Affordable Health Insurance

Health insurance, fuel costs among top small biz owners burdens

Monday 30 June 2008 at 12:10 pm The rising cost of health insurance, fuel and energy and inflation are the top worries among small business owners, according to a survey done every four years by the National Federation of Independent Business and Wells Fargo.

The new Small Business Problems and Priorities survey shows 42.3 percent of American small business owners rank the cost of natural gas, propane, gasoline, diesel and fuel oil as a "critical" concern. That's up from 26.1 percent on the previous survey conducted in 2004. Both surveys rank the cost of health insurance as the No. 1 issue facing small business owners. (more)

Massachusetts Health Insurance Law poses huge challenge - Costs

Monday 30 June 2008 at 12:07 pm Per USA Today report - Mass. pioneering health plan turns 1

By Julie Appleby, USA TODAY

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Self-employed Patricia Pelletier says she has better health insurance than she did before Massachusetts became the first state to require almost all residents have coverage, but it's costing her more.
The plan she now buys, through a system set up by the state, covers more, she says, but her monthly premium is going up from $422 to $615 in August.

"I almost fell on the floor," says Pelletier, 55, of Newbury. "Costs are getting out of control." (more)

More Americans Delay Health Care - The Wall Street Journal

Friday 27 June 2008 at 2:17 pm Cost Concerns Drive Even the Insured To Forgo Treatment - By SARAH RUBENSTEIN

An increasing array of Americans, many with health insurance, are delaying or forgoing medical care because of concern about cost, according to a report from the Center for Studying Health System Change.

About 20% of the respondents in a 2007 survey of 18,000 people said that they had put off or gone without needed medical treatment at some point in the year earlier, up from 14% in a 2003 survey. (more)

Senate Veterans Affairs Committee approved a measure to improve health care for female veterans

Friday 27 June 2008 at 2:10 pm The News tribune.com reports - Female veterans win a vote
Murray legislation seeks improved health care from federal government

Posted online at 6:07 p.m. Thursday WASHINGTON – The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee approved a measure Thursday to improve health care for female veterans, with the bill's sponsor, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., calling it a first step toward ensuring that their needs are met.

"Planning for the wave of new women veterans is going to be a difficult and complex task, but this bill gets us on the right track," Murray told the committee. (more)

Medicare Advantage plans made $1.14 Billion more profit in 2005

Thursday 26 June 2008 at 11:45 am Per Reuters report on June 25, 2008 - Medicare private plans underestimate profits - GAO

By Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) - Private health plans contracting in the federal Medicare program have underestimated profits, which could inflate government reimbursement, a congressional watchdog group said on Wednesday.

The Government Accountability Office reported that the private plans, known as Medicare Advantage, on average reported spending 85.7 percent of revenue on medical expenses in 2005 but had projected medical expenditures of 90.2 percent of total revenue. (more)

Study found - Southwest US has the highest rate of uninsured

Thursday 26 June 2008 at 11:36 am USA Today reports - Southwest lags in health insurance coverage, CDC says

By Mike Stobbe, AP Medical Writer

ATLANTA — The Southwest has the lowest rate of health insurance coverage in the country, with 30% of non-elderly adults and 18% of children uninsured, according to a government study out Wednesday.
New England — with a rate of uninsured people less than half that of the Southwest — has the largest proportion of its population covered, the study found.

In the six state New England region, 11% of non-elderly adults were uninsured, as were a little under 4% of children. (more)

New AMA president vows to use all of her power to fight for providing care for uninsured

Monday 23 June 2008 at 1:34 pm chicagotribune.com reports - Uninsured patients top priority

New AMA president vows to fight for care

As a graduate student at Catholic University in Washington studying microbiology in the late 1960s, Nancy Nielsen had student health insurance, but the policy excluded family coverage.

