AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, VERMONT-NEA POUR MONEY INTO CAMPAIGN FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE IN VERMONT
The nation’s two largest teachers’ unions have officially jumped into the push for publicly financed health care in Vermont.
The American Federation of Teachers gave $100,000 to a newly formed issue advocacy group, Vermont Coalition for Universal Reform, which will work to build broad-based public support for the state’s planned universal health care program and work to ensure its implementation.
Ben Johnson, the president of the Vermont chapter of the AFT, said the group’s membership has long supported universal health care for Vermonters, and is part of a coalition that made health care reform a core issue in the crowded 2010 Democratic gubernatorial primary.
“Our members are largely professional people that have good jobs – jobs that provide health insurance – but they saw the need to work really hard to help bring up the standards for everybody,” Johnson said.
“For the nurses, they see every day what it means not to have good health care, for people to get their primary care in the emergency room or not be able to get the treatment they need,” he said.
Vermont Coalition for Universal Reform, or Vermont CUR, has retained Montpelier lobbying firm KSE Partners to help promote their advocacy work.
Insurance Giant Raises Its Profit Forecast Amid Surging Obamacare Enrollment
22 March 14
ellPoint, the insurance giant that encompasses the Anthem and Blue Cross Blue Shield brands, has raised its 2014 profit forecast after gaining more than a million new customers largely thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
According to WellPoint CEO Joseph Swedish, the company now expects more than $8.20 per share in net income versus the $8.00 per share it was originally expecting, “driven by growth of 1.0 to 1.3 million net new medical members and mid-single digit percent increases in both operating revenue and operating gain.” Swedish even mentions Obamacare marketplaces specifically as a source of continuing growth.
“While it is early in 2014, we are encouraged by results thus far across our businesses and we believe [Obamacare] Exchanges are tracking our general expectations,” Swedish said in a press release. “As such, we are raising our 2014 earnings outlook… Our updated outlook reflects solid growth in membership, revenue and operating earnings. Our outlook also remains prudent in light of the dynamic nature of the marketplace, and we believe this is a point from which we will grow in the future.”
WellPoint and its subsidiaries are selling policies in 14 states’ Obamacare marketplaces. Swedish has consistently been bullish about Obamacare enrollment — which surpassed five million private health plan signups earlier this week — both for this year and over the coming decade.
“Despite the near-term uncertainty, we believe exchanges will be growing as a big part of the market over time,” said Swedish in a January health care conference sponsored by JP Morgan. “We saw a sizable uptick at the end of December, concurrent with the first enrollment deadline. And we expect a similar bump in March, in front of the second primary enrollment deadline.”
Other insurance executives, including the CEOs of Aetna, Cigna, and west coast insurer Health Net, have expressed a similar sense of optimism.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently revised its projection for first-year private Obamacare enrollment from seven million to six million after Healthcare.gov’s disastrous launch. Thanks to an ongoing enrollment surge this month, the White House may achieve — or even exceed— the six million mark by the March 31 deadline for 2014 coverage.
CBO expects the private state and federal marketplaces to have more than 24 million customers by the end of the decade.
Smoking Stays Stubbornly High Among the Poor
MANCHESTER, Ky. — When smoking first swept the United States in the early decades of the 20th century, it took hold among the well-to-do. Cigarettes were high-society symbols of elegance and class, puffed by doctors and movie stars. By the 1960s, smoking had exploded, helped by the distribution of cigarettes to soldiers in World War II. Half of all men and a third of women smoked.
But as evidence of smoking’s deadly consequences has accumulated, the broad patterns of use by class have shifted: Smoking, the leading cause of preventable death in the country, is now increasingly a habit of the poor and the working class.
While previous data established that pattern, a new analysis of federal smoking data released on Monday shows that the disparity is increasing. The national smoking rate has declined steadily, but there is a deep geographic divide. In the affluent suburbs of Washington, D.C., only about one in 10 people smoke, according to the analysis, by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. But in impoverished places like this — Clay County, in eastern Kentucky — nearly four in 10 do.
