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Health Highlights: Aug. 7, 2008

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

HIV Testing Rates Leveling Off

In 2006, 40.4 percent (71.5 million) of American adults said they had been tested for HIV at some time, a new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis finds..

About 10.4 percent of adults said they were tested for HIV in the preceding year. Of those, 83 percent were tested in a health care setting.

The analysis of National Health Interview Survey data shows that after several years of steady increases in HIV testing, rates leveled off between 2001 and 2006. The analysis was published Thursday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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Early diagnosis of HIV infection is critical and can allow infected people to obtain life-extending medical treatment, the study's authors noted. Since 2006, the CDC has recommended that voluntary HIV screening become a routine part of medical care for all people between the ages of 13 and 64. More than 250,000 HIV-positive Americans don't know they're infected, the agency says.

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Health Premiums Have Doubled Since 1996

Since 1996, health insurance premiums for private-sector employers and their workers have increased more than 100 percent, according to the latest News and Numbers summary from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The analysis of Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data also found that for U.S. employment-based health insurance between 1996 and 2006:

The average cost of a family insurance plan increased from $4,954 to $11,381 a year, while the average cost for a single premium rose from $1,992 to $4,118.
The bulk of the increases were paid for by employers. Their share increased from $3,679 to $8,491 a year for family coverage, and from $1,650 to $3,330 a year for single coverage.
For workers, their share increased from $1,275 to $2,890 a year for family coverage and from $342 to $788 a year for single coverage.

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Remedial Instruction Helps Dyslexic Children