Health Care Reform Articles - August 5, 2011

Deal could endanger health care law By: Jennifer Haberkorn August 3, 2011 11:28 PM EDT

The debt ceiling agreement could jeopardize millions of dollars, and perhaps billions, in initiatives from President Barack Obama’s health care reform law if the super committee can’t come up with required spending cuts. Many of the pots of money in the law — one of the Democrats’ most prized pieces of legislation — could get trimmed by the debt deal’s sequestration, or triggered cuts. The funds for prevention programs and community health centers, grants to help states set up insurance exchanges and co-ops, and money to help states review insurance rates could be slashed across the board if the panel can’t find enough cuts this fall. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=9B88922F-241B-49AE-B4AE-49F021BBBF04

latimes.com

Debt ceiling deal ignores real driver of deficits: healthcare costs

Participants in the debt ceiling debate placed the spotlight on programs with a barely measurable impact on the deficit and put off to the indefinite future the things that really matter.

Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times
7:56 PM PDT, August 2, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/health/healthcare/la-fi-hiltzik-20110803,0,2472202,print.column

Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review

A Health Care Blog––Bob Laszewski's review of the latest developments in federal health policy and marketplace activities in the health care financing business.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2011

Rethinking the Value of Medical Services

by Brian Klepper and David Kibbe

One of American politics’ most disingenuous conceits is that health care must cost what we currently pay. Another is that the only way to make it cost less is to deny care. It has been in industry executives’ financial interests to perpetuate these myths, but most will acknowledge privately that the way we value and pay for medical services is a deep root of America’s health care cost explosion.

http://healthpolicyandmarket.blogspot.com/

Medicare gives state hospitals $275m lift

Other regions rip change in rules

By Liz Kowalczyk

Globe Staff / August 5, 2011

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/08/05/medicare_gives_massachusetts_hospitals_275_million_lift/?page=full