So she paid out of pocket for pediatric care for her first three children. (more)

Social Security officials are calling for immediate action to remove Social Security numbers from the Medicare cards

Monday 23 June 2008 at 1:20 pm New York Times Reports - Agency Sees Theft Risk for ID Card in Medicare

WASHINGTON — Social Security officials, concerned about the risk of identity theft, are calling for immediate action to remove Social Security numbers from the Medicare cards used by millions of Americans.

But Medicare officials have resisted the proposal, saying it would be costly and impractical.

In a new report, the inspector general of Social Security, Patrick P. O'arroll Jr., says "mmediate action is needed." (more)

States spending plummets as revenue comes up short

Friday 20 June 2008 at 4:01 pm Spending by states in the coming fiscal year will plummet as revenues continue to come up short and expenses like health care and employee pensions continue to mount, according to a report released Thursday.

The midyear survey of state finances by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers showed state spending nationally will grow by just 1 percent in the fiscal year that begins in most states July 1.

That's down from a 30-year average growth of 6.7 percent. It's also a considerable drop from the current year, which saw spending growth of about 5 percent. (more)

Senate Finance Committee Returns to Bipartisan Discussions on Medicare Physician Pay Patch Bill

Friday 20 June 2008 at 3:57 pm The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday resumed bipartisan discussion on legislation that would curb a 10.6% cut to Medicare physician fees scheduled for July 1, according to a Senate aide, CongressDaily reports (Edney/Bourge, CongressDaily, 6/20). Finance Committee Republicans on Wednesday announced they would offer a pared-down bill to prevent the fee cut after ranking member Chuck Grassley's (R-Iowa) measure (S 3118) failed to receive consideration last week. Meanwhile, Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Wednesday met with House Democratic leadership to discuss options for a Medicare package after his measure (S 3101) failed to receive enough votes for cloture last week (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 6/19). (more)

Gingrich suggests insurance mandate for those who can afford

Monday 16 June 2008 at 2:35 pm OMAHA — Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Wednesday outlined his strategy to combat rising health care costs — a plan of attack that includes insurance mandates for people who earn more than $75,000 a year.

Gingrich called it “fundamentally immoral’’ for a person who can afford insurance to save money by going without, then show up at an emergency room and demand free care. He said those who can afford insurance and choose not to buy it should be required to post bonds to pay for care they may someday need.

Motivating people to watch their health and prevent illness is the first step to cutting costs, Gingrich said. (more)

Study finds Health-insurance buyers lack safeguards

Friday 13 June 2008 at 11:22 am By Maureen Groppe / Star Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- A report by a consumer advocacy group criticizes states for not doing more to protect consumers who buy health insurance through the individual market, rather than through their employers or the government.

Most states, including Indiana, don't require insurance companies to sell policies to all applicants, don't prohibit charging higher premiums based on health status, and don't require insurers to spend at least 75 percent of premium revenues on health care, rather than on marketing, profits and other expenses, according to Families USA. (more)

Study: Consumer protections are lacking in Florida health plans

Friday 13 June 2008 at 11:18 am BY JOHN DORSCHNER
MaiamiHerald.com

Like most other states, Florida offers few basic protections for consumers purchasing health insurance, according to a national report released Thursday.

The report, sponsored by Families USA, a Washington consumer group, found that strong lobbying efforts by the insurance industry have left ``consumers with a patchwork of protections that are inadequate as a whole and that vary greatly from state to state.''

Assisted by such protections, the health maintenance organizations of all large health insurers in Florida are solidly profitable, earning $641.5 million last year, although their overall profit margin is a slender 3.9 percent, according to state data. (more)

Obese people have higher medical expense in their life time

Tuesday 10 June 2008 at 2:17 pm Per USA Today report study finds Obese have heftier medical bills despite shortened lives.

