All Articles Tagged "health care"
Health Insurance Premiums Skyrocket
(New York Times) — Major health insurance companies have been charging sharply higher premiums this year, outstripping any growth in workers’ wages and creating more uncertainty for the Obama administration and employers who are struggling to drive down an unrelenting rise in medical costs. A study released on Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research group, showed that the average annual premium for family coverage through an employer reached $15,073 in 2011 — 9 percent higher than in the previous year. And even higher premiums could be on the way, particularly in New York, where some companies are asking for double-digit increases for about 1.3 million New Yorkers in individual or small-group plans, setting up a battle with state regulators.
Gov’t on the Hunt for Steep Health Insurance Hikes
(Wall Street Journal) — A new federal and state program on health-insurance rates will determine whether bad publicity alone is enough to stop insurers from levying steep increases. Starting Thursday, the Obama administration and states will automatically scrutinize any proposed health-premium increase of 10% or more as part of the 2010 health-overhaul law. The change applies to an estimated 34.8 million insurance policies that Americans buy on their own or get through a small employer—two markets where consumers have faced particularly hefty increases in recent years. America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s main lobbying group, found that about half of all increases in the individual-insurance market exceeded 10% each year for the past three years.
Cancer Drug Shortage Hits Atlanta
(AJC) — Flo Burke of Cumming was just a few sessions away from completing treatments for breast cancer when a change in medication sent her to the emergency room. The problem was caused by a shortage of Taxol, a drug used in her treatment. Burke, a patient at Georgia Cancer Specialists, had a severe allergic reaction after she was given an alternative drug. ”I really felt like I was dying,” said Burke, an office manager. Burke is lucky. Enough Taxol has been found to continue her treatments. But that doesn’t alleviate the fears of other doctors and patients. The Food and Drug Administration, which has monitored the situation for six years, recently reported 2010 was a record year for drug shortages and the situation could get worse.
County’s Use of Healthcare Consultants Draws Fire
(Chicago News Cooperative) – When its chief operating officer, Tony Tedeschi, handed over his responsibilities at the troubled Cook County Health and Hospitals System last month to Carol Schneider, the two had something in common besides serving in that job: Both work for private consulting firms that have played a major role in the sprawling system’s highly controversial restructuring. Tedeschi, like other of the system’s recent top managers, works for the Sibery Group, which has had contracts with the system to provide temporary executive talent. Schneider, whose contract runs through December, works for the Washington Group Ltd., a consulting company that provides administrative help to the system. PricewaterhouseCoopers has a three-year, $50 million contract calling for it to save the system $300 million or bring in the equivalent in new revenue. Cook County’s use of consultants is similar to that of many municipal agencies elsewhere that have turned to outsiders for advice.
County May Retake Some Health System Duties
(Chicago Tribune) — Since Cook County established an independent hospital board in 2008, the new leadership has whacked away at what critics long contended was a patronage-heavy bureaucracy and has cut the amount of money it requests from taxpayers. But problems persist in the decades-old operation, most notably the health system’s continued failure to bill many of the 500,000 patients who seek treatment from county hospitals and clinics every year. Now, County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is mulling whether to reclaim oversight of some health system functions as she drafts next year’s budget. That could mean folding human resources and purchasing into the county administration to save money. But Preckwinkle also is exploring long-shot ideas such as privatizing the hospital system or asking the state Legislature to make the hospital system its own taxing body.
Sickening Politics: Florida Continues Fight Against Health Care Law
(New York Times) — When it comes to pursuing federal largess, most of the states that oppose the 2010 health care law have refused to let either principle or politics block their paths to the trough. If Washington is doling out dollars, Republican governors and legislators typically figure they might as well get their share. Then there is Florida. Despite having the country’s fourth-highest unemployment rate, its second-highest rate of people without insurance and a $3.7 billion budget gap this year, the state has turned away scores of millions of dollars in grants made available under the Affordable Care Act. And it is not pursuing grants worth many millions more. In recent months, either Gov. Rick Scott’s administration or the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature has rejected grants aimed at moving long-term care patients into their homes, curbing child abuse through in-home counseling and strengthening state regulation of health premiums. They have shunned money to help sign up eligible recipients for Medicare, educate teenagers on preventing pregnancy and plan for the health insurance exchanges that the law requires by 2014.
Free Clinics Overwhelmed by Need
(Daily Finance) – Free clinics and the uninsured are paying a heavy price for the nation’s teetering recovery: More than half of free clinics are now turning away eligible patients — many for the first time — according to an AmeriCares report published Wednesday. Shrinking staff, expensive lab tests and drugs, and declining financial support are proving to be a prescription for disaster for the nation’s uninsured, the study found through interviews of staff at 300 clinics.
In Effort to Cut U.S. Deficit, New York Teaching Hospitals May Lose Aid
(New York Times) — New York State’s prestigious teaching hospitals could lose more than $1 billion a year as part of plans under negotiation in Washington to reduce the federal deficit that the hospitals say will lead to drastic service reductions. The cuts would reduce the Medicare subsidy for training doctors and for providing intensive medical services like trauma centers and burn units and sophisticated equipment that the teaching hospitals offer. The plan would apply to teaching hospitals nationwide but would have its most profound impact in cities like New York and Boston, where medical schools and their affiliated hospitals have a significant presence. Dating to the 1960s, the subsidy has helped make New York State the world capital of medical education, training about 16,000 doctors a year, or 14.5 percent of the nation’s total, more than any other state.
Keep Your Healthcare Despite Losing Your Job
(Daily Finance) — If you think there have to be better ways for an uninsured person to get health care than robbing a bank for $1 — as a North Carolina man did recently to get access to medical care in prison — you’re right: There are. While most people get their health insurance from their employers, that doesn’t mean the jobless have to take desperate measures. If you’re one of the nation’s nearly 14 million unemployed, here’s what you need to know.
Get the Facts: ”The health insurance system is complex and can be confusing,” says Ankeny Minoux, president of the Foundation for Health Coverage Education, a nonprofit organization and research resource,www.coverageforall.org. “Start by doing your homework and taking the time to fully understand all options before enrolling in a program or plan.”
New Study Says Prison Is Better For Black Men's Health
By J. Smith
