House passes, but Senate rejects DHHS budget — Politics — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine
UGUSTA, Maine — Senate Democrats late Thursday blocked passage of a supplemental budget for the Department of Health and Human Service just hours after their counterparts in the House approved it.The compromise budget bill, LD 1816, cuts approximately $120 million from the current fiscal year DHHS budget through a combination of changes to MaineCare eligibility and shifting funds from various accounts. It also includes an additional several million in savings across state government that were identified by a budget streamlining committee last fall.The House vote was 109-27, well above the two-thirds majority needed for the budget to go into effect immediately.When it came to the Senate, though, only three Democrats voted in favor, leaving the final tally well below the two-thirds threshold.
LePage: Democrats' vote was 'obstruction'
Posted: 11:28 AMUpdated: 9:28 PM
Senate Democrats say they are trying to find an alternative after rejecting a budget plan Thursday.
AUGUSTA - Senate Democrats who voted Thursday night to reject a plan to close a budget shortfall in the Department of Health and Human Services "resorted to obstruction," Gov. Paul LePage said Friday.
Our View: Governor should accept federal help to cut costs
Posted:Today
Updated: 1:25 AM
Maine may be missing out on less harmful ways to cut costs in the MaineCare program.
With all the problems Maine is facing in revising the state budget to account for shortfalls in the Medicaid program, you'd think that the governor's office would take all the help it could get. But that's not the case.
Health and Human Services head offers to help Maine change Medicaid
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, accompanied by Attorney General Eric Holder, gestures during a news conference announcing the new Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program Report, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012, at HHS in Washington.
AUGUSTA, Maine — Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday that she has told Maine Gov. Paul LePage what the state’s options are to change Medicaid and offered to send a team to help the state craft a plan that will pass federal muster.
“We again made it clear to him what was within the state’s discretion,” she said, addressing questions in Washington posed by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a member of the committee. “We volunteered to send a team in to look at their other choices, but we did not have a lot of paper from the Governor about what exactly was the proposal.”
Primary-care doctors critical — but relatively low-paid
Posted Feb. 16, 2012, at 8:41 p.m.
On a chilly afternoon at a community clinic in Washington, three young doctors are busily laying the foundation for the health-care law’s success.
Jacob Edwards flips through a manual on skin conditions, diagnosing a rash that looks like chicken pox. Jessica O’Babatunde consults her supervisor on treating an adolescent’s obesity, which is literally off-the-charts. And Julie Krueger peppers 3-year-old Daphauni with questions at her physical: How do you spell your name? What did you eat for breakfast? What’s your favorite vegetable? (Cheese.)
They are primary-care residents at Children’s National Medical Center. A third of their class has more than $200,000 each in student loan debt. At the end of residency, they can stay in primary care and earn $29.58 an hour. Or they can specialize and make $74.45. Over a lifetime, a medical student who specializes can expect to earn $3.5 million more.
The Obama administration — and, arguably, the American health-care system — desperately needs them to choose primary care.
latimes.com
latimes.com/health/la-me-primarycare-20120219,0,250503.storyFirst-year medical student Hannah Segal sees the same patients and finds herself managing the same ailments during her frequent visits to a community health clinic on downtown Los Angeles' skid row.
It's not the most glamorous or desired duty among her USC classmates, many of whom aspire to prestigious, high-paying medical specialties. But her work on the front lines of patient care has helped Segal find her passion. "I'm always really excited to come here," she said. "I get to really problem-solve over time."
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-primarycare-20120219,0,3657471,print.story
Over 400,000 Mainers extended preventive health services
Posted Feb. 16, 2012, at 8:56 p.m.
The federal health reform law provided more than 400,000 Maine residents with preventive care last year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
About 226,000 Mainers were among 54 million Americans who were able to access at least one new preventive service for free in 2011 through their private health insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act, according to a press release.
Doctor says universal health care plan necessary
Posted Oct. 28, 2009, at 11:31 p.m.
ELLSWORTH, Maine — You can forget about keeping government out of the health care business.
It’s already there, and it’s there to stay.
That was part of the message that Dr. Erik Steele brought Wednesday to the Eggs and Issues forum sponsored by the Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce. Steele is the chief medical officer for Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems and interim CEO at Blue Hill Memorial Hospital. He also writes a regular OpEd column for the Bangor Daily News.
“The federal government already insures between 60 [million] and 70 million people — federal employees, veterans, Medicare and Medicaid recipients,” Steele said. “The biggest insurance company in the country is the U.S. government — that is, you.”
The government may be the only entity that is “powerful enough to drive us all together.”
Health care is going to change, and as costs continue to escalate, people are going to demand that change, he said. Estimates are that by 2020, average Americans will spend half their income on health care.
Shortages of critical prescription drugs hit Maine hard
Troy R. Bennett | BDN
Rhea Sanborn of Eliot stands in the insurance office she ran with her husband before her ovarian cancer came out of remission in November. Now, her cancer medication is in short supply, forcing her to take an alternative drug.
Posted Feb. 17, 2012, at 12:59 p.m.
Rhea Sanborn learned in November that her ovarian cancer had returned for the third time. After the Eliot woman’s oncologist at Maine Medical Center informed her of the devastating diagnosis, he dropped another bombshell.
Supplies of the medication that offered Sanborn the best shot at beating the disease had run out.
“He said the preferred treatment for you at this point in time would be Doxil” combined with another drug, she said. “But the Doxil isn’t available.”
Sanborn was shocked.
“When you find out your options are compromised, you’re surprised,” she said.
About a week ago, Sanborn, a mother to two grown sons, underwent her first chemotherapy treatment for this third round of cancer. She was injected with an alternative drug that’s more toxic, carries additional side effects and must be administered more frequently than Doxil.
By Richard (RJ) Eskow, Campaign for America\'s Future
There's a new "Medicare" proposal - sorta. It's really the same old bait-and-switch we've seen a dozen times. Still, you gotta hand it to 'em: Republican Sens. Tom Coburn and Richard Burr have taken the usual right-wing think-tank-designed buzzwords, deceptive packaging, and sleights of hand, and have taken them to new heights.
These foundation-forged assaults on the middle class may be old, battered ideas that have been debunked a dozen times, but still they just won't die. Like the old Terminators, they keep coming back with the same mission: Must. Kill. Medicare.
Coburn and Burr don't even pretend to show how their anti-Medicare plan - excuse me, "choice" plan - will save money. They just say this:
We do not yet have a concrete, specific amount of "savings" outlined, but we believe our proposal could save between $200 billion and $500 billion over a decade.http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/794275/10_big_lies_%28and_a_free-market_%22death_panel%22%29_driving_the_gop%27s_plan_to_destroy_medicare/#paragraph3
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