Obese twentysomethings — those who are 30 or more pounds overweight — will have lifetime medical bills that are $5,000 to $21,000 higher than their normal-weight peers.
And extremely obese young adults — 70 or more pounds overweight — will incur $15,000 to $29,000 more in lifetime medical expenditures than their healthy-weight peers, according to a study in the journal Obesity, published in advance online. These numbers take into account a shorter life expectancy for heavy people. (more)

Number of underinsured adults increased by 60%

Tuesday 10 June 2008 at 2:09 pm San fransico Chronicle reports:

The number of adults nationwide who have health insurance but face financial risk due to high out-of-pocket expenses - known as the underinsured - increased 60 percent between 2003 and 2007 to more than 25 million, a study released today found.

Middle- and higher-income families, those with annual incomes of at least $40,000, experienced the sharpest increase among the uninsured, nearly tripling from 4 percent in 2003 to 11 percent in 2007, according to the study by the Commonwealth Fund, which was published online in the journal Health Affairs. (more)

Controversial idea to control health care costs

Monday 09 June 2008 at 6:55 pm Los Angeles Times reports - Health dicisions with an eye to the bottom line.

The savings could be huge, according to lawmakers and researchers, if patients can be pressed into the best, most cost-effective treatments. Of course, that's a big if.

WASHINGTON -- Medical researchers and politicians are tiptoeing into an area of healthcare that makes some Americans uncomfortable, even angry, and it has nothing to do with such hot-button issues as cloning and stem cell research. This time, the controversial idea is to press doctors and patients to use particular drugs and treatments in order to save money. (more)

Proposed bill to increase funding for to Hispanics with Alzheimer's disease

Monday 09 June 2008 at 6:46 pm U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez purposes a bill that would increase funding for research of Latinos suffering from Alzheimer's disease, per Long Beach Press-Telegram report.

The Lakewood Democrat's La CURA, or the "Cure and Understanding through Research for Alzheimer's Act," would emphasize "linguistically and culturally appropriate care."

Sanchez wants to increase Latino participation in clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to better address the aging-related illness. (more)

Study Finds Wide Disparities in Health Care by Race and Region

Friday 06 June 2008 at 12:20 pm According to The New York Times report race and place of residence can have a staggering impact on the course and quality of the medical treatment a patient receives, according to new research showing that blacks with diabetes or vascular disease are nearly five times more likely than whites to have a leg amputated and that women in Mississippi are far less likely to have mammograms than those in Maine.

The study, by researchers at Dartmouth, examined Medicare claims for evidence of racial and geographic disparities and found that on a variety of quality indices, blacks typically were less likely to receive recommended care than whites within a given region. But the most striking disparities were found from place to place. (more)

House Passes FY 2009 Budget Resolution With No Reductions to Medicaid, Medicare

Friday 06 June 2008 at 11:24 am The House on Thursday voted 214-210 to approve a $3.1 trillion fiscal year 2009 budget resolution (S Con Res 70) that includes increases in funds for domestic programs and excludes reductions in funds for Medicare and Medicaid proposed by President Bush, the AP/Kansas City Star reports. The Senate approved the resolution on Wednesday (Taylor, AP/Kansas City Star, 6/6).

The resolution includes $1.013 trillion in discretionary spending (Sanchez, CongressDaily, 6/5). The resolution would provide $21 billion more in discretionary spending than Bush requested. Under the resolution, programs for veterans would receive $3.3 billion more than Bush requested, with most of those funds allocated for health care (Montgomery, Washington Post, 6/6). (more)

The Senate approved a $3.1 trillion election-year Democratic budget blueprint

Thursday 05 June 2008 at 6:22 pm Senate approves budget blueprint
The plan leaves details to future lawmakers. Its estimates on the war and taxes are questionable.
By Andrew Taylor
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Senate yesterday approved a $3.1 trillion election-year Democratic budget blueprint that leaves to the next president the task of sorting out a host of fiscal problems.
The House-Senate compromise, adopted by 48-45, would allow large near-term increases in defense and domestic programs funded by Congress each year, but also leaves wrenching Medicare and other federal benefit decisions to future policymakers. (more)

Health Care Struggles in South L.A.

