For the first time in almost a decade, the number of U.S. children without health insurance is on the rise. The year 2017 saw an increase in uninsured children from 4.7% to 5%, and while the exact numerical increase may be relatively small, experts are concerned about the possible implications.

Coverage By The Numbers

While the overall population hasn’t seen a significant drop in insured people, remaining firmly at 8.8% uninsured, there are currently 276,000 more children without health insurance this year. This suggests an alarming overall trend that could set the precedent for future years. It is highly unusual to see rates of coverage drop during periods of economic growth, and as this is the first drop in insurance rates in the past decade, experts seem to have reason to worry.

In addition to an increase in uninsured children, out-of-pocket spending has accelerated for the past three years across all types of health insurance, including for employer-sponsored coverage. The ultimate end result is fewer people having health insurance, and higher insurance costs for those who do.

General Public Uninformed On Insurance Options

One of the many reasons that the state of health coverage in the United States seems to be worsening could be due to a general lack of education on health insurance options. For example, most Americans do not know crucial information about health insurance, such as the fact that 100 percent of medical and long-term care insurance premiums are deductible from gross income to arrive at adjusted gross income. The current administration and President Trump have slashed funding dramatically for programs that would educate Americans on health insurance options and assistance available for those unable to afford health insurance, resulting in a less educated general populace.

Lack Of Coverage Means Less Care

With fewer children covered by health insurance, more families are forgoing important preventative care measures that could make the difference for children’s overall health and safety. These crucial preventative care measures are essential to protecting not just children, but the health of the general public.

In 2017, an estimated 19.5 million children under one year old worldwide did not receive DTP3 vaccines, reflecting a harmful trend of forgoing vaccination. Many of these children did not receive vaccinations as a result of lack of health coverage that would make payments difficult. This contributes to an already dangerous and harmful trend of children not receiving appropriate vaccinations, putting those who are not able to be vaccinated at risk.

Additionally, if this trend of lack of coverage continues in combination with increasing out-of-pocket costs, many adults will also not seek out preventative care they need. This is especially important in adult populations, where different health risks arise. Certain preventative screenings, such as mammograms for the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among women, breast cancer, can prevent serious and expensive conditions. However, if people are forced to pay exorbitant out-of-pocket prices, it is unlikely these screenings will occur.

Overall, the decrease in insured rates for American children does not bode well for the state of American health. With 2019 just on the horizon, it remains to be seen whether this trend will continue into the new year, and what that might mean for Americans’ health insurance everywhere.

Updated 10/1/2020

Six people were trapped in an elevator in Chicago’s former John Hancock Center for three hours after plunging 84 floors. The rescue itself took a total of two hours.

In the early hours of the morning of Friday, Nov. 16, just after midnight, a hoist rope broke in an express elevator. Guests from the Signature Room on the 95th floor who were trying to go to the lobby without incident instead had a terrifyingly fast ride to the 11th floor. The elevator was able to stop there because several other hoist ropes had remained connected and worked to halt the elevator.

Elevators are necessary for a variety of reasons. Many differently-abled individuals rely on passenger lifts when they are unable to climb stairs. Additionally, for a building with 84 floors elevators are essential when it comes to making meetings on time. Learning when to use an elevator pitch can also help out your career when you’re stuck in an elevator with someone.

Expecting everyone in the building to climb stairs is simply unrealistic. But many buildings have staircases as well since the age-old question “can you use an elevator during a fire” is a hard no.

Are you curious about how elevators work? Check out this video:

When it spans more than 84 floors elevators are frequently inspected to meet the necessary safety protocols. Elevator maintenance happens frequently to prevent any issues from happening. How much does elevator maintenance cost? It depends on the type of elevator, its height, and how much the elevator can carry. Elevator maintenance jobs can enable top workers to make almost $100,000 per year in some cases. Passenger lift maintenance is essential, but most elevators come with safety protocols, like a safety brake, to slow the elevator down in the event of an emergency like this.

According to some of the elevator passengers, no one was injured but it took some time for building security to call the firefighters. As an elevator of standard-size is just 12 to 15 square feet and a mid-size one averages 15 to 18 square feet, this delay caused the passengers to be trapped in a small space for about an hour before rescue crews even arrived.

The elevator was stuck in a blind shaft, which is a shaft in which there are not openings at every floor to free the trapped passengers. Incidentally, the 11th floor was one floor without an opening. Once the rescue crews did arrive they had to break a concrete wall in the garage area of the 11th floor in order to free them.

