February 2010
3 posts
Republican holds out hope on health care overhaul
A year after he nearly became President Barack Obama’s commerce secretary, the three-term New Hampshire Republican is reaching out to the White House with a plan to overhaul health care that has some key features in common with the Democratic bills passed by the House and Senate. For instance, it would require everyone over age 18 to get coverage.
But the plan is almost secondary to the...
How Health Overhaul Would Affect The Uninsured
As Democrats have pushed for a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s health system, much of their plans and rhetoric have focused on providing coverage for America’s uninsured.
Although that effort stalled following Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown’s election to the Senate, President Barack Obama reiterated that imperative in his State of the Union address last month....
Obama to propose further Medicaid help for states
The Obama administration will propose giving cash-strapped states about $25 billion worth of help with their Medicaid budgets when presenting its 2011 budget on Monday, a White House official with knowledge of the plan said Friday.
Obama to propose further Medicaid help for states (full article)
January 2010
10 posts
More minority doctors needed to improve health...
Increasing the number of medical professionals from disadvantaged minority groups could help resolve racial disparities in the American health system, a panel of Illinois doctors and professors agreed Monday. There has been no marked increase in African American doctors over the past century, said Harriet Washington, who authored “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation...
Health Reform, the States, & Medicaid
The country needs health care reform, and Congress should move quickly to pass legislation. But as House and Senate leaders work to forge a consensus bill for final approval, they should look for ways to lessen the Medicaid burden on hard-pressed state budgets — and ensure that relief is fairly apportioned.
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Expanding Medicaid in the Health Bill
“Health Reform, the States and Medicaid” (editorial, Jan. 10) explained the value of expanding Medicaid, and rightly called for the House’s higher eligibility limits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/opinion/l18medicaid.html?scp=1&sq=Expanding%20Medicaid%20in%20the%20Health%20Bill%20&st=cse
Married Couples Pay More Than Unmarried Under...
Some married couples would pay thousands of dollars more for the same health insurance coverage as unmarried people living together, under the health insurance overhaul plan pending in Congress. The built-in “marriage penalty” in both House and Senate healthcare bills has received scant attention. But for scores of low-income and middle-income couples, it could mean a hike of...
What Health Care Reform Means for the States
As the battle enters its final stage in Washington, a rebellion is taking shape in the states, which are alarmed about the new financial burdens they will face in a revamped system. Governors of both parties are complaining that reform will drive their budgets into even deeper holes, with some feeling the effects far more than others. But just how much will be riding on the states? Here’s...
24 Health Care Heroes finalists
Twenty-four Cincinnati-area finalists will be honored as Health Care Heroes in March, the Business Courier announced Thursday. Health Care Heroes honors local health care organizations and professionals who have made an impact on health care in the community through their concern for patients, their research and inventions, their management skills, and their service to the poor and...
What ails America’s health care policies?
As a boy, Tom Baker <http://www.law.upenn.edu/cf/faculty/thbaker/> was fascinated with his father’s work as a doctor. But it wasn’t so much the white coat, stethoscope, or relationship Bruce Baker had with the patients in his family practice in upstate New York that captured young Tom’s imagination. “Because of my dad, I was always interested in health insurance,” says Baker, the...
Looking Forward: What Might Change Quickly If...
Several news outlets look at what might happen if health reform legislation passes.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2010/January/06/health-reform-looking-forward.aspx
Low-income women more likely to suffer ill health
Low-income women are four times more likely to suffer from ill health than their higher-income counterparts. They are also nearly twice as likely to admit a condition that limits their basic physical activities, says a report from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Centre for Health Policy Research.
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Program for Children Has Uncertain Future
As Democratic Congressional leaders work to merge the House and Senate versions of major health care legislation, a big question is what they will do about the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which now provides coverage to more than nine million children and pregnant women and is expected to cover more than 14 million by 2013.
