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Friday, February 25, 2011

Health Care Reform Articles - February 25, 2011

February 24, 2011

As Mental Health Cuts Mount, Psychiatric Cases Fill Jails







By BRANDI GRISSOM

Dressed in an orange Harris County Jail-issued jumpsuit, Sterling Shepherd sat at a metal picnic table and described what got him into this situation — again.
“I’m extremely mentally ill and extremely intelligent,” said Mr. Shepherd, a 43-year-old with intense brown eyes and a big grin. During a 12-minute interview on Feb. 15, Mr. Shepherd veered in and out of reality, talking at times lucidly about taking medication for his severe bipolar disorder and at others describing how Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. spoke to him through the television and explaining that Pope Benedict XVIis his grandfather.


February 24, 2011

Change in Kidney Transplant Policy Would Favor Younger Patients


By GARDINER HARRIS


Younger patients would be more likely than older ones to get the best kidneys under a proposal being considered by the nation’s organ transplant network.
The new policy would replace the present first-come-first-served system and is intended to provide better matches between the life expectancies of recipients and the functional life of donated kidneys.

Medicaid chief: Single payer may be better than ‘devil-may-be’ market
By Kyle Cheney / State House News Service  |   Sunday, February 20, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Politics
A senior Patrick administration health care official said Friday that a single payer system may work more effectively and efficiently than Massachusetts’s existing insurance market, a high-profile endorsement that raised eyebrows at a legislative hearing.
“I like the market, but the more and more I stay in it, the more and more I think that maybe a single payer would be better,” said Terry Dougherty, director of MassHealth – the state-run Medicaid plan that insures nearly 1.3 million Massachusetts residents – when lawmakers asked for his “personal view” on a single payer system.
Dougherty’s comment, made during a budget hearing at the Boston Public Library, prompted his boss, Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby, to interject: “That’s his personal opinion.”
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1318143&format=text



LePage seeks to pull the plug on Dirigo; supporters urge restraint

By Meg Haskell, BDN Staff
Posted Feb. 24, 2011, at 2:08 p.m.
The LePage administration has the Dirigo Health Agency in its cross hairs.
The agency is best known as the home of the controversial DirigoChoice subsidized health insurance program. It also administers several federally funded health coverage plans and a special section of MaineCare, and it houses the Maine Quality Forum, which gathers and analyzes health care quality data from Maine hospitals and medical practices.
Gov. Paul LePage was openly critical of the quasi-governmental Dirigo agency during his campaign for the Blaine House, and thehead of his transition team predicted that “Dirigo will be Diri-gone” after LePage took office.



Fort Kent hospital lays off 4, cuts back administrator salaries

By Jen Lynds, BDN Staff
Posted Feb. 24, 2011, at 9:39 p.m.
FORT KENT,  Maine — A major health care facility in the St. John Valley has cut a number of administrative positions, reduced remaining administrators’ pay by 2 percent and restructured its operations in order to stabilize its finances.
Northern Maine Medical Center has eliminated four administrators and shifted job responsibilities at the 49-bed hospital, Martin Bernstein, NMMC’s chief executive officer, confirmed Thursday. The affected employees were notified last Friday.



Critics question source of LePage’s opposition to BPA restrictions — Maine Politics — Bangor Daily News

AUGUSTA, Maine — As Gov. Paul LePage continued to weather national fallout for recently saying women could develop “little beards” if exposed to bisphenol-A, or BPA, questions continue to mount about the motives behind the governor’s proposal to reverse a ban on the substance.
Questions also hover over the administration’s Wednesday dismissal of Dr. Dora Anne Mills, the medical director of MaineCare and formerly the head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, as head of the CDC, Mills testified that BPA should become a priority chemical banned under the state’s Kid-Safe Products Act.
Dan Demeritt, a spokesman for the governor, said Thursday that Mills’ dismissal “was not linked in any way” to Mills’ public support of the BPA ban.
But some Democrats aren’t convinced. Rep. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, hoped Mills wasn’t fired because of her stance on BPA, while Rep. Bob Duchesne, D-Hudson, was convinced that she was.
http://new.bangordailynews.com/2011/02/24/politics/critics-question-source-of-lepages-opposition-to-bpa-restrictions/



