Only Maine Seeks Waiver From Provision Of Health-Care Law - Maine News, Sports, Obituaries, Weather
Posted Jan. 01, 2011, at 12:29 a.m.
With a significant federal health insurance regulation taking effect Saturday, the fate of Maine’s request for an exemption remains uncertain.
Although several others are expected to follow suit, Maine is the only state so far to have filed for an exemption to an Affordable Care Act regulation that requires health insurance companies to maintain a minimum “medical loss ratio” of 80 percent. That means the companies must spend an average of at least 80 cents of every premium dollar for health care services delivered to policyholders. The remaining 20 cents can be used for operational expenses such as administration and marketing as well as for boosting profits.
New Health-Care Rules To Take Effect
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 31, 2010; 6:01 PM
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 31, 2010; 6:01 PM
The new year will bring important changes to U.S. health-insurance rules, as new provisions related to last year's massive health-care overhaul take effect.
Norman J. Ornstein - 'Death Panels' Are Real -
During the debate over health reform, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Sarah Palin and others railed against the "death panels" that would result from the bill. Government bureaucrats, critics said, would decide who would die and when. The bill passed - and indeed there are death panels. But they do not come from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. "Obamacare." They come from Republican administrations in states such as Arizona and Indiana.
latimes.com
More small businesses are offering health benefits to workers
The increase is partly attributed to a tax credit created by the nation's new healthcare law. Some insurers are aggressively marketing the break, which can offset up to 35% of a company's costs.
By Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times
December 27, 2010
Reporting from Gladstone, Mo.
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The increase, although not universal, has brought new security to thousands of workers, many of whom did not have insurance or were at risk of losing it.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-health-coverage-20101227,0,6897588,print.story
Schwarzenegger Names Susan Kennedy To Top Healthcare Post| PolitiCal
In one of his final acts as governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger will appoint two of his top aides to a powerful new panel that will help negotiate health insurance rates for individuals and small businesses
Maine Voices: Only Washington Has Cure For Fear Of Major Medical Bills
Health care costs are devastating the U.S. middle class in ways not seen in countries that have universal care.
By RICHARD C. DILLIHUNT, M.D.
PORTLAND - Fear is a distressing emotion aroused by an impending danger. This simple four-letter word commands attention in a myriad of daily circumstances in the lives of men. Fear can paralyze any person or nation -- thank goodness FDR saw this coming.
Co-Pay Coupons For Patients, But Higher Bills For Insurers
EXECUTIVES of a small insurance company in Albany were mystified when, almost overnight, its payments for a certain class of antibiotics nearly doubled, threatening to add about a half-million dollars annually in costs.
The reason, it turned out, was that patients were using a card distributed by the maker of an expensive antibiotic used to treat acne, sharply reducing their insurance co-payments. With their out-of-pocket costs much lower, consumers had switched from generic alternatives to the more expensive drug.
Equality, a True Soul Food
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
John Steinbeck observed that “a sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.”
That insight, now confirmed by epidemiological studies, is worth bearing in mind at a time of such polarizing inequality that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans possess a greater collective net worth than the bottom 90 percent.
There’s growing evidence that the toll of our stunning inequality is not just economic but also is a melancholy of the soul. The upshot appears to be high rates of violent crime, high narcotics use, high teenage birthrates and even high rates of heart disease.
To Contain Health Costs, State Should Try A New Way Of Paying
GOVERNOR PATRICK’S promised push for controls on the rising costs of health care couldn’t come at a better time for the state and its economy. While tax collections are finally rising again after a deep drop, increases in Medicaid spending are consuming virtually all the gains. Small businesses still face brutal premium hikes. Families across the state must contend with mounting expenditures for premiums, deductibles, and co-payments. The state is right to trumpet the fact that 98 percent of Bay Staters have health insurance, but now it must find a way to bring outlays under control without sacrificing qualit
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2011/01/02/to_contain_health_costs_state_should_try_a_new_way_of_paying/
Vermont: Creating A Singular Health System
While Massachusetts grapples with its own health costs, the nation’s eyes will be on Vermont as it tries to do ObamaCare one better and switch to a single-payer health insurance system. The newly elected governor, Peter Shumlin, made single-payer a main campaign pledge. Now he has assembled a team of health officials grounded both in the realities of Vermont medical care and the pros and cons of comprehensive health reform.
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