After they broke through the wall, the crews shored up the elevator so that it wouldn’t fall further. They then used a small ladder to free those trapped inside. Elevator rider Jaime Montemayor told local news WBBM that he thought they were all going to die when the elevator started its plunge.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, escalators and elevators cause the deaths of about 30 and seriously injure about 17,000 people each year in the United States. Simply riding in an elevator is relatively low-risk, as the majority of these accidents involve workers on or near elevators.

The elevator in the Chicago skyscraper reportedly passed its annual safety inspection earlier this year. The elevator and two others are now closed as crews repair the broken hoists and investigators attempt to determine what caused the ropes to snap in the first place.

The pharmacy store chain Walgreens has opened its first store in Chicago without a pharmacy. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Walgreens recently opened a store in the West Loop that has no pharmacy, becoming one of the few Walgreens in the nation to serve only as a store. Customers in need of a pharmacy have been redirected to nearby Walgreens at Halsted and Monroe streets.

Losing the pharmacy represents a major shift for the Walgreens chain. Walgreens currently has 120 stores in Chicago alone and approximately 10,000 stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

According to Walgreens’ 2017 annual report, prescription drugs and other pharmaceutical services made up 70% of sales at its stores. This may not be too surprising considering drug discovery is a multi-billion dollar industry and medicinal cures or relief for illnesses will always be in high demand.

Just last year, Walgreens filled over 1 billion monthly prescriptions worldwide. So why open a store without a pharmacy?

Walgreens spokesperson Phil Caruso says he can’t confirm that Walgreens is the first drugstore to open without a pharmacy in Chicago history, but it certainly isn’t the first Walgreens to do so. Four Walgreens in New York City listed under the Duane Reade brand don’t sell prescription medications, either.

“It is rare for one of our stores to not have a pharmacy,” Caruso said. Caruso declined to comment on other reasons why the new store has opened without a pharmacy.

One potential reason the store opened without a pharmacy is that Walgreens has come under fire for opioid sales. The state of Florida recently filed a lawsuit against Walgreens and CVS for allegedly overselling painkillers and contributing to the nation’s opioid epidemic.

In 2016 alone, up to 1,186,810 arrests were made in the U.S. for drug law violations.

But, Simon Pickard, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says Walgreens may simply be moving in a new direction. Retail pharmacies, Pickard says, can be more expensive to maintain and Walgreens may be looking for other ways to stay profitable in the shadow of competition from online companies such as Amazon.

“I would imagine it’s inevitable that traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacies become less prevalent,” said Pickard.

Drugstores like Walgreens have been putting a greater focus on online and mail-order pharmacies while focusing on their cosmetics and skin-care products in-store. Event marketing has also been able to generate sales for up to 79% of marketers.

Whether Walgreens is looking to change up their retail stores or they’re looking to boost other product sales, the pharmacy-less store in the West Loop will still be selling products typically found in your average Walgreens. This includes over-the-counter medication, makeup, toiletries, food, and beer.

John Bacon, author of America’s Corner Store: Walgreens’ Prescription for Success, says Walgreens may be prototyping.

“The whole business of pharmaceuticals has gotten so complicated with Medicaid and whatnot that they’re trying to see if they can probably make their life simpler without it,” said Bacon.

Bacon pointed out that Walgreens had experimented in the 1990s with removing samples from their aisles. First, they implemented the change at a few stores before implementing it everywhere.

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In a series of rallies earlier this month, President Trump restated his anti-immigration stance, specifically focusing on illegal immigration and the migrant caravan moving towards the United States from Central America.

Caravans Become The Target Of Anti-Migrant Sentiment

President Trump, in recent rallies in Indiana during early November, railed against the movement of migrant caravans headed towards the United States. He specifically used references about the migrant caravans in several attacks at Democrats, stating that Democrats want caravans “full of illegal aliens to flood into our country.”

The comments came during the president’s campaigns for the Republican party leading up to the mid-term elections, during which a large number of Democrats were elected to seats in the House. Trump centered many of his arguments around immigration policy, continuing to cite his desire to build a wall on America’s southern border.

He also emphasized his own efforts to regulate and reduce immigration to America. In recent weeks, Trump has allegedly instructed border patrol agents to respond to rocks thrown at them “as firearms,” suggesting an increasingly hardline approach to illegal immigration that could potentially more easily escalate to violence.

Response To Anti-Immigration Language Not Entirely As Hoped

Perhaps Trump’s words in his Indiana rally may not have been the most well-chosen for the audience; the American Immigration Council reports that about 10% of the people living in Indiana are either immigrants or the children of immigrants. President Trump’s reliance on anti-immigration sentiment and policy may, in fact, be alienating the exact people he is attempting to reach. In several states, Trump’s anti-immigration language has been alienating more moderate conservatives, who are pushed to more Democratic leanings by the rhetoric.

