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By Adam Graham-Silverman on May 19th, 2010
Two-tiered medical care for haves and have nots
As doctors leave the system to join “concierge” practices, patients scramble to find care
Tag: "Health Policy"
By Michael McCarthy on March 02nd, 2010
San Juan County ranked healthiest in state, Ferry County least healthiest
Study finds health of state’s residents vary widely from county to county
By KaiserHealthNews on December 09th, 2009
Should healthcare for the elderly be rationed?
“We’re finding more and more expensive ways to keep people alive. So we have to find ways to set some limits,” ethicist says.
By KaiserHealthNews on September 29th, 2009
Baucus Must Strike A Balance With Three Factions To Pass His Bill
Factions: those for, those leaning in his direction, and a group of “wild cards”.
By KaiserHealthNews on September 03rd, 2009
Reform Won’t Work Without Strengthening Nursing
Nurses are left out of the health reform debate, but It is nurses who provide most of the skilled care in hospitals–the only care in many poor communities, writes Sandy Summers, director of The Truth About Nursing and co-author of Saving LIves: Why the Media’s Portrayal of Nurses Puts Us All at Risk.
By KaiserHealthNews on September 02nd, 2009
Health Reform Lessons From Massachusetts
Because of its health reform law, almost all Massachusetts residents have health coverage. Now the state has to tackle the more difficult challenge: cost. Article by KaiserHealthNews staff writer Jessica Marcy
By KaiserHealthNews on September 02nd, 2009
Baucus-Grassley Bipartisan Partnership Frays Under Health Reform Pressures
Sen. Max Baucus and Sen. Chuck Grassley have long history of cooperation.
But can this marriage be saved? Don’t bet on it, writes KaiserHealthNews staff writer Eric Pianin, at least when it comes to health reform.
By KaiserHealthNews on September 01st, 2009
Dr. House’s Prescription: More Medicine Is Better
For most cases, doctors say, that Dr. House’s style of “shotgun testing” — a barrage of seemingly random tests — would do little to help patients or lead to a diagnosis, reports KaiserHealthNews staff writer Christopher Weaver.
By KaiserHealthNews on August 31st, 2009
Health Insurance: How Much More Should Older People Pay?
For years, insurers have charged older customers far more than younger ones. Health reform could change that–altering the cost of insurance for millions. KaiserHealthNews staff writer Julie Appleby reports.
By LocalHealthGuide on August 28th, 2009
As economic conditions force a tighter job market, new nurses find it’s harder than ever to land their dream job—or any job, for that matter.
“Nursing, even in hard times, was thought to be recession-proof.”
By Chris Linden and Melissa Suran, Medill News Service
It wasn’t supposed to be this hard. Nursing student Barbara Lopez had been told for a long time that she would have an easy time finding a job.
But it took her five months—starting before she graduated in June—to [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 28th, 2009
Grassley: No Longer Sure Bipartisan Health Deal Possible In September
By Eric Pianin and Mary Agnes Carey
Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa indicated Thursday he was no longer sure whether negotiators can reach a bipartisan deal in September, citing mounting public concern about excessive government spending and soaring federal deficits.
Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee which is attempting to draft a bipartisan health care [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 27th, 2009
Views: The Health Reform Bills Would Be Great For the Business Of Health Care
By Robert Laszewski
President of the consulting firm Health Policy and Strategy Associates
“From the looks of these health care bills, this ‘health care reform’ thing will be great for business!”
Have you noticed how none of the big health care business special interests is running any negative health care reform ads? Why should they when each is [...]
By LocalHealthGuide Staff on August 26th, 2009
Health stories in the news
CDC’s H1N1 predictions less dire than President’s Council of Advisors
New York Times reporter By Donald G. McNeil, Jr. reports that officials at the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention seemed to be playing down the dire predictions released by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology yesterday that projected that as many [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 25th, 2009
Should the Homeless Be in Medicaid?
By Pam Fessler, NPR News
NPR is a Kaiser Health News partner
Most homeless people in America are too poor to buy their own health coverage, but many also don’t qualify for Medicaid, the government-run health program for the poor.
Walter Brooks, a 63-year-old homeless man, is seen by physician assistant Jean Prevas at the Health Care for [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 25th, 2009
Children’s Advocates Fear Health Reform Could Undermine Children’s Health Insurance Program
By Mary Agnes Carey
As Democratic leaders pursue their quest to provide millions of Americans with health care insurance, some advocates see an unlikely casualty of reform: youngsters now covered by the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) whom they fear could end up with reduced benefits.
