Latest Hub Issues & Best Blogs
Listing all issues/blogs by date. Mayo Unit To No Longer Accept Medicare
Ginger Rough
The Arizona Republic, 10/09/09
One of the Mayo Clinic's two family-medicine practices in Arizona soon will stop accepting Medicare, leaving thousands of patients to pay out of pocket for routine doctor's visits or find a new physician. Hospital officials called the new policy a "two-year pilot program" and said Thursday that the changes are necessary because of low Medicare reimbursement rates. Read more... Health Care Speechwriter for Edwards, Obama & Clinton Without Insurance Now
Wendy Button
Politics Daily, 10/08/09
Here's how I lost my insurance: I moved. That's right, I moved from Washington, D.C., back to Massachusetts, a state with universal health care. In D.C., I had a policy with a national company, an HMO, and surprisingly I was very happy with it. I had a fantastic primary care doctor at Georgetown University Hospital. As a self-employed writer, my premium was $225 a month, plus $10 for a dental discount. In Massachusetts, the cost for a similar plan is around $550, give or take a few dollars. Read more... Opting Out of Medicare
The Wall Street Journal, 10/04/09
State governments have tested variants on most of the major components of the health care reform plans currently being considered in Congress, Suderman writes. The results have been dramatically increased premiums in the individual market, spiraling public health care costs, and reduced access to care. For example, health insurance premiums in Massachusetts, which implemented an individual mandate in 2007, have risen significantly faster than the national average. Further, the individual markets in New York, Washington, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont “deteriorated” after the enactment of guaranteed issue. Individual insurance became significantly more expensive and there was no significant decrease in the number of uninsured. Read more... The Lesson of State Health-Care Reforms
Peter Suderman, Reason Magazine
The Wall Street Journal, 10/07/09
State governments have tested variants on most of the major components of the health care reform plans currently being considered in Congress, Suderman writes. The results have been dramatically increased premiums in the individual market, spiraling public health care costs, and reduced access to care. For example, health insurance premiums in Massachusetts, which implemented an individual mandate in 2007, have risen significantly faster than the national average. Further, the individual markets in New York, Washington, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont “deteriorated” after the enactment of guaranteed issue. Individual insurance became significantly more expensive and there was no significant decrease in the number of uninsured. Read more... Applying the Lessons of State Health Reform
Michael Bond
National Center for Policy Analysis, 09/09
Lack of health insurance is a significant, persistent problem in New Jersey, Bond writes. The majority of the uninsured are employees of small firms and individuals who have to obtain coverage on their own. In the market for individually purchased insurance, premium costs in New Jersey are nearly twice the national average and among the highest of any state, Bond writes. New Jersey should reform its system with the successes of states like Florida and South Carolina in mind, while also remembering the lesson from Massachusetts. To significantly reduce the number of uninsured, New Jersey should foster competition and choice, and increase incentives to reduce costs and improve quality in both public and private insurance programs. Read more... The Baucus Bill Grows Big Government
Robert E. Moffit, The Heritage Foundation
Human Events, 10/12/09
The Senate Finance Committee will soon vote on the big Baucus Health Bill. Because there is still no legislative language, tt is a “conceptual” bill. The amendments to the bill, which made some headlines over the past two weeks, are likewise “conceptual” amendments. And, for all practical purposes the “preliminary” CBO score is a thus “conceptual” score. Read more... CBO Underestimates Cost of the Senate Finance Health Bill
Stephen J. Entin
Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation, 10/12/09
The health care reform bills before Congress would raise demand for health care and raise the price of health care. Such a large industry cannot expand without experiencing rising costs as it bids scarce resources away from other uses. The price jump will be high in the short run until the supply of
health care can be increased. Read more... The Senate Finance Health Bill Has No Clothes
Bob Laszewski
Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review, 10/12/09
The Senate Finance bill would do nothing short of blowing up the insurance market. Beginning in 2013, the Senate Finance bill would make uninsured individuals eligible for premium credits to buy a health policy. But those credits would leave these people far short of being able to really afford a health insurance policy. A family of four at 250% of poverty and making $55,000 a year ($52,000 is the median household income in the U.S.) would have to pay about $4,000 toward their premiums and that for a policy with a $1,000 deductible and a maximum of about $7,000 in out-of-pocket costs each year. Read more... Baucus Bill Yeas and Nays
Scott Gottlieb, American Enterprise Institute
The Arena, 10/11/09
While the Baucus health care plan laudably intends to eliminate wasteful Medicare spending, it falls short by giving a poorly equipped and opaque Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wide discretion in determining the quality and value of care being delivered and in implementing payment schemes accordingly. Such tasks should be left to private organizations, consensus groups, and medicine’s professional societies. Read more... North Dakota Scandal Raises Concerns About Health Co-op Route
Karl Vick
The Washington Post, 10/10/09
In an era in which stories of corporate excess have become common, the drama of North Dakota's dominant insurer resonated deeply here, largely because the state's nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield is essentially a cooperative, owned by policyholders. It is an arrangement close to the model promoted by powerful lawmakers as an alternative to the "public option" that would put the federal government in the insurance business. The legislation that the Senate Finance Committee will probably approve Tuesday calls for the creation of health insurance cooperatives in all 50 states and the District. Read more...
Currently displaying page 148 of 167.
<< < 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 > >>
|
