Healthcare – Page 2 – Healthcare-NOW

Romney: People Don’t Die For Lack Of Insurance

From NPR – Another day, another editorial board, another controversial remark for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. On Wednesday, it was abortion. On Thursday, health care. The former Massachusetts governor has said repeatedly that one of his top priorities is to repeal the federal Affordable Care Act, known increasingly as “Obamacare.” He’s said less about…

Life Spans Shrink for Least-Educated Whites in the U.S.

By the New York Times – For generations of Americans, it was a given that children would live longer than their parents. But there is now mounting evidence that this enduring trend has reversed itself for the country’s least-educated whites, an increasingly troubled group whose life expectancy has fallen by four years since 1990. Researchers…

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…

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…

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…

Health care increasingly out of reach for millions of Americans

By Phil Galewitz for Kaiser Health News – Having trouble finding a doctor? You’re not alone. Tens of millions of adults under age 65 – both those with insurance and those without – saw their access to health care worsen dramatically over the past decade, according to a study abstract released Monday. The findings suggest…

May 1 – A Day Without the 99%

For more than 120 years, May 1 has been celebrated internationally as a day to honor workers and commemorate the suffering they have endured – and continue to endure – in their struggles for equity for all in the workplace. Building on the history of May Day, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement is calling…

Debt Collector Is Faulted for Tough Tactics in Hospitals

From the New York Times – Hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: a debt collector at bedside. This and other aggressive tactics by one of the nation’s largest collectors of medical debts, Accretive Health, were revealed on Tuesday by the Minnesota attorney general,…

89,000 Poor Penn. Kids Slashed from Medicaid

By Michael Hinkelman and Catherine Lucey for Philly.com – Kheli Muhammad was trying to schedule a routine pediatrician’s appointment last summer when she discovered that her 2-year-old son, who has a congenital heart disorder, had been kicked off the Medicaid rolls. The 30-year-old mother of two boys was stunned. “It is written in stone that…

Recession Boosted Hospital Expansions Into Affluent Areas

By Jordan Rau for KHN – Amid the recession, hospitals have been aggressively establishing footholds in affluent areas outside their traditional market boundaries as they fight for the patients with the best insurance, according to a new study. The paper, published in Health Affairs, found hospitals “wooing” EMS workers that service well-off neighborhoods, even sprucing…