True or false? The debt ceiling debate this month has sent claims and counter claims flying, keeping the nation’s fact checkers busy. Here’s a sampling of their mid-summer efforts.
Federal regulators Monday released proposed rules that will govern how states set up and run new marketplaces where individuals and small businesses can shop for health insurance.
If done well, exchanges could make it easier to buy health insurance and possibly lead to lower prices because of increased competition. But, if designed poorly, healthy people could avoid the exchanges, leaving them to sicker people with rising premiums.
Findings contradict claims by the program’s conservative critics that Medicaid is worse than no insurance at all.
The Administration has cut the premiums of high-risk plans that the federal government is running in 17 states and the District of Columbia by up to 40 percent.
Medical debt in patients with health insurance is often due to high out-of-pocket expenses, such as coinsurance, deductibles and annual and lifetime dollar limits.
Under this model, primary care doctors manage all of the patient’s care and coordinate with specialists to improve quality and reduce costs.
Survey that found that the new health reform law would lead one in three employers to drop worker coverage was poorly done, critics say.
Harvard School of Public Health Professor John McDonough asks why Republicans now reject free-market measures in the new health-reform law that they once proposed.
A provision of the law extends Medicare coverage to patients who developed asbestosis after living in the town which was contaminated by mining operations.
Millions of Americans gained the right this year to appeal decisions made by health plans to an outside, independent decision-maker. But many of these consumers might not know they have the new option — and when they find out, it might be too late.
LocalHealthGuide is a health news and information web service for Seattle and the Puget Sound Region. We are independent and unaffiliated with any hospital, medical association or insurer. If you have questions or if your group has an upcoming event that you would like us to cover, please let us know by going to our "Contact Us" page and dropping us a note. -- Michael McCarthy, Editor
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Lost in translation: Lack of trained interpreters can lead to medical errors
Interpreter services at hospitals and other medical settings are often inadequate, forcing family members, including children, to step in, or the task falls to medical staff members who may not speak the language well.
Some insurers deny ER coverage to people who have been drinking
Laws in more than half the states permit insurers to deny payment for medical services related to alcohol or drug use. Faced with the prospect of not getting paid for care, some ER personnel sidestep the problem by simply not testing patients’ blood or urine for alcohol.
Travel insurance can protect your wallet — and your health on vacation
Think your regular health insurance policy will cover you if you get into medical trouble overseas?
Don’t bet on it.
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