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December 2009
70 posts
Unhealthy habits are what's killing us
Health care reform is proceeding toward the president’s desk, likely to become law in the new year. Supporters promise the bill will cut costs and extend coverage. But here’s the real test: What will the trillion-dollar expense of this bill actually buy? Will it improve America’s health? My guess: No. For all the money Americans spend on health care (60 percent more per person...
Former Medicaid Director: Health Care Reform Will...
At its most basic level, health care reform has to do two things: It would get nearly everyone into the system and it would reduce overall costs. But according to former national Medicaid director Sally Richardson, those goals are really the same thing. Richardson was a member of the Clinton administration health care task force and is now the executive director of the WVU Institute for Health...
Poor Face Greater Health Burden Than Smokers or...
This new study published in the December 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, shows that poverty and dropout rates are at least as important a health problem as smoking in the United States. These researchers define “low-income” as household earnings below 200% of the Federal Poverty Line, or roughly the bottom third of the U.S. population…
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Pain before gain in health care overhaul
The costs of health care reform being pushed through Congress by Democrats will be felt long before the benefits. Proposed taxes and fees on upper-income earners, insurers, even tanning parlors, take effect quickly. So would Medicare cuts. Benefits, such as subsidies for lower middle-income households, consumer protections for all, and eliminating the prescription coverage gap for seniors, come...
A Health Care Legislation Explainer for Consumers
With health care reform legislation near a final vote in the Senate, many consumers may be scratching their heads about what the expected reforms may mean for them, especially with a number of differences still existing between the Senate and House bills. To help consumers figure out how their wallets are likely to be impacted, here’s a look at the consumer-facing pieces of the health care...
HEALTH REFORM: Care Gap for College Students
Health reform will provide college students and young graduates with more affordable coverage options. For example:
Dependent Coverage: Young adults will have the option to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until the age of 26 or 27 — regardless of their student status. That option goes into effect in 2010. It doesn’t necessarily help someone in Brittany’s situation,...
Get serious about children’s nutrition
Since the health of the nation and the cost of health care are truly serious concerns, one of the basic foundations to good health is making major improvements in the food we feed our children. This fundamental effort will not cost the health care system billions, but ignoring it will lead to a continuous rise in costs. As parents know, healthy eating from infancy through the school years impacts...
Amid contentious health care issues, there's a lot...
Lots of agreement on many areas of HCR. There are differences on how these policies could be implemented, but “there are overarching ideas that almost everybody (from both parties) agrees with,” said Drew Nannis, an AARP spokesman.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1382075.html
Peaceful Revolution: Throwing the Baby Out with...
Under the current Senate health bill, most of the 7 million children currently covered by the popular and successful Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) would be moved to the new insurance exchanges created by health reform. The result? A recent study by First Focus finds that children moving from CHIP to the exchange plans would dramatically increase out-of-pocket expenses for their...
Poor being turned away from free cancer screenings...
As the economy falters and more people go without health insurance, low-income women in at least 20 states are being turned away or put on long waiting lists for free cancer screenings, according to the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network…
http://www.24medica.com/content/view/1971/73/
Addressing the Primary Care Workforce Crisis for...
Universal coverage and multiple initiatives to improve health care delivery are crucial components of health care reform. However, the missing link has been a plan to rapidly address the primary care workforce crisis for the underserved. The authors propose a link between primary care graduate medical education and care for…
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'Street medicine' docs meet to strategize...
More than 100 physicians and other health professionals gathered in Atlanta last month to refine strategies for treating the most vulnerable of homeless populations: those who live unsheltered in the nooks and crannies of the world’s urban landscapes…
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091214/MODERNPHYSICIAN/312149976
John Conyers vs. Barack Obama
So President Barack Obama now thinks that Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.) is “demeaning” him by calling him out on issues such as health care and job creation, particularly as they impact the black community?
Good.
After the 2008 elections, I wondered how progressive black pols from majority black districts would deal with the President when time came for them to stand up for the...
