Check out this Lawrence O"Donnell clip about Medicare-For-All vs. PPACA. You'll have to get through a 30 second commercial first.
DeLeo’s success with health reform
IT’S A battle some doubted would ever be waged, let alone won.
But now, municipal health reform, which lets cities and towns bring local health care plans into line with state offerings, is paying big dividends.
All told, first-year savings attributable to the reform, which passed in July, should easily exceed $100 million, says the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. Health plan changes put in place in nine cities and towns since the reform was enacted are projected to save $30 million, some of which will be shared with local employees. Add in savings negotiated in another dozen once it became clear the issue was finally on Beacon Hill’s agenda - concessions catalyzed by impending reform, in other words — and the tally of estimated first year results grows by another $30 million.
Health Care Payers Push Back Against Costs
By UWE E. REINHARDTUwe E. Reinhardt is an economics professor at Princeton. He has some financial interests in the health care field.
In a paper, “Divide et Impera: Protecting the Growth of Health Care Incomes (Costs),” published this month in the British journalHealth Economics, I summarize themes touched on here and there in several earlier posts on this blog.
My argument in the paper is that what is often called overuse of health care by what are often described as excessively insured Americans — especially their use of high-cost, high-tech procedures — is at best a partial explanation for the high cost of American health care.
Yet cost-containment initiatives like high deductibles and co-insurance have taken use of health care as their chief target. These efforts will be only partly successful in controlling national health spending.
Equally important contributors to our high health spending, and probably more so, have been two other factors.
Lawmakers reach deal on DHHS budget
AUGUSTA, Maine — Lawmakers reached an early morning deal Wednesday on an alternative budget proposal for the Department of Health and Human Services — a move that likely will send the budget to the House and Senate for votes next week.
Members of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee came to an agreement on two controversial items that had stalled the process in recent days.
As part of a bipartisan compromise, the budget proposal caps MaineCare funding for childless adults, or non-categoricals, at $40 million by freezing enrollment and through natural attrition.
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/08/politics/lawmakers-reach-deal-on-dhhs-budget/
Our View: More than money behind MaineCare cuts
Posted: February 8Updated: Today at 7:42 AM
The governor's latest outburst shows this is about welfare policy, not balancing the budget.
We should thank Gov. Paul LePage for finally setting the record straight. His proposal to fill a $221 million shortfall in the Department of Health and Human Services budget is not an attempt to balance the books or preserve the social safety net for people who really need it.
http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/more-than-money-behind-mainecare-cuts_2012-02-08.html
Survey shows where doctors shade the truth
Most physicians paint overly optimistic prognoses for their patients, and many have told lies or withheld information concerning their medical mistakes and financial relationships with drug companies and device manufacturers, according to a national survey conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital.The 2009 survey of nearly 1,900 doctors, published yesterday in the journal Health Affairs, shows that many doctors do not adhere to the standards of medical societies and accreditation groups, which have long required doctors to be open and honest with their patients.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/02/08/doctors-often-lie-patients-and-hide-mistakes-survey-reveals/9ks09asGrDp5cMxL3zKc4O/story.html
What a healthcare-for-all system could look like
In a five-part series provided by nonprofit, donor-funded Colorado Public News, investigative journalists examine how Grand Junction, Colo., has emerged as a model of low-cost, high-quality, near-universal healthcare.http://www.latimes.com/news/health/grandjunction/la-he-grand-junction-healthcare-intro,0,6905836.story
Health providers gird for DHHS cuts under compromise deal
Posted Feb. 08, 2012, at 6:05 p.m.
Lawmakers may have reached a bipartisan deal to close a budget gap at the Department of Health and Human Services, but health care providers are still bracing for deep cuts.
Members of the Legislature’s budget committee pushed back against Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to drop coverage and tighten eligibility for some MaineCare beneficiaries, but left intact cuts to reimbursement rates for hospitals. Under the deal passed unanimously early Wednesday morning, hospitals will lose $10.1 million over the next two years on services they provide to MaineCare patients.
Hospitals also face a second hit from cuts outlined by a streamlining task force, which called for another $3.1 million drop in reimbursements.
The federal government kicks in roughly $2 for every $1 the state spends on MaineCare, the state’s version of Medicaid. So the proposed cuts for hospitals mean a loss of nearly $40 million in state and federal monies combined.
“It’s going to be a challenge to meet these cuts,” said Jeff Austin, a lobbyist for the Maine Hospital Association.
Baby survives, problems remain
Mainers from all economic classes should be grateful to the legislators who toiled for untold hours and summoned a spirit of public service and compromise for a greater good to reach adeal on the Health and Human Services budget.There’s no telling how Gov. Paul LePage will respond; if he is wise, he will thank legislators for their work. If he is convinced that structural problems remain in the department’s budget, he must work to explain them to legislators and the public and craft a plan to fix them.
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/08/opinion/editorials/baby-survives-problems-remain/print/
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