Health Care Reform, Stimulus Are 'Gonna Kill People By Denying Care'

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) recently conjured the specter of death panels, claiming that "Obamacare" and the stimulus bill had effectively set up a "panel" that will eventually serve to kill people by denying them care.
Here's the transcript of what Broun said in a podcast recorded by the conservative Heartland Institute, via ThinkProgress:


Is The Media Covering Medicine Accurately?

The manner in which the news media covers medical innovations does an unintentional disservice to American health care by reinforcing the idea that newer approaches always represent real medical advances. The media lead the public to believe that amazing new cures for old disease are always on the horizon. This is done, understandably, to hook the readers' or listeners' attention but, in so doing, the news services perpetuate the erroneous belief that in medicine, "new" and "more" is always "better." Often, when the studies that are behind the headlines are closely analyzed, the coverage is misleading or just plain wrong.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Health Care Reform Articles - February 24, 2011

Print Story: Judge Tosses Suit Against Obama Health Care Plan


By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Tue Feb 22, 8:05 pm ET
WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit claiming that President Barack Obama's requirement that all Americans have health insurance violates the religious freedom of those who rely on God to protect them.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler in Washington dismissed a lawsuit filed by the American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian legal group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, on behalf of five Americans who can afford health insurance but have chosen for years not to buy it.


Patrick’s Cuts Pose Long-Term Health Risks

THE STEADY rise in health care costs continues to pose a major threat to the economy. Health care expenditures as a percentage of the gross domestic product were more than 17 percent in 2009 and are predicted to rise to 31 percent by 2035, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Allowing health care expenses to consume such a large proportion of what we produce leaves less for everything else, including education, scientific and technological research, and job creation.


New York State Proposal Would Cap Annual Medicaid Increases


ALBANY — The State Health Department on Thursday will propose a cap on yearly increases in Medicaid financing that will require across-the-board spending cuts by health care providers.
The spending cap, part of an overhaul of the way the state budgets its spending on health care for the poor, would require millions of dollars in cuts by hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers. It would also leave them vulnerable to additional cuts if enrollment increases and Medicaid costs rise.


Brown's Countdown, Day 42: Medi-Cal could require co-payment

kyamamura@sacbee.com

PUBLISHED SUNDAY, FEB. 20, 2011


Medi-Cal doctors who serve low-income children and disabled residents could turn away patients who can't afford co-payments under a budget proposal moving through the Legislature.
Gov. Jerry Brown proposed the idea as part of his plan to eliminate a $26.6 billion deficit. It would make California the first state to impose a mandatory co-pay requirement, though the proposal first requires federal permission – no easy task.

Posted: February 24
Updated: Today at 1:13 AM

Backers bemoan firing
of former CDC chief Mills

The woman who protected Mainers' health for 15 years had just started in the DHHS medical post in January.

By Rebekah Metzlerrmetzler@mainetoday.com
MaineToday Media State House Writer

AUGUSTA - Lawmakers in both major parties said Wednesday they were disappointed that Dr. Dora Anne Mills had been fired by the LePage administration from her position in the Department of Health and Human Services.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/backers-bemoan-firing-of-former-cdc-chief-mills-_2011-02-24.html



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Monday, February 21, 2011

Health Care Reform Articles - February 22, 2011

Lobbying group picks up costs of Florida's health-care legal challenge

By CHARLES ELMORE


Palm Beach Post Staff Writer




Posted: 7:07 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011

Florida has paid less than $6,000 for its landmark challenge to President Obama's health care law largely because a business lobbying group is picking up an undisclosed share of the remaining legal costs.
While Florida, joined by 25 other states, won a favorable ruling last month from a federal district judge, the cost the states have split so far amounts to $46,000.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi told a state House committee this month that most of the rest is being covered by the National Federation of Independent Business, a group that opposes the law because of what it considers unconstitutional costs and regulations on firms and people.