About 7 million children are insured under CHIP, which provides coverage [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 24th, 2009
Health stories in the news
Unapproved hormone used to prevent premature births
Seattle Times health reporter Kyung Song writes in today’s issue of the paper about a program in which Washington state’s largest Medicaid contractor is promoting the use of a synthetic hormone that is thought to prevent premature births.
But the hormone, called 17P, has not been approved by the U.S. [...]
By Jonathan Cohn on August 24th, 2009
Obama’s Focus on Cost Offered Critics Many Targets
Had Obama spent more time reminding voters that health reform would provide them with security they now lack he probably would have been better off, writes columnist Jonathan Cohn.
By LocalHealthGuide on August 24th, 2009
Checking in With Health Economist Victor Fuchs
By Laurie McGinley
“Despite being a supporter of President Barack Obama, Dr. Fuchs suggests that the president and Congress are more interested in getting a reform proposal that can pass than getting a plan that will curb health costs over the long run.”
Victor R. Fuchs is a Stanford University Health Policy core faculty member and the [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 21st, 2009
In weekly address Obama says opponents of health-care reform resort to “willful misrepresentations”
Transcript:
Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
Each and every day in this country, Americans are grappling with health care premiums that are growing three times the rate of wages and insurance company policies that limit coverage and raise out-of-pocket costs. Thousands are losing their insurance coverage each day.
Without real reform, the burdens on [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 21st, 2009
Views: Where Things Stand
By James Capretta
President Barack Obama’s op-ed in the Sunday New York Times is a revealing indicator of the state of the health care debate.
Gone is the emphasis on “health care reform” and “bending the cost-curve “and “changing the delivery system.”
As polls in July began showing public support dropping for sweeping health care legislation, the Obama [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 21st, 2009
Views: Public Option Will Lower Private Health Insurance Premiums . . . to Zero
By Paul Guppy, vice president for research at Washington Policy Center
Responding to the concern that setting up a government-run public option insurance plan would inject politics into American health care, public option backers are saying, “Right. And that’s a good thing.”
A recent Washington Post article reports, “Economists in this [pro-public option] camp say a public option [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 21st, 2009
Democrats’ Strategy to Avoid Filibuster Carries Serious Risks
By Eric Pianin
August 21, 2009
With prospects for a bipartisan deal dimming, Democrats are considering the use of Byzantine budget rules this fall to ram through their own version of health care overhaul legislation without fear of a Republican filibuster.
The gambit is laden with parliamentary hurdles that could give GOP opponents plenty of opportunities to block [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 21st, 2009
Democrats’ Go-It-Alone Strategy
By Eric Pianin
August 21, 2009
So if Democratic leaders and the White House decide to use special “reconciliation” budget rules to try to pass health care overhaul legislation this fall without Republican support, how would it work?
Every year, the House and Senate draft a concurrent budget resolution – a joint blueprint of anticipated federal [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 20th, 2009
Attacks May Force Democrats To Scale Back Health Reform Ambitions
By Eric Pianin and Mary Agnes Carey
August 20, 2009
Relentless attacks on President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul effort, coupled with continued questions on how to pay for it, are prompting some political and health care experts to suggest that Democrats will have to scale back the cost and scope of the legislation to get something [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 20th, 2009
Can Health Reform Pass? Experts Weigh In
Will President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats have to greatly scale back their health care overhaul proposals to get legislation passed this year?
Here’s what some experts are saying.
Henry J. Aaron, health care economist at the Brookings Institution:
Congress and Obama should attempt to pass what is necessary for setting the foundation for a process of evolution [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 19th, 2009
Code Blue: Out-of-Network Charges Can Spur Financial Emergency
By Paul Raeburn
August 19, 2009
On the evening of March 1, 2008, Gary Diego was relaxing with his wife, Ellen, when she abruptly lost her hearing, began repeating herself, and seemed to be losing her grip.
Gary Diego with a picture of his wife Ellen at his home in Truckee, Calif. Photo: Brad Horn/KHN
Alarmed, Diego rushed her [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 18th, 2009
Health Co-ops Touted as Alternative to Public Plan
Seattle’s Group Health Cooperative seen as potential model for health reform.
By LocalHealthGuide on August 17th, 2009
Boehner Blasts PhRMA On Deal With White House
Calls President A ‘Bully’
By Mary Agnes Carey – Kaiser Health News
The drug industry’s decision to agree to $80 billion in concessions to the White House was short-sighted, will hurt drug manufacturers and their customers, and “has all the markings of a deal gone sour,” House Minority Leader John Boehner wrote Monday to his former colleague, [...]