“It’s just what we do here,” said Ed Smith Jr., 51, holding up his cigarette in a hand calloused from his job clearing trees away from power lines. Several of his friends have died of lung cancer, he said, and he has tried to quit, but so far has not succeeded. “I want to see my grandson grow up.”
The new study, which evaluated federal survey data from 1996 to 2012 to produce smoking rates by county, offered a rare glimpse beneath the surface of state-level data. It found that affluent counties across the nation have experienced the biggest, and fastest, declines in smoking rates, while progress in the poorest ones has stagnated. The findings are particularly stark for women: About half of all high-income counties showed significant declines in the smoking rate for women, but only 4 percent of poor counties did, the analysis found.
This growing gap in smoking rates between rich and poor is helping drive rising inequality in health outcomes, experts say, with, for example, white women on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder now living shorter lives.
“Smoking is leaving these fancy places, these big urban areas,” said Ali H. Mokdad, a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and an author of the study. “But it has remained in these poor and rural areas. They are getting left behind.”
Americans with a high school education or less represent 40 percent of the population, but they account for 55 percent of the nation’s 42 million smokers, according to a New York Times analysis of health survey data obtained from the Minnesota Population Center, at the University of Minnesota. Since 1997, the smoking rate for adults has fallen 27 percent, but among the poor it has declined just 15 percent, according to the Times analysis. And among adults living in deep poverty in the South and Midwest, the smoking rate has not changed at all.
Health experts say this finer-grained understanding of who still smokes shows that public health officials need to refocus antismoking efforts on the poor and working class. Michael P. Eriksen, dean of the school of public health at Georgia State University, who ran the federal Office on Smoking and Health under President Bill Clinton, said public programs aimed at struggling Americans were patchy, even as tobacco companies successfully targeted them with advertising.
Selling a Poison by the Barrel: Liquid Nicotine for E-Cigarettes
A dangerous new form of a powerful stimulant is hitting markets nationwide, for sale by the vial, the gallon and even the barrel.
The drug is nicotine, in its potent, liquid form — extracted from tobacco and tinctured with a cocktail of flavorings, colorings and assorted chemicals to feed the fast-growing electronic cigarette industry.
These “e-liquids,” the key ingredients in e-cigarettes, are powerful neurotoxins. Tiny amounts, whether ingested or absorbed through the skin, can cause vomiting and seizures and even be lethal. A teaspoon of even highly diluted e-liquid can kill a small child.
But, like e-cigarettes, e-liquids are not regulated by federal authorities. They are mixed on factory floors and in the back rooms of shops, and sold legally in stores and online in small bottles that are kept casually around the house for regular refilling of e-cigarettes.
Evidence of the potential dangers is already emerging. Toxicologists warn that e-liquids pose a significant risk to public health, particularly to children, who may be drawn to their bright colors and fragrant flavorings like cherry, chocolate and bubble gum.
| Maine House OKs 'Narrow' Networks Disclosure Bill | |||||
| 03/24/2014 01:12 PM ET | |||||
The House today gave initial approval to Democratic Rep. Paul McGowan's bill with a 92-48 vote.
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AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) _ The Maine House has endorsed a bill that aims to provide clarity to ``narrow'' health insurance provider networks that exclude some hospitals and doctors.
The Democratic-led House gave initial approval to Democratic Rep. Paul McGowan's bill with a 92-48 vote on Monday The measure would require carriers to disclose to consumers whether any hospitals or doctors are excluded from their network. Carriers would, upon request, also have to explain to providers why they weren't included in their network. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maine's network on the Affordable Care Act exchange excludes six hospitals. It has drawn criticism from consumers and providers. Anthem has said the narrow network enables it to offer premiums that cost 8 percent less than if it had crafted a broader network. http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/5347/ItemId/32846/Default.aspx Virginia governor, lawmakers fail to reach Medicaid deal
By Gary Robertson
By Gary Robertson
RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Virginia's Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, and the state's Republican-dominated House of Delegates on Monday failed to reach an agreement over Medicaid expansion during the first day of a special session called in hopes of reaching a budget deal.