February 21, 2011

Long-Term Care Needs Changes, Officials Say


By ROBERT PEAR


WASHINGTON — One of Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s legacies in the new health care law, intended to allow the chronically ill and people with disabilities to continue living in their homes, is too costly to survive without major changes, Obama administration officials now say.
Republican lawmakers, who have vowed to repeal the health care law, cite the administration’s acknowledgment as yet another reason to do so. But the health and human services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, says the law gives her plenty of authority to make the necessary changes to the program without Congressional action.


Obama, GOP Should Avoid A Standoff On Malpractice Reform

PRESIDENT OBAMA announced in his State of the Union speech that he would deal with Republicans on one of their pet issues, reform of medical malpractice. But nothing is likely to get done because congressional Democrats oppose the GOP’s trademark solution to high liability costs — a federal law capping damages that malpractice victims can receive. They are right that a cap is too arbitrary, limiting awards even for the most egregious mistakes. But the debate shouldn’t end there. Both parties should find common ground on innovative approaches that not only reduce jury awards but also help doctors and hospitals correct underlying problems.


The Arrogance Divide - The Boston Globe

A RECENT essay in Boston Review by historian William Hogeland pondered a perplexing political question: Why haven’t populists and liberals been able to make common cause? They seem like natural allies. They both rail against economic inequality. They both are skeptical of America’s financial masters of the universe. They both believe that government has an obligation to help the country’s working men and women. They are both angry about the direction the country has been taking.
And yet these natural allies sit at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Whether the so-called Tea Partiers have simply co-opted the populist label and its heated rhetoric, populism seems to have taken a rightward swing — a process that has been going on for at least several decades. Sarah Palin, certainly no liberal, is now the self-appointed queen of American populism.

Dirigo Health Program To Lose Funding
Posted By Stephan Burklin On February 15, 2011 @ 4:15 pm In News | 1 Comment

The budget proposal submitted by Gov. LePage last week would incrementally diminish funding available to Dirigo Health, the agency that oversees the state’s subsidized health insurance program.
If adopted, the budget language would gradually reduce the fees assessed on state insurance carriers that are funneled into the Dirigo Health program.
Gov. LePage spokesperson Dan Demeritt described the proposal as part of the administration’s efforts to foster “consumer choice and market based reforms to lower our job-killing health care costs.”
“By phasing out the assessment and closing the program to new enrollees,” he said, “the Governor plans to give current Dirigo enrollees time to make new choices concerning their health insurance needs.  We expect decreased utilization as the assessment goes down over time.”
http://maine.watchdog.org/2011/02/15/dirigo-health-program-to-lose-funding/print/








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Sunday, February 20, 2011

Health Care Reform Articles - February 21, 2011

February 19, 2011

Money Won’t Buy You Health Insurance





By DONNA DUBINSKY

Redwood City, Calif.
THIS isn’t the story of a poor family with a mother who has a dreadful disease that bankrupts them, or with a child who has to go without vital medicines. Unlike many others, my family can afford medical care, with or without insurance.
Instead, this is a story about how broken the market for health insurance is, even for those who are healthy and who are willing and able to pay for it.


Analysts Say Supreme Court Ruling On Health Care Is Anybody’s Guess

WASHINGTON — If you are handicapping whether the Supreme Court is going to find the nation’s health care law constitutional, you have a few options.
You can go old school, citing the great arc of decisions that began in 1819 in which the court has built upon one precedent after another to say the Constitution gives Congress great powers to conduct the nation’s business.


