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St. Louis Front Page P.O. Box 1354 St. Louis, MO 63188 Voice: 314-771-0200 Fax: 314-771-0300 To submit news, contact: editor@slfp.com To advertise, contact: advertising@slfp.com  |
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 Missouri's Healthiness Rating Drops to 32 ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com), November 21, 2002 - The 'Sickest' State in the U.S.A. is Louisiana; the healthiest is New Hampshire. Illinois ranks 31 and Missouri is tied with New York at 32 according to a new survey by UnitedHealth Foundation, the American Public Health Association, and the Partnership for Prevention. The survey annually ranks the states according to the healthiness of their residents. To determine the so-called "healthiness" of a state's residents, the team combined a number of factors that affect health: smoking rate, education level, healthiness of the environment, availability of health insurance, violent crime rate, and deaths from motor vehicle accidents. Missouri is 32nd this year, continuing a gradual decline from 26th in 1990. According to the survey, Missouri's strengths are high adequacy of prenatal care with 83.1 percent of pregnant women receiving adequate care, only 12.5 percent of persons under age 18 in poverty and only 10.2 percent of the population uninsured. Challenges for the state include the high prevalence of smoking at 25.9 percent of the population, much heart disease with 310.3 deaths per 100,000 population and high total mortality with 951.9 deaths per 100,000 population. Health disparities in the state are present, as illustrated by the differences by race for adequacy of prenatal care and premature death. For example, 69.0 percent pregnant American Indian women and 70.8 percent of pregnant black women receive adequate prenatal care compared to 85.3 percent of pregnant white women. Missouri ranks 25th for combined measures of risk factors and 42nd for combined measures of outcomes, indicating that the state should be able to reverse its decline in relative healthiness in the future. In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty increased from 10.6 percent to 12.5 percent of persons under age 18, and the uninsured population increased from 8.6 percent to10.2 percent. Since 1990, the prevalence in smoking has declined from 27.7 percent to 25.9 percent of the population, a decrease much lower than in other states. The report ranks Illinois 31st this year, unchanged from in 2001. Strengths include ranking eighth for support for public health care, eighth for few limited activity days, and 11th for few occupational fatalities. The state's challenges include a high violent crime rate of 657 offenses per 100,000 population and high infant mortality with 8.5 deaths per 1,000 live births. Risk factors and outcome measures are on par with each other, at 33rd and 32nd for their respective groups, and will likely keep Illinois ranked in the middle of the states. Health disparity within the state due to race is dramatic, as black individuals are 2.5 times as likely as white individuals to lose years of potential life due to premature death. In the past year, the percentage of children in poverty decreased from 17.6 percent to 15.3 percent of persons under age 18, and support for public health care worsened. Since 1990, the incidence of heart disease has decreased from 349.0 to 279.9 deaths per 100,000 population and infant mortality has declined from 11.9 to 8.5 deaths per 1,000 live births. Senator Bond Plans to Rewrite Highway Bill ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com), November 17, 2002 - Missouri Senator Kit Bond will become chairman of a key U.S. Senate subcommittee in charge of rewriting the new, multi-billion federal highway bill in 2003. Bond will become chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Nuclear Safety. That is a part of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Bond's new subcommittee will help write the law that, in large part, governs how and where tens of billions of federal dollars are spent to improve the nation's highways. The rewriting of this bill occurs only once every six years. In an announcement, Bond stated "The American economy and our society has outgrown our nation's highway infrastructure. In its present condition, our highway system is actually holding back our economy. That cannot be allowed to continue. Patching yesterday's highway plan with today's dollars is not a solution for tomorrow's problems. American commerce for many decades will travel the roads we begin building today. We must get started now." The new law builds upon previous reauthorizations, including the 1992 Intermodal Surface transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) and the 1998 Transportation Equity Act, which expires September 30, 2003. Located in the geographic center of the nation, Missouri is home to the country's sixth largest highway network. Unfortunately, the condition of Missouri's roads and highways has lagged far behind their increased use. In fact, in many parts of the state, poor roadway conditions have led to high accident and fatality rates. Bond has vowed to work closely with President Bush, Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta, his Senate colleagues and state and local officials from around the country to draft a reauthorization bill that meets the nation's needs. Federal Security Screeners Successfully Deployed WASHINGTON, DC, (SLFP.com), November 17, 2002 - On Monday, November 18, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta will announce the successful deployment of highly trained federal passenger screeners to our nation's 429 commercial airports. The announcement comes on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the creation of the Transportation Security Administration. Office of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and numerous aviation industry representatives will join the Secretary for the event at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Hospital Expect Hefty Increase In Demand for Beds and Services EVANSTON, IL, (PRNewswire), November 9, 2002 - The demand for beds in U.S. hospitals is projected to increase by as much as 46 percent in the next 25 years, according to a new study published by Solucient. This increase of an additional 238,000 beds is expected to result from long-term demographic shifts in the U.S. population, which could drive up demand for inpatient acute care through 2027. The new long-term forecasts also show that total acute care admissions are projected to increase by 13 million cases during that same time frame -- a 41 percent increase from the current number of national admissions. Such forecasts come at a time when many acute care hospitals nationwide are experiencing increases in hospitalizations, resulting in capacity constraints, and an unprecedented boom in hospital construction and expansion projects. "To achieve long-term success, capital-intensive projects must not only relieve current capacity issues in the market," says Solucient's product director Paul Presken, "but also anticipate future demand for care over the next five to 25 years." Several demographic factors are likely to contribute to the 25-year growth in inpatient care, including the aging of the baby boom generation, increasing life expectancy, rising fertility rates, and continued immigration. These factors, however, will not affect each market equally. "Each community in the United States has a unique set of demographic factors that will determine how fast or slow inpatient utilization will grow over the next quarter century," Presken says. Regionally, inpatient demand will grow fastest in the Western and Southern states and more slowly in Midwestern and Northeastern regions. However, even in slower-growing communities the aging population will prompt a hospitalization growth rate that will outpace growth of the total population. For example, while the total Chicago population is expected grow by only 13 percent in the next 25 years, the large number of aging baby boomers retiring in that market will spark a 30 percent increase in inpatient bed demand -- more than twice the population growth rate. Declining Consumer Confidence Level Could Impact Holiday Shopping Season ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com), November 6, 2002 - The outlook for the holiday retail season is now fairly bleak, according to the Consumer Confidence Index. The Consumer Confidence Index, which has declined for four consecutive months, deteriorated even further in October. The Index now stands at 79.4 (1985=100), down from 93.7 in September.
