Romney Says Obama’s Health Care Law Should Be Repealed
By JIM RUTENBERG
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Mitt Romney came to Michigan on Thursday to tackle the single biggest liability in the early stages of his Republican presidential bid — the health care overhaul he enacted as the Massachusetts governor five years ago — by calling for a repeal of the national health care law President Obama signed last year.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/us/politics/13romney.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print
Reforms Prod Insurers to Diversify
By AVERY JOHNSON
Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2011
Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2011
Major U.S. health insurers, including Aetna Inc., Humana Inc. and WellPoint Inc., are retooling to become more than just health plans, in the wake of the federal health-care overhaul that is changing the rules for the industry's core business.
Diversification plans, touted in meetings with investors this year, include stepped up acquisitions and partnerships that will allow the companies to employ doctors directly, deliver health-information technologies, and participate in new hospital-doctor groups known as accountable-care organizations.
Romney says he stands by Mass. law
Offers a plan enabling states on health care
Medicare could run out of money sooner than previously predicted
Medicare's largest trust fund would run out of money in 2024 without action to shore it up, the government predicts.
Would Privatizing Medicare Lead to Better Cost Controls?
By UWE E. REINHARDTUwe E. Reinhardt is an economics professor at Princeton. He has some financial interests in the health care field.
The annual Milliman Medical Index, released earlier this week by Milliman Inc., the Seattle-based employee-benefit consulting and actuarial company, is illuminating, and I highly recommend it. The index is particularly timely as the nation considers proposals to reduce sharply the role of the federal government in financing health care, along the lines proposed by Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the House Budget Committee.
The index measures the total cost of health care for a typical American family of four covered by a preferred provider plan, widely known as a P.P.O.The index’s great virtue is that it includes not only the employer’s and employee’s contributions to the premium for P.P.O. coverage but also the out-of-pocket expenses the family has under the plan.
Employers can control the growth of health insurance premiums by shifting more and more of the cost from the insurance policy to the family’s budget, through higher deductibles and coinsurance or by excluding benefits from coverage that had previously been covered.
Thus, the index provides a more accurate picture of the actual burden of health spending for a typical American family than does just the premium for P.P.O. coverage.
Insurance reform bill headed for approval
The Senate prepares for a final vote to add free-market provisions after Democrats accuse the GOP of rushing the changes through the Legislature.
AUGUSTA - The Maine Senate was poised late Thursday to pass a bill that would achieve a longtime goal of Republicans: inject free-market reforms into the state's health insurance market and dismantle regulations that were largely established by Democrats over the last 20 years.
http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?expire=&title=Insurance+reform+bill+headed+for+approval&urlID=452811237&action=cpt&partnerID=561087&cid=121754468&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pressherald.com%2Fnews%2Finsurance-reform-bill-headed-for-approval_2011-05-13.html
Our View: LePage's MaineCare cuts go too deepBalancing a budget on the backs of people in need is not responsible government.Gov. LePage ran on a promise to reform welfare and end a culture of dependency among people who receive state services. If he has a plan to do that, we haven't seen it. http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?expire=&title=Our+View%3A+LePage%27s+MaineCare+cuts+go+too+deep+%7C+The+Portland+Press+Herald+%2F+Maine+Sunday+Telegram&urlID=452823747&action=cpt&partnerID=606837&cid=121742899&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pressherald.com%2Fopinion%2Feditorials%2Flepages-mainecare-cuts-go-too-deep_2011-05-13.html |
House chairman gives resignation after health insurance fracas
Posted May 13, 2011, at 5:57 p.m.
AUGUSTA, Maine — State lawmakers were assessing the political damage Friday from a late-night blowup over health care reform that prompted the Republican chairman of the powerful budget committee to submit his resignation and has left Democrats fuming.
Rep. Patrick Flood, R-Winthrop, submitted a letter of resignation to House Speaker Robert Nutting, R-Oakland, hours after a contentious meeting in which Democrats accused GOP leaders of attempting to ramrod a major policy issue through the Legislature and warned that the political moves could endanger the entire budget-writing process.
No comments:
Post a Comment