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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Health Care Reform Articles - March 25, 2014

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, VERMONT-NEA POUR MONEY INTO CAMPAIGN FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE IN VERMONT

The nation’s two largest teachers’ unions have officially jumped into the push for publicly financed health care in Vermont.
The American Federation of Teachers gave $100,000 to a newly formed issue advocacy group, Vermont Coalition for Universal Reform, which will work to build broad-based public support for the state’s planned universal health care program and work to ensure its implementation.
Ben Johnson, the president of the Vermont chapter of the AFT, said the group’s membership has long supported universal health care for Vermonters, and is part of a coalition that made health care reform a core issue in the crowded 2010 Democratic gubernatorial primary.
“Our members are largely professional people that have good jobs – jobs that provide health insurance – but they saw the need to work really hard to help bring up the standards for everybody,” Johnson said.
“For the nurses, they see every day what it means not to have good health care, for people to get their primary care in the emergency room or not be able to get the treatment they need,” he said.
Vermont Coalition for Universal Reform, or Vermont CUR, has retained Montpelier lobbying firm KSE Partners to help promote their advocacy work.

Insurance Giant Raises Its Profit Forecast Amid Surging Obamacare Enrollment

By Sy Mukherjee, ThinkProgress
22 March 14

ellPoint, the insurance giant that encompasses the Anthem and Blue Cross Blue Shield brands, has raised its 2014 profit forecast after gaining more than a million new customers largely thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
According to WellPoint CEO Joseph Swedish, the company now expects more than $8.20 per share in net income versus the $8.00 per share it was originally expecting, “driven by growth of 1.0 to 1.3 million net new medical members and mid-single digit percent increases in both operating revenue and operating gain.” Swedish even mentions Obamacare marketplaces specifically as a source of continuing growth.
“While it is early in 2014, we are encouraged by results thus far across our businesses and we believe [Obamacare] Exchanges are tracking our general expectations,” Swedish said in a press release. “As such, we are raising our 2014 earnings outlook… Our updated outlook reflects solid growth in membership, revenue and operating earnings. Our outlook also remains prudent in light of the dynamic nature of the marketplace, and we believe this is a point from which we will grow in the future.”
WellPoint and its subsidiaries are selling policies in 14 states’ Obamacare marketplaces. Swedish has consistently been bullish about Obamacare enrollment — which surpassed five million private health plan signups earlier this week — both for this year and over the coming decade.
“Despite the near-term uncertainty, we believe exchanges will be growing as a big part of the market over time,” said Swedish in a January health care conference sponsored by JP Morgan. “We saw a sizable uptick at the end of December, concurrent with the first enrollment deadline. And we expect a similar bump in March, in front of the second primary enrollment deadline.”
Other insurance executives, including the CEOs of Aetna, Cigna, and west coast insurer Health Net, have expressed a similar sense of optimism.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently revised its projection for first-year private Obamacare enrollment from seven million to six million after Healthcare.gov’s disastrous launch. Thanks to an ongoing enrollment surge this month, the White House may achieve — or even exceed— the six million mark by the March 31 deadline for 2014 coverage.
CBO expects the private state and federal marketplaces to have more than 24 million customers by the end of the decade.

Smoking Stays Stubbornly High Among the Poor

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