Insurer to Forgo Rate Rise
By REED ABELSON
Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit insurer, on Wednesday withdrew its request to seek higher rates this year for individual policies amid stiff criticism from regulators and consumers.
Some people would have experienced rate increases as high as 87 percent if Blue Shield had gone ahead with all of its planned increases. Blue Shield’s retreat echoed moves last year by WellPoint, the large commercial insurer whose proposed premium increases were met with stiff resistance that spread across the country and even evoked denunciations from President Obama.
UMass medical school chancellor gets pay increase of nearly 12%
WORCESTER — While facing a $54 million budget shortfall for next fiscal year, the University of Massachusetts last month hiked the salary of medical school chancellor Michael F. Collins by more than $60,000 a year, almost a 12 percent raise.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2011/03/17/umass_medical_school_chancellor_gets_pay_increase_of_nearly_12/
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2011/03/17/umass_medical_school_chancellor_gets_pay_increase_of_nearly_12/
Orrin Hatch: Health law can't be fixed | |
Sen. Orrin Hatch says there are too many problems with the health care law to fix it, and he doesn’t rule out an all-out push to repeal or defund the law — as House Republicans want — even if that means defeating a long-term spending agreement to fund the government for the rest of the year. The Utah Republican, who became the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee this year, has taken the lead in the Senate on GOP efforts to repeal the law. He thinks the courts will effectively strike down the law by declaring the individual mandate unconstitutional. But until there’s a ruling from the Supreme Court, Hatch won’t argue with the strategy of Iowa Rep. Steve King and other House Republicans to push for a cutoff of all funding for the law, even if it leads to a government shutdown. PERSPECTIVEState-Based, Single-Payer Health Care — A Solution for the United States?NEJM | March 16, 2011 | Topics: Insurance Coverage William C. Hsiao, Ph.D. The United States faces two major problems in the health care arena: the swelling ranks of the uninsured and soaring costs. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) makes great strides in addressing the former problem but offers only modest pilot efforts to address the latter. Experience in countries such as Taiwan and Canada shows that single-payer health care systems can achieve universal coverage and control inflation of health care costs. Because of strong political opposition, however, the U.S. Congress never seriously considered a single-payer approach during the recent reform debate. Now Vermont, wishing to solve the intertwined problems of costs and access through systemic reform, is turning in that direction. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin campaigned on a platform of single-payer health care, and Democratic legislative leaders are committed to this approach. |
Unhealthy, Unemployed, Uninsured: 52 Million Americans Without In 2010
Sy Kraft, Medical News Today, Mar 16, 2011
The problem of the uninsured in the United States
has been getting worse. During 2010, some 52
million Americans went without health insurance,
compared to 38 million in 2001. Seventy five
million Americans skipped doctor visits all
together, along with prescriptions and
recommended tests or treatments in 2010 because
of costs. That's up from 47 million in 2001.
Among people with insurance who have had high
deductibles, 31% percent skipped care due to cost.
http://groups.google.com/group/equal-list/browse_thread/thread/0c40a0064abd15fc#
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