Fact of the Day

For 2009, there are a reported 1,544 pharmaceutical and health products company lobbyists.
Source: Center for Responsive Politics

The Federal Employee Health Benefits program, which contracts with 111 health plans and offers 269 health plan options, covers approximately 8 million federal employees, retirees and their dependents.
Source: Office of Personnel Management

Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly and the disabled, covers 46 million Americans. Medicare spending totaled $455 billion in 2008.

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

In 2008, U.S. health care spending is estimated to have been $2.4 trillion. It is projected to nearly double to $4.4 trillion in 2018.
Source: Health Affairs/Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

There were 2.6 million children who lived with both a grandmother and a grandfather in the U.S. in 2008.

Source: Census Bureau

There were 6.6 million children living with a grandparent in the U.S. in 2008. That’s 9 percent of all children in the country.

Source: Census Bureau

In 2007, 2.5 million grandparents were responsible for most of the basic needs of one or more of the grandchildren living with them.

Source: Census Bureau

The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game took place during the World Fair in Chicago on July 6, 1933.
Source: MLB.com

Maine Gov. John Baldacci has declared August Maine Lobster Month.
Source: Maine Lobster Council

The world’s ocean surface temperature for June 2009 was the warmest on record, surpassing the previous record in 2005. The ocean surface temperature was 1.06 degrees Fahrenheit more than the 20th century average of 61.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Source: NOAA