-50731312523318/#ixzz1UBD6yEPo