Drugmakers, Hospitals Fight Changes to Health Bill...
Drugmakers, hospitals and insurers are ramping up their opposition to provisions targeting their industries in health-care legislation as senators try to squeeze more savings out of the companies. The U.S. Senate today may vote on an amendment that would allow…
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aqiYL2RolBYM
Obama taps new allies and tackles age-old...
You could say United States President Barack Obama is living up to the title of his book as his fight to reshape US health care enters its most crucial days. Talk about The Audacity of Hope.
He’s taken on this colossus in the midst of economic calamity, two wars, a heaving national debt, tepid popularity and partisan sniping that makes even incremental change a tough sell in Washington....
Inside Obama's Brain
Is Barack Obama a faux populist? Is he a player of politics-as-usual masquerading as an agent of change? Is he a do-nothing centrist frittering away the hopes of millions? Is he just a flashy front man for the military-industrial complex?
A year ago, these questions would have seemed absurd. A year ago, Obama, coming off a startlingly effective campaign, had just received more votes (in raw...
The cost of falling ill in America
Helping the poor to improve their health enhances the well-being of everyone. Eventually Americans will work that out
The debate over health-care reform has been raging in the United States and it hasn’t been pretty. The Democrats were just able to get a bill through Congress with bipartisan support. Well, not all of the Democrats voted for it, and only one Republican did: that counts as...
A Holiday Reminder on the Economy and Health Care
With so much of the focus on the political dynamics of the health reform debate and a few hot button issues, I wonder if we have lost track of what propelled health care to the top domestic issue in the first place—people’s concerns about paying for health care in the middle of a deep recession. This gave health greater traction as a national issue and brought us our best chance at national health...
Another day, another reform compromise
The year — and this session of Congress — may be nearly over, but it’s never too late for yet another sweeping revision of the health-care reform proposals that have been under consideration for months. Major changes are afoot in the Senate: “A potential deal took shape Monday that could eliminate the public option from the Senate health reform bill, as Democrats…
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Growing existing health programs could be good...
A common question at town hall meetings on health care reform was, “Why not give citizens access to the same insurance that Congress has?”
That’s a promising idea that could become a reality. A group of 10 U.S. senators, including New York’s Chuck Schumer, is looking at that possibility. Even better is that the proposal could win over at least one Republican and Independent Joe Lieberman…
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Health Reform Could Harm Medicaid Patients
Both the House and Senate health-care reform bills call for a large increase in Medicaid—about 18 million more people will begin enrolling in Medicaid under the House bill starting in 2013, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Actuary Richard Foster estimates.
We at Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) endorse efforts to improve the quality and reduce the cost of health care. But we also...
Senate Health Care Reform Unfair, Says Bloomberg,...
Although Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg spoke out earlier this year in favor of federal health care reform, he and Gov. David Paterson are now saying that the current bill being considered by the U.S. Senate is unfair to New Yorkers.
Bloomberg and Paterson calculate that New York would absorb one-sixth of Medicaid cuts nationwide…
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/26225/
Health care reform advocates rally for public...
A group of about 20 health care reform advocates huddled against the cold Tuesday evening to rally support for the public option portion of proposals that have been wending their way through Congress.
Local members of the political action group MoveOn.org said the flames were lit in part to commemorate the 2,547 Americans who each day are forced into bankruptcy directly or in part because of...
Public option offers coverage choice
As a small business owner in Westchester County, I have been directly impacted by the high cost of insurance for self-employed individuals. Due to the current laws, there is only one company that I can use for my insurance, Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and it keeps raising my premiums every few months. I can no longer afford regular insurance and must rely solely on hospitalization only, which...
Reid: Obama’s Silence On Public Option Does Not...
According to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Obama did not touch upon the role a public option would play in health care reform during his meeting with Democratic Senators Sunday.
“That doesn’t mean it’s not an issue just because the president didn’t talk about it,” Reid added…
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Obama Silent On Public Option In Speech To...