The impasse over Medicaid, the federal health care program for the poor, is holding up passage of a two-year, $96 billion budget. If the two sides fail to reach a deal by July 1, the state government could grind to a halt. Legislators deadlocked over the budget during a 60-day regular session that ended March 8.
McAuliffe, a former Democratic Party fundraiser, proposed on Monday a two-year pilot expansion of Medicaid, which could be terminated if it is unsuccessful, but the proposal was rejected by the House Appropriations Committee.
"I am disappointed that House Republicans voted today to continue Washington-style gridlock instead of accepting a budget that includes a responsible proposal to bring billions of federal dollars back to Virginia to close the health care coverage gap and invest in core priorities like education and mental health," McAuliffe said in a statement.
McAuliffe, who made expanding Medicaid coverage to more than 400,000 Virginians a priority during his gubernatorial campaign in 2013, led a Democratic sweep of statewide offices and had hoped to use those victories to help advance his legislative proposals.
Under the current Medicaid proposal, the federal government would pay the full cost of Virginia's expansion through 2016, then pare its contribution to 90 percent by 2020.
McAuliffe has argued that accepting $2 billion in federal funds to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act would release money that could be used to create jobs, raise state salaries, bolster pensions and come up with health reforms.
But Republicans have called the move unaffordable.
"We're not going to do Medicaid expansion in the budget," Kirk Cox, majority leader of the House of Delegates, said last week.
House Republicans contend the federal government cannot afford to make good on its promise to pick up most of the Medicaid tab. They have spent much of March pointing out the Affordable Care Act's shaky launch.
Why a complex, unjust, expensive, error-prone system might end up providing the best health care
ABOUT five million Americans buy medication internationally each year because of high costs in the United States. These drugs are considered “foreign unapproved drugs” by theFood and Drug Administration, and federal law makes it illegal to buy them. Generally, though, purchases go through without a hitch. Only rarely do customs agents seize an order.
For almost 15 years big drug companies have vigorously lobbied Congress and the federal government to stop Americans from buying foreign medicines. As part of that lobbying, they have made it seem as if all medications purchased from Canada and other international sources are the same as those that come from websites that sell counterfeit drugs. Even the F.D.A. has made that suggestion. In testimony in February before a House subcommittee hearing to explore the public health threat of counterfeit drugs, Howard R. Sklamberg, a deputy commissioner at the F.D.A., said that foreign unapproved drugs posed the same health risks as counterfeit drugs.
That assertion is just not true and will scare lawmakers and consumers into believing that all imported drugs bought online are dangerous. The “unapproved” drugs are often the exact same ones sold here. Or they’re different brands, or generic versions of domestically sold drugs. Thus, many foreign unapproved drugs — specifically those ordered from licensed pharmacies — are almost always going to be safe and effective, like their United States counterparts, whereas a counterfeit drug will almost always be dangerous. (My company, PharmacyChecker.com, helps Americans find information on obtaining lower-cost medications from Canada and other countries, so I have a financial stake in making sure the public is informed.)
Medicaid expansion could ease Louisiana's budget woes: Editorial
By
Gov. Bobby Jindal has a convoluted plan to balance Louisiana's budget next year byborrowing $50 million in cash from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans to help pay for health care and higher education.
To make the loan more appealing to the Convention Center and city lawmakers, the governor said he would replace the money with $75 million in state bonds over the next three years. That's sort of like the character in the Popeye cartoon saying, "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." Except in this case, there would be interest included.
Also, it is unclear whether the governor could deliver on the promise. His administration is splitting the bonds into three installments of $25 million, and Gov. Jindal will be out of office by the third year.
There's an easier way to bridge the gap in the state budget: Take the $16 billion in additional federal Medicaid money President Obama is offering through the Affordable Care Act.