What Conservatives Really Want

Dedicated to the peaceful protestors in Wisconsin, February 19, 2011. 
The central issue in our political life is not being discussed. At stake is the moral basis of American democracy.
The individual issues are all too real: assaults on unions, public employees, women's rights, immigrants, the environment, health care, voting rights, food safety, pensions, prenatal care, science, public broadcasting and on and on.
Budget deficits are a ruse, as we've seen in Wisconsin, where the Governor turned a surplus into a deficit by providing corporate tax breaks, and then used the deficit as a ploy to break the unions, not just in Wisconsin, but seeking to be the first domino in a nationwide conservative movement.
http://www.truth-out.org/print/67907



February 20, 2011

The Budget Scalpel and Medical Research

By ALBERT R. HUNT | BLOOMBERG NEWS
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s call for “investments” in education, infrastructure and science and health research is dismissed by most congressional Republicans as a fig leaf for more big-government spending.
That underlies the House of Representatives’ decision Saturday to slash $61 billion from an array of discretionary spending programs in the current fiscal year budget.
This may make proponents feel good, yet, as almost all budget experts acknowledge, these measures have little to do with addressing America’s fiscal challenges. That would require focusing on entitlements, taxes and defense spending.
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Saturday, February 19, 2011

Health Care Reform Articles - February 19, 2011

February 18, 2011

A Health Insurance Insider Offers Words of Advice








By WALECIA KONRAD

WENDELL POTTER is a 20-year health insurance veteran who served in top public relations jobs at such firms as Cigna and Humana. Now a senior analyst at the Center for Public Integrity, Mr. Potter has written “Deadly Spin,” a tell-all about practices of the health insurance industry. The book chronicles insurers’ attempts to influence legislators, policy makers and the public, as well as his own change of heart about his work.
We asked Mr. Potter what consumers can do about rising health care costs and about practices they should be wary of. His responses, below, have been edited and condensed for space.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/health/19patient.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print

Here is a letter to the editor of the New York Times I sent in response to the above article.   Let's see if they publish it.

The central message of the interview with health insurance industry whistleblower Wendell Potter (NYT February 19, 2011) was "caveat emptor".  The interview is a reminder of a serious flaw in the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - reliance on for-profit insurance companies as a mainstay in the financing of health care.

Getting a for-profit, publicly-traded financial services business to favor the interests of policy-holders and patients over the maximization of shareholder wealth is like trying to teach a zebra to climb a tree.  No matter how hard one tries, it just isn't going to work. It's not in the DNA.

We will not have a truly functional health care system in America until the for-profit insurance companies are replaced by strictly regulated public utilities or public entities.  That is the model that already works in most other wealthy countries.

Philip Caper, M.D.
322 Reach Rd.
Brooklin, ME 04616
207-370-2119
pcpcaper21@gmail.com


February 18, 2011

Study of Breast Biopsies Finds Surgery Used Too Extensively


By DENISE GRADY


Too many women with abnormal mammograms or other breast problems are undergoing surgical biopsies when they should be having needle biopsies, which are safer, less invasive and cheaper, new research shows.
A study in Florida found that 30 percent of the breast biopsies there from 2003 to 2008 were surgical. The rate should be 10 percent or less, according to medical guidelines.
The figures in the rest of the country are likely to be similar to Florida’s, researchers say, which would translate to more than 300,000 women a year having unnecessary surgery, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. Many of these women do not even have cancer: about 80 percent of breast biopsies are benign. For women who do have cancer, a surgical biopsy means two operations instead of one, and may make the cancer surgery more difficult than it would have been if a needle biopsy had been done.


February 18, 2011

Empire at the End of Decadence


By CHARLES M. BLOW

It’s time for us to stop lying to ourselves about this country.
America is great in many ways, but on a whole host of measures — some of which are shown in the accompanying chart — we have become the laggards of the industrialized world. Not only are we not No. 1 — “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” — we are among the worst of the worst.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/opinion/19blow.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

        

February 19, 2011

Medicaid and New York’s Budget


New York State spent more than $20 billion on Medicaid this fiscal year — or nearly a quarter of the total operating budget. With the state confronting a projected $10 billion deficit for next year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has little choice but to cut back the program. The challenge will be to do that in a way that causes the least possible harm to some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/opinion/19sat1.html?hp=&pagewanted=print


    
House pulls plug on health law funds
By: David Nather
February 18, 2011 03:09 PM EST
The House voted Friday to block funding for the health care law in several ways – starting the countdown to the defunding clash with Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama.