In a modern United States where immigrants make up approximately 13% of the total population, President Trump’s harsh stance on immigration may be turning people against him in ways he is not expecting. His approval rate continues to drop, and the results of the 2018 midterms suggest that perhaps this rhetoric is not gaining him quite as much support as he would hope for.

While it remains to be seen how President Trump’s statements will translate into direct policy with regards to the continuing migrant caravans, it is clear that his stance is unlikely to change. It is difficult to say what this will mean for America’s immigrant population, though it is likely that whatever policies are formed, if any, will see considerable debate and discussion as they arise.

As the political landscape continues to grow more divided in America, climate change rages on. The national and international debate surrounding the environment continues, with long strides still needing to be taken if the rate of climate change progression is ever to be stopped.

Climate Change As It Stands

Currently, the United States continues to fuel the ever-growing problem of rising temperatures globally. The rate of rising temperatures has reached dangerous levels, and without some sort of relatively immediate intervention, prospects are looking grim. According to a recent report released by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, keeping temperature increases to 1.5% by mid-century still likely won’t be enough to avoid environmental catastrophes. Already the visible effects have begun to take place, and yet little in the way of intervention has taken place within the United States.

Business As Usual, Despite Dangers

Despite the warning signs, a vast majority of industry and policy that would affect rising temperatures remains unchanged. The current global market for plastics, a known threat to the environment, still grows at a rate of roughly 5% annually. In America, some changes have gone in the reverse direction, promoting a social atmosphere that encourages harm to the environment. According to the EPA, there has been an increase in U.S. smokestacks taller than 500 feet within the last four years.

This is possibly attributed to the lack of awareness of the general public as to the true state of climate change. Overall, only 15% of Americans say they are aware that agreement on climate change severity among scientists is greater than 90%. Without public awareness of the science backing claims of climate change danger, there will be a lack of public pressure that would normally push policy change.

Hope On The Horizon?

Despite the many indications of a dark situation, there are a few glimmers of optimism for actual change in environmental policy. The U.S. Supreme Court has recently rejected a bid from the current presidential administration that would have blocked a lawsuit against the United States government. This lawsuit was filed by a collection of young activists who accused the U.S. government of ignoring the dangers of climate change back during the Obama administration.

Should this lawsuit proceed, it could, at least, provide a more thorough awareness of the realities of climate change to the general public. At most, the legal changes that would take place as a result of such a lawsuit could potentially help shape American environmental policies moving forward. However, as the lawsuit has been continually pushed back, the long-term results remain to be seen. Regardless of how this particular legal situation proceeds, the United States will need to make a decision: will it be a part of the problem of climate change, or will it be a part of the solution?

Considering the fact that employers saw around 2.7 million workers voluntarily leave their jobs at the end of June 2015, efforts to boost employee engagement have increased dramatically. Since it’s impossible for employers to make their workers enjoy their day jobs, they have been looking for other means of increasing employee happiness; sports seems to be the winner, and not necessarily in the way you might think.

When people hear employee engagement and office sports, their heads are usually filled with mandated group sporting events outside of the office, such as corporate retreats to ropes courses or soccer stadiums where they’re split into teams and encouraged to work together.

Joyce Maroney, executive director of the Workforce Institute at workforce management software company Kronos Inc., had a different idea in mind: by studying workplace issues and the best ways employers can manage their staff, she came to the realization that many employees miss or are late to work due to public sporting events — football, soccer, baseball, you name it. She claims that the best way to combat these absences (not to mention the productivity dip that occurs when people do show up, but are constantly checking their phones for updates) is to incorporate the sporting events into the workplace culture, either by displaying it on the breakroom TV or establishing an office-watch party with food provided.

“It can definitely be a tool to stimulate camaraderie, just as would be departments having gatherings during the holiday season, or doing a charity event together,” Maroney said. “All these things engage people at work and can make people feel like they’re part of something that’s a little bigger than just getting the job done.”

Apparently, she might be onto something. A study done in March of this year showed that 79% of employees believe having access to sporting events in the office “greatly improves their levels of engagement at work.” The same study also found that 73% of workers say are happy to go to work when they can participate in office sports bracket contests (like March Madness). It makes sense to Tom Gimbel, founder and CEO of Chicago-based staffing and recruiting firm LaSalle Network:

“It empowers employees because they don’t have to sneak around to participate in something they enjoy,” he said. “It also makes our clients feel valued. We want them to know we appreciate our relationships with them. It helps builds trust.”