As President Obama finished his speech to the Democratic caucus in the Capitol’s Mansfield Room on Sunday afternoon, Joe Lieberman made his way over to Harry Reid.
The independent who still caucuses with Democrats wanted to point something out to the Majority Leader: Obama didn’t mention the public option…
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Team of Ten’s Goal: A Not-Quite-Public Plan
WANTED: A health insurance plan that seems to be government-run but is not actually government-run. Must make voters feel like they are getting the same V.I.P. treatment as United States senators and representatives (who by law are actually not supposed to get any real V.I.P. treatment). Must give beneficiaries a menu of choices while establishing strict standards for the benefits provided and...
The Latest "Public Option" Compromise
More details have emerged from the negotiations that emerged last night. What was reported last night as discussions with Lincoln, Pryor and handful of others has now emerged. Politico is reporting that it’s a group that does include leadership in this debate…
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/6/811366/-The-Latest-Public-Option-Compromise
Snowe Rejoins Dems At Public Option Negotiating...
In a breakthough in Senate negotiations around a public health insurance option, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) sat down with centrist conservative Democrats for the first time Saturday since the bipartisan Gang of Six broke up shortly after returning from the August recess.
Since then, Snowe, the most likely Republican to cross the aisle on health care reform, has…
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Dems Working Furiously Toward Public Option...
A group of 10 Senate Democrats, five moderates and five liberals, are working furiously behind the scenes to craft a compromise on the so-called public option plan, or government-funded and administered health care plan, designed to help the uninsured.
“What’s in the bill is not going to work, so get behind closed doors and work something out,” was the direction Senate Majority...
Public Option for Congress? David Vitter Says Yes.
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) opposes the public option. In fact, he opposes the entire health care reform bill being considered by the Senate. But if both are to become a reality, Vitter says senators should be required to take the medicine they’re prescribing for…
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/12/04/public-option-for-congress-david-vitter-says-yes/
More on the Public Option as Symbol
Over at The Democratic Strategist, PPI Senior Fellow Ed Kilgore responds to my post on the public option. The impetus for my piece was the blogger Digby’s claim that the public option has “long since gone way beyond a policy to become a symbol.”
Ed notes that my post missed something important: that Digby is treating the public option as a symbol largely because that is…
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No Way, No How, to the Public Option
‘About two months ago my wife and I were out with another couple, and they said ‘So, how’s it going?’—and I knew what they meant. I said, ‘I’m doing my own independent thing, but for the first time in five years, I feel out of the crossfire …’ And my wife said, ‘Knowing you, before long you’ll mess up.’” Joe Lieberman laughs a...
Are Unions Letting Go Of The Public Option?
Labor unions have been crucial to advocating for health care reform across the country, including progressive provisions like the public option. But at the end of the debate, there are unconfirmed but potentially troubling signs that they may be more concerned with protecting their own health benefits and eliminating the excise tax on high-end insurance plans rather than trying to pass a bill with...
Should We Laugh? Cry? Both?
The ritual is becoming familiar. Health care reform passes a major political hurdle. And progressives don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Last time, the occasion was a vote in the House of Representatives. Health care reform passed by the slimmest of margins, but not before conservative Democrats had extracted a major concession on abortion rights.
This time, it was a vote in the...
A History of Healthcare Reform
At present the United States has the unenviable distinction of being the only great industrial nation without compulsory health insurance,” the Yale economist Irving Fisher said in a speech in December. December of 1916, that is. More than nine decades ago, Fisher thought that universal health coverage was just around the corner. “Within another six months, it will be a burning question,” he...
A Health Care Reality Check
Senators who are filibustering and throwing sand in the gears to delay health care reform desperately need a reality check. It is ironic to me that members of Congress enjoy some of the best health insurance in the world through our government-administered health care, and yet so many are working overtime to deny quality care to Americans – using scare tactics to claim the “government is going to...