As expected, lawmakers approved Rep. Denny Rehberg’s amendment to the continuing resolution, which bars all payments to “any employee, officer, contractor, or grantee of any department or agency” to implement the law.

The Montana Republican’s amendment is aimed at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Labor Department.

But they also gave unexpected victories to Steve King of Iowa, approving broader measures to deny any implementation funds in the continuing resolution and block salaries to enforce the entire law.
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=3A5214F3-F48E-400F-9131-976078DA32FA
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Friday, February 18, 2011

health Care Reform Articles - February 18, 2011

February 17, 2011

Willie Sutton Wept


By PAUL KRUGMAN

There are three things you need to know about the current budget debate. First, it’s essentially fraudulent. Second, most people posing as deficit hawks are faking it. Third, while President Obama hasn’t fully avoided the fraudulence, he’s less bad than his opponents — and he deserves much more credit for fiscal responsibility than he’s getting.
About the fraudulence: Last month, Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center described the president as the “anti-Willie Sutton,” after the holdup artist who reputedly said he robbed banks because that’s where the money is. Indeed, Mr. Obama has lately been going where the money isn’t, making a big deal out of a freeze on nonsecurity discretionary spending, which accounts for only 12 percent of the budget.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/opinion/18krugman.html?src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB&pagewanted=print



Patrick Unveils Plan To Curb Health Care Costs

The health care bill Governor Deval Patrick unveiled yesterday leaves many key questions unanswered, said business leaders, industry executives, and legislators, and how those issues are worked out will determine whether the proposal reins in rising costs as it promises.
The milestone legislation, which Patrick announced before a standing-room-only breakfast meeting of executives at a downtown Boston hotel, is the most comprehensive attempt by a state to transform how providers are paid and curb costs while improving care for patients. The governor said he wanted it to be a national model.






Wrong Patient Got Kidney At USC

USC University Hospital halted kidney transplants last month after a kidney was accidentally transplanted into the wrong patient, according to a spokesman for the program that coordinates organ transplants in Los Angeles.


Healthcare: Two-Thirds Of Uninsured Californians Could Gain Health Insurance In 2014, UCLA Report Says

Nearly 5 million uninsured Californians could gain access to health coverage in 2014 when the nation's healthcare law expands eligibility for subsidized insurance programs for the poor, according to a new report.
At that time, more than two-thirds of the state's 7 million uninsured residents will be eligible for California's Medi-Cal insurance program, which serves the state's poorest people, or for federal subsidies aimed at those who earn more but have no coverage through their jobs.

State Keeps Pressing For Waiver To Change Medicaid, But Success Is Unlikely


Just a few months ago, Gov. Rick Perry led a group of Texas lawmakers who were threatening to drop out of Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor. A state analysis showing that Texas would lose billions of dollars in financing put an end to talk of opting out.
Now, the debate has shifted, as Texas and other struggling states ask Washington for permission to operate the program as they see fit. Their approach — finding savings by curbing mandatory benefits or limiting eligibility among Medicaid populations — is unlikely to be approved by the Obama administration, which is intent on expanding Medicaid, not shrinking it. And while pressing for a waiver is a far cry from threatening to drop out, it may have the same result: fueling the fire behind Texas’ anti-Washington, state-sovereignty rhetoric.


Who Are ‘Truly Needy’? — Maine Opinion — Bangor Daily News

The principle guiding Gov. Paul LePage’s efforts to transform state assistance programs seems to be separating the “truly needy” from those drawing benefits as a cushy way of life. In fact, he ended his speech to a joint session of the Legislature last week by bluntly telling those who are able to work to “get a job.”
On the matter of principle — that only those who really need help should get it — the governor will find broad agreement. But his administration’s approach to defining those in need may rely more on stereotypes and anecdotes than on facts. On the savings the governor hopes to book in his budget by cranking down the assistance spigot, he will not find agreement. The waste and fraud are just not there. And a life on assistance is hardly a life to be envied.
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