Sadly, the California Senate Health Committee defeated a ground-breaking proposal to reform the state's health insurance system and extend coverage to millions of uninsured residents. In the end, it was the economic downturn that killed the well-intentioned plan. The state already has a $14.5 billion deficit, so the pprobability that the ambitious proposal would not be self-sustaining was just too risky to bear at this time.

The nation was watching California on this one and the proposal's failure doesn't bode well for health insurance reform at the national level, regardless who gets elected.

If you have a child, you know all too well how often they have upper-respiratory tract and sinus infections. According to recently published studies, commercially available sinus and cold medications are ineffective at best and in some cases even dangerous for use by children.

For treatment of cold symptoms, try using a nasal wash solution made from processed seawater. It can also prevent respiratory infection from coming back.

During the study, 390 children were tested over a period of 6 weeks. The noses of the children in the nasal saline solution group were less stuffy and runny. During the prevention phase, the children in the saline solution group had substantially fewer sore throats, nasal obstructions/secretions, and coughs compared to the children in the standard treatment group who did not receive the saline solution.

The researchers also found that during the prevention phase fewer of the saline group children were using fever-reducing drugs (9% vs. 33%), nasal decongestants (5% vs. 47%), mucus-dissolving medications (10% vs. 37%) or antibiotics (6% vs. 21%). Those in the saline group also experienced fewer days of illness and complications during the same period.

Available nasal wash products include Ocean Premium Saline Nasal Spray and SinuCleanse.

A Harvard Medical School study (published recently in JAMA) found that older individuals got sicker than insured people in a comparable age group. Additionally, the differences in health were quickly reduced when the uninsured individuals became eligible for Medicare at age 65. The study also found that previously insured participants experienced no significant change in their health as they transitioned to Medicare, while participants who previously had little or no prior coverage experienced a significant slowing of the decline of their health once on Medicare.

Group health insurance is too expensive for many small businesses and it's not surprising that almost 70% of the working uninsured are employed by businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

A majority of small business owners (57%) say they will support an individual health insurance mandate - where individuals are required to insure themselves. It stands to reason that small businesses would jump at the chance to get their employees covered by individual plans especially if they wouldn't be required to contribute very much to offset the lack of group coverage.

Presidential candidates Clinton and Edwards, both Democrats, have proposed universal health insurance with individual mandates. Interestingly, small business owners, typically Republican, find at least one of their business interests aligned with the opposition.