Health Care Reform Articles - March 14, 2011

March 11, 2011

Charges Against Health Care Executive Raise Broader Issues

By JIM DWYER

We learned this week from a federal bribery case, of all places, that the going rate in 2008 to park a dying person in a hospital bed in Brooklyn was $772.80. That fee was enough to cover hospice care and, if the charges are true, a payoff to a state senator from Brooklyn.

History tells us that quite a few politicians got rich by awarding contracts for the epic public works of the 19th century, and that graft gave New York City the parks, bridges and reservoirs that have defined it for the ages.

Now, we have State Senator Carl Kruger, who, it is charged, was effectively getting rich on nasogastric tubes. Mr. Kruger has pleaded not guilty, and so has David F. Rosen, the hospital executive accused of being involved in the scheme.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/nyregion/12about.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print

arch 12, 2011

Medicaid and the N.Y. Budget: A Bad Deal on Malpractice

When Governor Cuomo and his aides started looking for ways to reduce Medicaid costs, capping malpractice payments was not on their radar. Hospital leaders on the Medicaid Redesign Team pushed the idea hard, justifying it with data supplied by the hospital industry.

The governor has decided to go along, either because he suddenly believes in it or, as we suspect, it’s a price he is willing to pay to get an agreement on Medicaid spending. Whatever the reason, it is the wrong way to go. It will unfairly punish patients badly injured by medical negligence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13sun2.html?pagewanted=print

March 12, 2011

The Happynomics of Life

By ROGER COHEN

London

The Brits don’t go in much for happiness. Stiff upper lip is more the thing, and a good laugh if warranted. Trying to be happy just seems like piffle to a practical people. Undeterred, Prime Minister David Cameron has decided to create a national happiness index providing quarterly measures of how folks feel.

His foray into “happynomics” has prompted a deluge of criticism — “woolly-headed distraction” was a mild commentary — at a time when Brits face a year of cuts in everything from public-sector jobs to child benefits. The consensus seems to be that Cameron is going touchy-feely because in reality he’s wielding an ax.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13cohen.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Waivers at center of health debate By: Sarah Kliff March 14, 2011 04:29 AM EDT

Exceptions may become the rule as the Affordable Care Act heads into its second year. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have approved no fewer than 1,040 requests for so-called mini-med waivers, which would allow companies to cap their annual payouts at a lower level than dictated by the law. And over the next year, many states will seek a reprieve from two of the law’s most wide-reaching provisions: the medical loss ratio, which limits profits and administrative costs by requiring insurers to spend at least 80 percent of subscriber premiums on medical costs; and the maintenance-of-effort provision barring states from dropping Medicaid eligibility before the program’s expansion in 2014. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B1264CF7-EFC9-C409-4E837949652B0CB9 Health care fight: Round 2 By: David Nather and J. Lester Feder March 14, 2011 04:29 AM EDT When President Barack Obama signed health reform into law a year ago, Democrats hoped the public would learn to love it. It hasn’t. “If public opinion was going to shift, it would have shifted. It hasn’t moved a lot in a year,” said Robert Blendon, an expert on health care and public opinion at Harvard University. In fact, the one notable change in recent months isn’t a good sign for Obama — 57 percent of independent voters had an unfavorable view of the law in January, up from 41 percent in December, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B0DBF9DE-DD04-AA23-71BD68E8EF054DBD The 'Obamacare' Gordian knot By: Rep. Steve King March 14, 2011 04:35 AM EDT In 333 B.C., Alexander the Great faced the challenge of untying the enormous and complicated Gordian Knot. Many had tried and, though the reward was a kingdom, all had failed. Alexander drew his sword and slashed the knot in two. The “Alexandrian solution” was born. Alexander received the kingdom of Phrygia, and he went on to spread civilization throughout the known world. Obamacare is today’s Gordian knot. The law was drafted to be incredibly difficult for lawmakers to unravel. When then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), President Barack Obama, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) drafted Obamacare, they quietly included provisions that automatically spend $105.5 billion over the next 10 years to implement the law. Annual congressional appropriations are the regular order of business, yet some automatic funding continues in perpetuity. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=63A09BAC-C752-438D-8BA1-18337D7E1C98 Everyone prospers under health law By: Kathleen Sebelius March 14, 2011 04:30 AM EDT Just 12 months after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act became law, the American people are enjoying new protections, greater freedoms and lower costs. Children are now protected from being turned away by insurers because of a pre-existing condition. Seniors enrolled in Medicare now have the freedom to get preventive care — such as mammograms and colonoscopies — for free. A Patient’s Bill of Rights is freeing families from some of the worst abuses of insurance companies, including canceling coverage when you get sick because of a paperwork error. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B0B5DA49-A983-0100-7FA980ACD228634B Health coverage is freedom By: Sen. Tom Harkin March 14, 2011 04:30 AM EDT One year ago this week, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, ensuring quality, affordable health coverage to all Americans, cracking down on the worst abuses by health insurance companies and placing a new emphasis on wellness and disease prevention. Yet today, there is a misguided effort to repeal the law. The fight to provide access to quality, affordable health care for all has only just begun. The good news is that this time around, the debate dynamics have shifted. As people learn more about the long-overdue reforms in the Affordable Care Act — including benefits and consumer protections now guaranteed by law — support for health care reform is growing steadily. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B0901A39-970A-EB8E-9D311D5B6EC418FD My bill's about policy, not politics By: Sen. Ron Wyden March 14, 2011 04:30 AM EDT Last September, when I sent the Oregon Health Authority a letter suggesting it take advantage of the state waiver provision in the new health reform law, The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial, “Wyden Defects on ObamaCare.” Five months later, when President Barack Obama told governors he wanted to accelerate their ability to take advantage of those waivers, the Journal ran an editorial accusing the White House of “offer[ing] the mirage of state flexibility.” As you can see, the bipartisan Empowering States to Innovate Act, which I introduced last year with Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) to advance states’ ability to make changes to the health reform law, has not lacked attention. But little of that has been about policy. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B0AB7A47-9FE5-FF30-DCC984631016367E Can there be life after the mandate? By: Jennifer Haberkorn March 14, 2011 04:29 AM EDT A year after the health care overhaul’s historic passage amid a volatile political debate, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is still under siege — perhaps even more today than it was then. One of the key building blocks of the legislation, a requirement that nearly all Americans have to purchase health insurance, is turning out to be its Achilles’ heel. Congressional Republicans are trying to repeal the provision, more than half of the states are in court trying to get it stricken from the law, and the public largely doesn’t like it. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B0C7E780-B67E-1950-4130B720443D0DF0