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The primary hypothesis of this study is that racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care impose costs on numerous aspects of society, both direct health care costs and indirect costs such as loss of productivity. The authors conducted three sets of analysis, assessing: (1) direct medical costs and (2) indirect costs, using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (2002-2006) to estimate the potential cost savings of eliminating health disparities for racial/ethnic minorities and the productivity loss associated with health inequalities for racial/ethnic minorities, respectively; and (3) costs of premature death, using data from the National Vital Statistics Reports (2003-2006). They estimate that eliminating health disparities for minorities would have reduced direct medical care expenditures by about $230 billion and indirect costs associated with illness and premature death by more than $1 trillion for the years 2003-2006 (in 2008 inflation-adjusted dollars). We should address health disparities because such inequities are inconsistent with the values of our society and addressing them is the right thing to do, but this analysis shows that social justice can also be cost effective.

We have measured absolute triple differential cross sections for photo-double ionization of helium at 20 eV excess. The measurement covers the full ranges of energy sharing and emission angles of the two photoelectrons. We compare our data for selected geometries with the convergent close-coupling (CCC) calculations as well as 2SC calculations by Pont and Shakeshaft and 3C calculations by Maulbetsch and Briggs. In terms of the absolute magnitude and the trend in the shapes of the triple differential cross section for different geometries we find good agreement of the CCC and published 2SC calculations with our measurement, though differences with respect to the observed shape of individual patterns still exist.

Excitation functions for the inelastic scattering of protons from 2C spb have been obtained for incident proton energies from 14 to 18 MeV. Resonances corresponding to the first seven single-neutron isobaric analog states (IAR) of 209 Pb are observed. Many of the inelastic-scattering excitation functions show a resonance at only one of the IAR. These excitation functions were fitted with a five-parameter formula which consists of a resonance amplitude and an energy-independent background amplitude. For some excitation functions, additional resonance amplitudes were included. The analogs of the g 9 /2 (ground-state), i n/ 2(0.79-MeV),j u/2 (1.41-MeV), d 5/2 (1.56-MeV), s 1/2 (2.03-MeV), g 1/2 (2.47-MeV), andrf 3/2 (2.52-MeV) states are found to have total widths of 253±10, 224±20, 201±25, 308±8, 319±15, 288±20, and 279db20 keV, respectively. In respective order, the resonance laboratory energies are 14.918rb0. 006, 15.716db0.010, 16.336 ±0.015, 16.496±0.008, 16.965±0.014, 17.430±0.010, and 17.476±0.010 MeV.

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Background and ObjectiveA high proportion of low-income people insured by the Medicaid program smoke. Earlier research concerning a comprehensive tobacco cessation program implemented by the state of Massachusetts indicated that it was successful in reducing smoking prevalence and those who received tobacco cessation benefits had lower rates of in-patient admissions for cardiovascular conditions, including acute myocardial infarction, coronary atherosclerosis and non-specific chest pain. This study estimates the costs of the tobacco cessation benefit and the short-term Medicaid savings attributable to the aversion of inpatient hospitalization for cardiovascular conditions.MethodsA cost-benefit analysis approach was used to estimate the program's return on investment. Administrative data were used to compute annual cost per participant. Data from the 2002–2008 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Surveys were used to estimate the costs of hospital inpatient admissions by Medicaid smokers. These were combined with earlier estimates of the rate of reduction in cardiovascular hospital admissions attributable to the tobacco cessation program to calculate the return on investment.FindingsAdministrative data indicated that program costs including pharmacotherapy, counseling and outreach costs about $183 per program participant (2010 $). We estimated inpatient savings per participant of $571 (range $549 to $583). Every $1 in program costs was associated with $3.12 (range $3.00 to $3.25) in medical savings, for a $2.12 (range $2.00 to $2.25) return on investment to the Medicaid program for every dollar spent.ConclusionsThese results suggest that an investment in comprehensive tobacco cessation services may result in substantial savings for Medicaid programs. Further federal and state policy actions to promote and cover comprehensive tobacco cessation services in Medicaid may be a cost-effective approach to improve health outcomes for low-income populations.

Direct evidence of the interference effect in the electron emission spectra from ionization of molecular hydrogen in collisions with bare C and F ions at relatively low collision energies is presented. Oscillations due to the interference are deduced by comparing the measured double differential cross sections of the electrons emitted from molecular hydrogen to those emitted from atomic hydrogen, rather than using the calculated cross sections for H as in a previous report. We believe these experimental data provide stronger support for the evidence of the interference effect. We show that it is not only a feature of very high energy collisions, but also a feature to be observed in relatively lower energy collisions.

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