"A weak labor market, the threat of military action in Iraq, and a prolonged decline in the financial markets have clearly dampened both consumers' confidence and their expectations for the near future," says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board's Consumer Research Center. "The outlook for the holiday retail season is now fairly bleak. Without the likelihood of a pickup in consumer spending, an already weak economic recovery could weaken further." Consumers' assessment of the present situation turned notably more negative. Those rating current business conditions as "bad" increased to 27.6 percent from 23.8 percent. Those rating current conditions as "good" decreased to 15.6 percent from 18.5 percent. Consumers reporting jobs are hard to get rose to 27.3 percent from 25.4 percent last month. Those claiming jobs are plentiful declined to 14.8 percent from 15.9 percent in September. Consumers' expectations for the next six months fell in October. The percent of respondents expecting a deterioration in business conditions in the next six months rose to 14.1 percent from 9.7 percent. Consumers expecting conditions to improve declined to 19.0 percent from 21.6 percent. The employment outlook was also less favorable in October. Consumers anticipating more jobs to become available dropped to 15.0 percent from 17.3 percent, while those expecting fewer jobs in the coming months rose to 22.1 percent from 16.8 percent. Income expectations were also more pessimistic. Now, only 17.8 percent of consumers anticipate a rise in their incomes, down from 21.5 percent in September. 'No Spam' Legislation Modeled on 'No Call' List JEFFERSON City, (SLFP.com), October 25, 2002 - Attorney General Jay Nixon and State Rep. Chuck Graham of Columbia have announced that Graham will introduce legislation in the Missouri House of Representatives in the 2003 session to create a "no spam" list to help Missourians eliminate unwanted commercial e-mails. State Sen. Wayne Goode of St. Louis is expected to introduce similar legislation in the Missouri Senate. The model for the "no spam" list would be the highly successful No Call list administered and enforced by Nixon's office. The Attorney General's No Call list has grown to include almost 1.1 million residential phone numbers, representing an estimated 2.7 million Missourians. In a statement, Nixon said, "Spammers are uninvited house guests and it's time for Missourians to have the option to protect their privacy. Missourians, especially parents of young children, are rightly concerned about the messages that can be easily viewed by anyone with access to an electronic mailbox. We will work with Rep. Graham and Sen. Goode to craft legislation to help consumers stop those e-mails." "Missourians with e-mail addresses are increasingly frustrated as they have to clear out their mailboxes stuffed with messages advertising everything from get-rich-quick schemes to online Viagra to pornographic Web sites," Graham said. "Consumers should be able to protect themselves from these unwanted intrusions, much as they can with telemarketing calls under the No Call law." Indications are that the problem of unsolicited commercial e-mails, or UCEs, is only going to increase, Nixon said. An April 2002 study by the marketing firm The Radicati Group estimates that by the end of 2002, more than 2.3 billion spam messages will be sent on a daily basis, with that number expected to increase to more than 14.5 billion daily spam messages in 2006. "One of the other problems we see is that many of the spam messages are not from reputable or legitimate businesses, adding the problem of fraudulent schemes to the burden of receiving unwanted and unsolicited e-mails," Nixon said. "When we reduced telemarketing calls made into Missouri by vigorously enforcing the No Call law, we also saw complaints to our office about telemarketing fraud cut in half. An anti-spam law could help reduce fraud perpetrated over the Internet as well." According to information from the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE), the most commonly seen unsolicited commercial e-mails (UCEs) advertise chain letters, pyramid schemes and other get-rich-quick schemes; offers of phone sex lines and ads for pornographic Web sites; quack health products and remedies; and even offers of software for collecting e-mail addresses and sending UCEs. Nixon said his staff will help Graham and Goode develop a legislative plan that would include creation of a database of e-mail addresses as well as an easy way to register those addresses.  The Saint Louis Front Page is owned and maintained by the Moore Design Group for the sole purpose of disseminating news and information about the Metropolitan Saint Louis area. Text or graphics may not be copied, rewritten or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission. For more information, contact editor@slfp.com All rights reserved world wide © 1996 - 2008 Moore Design Group . |
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