However, this doesn’t discredit the positive impact of the most common interpretation of corporate sports events. In fact, the Royal Bank of Scotland has seen profound results in its workers after having initiated a cycling challenge for charity in 2016. That year, more than 1,200 staff made the five day, 500-mile trek from the bank’s Bishopsgate office in London to its headquarters in Edinburgh.

“We do an annual staff survey where we track engagement and we have seen our figures go up a lot,” explained RBS employee campaign manager Clódagh McAteer.
There is more pride within the organization, more engagement and our employees are more active, fitter and healthier.”

However, not everyone in the office is going to necessarily be able to tolerate that kind of physical exertion. Tennis, on the other hand, knows no age limit and is exceptionally low-impact; doubles encourages teamwork and tournaments ensure that everyone has a chance to play, while also getting their blood pumping. In fact, playing tennis for fun for half an hour can burn 169 calories in women, and 208 in men — as your staff run or jog across the court, they’ll be engaging with each other, staying healthy, and having fun.

At its conceptual core, almost everyone has used cryotherapy many times in their lives to alleviate pain. If you’ve ever pulled out an ice pack or a bag of frozen veggies for sore and inflamed muscles, you’ve engaged in an at-home, low-scale version of cryotherapy. Taken to a different level, whole body cryotherapy involves you stepping into an extremely cold capsule for three to four minutes while wearing only shoes, socks, gloves, and a protective headband.

Cryotherapy has been promoted as a weight loss method, pain management treatment, and anxiety reducer. The chilly temperature treatment can go as low as -220 degrees Fahrenheit and can burn approximately 800 calories in three minutes. The treatment can be revolutionary for those with chronic pain conditions, as they can rely less on prescribed opioids and more on this more natural pain management method.

The popular treatment used by athletes, actors, and musicians has gained national attention and a cult-like following. As with most fads, the rich and famous were among the https://startupsouth.org/buy-singulair-online/ first to try it and spread word of the benefits to the rest of the population. Here are some of the most notable cryotherapy advocates.

1. Derek Hough: The professional dancer shared a photo of himself outside of the cryotherapy chamber on his Instagram to the 1.7 million followers he had at the time.
2. Alicia Keys: The famous songstress has reported using cryotherapy to take care of her voice as well as the rest of her body.
3. Jennifer Aniston: According to Shape magazine, Aniston uses cryotherapy to keep her appearance looking healthy and youthful.
4. Floyd Mayweather Jr.: Before his famous fight with Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather reportedly visited a cryotherapy facility almost daily with the goal of speeding up his body’s natural recovery time.
5. Daniel Craig: In an effort to maintain his physique as James Bond for one of the franchise’s many installments, Craig is said to have turned to cryotherapy.

By 2024, the global cryotherapy market is projected to reach a value of $5.6 billion. With the amount of celebrities endorsing the treatment and the reportedly positive benefits from more average users around the world, the market will likely see this massive investment in the coming years.

Sometimes, your personal style and your personal situation don’t align. Maybe you had to compromise with a partner, and couldn’t live in the 18th-century cottage of your dreams. Or, maybe you had to move for work, and now live in an urban area where your farmhouse-style preferences are hard to come by. Luckily, there are ways to satisfy your shabby-chic design tastes without having to relocate.

If you’re longing for antique charm in an all-too-modern space, use these tips make the past part of the present in your current home:

Highlight Antique Materials

Even if the house itself can’t be from an earlier era, you can draw attention to older elements, or elements that would have been used in older houses. For example, the average single-family home contains 13,000 board feet of lumber– find a way to expose some of it! Southern Living writes that maximizing the impact of wood by removing drywall and incorporating wood furnishings can add warmth and character.

Choose Neutrals

In earlier centuries, bright dyes and paint were expensive and hard to create. Eliminating vibrant and bold colors and opting for earth-tones and neutrals can help any room achieve an older, weathered look. If you still want a pop or two of color, avoid neons or primary colors, and instead choose pastels or faded gem hues, like crimson, navy, or pine green. When painting, be sure to apply thinner layers no matter the color to avoid the stark, synthetic appearance of thick paint.

Don’t Replace; Refinish and Refurbish

This Old House recommends trying to fix and and refinish old and out-of-style furnishings to match a room. Rather than paying the cost of finding something brand new, a little DIY effort can tie any element into the overall look of a room. Try sanding, painting, or staining wood surfaces like tables and dressers to match the style you’re trying to achieve. You can also use sandpaper to create a weathered appearance on painted surfaces.

