Health Care Reform Articles - December 24, 2010

U.S. Proposes Rules On Raising Insurance Premiums

WASHINGTON — In a move to protect consumers, the Obama administration said Tuesday that it would require health insurance companies to disclose and justify any rate increases of 10 percent or more next year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/health/policy/22insure.html?hpw

Hospital Stops Its Recruiting Of Donors

UMass Memorial Health Care on Saturday halted its recruitment of bone marrow donors in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The decision came amid a multistate investigation into the Worcester hospital’s use of models in short skirts and heels in malls and at public events to entice people to be tested for a potential life-saving bone marrow match, and then charging high rates to insurers for testing the DNA samples.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/12/22/hospital_stops_its_recruiting_of_donors/

Checking In With Dr. Robert Kocher On Who Might Stay Uninsured In Spite Of The Individual Mandate

TOPICS: INSURANCE, MARKETPLACE, HEALTH REFORM, UNINSURED

By AMITA PARASHAR, KHN STAFF WRITER

DEC 20, 2010

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Checking-In-With/kocher.aspx

Insurance, California, Children: Major Health Insurers In California To Resume Offering Individual Policies For Children

California's largest health insurers, fearing they'll lose new customers in the state's lucrative individual insurance market, have canceled controversial decisions last fall to stop selling policies for children.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-child-insurance-20101223,0,2941089.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fbusiness+%28L.A.+Times+-+Business%29

Health Means Life; Health Means Freedom

Life and freedom are moral issues.

It is time for Democrats to talk about health in those terms, beyond just policy terms like health insurance reform, bending the cost curve, types of exchanges, etc.

Health means life. If you get a major illness or injury and cannot get it treated adequately, you could die. And tens of thousands do.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/health-means-life-health_b_472469.html?view=print

Untellable Truths | CommonDreams.org

Democrats of all stripes have been so focused on details of policy that they have surrendered public political discourse to conservatives, and with it the key to the nation's future.

Materialist Perspectives

The differences between Democratic progressives and the president over the tax deal the president has made with Republicans is being argued from a materialist perspective. That perspective is real. It matters who gets how much money and how our money is spent.

But what is being ignored is that the answer to material policy questions depends on how Americans understand the issues, that is, on how the issues are realized in the brains of our citizens. Such understanding is what determines political support or lack of it in all its forms, from voting to donations to political pressure to what is said in the media.

What policies are proposed and adopted depend on how Americans understand policy and politics. That understanding depends on communication. And it is in that the Democrats -- both the president and his progressive critics -- have surrendered. The Democrats have left effective communication to the conservatives, who have taken advantage of their superior communications all too well.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/10-0

A Year After Christmas Eve Senate Vote, Health Reform Celebration Seems Premature

It was the ultimate Christmas Eve present for Barack Obama. Around 7 a.m. one year ago today, every Democratic senator in office - 60 in all - voted in favor of enacting comprehensive health care reform. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had leveraged the threat of spending Christmas in the Capitol to force even reticent Democratic senators to support the landmark legislation, close a major chapter of the debateover health care and head home for the holiday.

In a brief press conference after the vote, Democratic Senate leaders lauded each other and celebrated their historic victory. Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which assembled most of the bill, referred to a "finish line." Sen. Chuck Schumer argued that negative rhetoric over the bill had "piqued" and that the legislation would soon become more popular. Obama, before flying to Hawaii for his family Christmas vacation, said, "Let's make 2010 the year we finally reform health care in the United States of America." (See 10 health care reform ads.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599203960900