The candidates’ health-care plans are still a big issue. But just a week and a half before election day, so is the candidates’ actual health. Just a day after the New York Times ran a story exposing gaps in the candidates publicly-disclosed medical records, Senator Joe Biden responded.The Democratic vice presidential nominee gave reporters a look at his health background. Many have been wondering whether 65-year-old Biden could be at risk for another cerebral aneurism. He had his first one 20 years ago, and had to have emergency surgery to stave off some bleeding from a leaking artery. It’s also though he suffered a second, sub-clinical aneurism later.

But Biden’s physicians recorded little concern of a repeat cerebrovascular event. He’s never had a follow-up study to confirm that his arteries are clear. At the same time, Biden’s blood pressure is a relatively healthy 120/78, and he’s taking statins to control his cholesterol.

The corollary to all of this is that Governor Sarah Palin, who’s 44 and the Republican vice presidential nominee, has never disclosed any medical information to the public. She’s running to be second to a 72-year-old John McCain, who’s had two bouts of malignant melanoma (see Correspondence in the Oct 25 issue of The Lancet for more on McCain’s health).

Barack Obama, meanwhile, has released some medical information. He’s been deemed fit by his doctors, who note he’s tried several times to permanently quit smoking.

All of this was kind of a sideshow to the sickness in America’s health system itself.

The left-leaning consumer’s group Families USA released a report. Thursday with some alarming findings. Average family health insurance premiums had shot up more than five times faster than workers’ wages between 2000 and 2007. While premiums rose 78.5%, wages rose just 14.5%.

Ron Pollack, the group’s president said American workers are being hit by a “triple whammy”. While premiums keep going up, employers are gradually backing away from the comprehensive coverage they once freely offered employees. Meanwhile, rising health care costs mean bosses are holding back on pay for workers. “A bad situation is clearly growing worse”, Pollack told reporters.

Some results from the Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation’s political tracking poll this week seem to confirm it. While the economy remains voters’ number-one concern, their ability to pay for health care seems to be a major part of that. And nearly half say the crunch is hitting home in a very real way.

Nearly half of the respondents in said they’d skipped some needed medical care because of cost. More than a third said they’d postponed needed treatment, and about a quarter said they’d divided pills, skipped doses, or skipped filling a prescription because of the price.

Washington is asking whether the faltering economy means that John McCain or Barack Obama won’t really be able to address American health care in a substantial way next year. But this week’s news suggests the economic news may only get worse if they don’t.

Todd Zwillich

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 3:18 pm and is filed under US Election. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.