Worries grow as healthcare firms send jobs overseas

Some healthcare companies are starting to shift clinical services and decision-making on medical care overseas, primarily to India and the Philippines. By Don Lee for the Los Angeles Times – WASHINGTON — After years of shipping data-processing, accounting and other back-office work abroad, some healthcare companies are starting to shift clinical services and decision-making on…

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The Reward for Donating a Kidney: No Insurance

From the New York Times – When Erika Royer’s lupus led to kidney failure four years ago, her father, Radburn, was able to give her an extraordinary gift: a kidney. Ms. Royer, now 31, regained her kidney function, no longer needs dialysis and has been able to return to work. But because of his donation,…

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Health Care Costs To Exceed A Record $20,000 Per Year For Families

By Jeffrey Young for the Huffington Post – Health care costs for a family of four covered by workplace health insurance will exceed $20,000 for the first time ever this year — $20,728 to be precise — according to a new study released Tuesday. That’s $1,335 more than in 2011. A family of four will…

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Recession’s Toll on Health Coverage

From the New York Times – It’s a startling reminder that when people lose their jobs, they typically also lose their health insurance coverage. The share of children and working-age adults who had insurance through an employer fell 10 percentage points during the last recession, according to a study released on Thursday by the Center…

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Health Care Costs Will Be Higher Than Half Of Country’s Income By 2037

From Huffington Post – Health insurance will cost more than the median income of an American household by 2037 — and that’s the best-case scenario, two doctors contend in a new study. The reason: Wages for U.S. workers are stagnating and health care costs are rising so quickly that even if the health reform law…

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Many Texas residents cross Mexican border to obtain healthcare

From AHRQ.gov – The U.S.-Mexico border stretches from San Diego, CA all the way to Brownsville, TX. Many residents living on the U.S. side of the border are poor and uninsured, and have difficulties accessing health care services. A new study reveals that many U.S.-border residents in Texas cross the border into Mexico for health…

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Even When Employed, Health Care A Challenge

From NPR – Zumba is a fitness craze; a high-energy dance and exercise program. You can find it in high-end gyms and even the community center in Hazelwood, Mo., where Casaundra Bronner, 40, lives. Still breathing heavily, Bronner comes out to her car after one of the classes and turns on a small digital recorder…

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Transparency for health insurance?

By Trudy Lieberman for Columbia Journalism Review – The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that health insurers and employers must provide more information to consumers shopping for health insurance. The ensuing coverage, shall we say, was a classic case of journalistic bungling. Reporters took what HHS officials fed them and crafted their…

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Insurance firms seeking to sow doubt about single-payer in Vermont

By Wendell Potter for IWatchNews.org – You can’t see them. They’re hidden from view and probably always will be. But the health insurance industry’s big guns are in place and pointed directly at the citizens of Vermont. Health insurers were not able to stop the state’s drive last year toward a single-payer health care system,…

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