Health Care Reform Articles - May 2, 2011

May 1, 2011

Proposal for Medicare Is Unlike Federal Employee Plan

By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — House Republicans say their budget proposal would make Medicare work just like thehealth insurance that covers federal employees, including members of Congress. But a close examination shows the two plans are very different, and the differences help explain why the Republican plan has set off a political uproar.

Under the federal employees’ health plan, which covers eight million people, the government pays a fixed share of premiums. So the federal contribution generally keeps pace with rising premiums, which in turn reflect rising health costs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/health/policy/02medicare.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print

May 1, 2011

What Happens in Brooklyn When You Try to Cut Medicare

By DAVID FIRESTONE

Only one Republican represents New York City in Congress, and even in his 13th Congressional District, which includes Staten Island and a small southwest corner of Brooklyn, it’s a high-wire act. You can talk all you want about the need to cut federal spending and taxes when you’re in the Staten Island part of the district, but try that after crossing the Verrazano Bridge, and you’re going to need some protection.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/opinion/02mon4.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

May 1, 2011

The Push to Enact Medicare Reform

To the Editor:

“A Real Choice on Medicare” (editorial, April 24) states that the Republican plan to privatize Medicare is premised “mainly on the idea that costs will come down because of competition among private plans and more judicious use of health care by patients who are forced to pay more.” If so, the Republicans have much to explain.

Why on earth would health insurers compete for the business of people older than 65, the very population group with the greatest health risks, representing potentially huge “losses,” in insurance parlance, for chronic and acute care? The furious efforts of health insurers to deny claims, often falsely and dishonorably, for the under-65 population leave no doubt of their lack of interest in subscribers with even greater risks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/opinion/l02medicare.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

DRUG REPS AND DOCTORS | GLOBE EDITORIAL

Feeding a conflict of interest

May 2, 2011

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A THREE-year-old state law forbidding gifts from drug companies to doctors seems to be cutting into business at high-end local restaurants. If the Legislature repeals the law, and brings back those now-banned dinners where drug reps touted their products over lobster and chardonnay, the prescription-buying public will end up eating the cost in more ways than one.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2011/05/02/feeding_a_conflict_of_interest/

Drug shortages bedevil patients

Some hospitals turn to rationing

By Rob Stein

Washington Post / May 2, 2011

http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2011/05/02/drug_shortages_bedevil_patients/