OpEdNews - Article: Healthcare Reform
Michael Collins
Before it ever arrived at the president's desk for signature, the health reform act contained a fatal poison pill.
Before it ever arrived at the president's desk for signature, the health reform act contained a fatal poison pill.
The most creative sector of the business community has a dagger at its heart in the form of the relentless, unyielding, and over burdening cost of health insurance. The self-employed and very small businesses have seen their insurance premiums climb 20% to 75% since 2009. To purchase an adequate family plan, a self-employed person will pays an amount 50% to 70% of the nation's median personal income, $32,000 a year, for family health plan. This includes premiums, deductibles, and out of pocket expenses. That is twice the cost for relatively generous plans at medium to large size companies. Very small businesses, two to twenty employees, pay about the same
Harvard Pilgrim, Tufts Say Merger Would Cut Health Costs
The leaders of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan said yesterday joining forces will give them the scale to expand across New England and beyond at a time when sweeping changes in the health care industry demand larger and more competitive players.
Insurers’ Merger Proposal Raises Thorny Issues
Consumers and employers, who share the cost of health insurance, were uncertain yesterday whether they would be better off if the state’s second- and third-largest insurers merge.
The bargaining clout of a larger company could help it negotiate better prices from hospitals, but one less major insurer might also mean consumers would have less choice and end up paying more, said officials of leading consumer and business groups.
Michael Hiltzik: Regulators Have Little Power To Stop Health Insurance Rate Increases
Big, powerful industries facing tougher government oversight — the health insurance industry, say — know that the legislative battle in Congress or state capitals is just the first skirmish.
The more important fight is over the regulations that implement legislative policies. That's the point where laws with teeth in them are taken to the dentist to get them pulled.
Moving Backward On Health - Bangor Daily News
1/23/11 05:56 pm Updated: 1/23/11 05:57 pm On the very same day, the new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to repeal the new health care reform law and the new Maine Republican attorney general joined other states in a lawsuit attacking the law’s constitutionality. Although the two actions have no immediate effect, they have triggered legislative and judicial struggles that will last for the next two years or more. Both were a disservice to the nation, to the economy and to the people of Maine. Hospitals, Poor Patients Face New CostsPayments to hospitals and other health care providers would be slashed and low-income patients served by Medicaid would have to pay higher copayments under the spending plan Governor Deval Patrick proposed yesterday for the next budget year. But the biggest savings in the $10 billion program that serves 1.2 million residents would come from revising and rebidding Medicaid contracts to encourage health care providers to work together to drive down costs. Officials Cite ‘Distressing’ Rise In DiabetesWASHINGTON — The number of Americans who have type 2 diabetes has risen to nearly 26 million, federal officials announced yesterday. In addition, about 79 million US adults have prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prediabetes raises the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Detailed Human Rights Standards for Healthcare Systemshttp://www.workerscenter.org/assessment
Doctors Were Big Spenders On Health Lobbying In 2010 : ShotsThe health care battles didn't end for doctors with the passage of the federal health law last year, and their lobbying shows it. | ||||||
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