Women in Texas Losing Options for Health Care in Abortion Fight
By PAM BELLUCK and EMILY RAMSHAW
Leticia Parra, a mother of five scraping by on income from her husband’s sporadic construction jobs, relied on the Planned Parenthood clinic in San Carlos, an impoverished town in South Texas, for breast cancer screenings, free birth control pills and pap smears for cervical cancer.
But the clinic closed in October, along with more than a dozen others in the state, after financing for women’s health was slashed by two-thirds by the Republican-controlled Legislature.
The cuts, which left many low-income women with inconvenient or costly options, grew out of the effort to eliminate state support for Planned Parenthood. Although the cuts also forced clinics that were not affiliated with the agency to close — and none of them, even the ones run by Planned Parenthood, performed abortions — supporters of the cutbacks said they were motivated by the fight againstabortion.
Now, the same sentiment is likely to lead to a shutdown next week of another significant source of reproductive health care: the Medicaid Women’s Health Program, which serves 130,000 women with grants to many clinics, including those run by Planned Parenthood. Gov. Rick Perry and Republican lawmakers have said they would forgo the $35 million in federal money that finances the women’s health program in order to keep Planned Parenthood from getting any of it.
OAN VENNOCHI
Taking measure of health and wealth
NN ROMNEY doesn’t consider herself wealthy. Because she suffers from multiple sclerosis, she counts her riches differently, she told a recent interviewer. She measures them “by the friends I have and the loved ones I have.’’
As she knows, illness is the great equalizer, since it strikes without regard for net worth. But it can also be the great divider, in terms of access to health care. That’s what health care reform is aimed at changing and what her husband once championed.
Under Governor Mitt Romney’s leadership, Massachusetts passed a law that equalizes health care access for rich and poor. Yet as he gets closer to securing the Republican presidential nomination, Romney fervently pledges to repeal national health care reform. With that pledge, he’s also promising to deny millions of average Americans the same access to medical care his wife has, simply because she married a man who came to be worth $250 million.
Healthcare costs to dominate IATSE and AMPTP contract talks
The largest union representing Hollywood's technical workers has begun contract negotiations with the major studios amid concerns that rising healthcare costs could lead to cuts in health and pension benefits for below-the-line crew members.Hospitals already making big changes ahead of healthcare reforms
Much of the healthcare reform law doesn’t take effect for nearly two years, but hospital executives say they literally cannot afford to wait. The video above helps explain why.
Throughout California, hospitals are cutting costs and trying to avoid duplication in anticipation of unprecedented changes that will affect their bottom line. Those changes, most driven by the healthcare law, are forcing hospital executives into new partnerships with doctors and and a new way of thinking about care.
Healthcare reforms will mandate more treatment in doctors' offices and clinics. The changes take effect in 2014, but some California institutions are trying to get an early start.
Emergency room physician Philip Schwarzman, left, examines patient John O'Brien at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. To survive the unprecedented challenges coming with federal healthcare reform, California hospitals are upending their bedrock financial model: They are trying to keep some patients out of their beds. (Katie Falkenberg, For The Times / February 23, 2012)To survive the unprecedented challenges coming with federalhealthcare reform, California hospitals are upending their bedrock financial model: They are trying to keep some patients out of their beds.
Financial Burden of Medical Care: Early Release of Estimates From
the National Health Interview Survey, January–June 2011
by Robin A. Cohen, Ph.D.; Renee M. Gindi, Ph.D.; and Whitney K. Kirzinger, M.P.H., Division of Health Interview Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/financial_burden_of_medical_care_032012.pdf
The Associated Press
CONCORD, N.H. — The Republican-dominated House has voted to bar New Hampshire officials from planning, creating or participating in a state health care exchange.
Bill sponsor Rep. Andrew Manuse said even a state health care exchange would be federally controlled, and the bill would help force Congress to repeal the federal health care law.
AUGUSTA - Maine will likely have to repay the federal government for covering Medicaid claims for as many as 19,000 ineligible patients in the past year and a half, Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew said Wednesday.
Updated: 12:05 AM
For the past three months, the LePage administration has been clear on two things: the size of the shortfall in theDepartment of Health and Human Services budget and its cause -- overly generous eligibility standards for the state's low income health care safety net.