This year and for the next two years, the federal government is paying 100 percent of the cost of expanding Medicaid coverage to low-income Americans who didn't qualify before. The state's own analysis found last year that the Medicaid expansion would save Louisiana between $13.9 million and $77.8 million in the 2014 fiscal year and as much as $134 million in 2015.
That's because Louisiana would pay less for the treatment of uninsured residents at public hospitals and for other services. The savings ought to free up money elsewhere in the budget.
Voters should know who’s holding up their health care
With one week remaining before the March 31 deadline for health coverage this year, a Republican filing a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act has become a familiar, if tiresome, sight.
But Republicans filing a lawsuit against the law on the grounds of copyright infringement? That’s something new.
Yet that is effectively what happened this month in Louisiana. On March 14, the state’s lieutenant governor sued the progressive group MoveOn.org over a billboard criticizing Gov. Bobby Jindal’s refusal to expand Medicaid in the state. The billboard uses Louisiana’s tourism slogan — “Pick Your Passion!” — and adds: “But hope you don’t lose your health. Gov. Jindal’s denying Medicaid to 242,000 people.” The lawsuit claims that the MoveOn ad will “result in substantial and irreparable harm, injury, and damages” to the Louisiana tourism office — as if denying health insurance to the neediest will not cause the state “substantial and irreparable harm.”
Legal experts say Jindal’s ploy has no chance of succeeding, thanks to the First Amendment. (This would be the same First Amendment that the governor passionately invoked in defense of “Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson’s right to spew racist and homophobic vitriol.)
Jindal’s reason for refusing to expand Medicaid is as specious as his reason for suing MoveOn. He claims, falsely, that theexpansion would divert funds that now go to disabled individuals under traditional Medicaid. In reality, the health-care law doesn’t harm the existing program. It creates several programs to improve care for the disabled receiving Medicaid; Jindal enrolled Louisiana in three of them. But this hasn’t stopped him from blaming the ACA for his own bad policies, including cuts he made to state Medicaid funding for pregnant women.
Health insurance basics stump many Obamacare shoppers, survey finds
By Soumya Karlamangla
12:05 PM PDT, March 24, 2014
Amid the final frenzy for Obamacare enrollment, a new survey shows that many consumers may be ill-equipped to shop for health insurance. A study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that 42% of people surveyed could not describe a deductible and 39% didn't understand the relationship between a premium and deductible. Sixty-two percent didn't know that an HMO is more restrictive on choosing doctors than a PPO, or preferred-provider organization plan. The results were drawn from a national survey of about 3,400 people in August and September before enrollment started under the Affordable Care Act. Full coverage: Obamacare rolls out Silvia Barcellos, the study's lead author and an economist at USC, said the lack of information has likely hurt overall enrollment in the federal and state exchanges. The healthcare law requires that most Americans have medical insurance in 2014 or pay a penalty. March 31 is the last day to sign up for individual coverage this year. More than 1 million people have signed up for health insurance through the Covered California exchange as of mid-March. Barcellos said knowledge about the Affordable Care Act has likely increased since the fall, but she wasn't optimistic about people gaining a better understanding of how health insurance works. "There's less reason to think that people would now understand what a deductible is, or would understand different types of health insurance plans," she said. Barcellos said the lack of familiarity can be a handicap for consumers trying to sort through numerous health plans at different prices. Maria Reyes, a state-certified enrollment counselor at Eisner Pediatric & Family Medical Center in Los Angeles, said that most people she encounters don't know much about the mechanics of health coverage. Monday's report recommends that when enrollment reopens in November, government exchanges should simplify how they display health plan information. For instance, the website could list only the cheapest plan for different metal tiers, such as bronze, silver and gold, instead of several plans for each level. Unlike the federal exchange, Covered California tried to make for easier comparison shopping in its first year by standardizing benefits across health plans. State officials, insurers and medical providers expect a flurry of consumer questions once people start using their insurance for the first time in the months ahead. http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-aca-knowledge-report-20140321,0,5044077,print.story Maine doctors, here’s what your patients think of you | |||||
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