Go Natural and Casual

Another way to bring antique charm to a newer space is to bring the outdoors inside. Flowers, wood elements, fireplaces and more can make a home cozy and feel less sterile or high-tech. Natural fabrics add authentic texture and colors, so look for cotton curtains or wool pillows.

Find Detailed Accessories

Finally, don’t forget that small details can have a big impact on the style of a room. Investing in authentic antique accessories can transform a modern space. Look for antique brass or sterling silver that have evidence of their age. For example, 19th and 20th century sterling is typically marked with the word “Sterling” or the number “925.” Doorknobs, tea sets, mirrors, and other accessories in fine metals or old-fashioned china will help bring you space to the era and style you’re looking for without big renovations.

By following these five easy steps, you can achieve any vintage or antique look you choose. Focus on color, materials, and details for a cozy, nostalgic, and stylish home.

A recent study published in the journal Nature Cell Biology reports that researchers have discovered a new structure in human cells. The researchers were at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and were working with colleagues in the United Kingdom.

The newly discovered structure seems to play an important role in cell division. The discovery may help scientists find an answer to the mystery of how cells remain attached to the surrounding matrix as they divide.

According to scientific estimates, there are anywhere from 75 to 100 trillion cells in the human body. Individually, these cells are round-ish blobs, but they can attach to one another because of a net-like structure that surrounds them. This structure, called the extracellular matrix, only admits cells with special receptor molecules, known as adhesion complexes.

Most adhesion complexes connect the cell interior to the outside and transmit information to the cell about its immediate surroundings. That information affects the cell’s properties and behaviors. The newly discovered structure is the same in this aspect, but unlike previously known adhesion, this new structure does not dissolve during cell division.

Instead, the new structure, which the research team named reticular adhesions, remains together and works to attach the cell during cell division. According to the study, reticular adhesions control the destinations of daughter cells after they’re made during division. This supervised direction ensures that they assume the right place in the overall tissue. When researchers would block the reticular adhesions during this process, they would interrupt the memory function that allowed the daughter cells to get in place.

The research team looked at exclusively human cell lines with confocal microscopy and mass spectrometry during their study. The next step of this discovery will be to examine the adhesion complex in other living organisms.

According to Professor Staffan Stromblad, the principal investigator of the study, the team believes that the reticular adhesions could be involved in processes other than cell division as well. Those functions will also have to be discovered in further studies. For now, the team was shocked that they could discover a new structure at all.

“It’s incredibly surprising that there’s a new cell structure left to discover in 2018. The existence of this type of adhesion complex has completely passed us by,” said Professor Stromblad.

For many people, winter is a time to settle in and get cozy at home. However, not everyone wants such a relaxed few months waiting for the warm weather to return. Just because the temperature is dropping doesn’t mean you have to stop enjoying the great outdoors. Looking for some fun new sports to try as the winter season approaches? Check out these four winter sports perfect for the coming season.

Snowmobiling

Certainly not for the faint of heart, this adventurous sport is perfect for the thrill seeker in winter. There are a surprising number of people who partake in this sport every year. Currently, there are over 1.2 million registered snowmobiles in the United States, and over 600,000 registered in Canada. Just make sure you have a professional to help you if you’re new to the sport.

Snowboarding and Skiing

If you want the same fast-paced adrenaline rush of snowmobiling but don’t want to hop on a vehicle, snowboarding or skiing might be for you. For beginners, this will take some practice to perfect, but after a while, you’ll be able to freestyle ski and snowboard with the best of them. Once you’re really comfortable, you can even try a few tricks off the jumps on the slope.

Dogsledding

Not a fan of heights, but still want the high speeds? Dogsledding can give you the same rush of speed without having to worry about heading down a mountain. While this sport may look fairly simple to the untrained eye, there’s a decent amount of complexity that goes into racing. This is definitely a fun one to try if you want fast speeds powered by paws. Besides, who doesn’t want to spend a day with a group of excited dogs?

Skating

Skating is a perfect activity for the whole family to enjoy. Ice skating is fun at all different levels of expertise, from first stepping out onto the ice to gorgeous figure skating and intense, fast-paced speed skating. If you’ve got little ones you want to enjoy a new sport with, skating will be the perfect way for you to combine family time and winter exercise.

Once the snow has started to fall, there are plenty of fun activities available for all different types of people that keep you active and outdoors. Try these four exciting sports to find your new favorite wintertime activity.