In her article entitled ‘The phony, unprincipled war on Planned Parenthood’, August 9, 2015, Mary Sanchez, Columnist for the Kansas City Star, wrote in part, that 700 Planned Parenthood clinics provide crucial preventive health measures, like pap smears often to low-income women without access to health insurance. Ms Sanchez states about 85 to 90 percent of Planned Parenthood's work provides these basic services.
Women need regular PAP smears to detect HPV (Human Papilloma Virus). Without access to PAP smears, sex education and contraceptive information, the following cancers will only increase.
The following statistics are from the CDC:
Cervical cancer: The most common HPV cancer. Almost all cervical cancer is caused by HPV. Vulvar cancer: About 69% are linked to HPV Vaginal cancer: About 75% are linked to HPV Penile cancer: About 63% are linked to HPV Anal cancer: About 91% are linked to HPV Oropharyngeal cancers: About 72% are linked to HPV (cancers of the back of the throat, including the base of the tongue and tonsils) (aka Head and Neck) For more information: http://www.cdc.gov/hpv/cancer.html
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In an August 3, 2015 article by Jordan Rau entitled 'Half of Nation's Hospitals Fail Again To Escape Medicare's Readmission Penalties': 'Once again, the majority of the nation’s hospitals are being penalized by Medicare for having patients frequently return within a month of discharge — this time losing a combined $420 million, government records show. In the fourth year of federal readmission penalties, 2,592 hospitals will receive lower payments for every Medicare patient that stays in the hospital — readmitted or not — starting in October. The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, created by the Affordable Care Act, was designed to make hospitals pay closer attention to what happens to their patients after they get discharged.' For more information: Half of US Hospitals Get Penalized Again for Medicare Readmissions *****
In a study conducted by the Trans Tasman Radiation Oncology Group, entitled, 'Daily humidification of the mouth and throat region during radiation therapy for head and neck cancer reduces mucositis and hospitalization' finds:
'Patients who received daily humidification of the mouth and throat region beginning from day one of radiation therapy treatment spent nearly 50 percent fewer days in the hospital to manage their side effects, according to research presented today at the 2014 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium...
Mucositis (inflammation and ulceration of the mouth and throat) is a painful side effect of radiation therapy that can negatively affect patients’ quality of life. This study has provided efficacy signals consistent with a role for humidification in reducing symptom burden for patients during radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. Preventing or reducing hospitalizations may also mean it is cost effective. The rationale for using humidification is based on the fact that moisturizing wounds generally helps them heal faster,” said Andrew Macann, MBcHB, FRANZCR, lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at Auckland City Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. “These results are encouraging, particularly given the signals favouring humidification were seen across clinician-reported outcomes, patient-reported outcomes and independent data such as hospitalizations. Although patients in the study did not use the humidifiers as much as was hoped, we obtained feedback about why some patients did not like using the humidifier. Our next step is to work at increasing the proportion of patients who use the humidifier effectively.'... For more information: https://www.astro.org/News-and-Media/News-Releases/2014/Macann-H-N-Release.aspx