Thursday 05 June 2008 at 6:11 pm The New Your Times Reports:

LOS ANGELES — The patients line up at 6:30 a.m. outside the tidy clinic. Two hours later, when it opens, they will sit and wait some more.

There are 22-year-olds, holding neat piles of pills on their laps, small children whose mothers try to distract them with plastic rattles, elderly immigrants who sit silently, staring at nothing in particular, until their names are called.

And there are nearly 70 percent more of them walking into the clinic, the St. John's Well Child and Family Center in Compton, since nearby Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital closed last summer. (more)

Which health insurance system do you favor?

Wednesday 04 June 2008 at 2:15 pm There are essentially three ways to knock down the number of uninsured Americans:
.
1. The government can be responsible for insuring Americans between ages 25-65. Think a system like Medicare for all Americans.

2. Businesses should be responsible for covering all their workers.

3. Individuals should be responsible for their own insurance.

Which option do you favor? Why? (more)

Senate Finance Committee Hears Testimony on Health IT, Quality of Care, Medical Liability Laws in Preparation for Major Health System Overhaul Efforts Next Year

Wednesday 04 June 2008 at 2:00 pm Lawmakers should not overstate the ability of health care information technology, quality improvement efforts and medical liability reform to reduce health care costs, Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, testified on Tuesday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing, CQ HealthBeat reports.

During the hearing, Ginsburg said that such proposals "have merit because they have the potential to improve the quality of care" but added that "it's questionable whether the ... impact on costs will be commensurate with the magnitude of the cost problem." (more)

California legislators revive plans to expand healthcare insurance

Tuesday 03 June 2008 at 2:37 pm More than a dozen proposals are moving through the Legislature. Some items were transplanted from a plan backed by Gov. Schwarzenegger last year.
By Jordan Rau, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 3, 2008

SACRAMENTO -- -- The California Legislature is moving to curb some of the health insurance industry's most profitable and contested practices as lawmakers resurrect portions of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's unsuccessful proposal to expand medical coverage. (more)

Health Insurer Lobby Releases Plan To Reduce U.S. Health Care Costs by $145B

Tuesday 03 June 2008 at 2:22 pm Officials from America's Health Insurance Plans have proposed a plan they estimate could reduce U.S. health care spending by $145 billion by 2015, The Politico reports. The group plans to present its findings to congressional committee chairs and ranking members and to hold a policy briefing.

The group's proposals for reducing costs include:

. Creating a system for comparing the cost and effectiveness of treatments;

. Adopting electronic health records, e-visits with physicians and other tools;

. Revamping the medical malpractice system;

. Creating incentives for value-based health care; and

. Improving disease management and prevention programs. (more)

After Caesareans, Some See Higher Insurance Cost

Monday 02 June 2008 at 7:24 pm When the Golden Rule Insurance Company rejected her application for health coverage last year, Peggy Robertson was mystified.

"It made no sense," said Ms. Robertson, 39, who lives in Centennial, Colo. "I'm in perfect health.'

She was turned down because she had given birth by Caesarean section. Having the operation once increases the odds that it will be performed again, and if she became pregnant and needed another Caesarean, Golden Rule did not want to pay for it. A letter from the company explained that if she had been sterilized after the Caesarean, or if she were over 40 and had given birth two or more years before applying, she might have qualified. (more)

Wall Street Journal Examines High-Risk Insurance Pools Proposed by Presumptive Republican Nominee McCain

Monday 02 June 2008 at 7:10 pm The Wall Street Journal on Monday examined a proposal from presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) to "bolster the role of high-risk pools" that market health insurance to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions.

The proposal would replace a tax break for employees who receive health insurance from employers with a refundable tax credit of as much as $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families for the purchase of private coverage. In addition, the proposal would include a federally funded Guaranteed Access Plan, which would seek to establish high-risk health insurance pools to help individuals who cannot obtain private coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions or no previous group coverage. (more)