The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported on December 18 that autism disorders increased 57 percent in only four years. At the end of 2006, data indicated that one in 110 American children had an autism disorder that was diagnosed by the time the child was eight years old.

On November 30, the U.S. Senate began debating legislation that would change America’s healthcare system by giving government even greater control. The increased role for government is being posited as necessary to provide healthcare to millions of uninsured Americans.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll showed that nearly half of parents don’t plan on having their children vaccinated for the H1N1 swine flu. More than half of those who do plan to vaccinate are encountering supply problems.

Back in 2006, little Chloe Levine was born as the apparently healthy baby girl her parents had been waiting for. Sadly, before her first birthday, Chloe began to show signs of what turned out to be cerebral palsy. Only the fact that her parents had banked her umbilical cord blood — replete with stem cells — eventually saved Chloe.

AARP, the 40-million-member senior-citizen lobbying group, and the American Medical Association, representing 250,000 physicians, on November 5 threw their support behind the healthcare reform bill being proposed by House Democrats.

Senate Democrats are once again looking at the option of taxing those with higher incomes to fund healthcare reform, the Wall Street Journal wrote on September 4.

“Mexicare: $250 a year covers it all” declared the Arizona Republic website headline on August 29. The Mexican Social Security Institute, known as IMSS, provides healthcare with no limits and no deductibles for $250 or less per year, and American seniors are heading south of the border to take advantage while it lasts.

The Veterans Affairs Department has mistakenly told some veterans that they have ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, the Associated Press reported on August 24. This is no small misdiagnosis; the disease is usually fatal within five years.

Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) thinks there is no reason to push healthcare reform through Congress in the midst of a recession, Fox News reported on August 23.

In 2007, U.S. life expectancy reached an all-time high of 77.9 years, up from 77.7 in 2006. The National Center for Health Statistics compiled the data based on almost 90 percent of the death certificates filed in the United States.