For the first time in eight years, Medicare premiums are going to remain unchanged for 2009. What is the reason for the sudden change? Well, due to a hospice payments accounting error, there is a surplus of capital available and therefore premiums are not going up, however with health care costs consistently outpacing inflation, it seems as if this move is more of a political maneuver rather than simply accounting for long-term costs.

After enjoying a steady decline in health care cost trends over the past eight years, U.S. companies have seen average rate increases settle in around 6 percent to 7 percent, according to Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing company. In 2008, average health care costs increased 6.0 percent, up from 5.3 percent in 2007. Hewitt is projecting a 6.4 percent average increase for employers in 2009.

A single cell can repopulate damaged skeletal muscle in mice, say scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine, who devised a way to track the cell’s fate in living animals. The research is the first to confirm that so-called satellite cells encircling muscle fibers harbor an elusive muscle stem cell.