High Risk

Pennsylvania's Insurance Department announced Wednesday that it had submitted a plan to achieve one of the provisions of the new national health-overhaul legislation: creation of a special insurance program for people who can't buy insurance because they're already sick. People with preexisting conditions such as heart disease, cancer, or major mental illness would be able to buy into the proposed high-risk insurance pool for about what healthy people would pay, up to $5,616 a year. The problem is that those payments, plus $160 million in federal funding through 2013, can provide insurance for only about 5,100 people in a state where 800,000 are uninsured.

Paula Creamer fought throughout the front nine yesterday to keep her golf game together while the wind strengthened and the conditions at Saucon Valley Country Club got tougher during Round 3 of the U.S. Women's Open. Then she arrived at the par-4 10th hole, where U.S. Golf Association officials had moved up the tee to 253 yards to entice players to go for the green. One triple-bogey 7 later, Creamer had all but waved goodbye to her hopes of winning her first career major championship.

The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the estimated number of Americans who lack health insurance had dropped to 45.7 million, compared to 47 million in 2006. The slight improvement is entirely due to an increase in the number of people covered by government health insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Even so, the lower number remains a national scandal, yet the Bush administration tends to discount such reports. The president says that many of the uninsured are young and healthy people who don't want to buy insurance, presumably because they think they don't need it. But this flies in the face of a new study by a team of Harvard researchers who report that 11.4 million of the nation's uninsured are working-age adults with one or more chronic illnesses, including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, asthma and cancer.

The federal government, in a survey released yesterday, confirmed an elevated number of rare cancer cases in three Northeast Pennsylvania counties but found no link between the disease and environmental factors. The report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry looked at 38 cases of polycythemia vera - a bone marrow cancer - in Schuylkill, Luzerne and Carbon Counties, including areas near what was one of the worst toxic-waste dumps in the country. "There's an elevation here," said Steve Dearwent, the agency's chief of health investigations.

Radian Group Inc., a Philadelphia mortgage-insurance provider, said yesterday that its first-quarter earnings had dropped 31 percent, in part because of an operating loss at a partly owned subsidiary that buys distressed home mortgages. Net income at Radian, which in February announced a $4.9 billion merger with MGIC Investment Corp. of Milwaukee, fell to $113.5 million, or $1.42 per share, from $163.7 million, or $1.96 per share, a year earlier. S.A. Ibrahim, chief executive officer, said in a news release that Radian's core business "was not significantly affected by the disruptions in the subprime business in recent months.

Health departments handled a deluge of calls from residents who lost power. Agencies checked on high-risk clients. Hospitals turned to generators. The fierce storms that tore through the region Tuesday night left thousands without electricity through yesterday and sternly tested the emergency response plans of medical institutions and health and aging departments. All in all, the region appeared to pass without problems. "The good news is that the generators worked" at Paoli Hospital, said Frieda Schmidt, a spokeswoman for Main Line Health, which includes Paoli.

When genetic testing confirmed Brenda McCormick had inherited a BRCA1 mutation that virtually guaranteed ovarian cancer, she took her doctors' advice and had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed. Never mind that medical tests showed no signs of cancer, or that the surgery would plunge her into menopause at the age of 42. The disease had ravaged two of her sisters, killing one, and the Newtown graphic artist knew the surgery was her best hope. New research by Fox Chase and 31 other medical centers around the world confirms that this preventive surgery should be recommended to all women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, which cause 5 percent to 10 percent of all breast and ovarian cancers.

Distribution delays in the federally administered flu vaccine program have prompted Camden County to focus only on "high-risk" residents, while Burlington County has been forced to cancel its next three flu vaccination clinics. Camden County received a partial shipment of vaccines and will resume flu shots on Monday for people 65 and older, those ill with a doctor's note, and pregnant women. The program had been suspended Tuesday because of the distribution problems. On Monday, vaccinations will now be available from 9 a.m. to noon Monday at St. Luke's School Hall, 55 Warwick Rd. in Stratford; and from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Lindenwold Municipal Building, 2001 Egg Harbor Rd. Updates on vaccine availability can be found on the county Web site at www.camdencounty.

Mayor Street unveiled a new youth program yesterday with one requirement: You have to be a kid who is likely to kill or be killed. He wants chronic truants, repeat offenders, criminals in the making, ages 10 to 15. He wants the kid everyone in the neighborhood already knows is heading to prison or an early grave. He wants preteens and young teens who are violent, damaged and brutalized, often by their own parents. And he wants to stop them from self-destructing and hurting others.

In a new twist to flu season, New Jersey and Pennsylvania health officials yesterday urged people at highest risk for influenza complications to queue up first for a vaccination this month. Almost everyone else should wait until Oct. 24. The two-phase approach is recommended by the federal government to ensure that the most vulnerable people - generally the elderly, young children, caregivers and those with chronic illness - will be vaccinated this year. The change arose because of shortfalls in vaccine supply in recent seasons, including last year when about half the nation's flu vaccine failed to appear because of quality problems at Chiron Corp.