Healthcare-NOW

Employers Try New Ways to Cut Health Costs

By Christine Dugas for USA Today – As health care costs continue to increase, employers are looking for ways to cut costs, such as reducing spouse and dependent coverage in 2013, says a study out today. While the total cost of health care is predicted to rise 5.3%, to $11,507 per employee in 2013, the…

A Glitch in Health Care Reform

From the New York Times – Confusing language in the health care reform law has raised the possibility that millions of Americans living on modest incomes may be unable to afford their employers’ family policies and yet fail to qualify for government subsidies to buy their own insurance. This is a bizarre development that undercuts…

Not-For-Profit Hospitals Make Billions and Provide Little Charity Care

Not-for-profit hospitals are almost entirely tax exempt, in part because of the expectation they will provide free or low-cost “charity care” to those in need. By Kari Lydersen for In These Times – Not-for-profit hospitals, including some of the country’s biggest and best-known institutions, are almost entirely tax exempt, in part because of the expectation…

Aetna Builds Empire: One Denial at A Time

By Donna Smith – It’s a business. It’s big business, and it’s all about the money. When plans for Aetna to purchase Coventry Health for $5.7 billion surfaced this week, all I could think about is where people like me – Aetna’s insured – figure in the business models. I’m not a patient in their…

For patients or for profits?

By Helen Redmond for SocialistWorker.org – IN THE last 20 years, as the health care crisis has accelerated and the number of uninsured has soared to over 50 million, publicly funded, not-for-profit hospitals have been transformed into ruthless, investor-owned, profit-generating businesses. Corporations have bought up not only hospitals, but dialysis clinics, outpatient surgical centers, home…

Investors in Health Care Seem to Bet on Incumbent

From the New York Times – Who is going to win the presidential election? You might want to ask Mark T. Bertolini. He just bet $5.7 billion on President Obama. Mr. Bertolini is the chief executive of Aetna, which on Monday agreed to acquire Coventry Health Care, a huge provider of Medicare and Medicaid programs.…

US Healthcare Most Expensive, Still Not the Best

By Drs. Karl Engelman and James B. Field for islandpacket.com – Despite spending 17.8 percent of our gross domestic product, 50 percent to 90 percent more than Western European nations, the U.S. has lower quality, efficacy, efficiency, and by far, the least universal coverage, with 16 percent, or 50 million people, uninsured. The Commonwealth Fund…

Ryan’s “premium support” proposal for Medicare: Myths and facts

By Ida Hellander, M.D. for PNHP – Background: “Premium support” or voucher proposals for Medicare are a mainstay of conservative health policy. They have been defeated for over three decades, starting with President Reagan’s FY 1981 budget proposal. They are a key feature of “managed competition” — type reform proposals. Although President Clinton embraced managed…

Anti-Medicaid states: Earning $11,000 is too much

By Carla K. Johnson and Kelli Kennedy for the Associated Press – Sandra Pico is poor, but not poor enough. She makes about $15,000 a year, supporting her daughter and unemployed husband. She thought she’d be able to get health insurance after the Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama’s health care law. Then she heard…

Patients Will Benefit from Medicaid Expansion

By Dr. Ed Weisbart for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Nearly 300,000 more Missourians could soon get access to health care if Missouri state officials decide to provide it. Unfortunately, recent comments by the state Legislature’s leadership cause us to believe that they seem poised to deprive Missourians of this basic human right. We, members…