Healths Gain May Be Armys Loss

Call it the law of unintended consequences. When you fix one thing, it messes up other things.

If the Democrats win the election this year, and are able to enact a health care plan that extends adequate coverage to all Americans, the loser could be the Army. Getting enough people to enlist could become a major problem for the next president.

And that has made it harder to put the Army together. Government polls show that the proportion of young people who think they might enlist is roughly half what it was in the late 1980s. The military has responded with more recruiters and higher cash enlistment bonuses, and has met its goals. A significant factor for many recruits, it turns out, is the military’s generous health benefits for dependants.

Michael Massing, writing in the April 3 issue of The New York Review of Books, tells the story of one part-time college student from Brooklyn, who was holding down two jobs but still going into debt. “Meanwhile, he got married, his wife got pregnant, and he had no health care. From a brother in the military, he had learned of the Army’s many benefits, and, visiting a recruiter, he heard about Tricare, the military’s generous health plan.” He enlisted.

It seems a bit perverse that the incentives for a young person with children to join are greater than the incentives for his childless friend. But that is the way it is. All that could change if the push for some kind of national health insurance program were to be successful.

It is true, of course, that Democrats have been talking about such things for generations. The failure of health care legislation during Bill Clinton’s first two years in office left some viewing the issue as political dynamite — good for a campaign but fatal to anyone who tries to pass a specific program. It is quite unclear how the government would pay for a comprehensive program, and no candidates seem eager to discuss ways to hold down health care spending.

One partial solution to the negative effect on enlistment of a health care plan for all could be a new G.I. education benefit. Both the House and Senate have approved such a plan, but as part of the Iraq funding bill on which there are major differences. President Bush is opposed to the legislation, which its sponsors say would cost $50 billion over 10 years, and it is far from clear it will be enacted.

If we get a real health care plan for all Americans, it might require something like the Webb bill — or a very unpopular revival of the draft — just to keep fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The backers of health care legislation do not want to hurt the Army, but that is what could happen.

Going To Work Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

If you're the type who already dreads trudging to your cubicle on Monday mornings, here's another reason to stay home: Your desk may be a veritable zoo for bacteria.

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In a recent study, a British consumer advocacy group tested a few dozen of its office keyboards for harmful bacteria. Four were deemed health hazards, and one was five times dirtier than a toilet seat in the same office.

And that's just the keyboard - there's also the computer mouse, the telephone, the coffee mug, the work refrigerator and all the other surfaces on which workers lay their hands, breathe, cough and spill crumbs of food.

"I think the office environment has always been a particularly unhygienic environment," said Josette Covington, clinical director of occupational health services at Wilmington, Del.-based Christiana Care Health System.

Care Health In the keyboard study, the British magazine Which? (similar to Consumer Reports) commissioned microbiologist James Francis to test more than 30 office keyboards for a handful of nasty bugs that indicate poor hygiene.

Two keyboards had staphylococcus aureus - associated with skin infections and food poisoning - at "warning levels," and one keyboard was removed from the office because its bacteria levels were 150 times higher than normal.

"That keyboard is increasing the risk of its user becoming ill," Francis told the magazine. "I haven't seen a reading like that in a very long time. It was off the scale."

It's not terribly surprising that keyboards and other office equipment are crawling with bacteria - after all, these one-celled microorganisms are already crawling inside our bodies and on our skin at massive levels.

One study last year found evidence of 182 species of bacteria on skin samples.

In addition to bacteria, workers also have to worry about viruses, the smaller infectious agents that cause, among other things, the common cold.

Such viruses can be spread through coughing or sneezing microscopic droplets into the air, through hand-to-hand contact or through touching the same inanimate object, said Donald Lehman, a professor of medical technology at the University of Delaware.

For that reason, sick workers should stay home, but even that may not be enough to prevent the spread of illness.

"Unfortunately, some of these viruses are sneaky," Lehman said. "People can be contagious before they have the symptoms."

Michele Braughton, a receptionist at the Wilmington accounting firm Cover & Rossiter, sees illnesses passed around all the time in her 30-employee workplace.

"Somebody will come in sick, and the next thing you know somebody else will come in sick," she said.

Braughton was disgusted to hear of the results of the British keyboard study.

She said she regularly sprays her own work keyboard with an air compressor and wipes it down with alcohol pads. She also washes her hands "all the time," even if some of her co-workers don't follow her example.

Care Health In fact, experts say, the simple task of washing one's hands, which most people learn as toddlers, is the most effective way to protect against infection.

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Haven Care Health State Takes Action

The state Department of Public Care Health United suspended admissions Tuesday to one nursing home owned by Haven Healthcare and stepped up monitoring of the chain's 14 other facilities, Care Health United as lawmakers issued broader calls for increased oversight of troubled nursing homes.

We want to assure you that we hold the Care Health United, welfare and safety of the Haven residents as a main concern as this [review] process moves forward," Dr. J. Robert Galvin, the state's public health commissioner, and Michael P. Starkowski, social services commissioner, wrote in the letter to Rell Care Health United.

Haven Healthcare CEO Raymond Termini said last week that he had begun pouring millions of dollars into boosting staff and improving care at a number of Haven's homes, Care Health United in an effort to address deficiencies cited by the state in the last.