Now, it can't be sure of either. Tuesday, DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew announced that a computer glitch resulted in 19,000 ineligible people remaining on theMaineCare rolls, which means a still-unknown part of the shortfall is the result of mismanagement, not program design.
http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/computer-glitch-adds-to-dhhs-credibility-deficit_2012-03-08.html
the National Health Interview Survey, January–June 2011
by Robin A. Cohen, Ph.D.; Renee M. Gindi, Ph.D.; and Whitney K. Kirzinger, M.P.H., Division of Health Interview Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/financial_burden_of_medical_care_032012.pdf
Bill prohibits NH from creating health exchange
12:04 PMThe Associated Press
CONCORD, N.H. — The Republican-dominated House has voted to bar New Hampshire officials from planning, creating or participating in a state health care exchange.
Bill sponsor Rep. Andrew Manuse said even a state health care exchange would be federally controlled, and the bill would help force Congress to repeal the federal health care law.
Improper Medicaid payments revealed
Yesterday at 11:45 PMA computer glitch allowed coverage for as many as 19,000 ineligible Mainers; now the state's on the hook.
AUGUSTA - Maine will likely have to repay the federal government for covering Medicaid claims for as many as 19,000 ineligible patients in the past year and a half, Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew said Wednesday.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/Maine-likely-must-repay-government-for-ineligible-Medicaid-claims-.html
Maine may need to repay federal money after computer error, DHHS commissioner says
AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine is likely on the hook to refund the federal government for erroneously providing Medicaid benefits to roughly 19,000 people, according to Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew.
“We will have to deal with the federal Medicaid program,” she said Wednesday. “We are scheduling a briefing. I would assume there will be an audit.”
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/03/07/health/maine-may-need-to-repay-federal-money-after-computer-error-dhhs-commissioner-says/
Our View: Computer glitch adds to DHHS credibility deficit
Posted:TodayUpdated: 12:05 AM
The administration failed to target the size and the cause of the MaineCare budget shortfall.
For the past three months, the LePage administration has been clear on two things: the size of the shortfall in theDepartment of Health and Human Services budget and its cause -- overly generous eligibility standards for the state's low income health care safety net.
Now, it can't be sure of either. Tuesday, DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew announced that a computer glitch resulted in 19,000 ineligible people remaining on theMaineCare rolls, which means a still-unknown part of the shortfall is the result of mismanagement, not program design.
http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/computer-glitch-adds-to-dhhs-credibility-deficit_2012-03-08.html
The Green Party urges the Supreme Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act's health insurance mandates, sees a chance for Medicare For All
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
Monday, March 5, 2012
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org
Green Party Speakers Bureau: Green leaders available to speak on health carehttp://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-health-care.php
WASHINGTON, DC -- Candidates and leaders of the Green Party of the United States expressed hope that the Supreme Court will strike down the 'individual mandate' section of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) when the court issues a ruling on its constitutionality in late March.
Greens, who support single-payer national health care (Medicare For All), have called the passage of the ACA in 2010 a defeat for meaningful health care reform.
"A Supreme Court decision gutting the ACA's individual insurance mandate can bring us closer to real universal health care, because we already know that Social Security and Medicare are constitutional. Medicare For All is based on the same model as these successful programs," said Mayor David Doonan (Green) of Greenwich, New York.
http://www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
Monday, March 5, 2012
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org
Green Party Speakers Bureau: Green leaders available to speak on health carehttp://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-health-care.php
WASHINGTON, DC -- Candidates and leaders of the Green Party of the United States expressed hope that the Supreme Court will strike down the 'individual mandate' section of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) when the court issues a ruling on its constitutionality in late March.
Greens, who support single-payer national health care (Medicare For All), have called the passage of the ACA in 2010 a defeat for meaningful health care reform.
"A Supreme Court decision gutting the ACA's individual insurance mandate can bring us closer to real universal health care, because we already know that Social Security and Medicare are constitutional. Medicare For All is based on the same model as these successful programs," said Mayor David Doonan (Green) of Greenwich, New York.
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