Peter Ferrara has written an article encouraging President Bush to veto the SCHIP expansion plan that congress has proposed. The president is calling for a $5 billion increase in the SCHIP budget, while the House wants to increase the budget by $50 billion and the Senate would like to see a $35 billion increase. The… Read more about Should SCHIP Be A State Program?
Back to School with HWR
In a back to school version of the Health Wonk Review, Joe Paduda put together an easily readable collection of the best health care policy discussions in the recent health policy blogosphere. He started out with a collection of posts about “HillaryCare 2.0”, which was very interesting. And David Williams of the Health Business Blog always… Read more about Back to School with HWR
Colorado Health Care Reform Commission Out of Time and Money
The Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform was created last year by General Assembly, and was assigned the tough task of seeking solutions to the rising cost of health care in Colorado and the ever increasing number of people in Colorado without health insurance – currently about 780,000 people. In the last few months,… Read more about Colorado Health Care Reform Commission Out of Time and Money
Consumer Reports and Health Insurance
Yesterday we got an email from a health writer & editor at Consumer Reports magazine who’s in the middle of researching an article about individual health insurance. She’s been reading our blog and wanted to interview us for her article. We talked on the phone at length about the individual health insurance market (she’s in… Read more about Consumer Reports and Health Insurance
Health Insurance Hoops
One of our clients gave birth to a baby boy on Sunday, 9/2. She has health insurance through her employer, but her husband and daughter have an individual Colorado health insurance policy through our agency. She called me on Wednesday to see about adding the new baby to her husband’s policy, since it will cost… Read more about Health Insurance Hoops
United Healthcare Improves Plans, Lowers Rates
United Healthcare has just made some big changes to their individual/family health insurance plans in Colorado. Some of the best improvements are: More flexible underwriting, including a height and weight chart with expanded limits. A first-day wellness benefit. More deductible options United Healthcare was already one of our favorites for underwriting on impaired risk cases…. Read more about United Healthcare Improves Plans, Lowers Rates
Enjoy the Cavalcade of Risk
InsuranceHelpHub hosts this weeks Cavalcade of Risk. It’s well worth your time to check out the collection of articles. Enjoy.
Check Out the Health Wonk Review
Julie Ferguson of the Workers’ Comp Insider plays host to the latest edition of the Health Wonk Review. As usual, the quality of articles can’t be beat and you’ll learn a lot about health policy by reading through what these top experts are talking about. Enjoy!
Blue Ribbon Commission Corruption
Immediately after the State of Colorado contracted with Lewin Group to review the 208 commissions proposals on the future of health care in Colorado, Lewin Group was bought out by United Health Group (UHG). UHG is the largest provider of health insurance in Colorado, and is now also an “independent auditor” in charge of reforming… Read more about Blue Ribbon Commission Corruption
Compare Rx Pricing Online
Bob Vineyard of InsureBlog gives us a good reason to shop around for where you fill your prescription. He also provides several good links where you can do your shopping. Check out his post called “Drive a Little, Save a Lot.”
The Power of Health Policy Blogs
Managed Care Magazine has a well written article by Alan Adler from Independence Blue Cross about the power of blogs in the health care policy discussion.
The Real Risk of an HSA
A health savings account, or HSA, combines a high deductible health plan with a tax-favored savings account. Assuming there is transparency, as the Colorado Health Insurance Insider recently tested for, HSAs would encourage people to shop for health care just as they would for a new television or car. The HSA concept allows the free… Read more about The Real Risk of an HSA
Tax and Spend
Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo criticized the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill because, “it removes a requirement that children in the plan show proof of citizenship.” Again, the Democrats have proven their loyalty to illegal aliens over American citizens, Tancredo said. Sounds logical, right? We don’t want children of illegal immigrants taking advantage of… Read more about Tax and Spend
Check Out the Latest Health Wonk Review
Bob Laszewski spent some valuable vacation time in HI putting together the latest Health Wonk Review. He included a post from the Colorado Health Insurance Insider about how dealing with health care providers without the assistance of an insurance company is like dealing with the mafia. And a good one to check out is from The… Read more about Check Out the Latest Health Wonk Review
MEGA Story Left Out of SiCKO
Another family that was scammed by MEGA because of an agent leaving out important details of their policy, like “it’s actually not really going to cover anything”, almost had their story told in the movie SiCKO. However, the story was cut from the movie. When they were cut from the film, Hesper Main said that… Read more about MEGA Story Left Out of SiCKO
How Unfortunate for Me
Note: This is the fifth entry on my experience with transparency in the US health care system. See the first entry here, the second entry here, the third entry here, and the fourth entry here. I just got off of the phone with Boulder Valley Center for Dermatology. So far, they’ve agreed to give me… Read more about How Unfortunate for Me
SCHIP Too Much?
Colorado business and health leaders have banned together to get health insurance for every child in Colorado and the country. President Bush is asking Congress to authorize $5 billion over the next five years for SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program), which is designed for the children of working class parents. Congress says that amount… Read more about SCHIP Too Much?
Cavalcade of Risk at The Sentinel Effect
The Cavalcade of Risk is up over at The Sentinel Effect. Richard has done a great job organizing so many posts. Take a look around the rest of the blog while you’re there. They write some unique, thought provoking stuff.
Health Wonk Review – July 12, 2007
The Health Wonk Review is THE top health policy roundup in the blogosphere. It’s known for only including the best and brightest, and only the keenest observations of the health policy community. The collection of articles below represent the cream of the crop of recent entries in the ongoing US health care policy discussion. I’m… Read more about Health Wonk Review – July 12, 2007
Enron Health Plan
With all the talk of universal health care lately, the most popular jab against it is to point out how inefficient the government is at running anything. Example: Katrina and FEMA. First of all, it’s been all to easy to point out incompetence in every government agency for the past 6 years. From Brown being… Read more about Enron Health Plan
I’m A Patriot – You’re A Terrorist
“Now with 50% more love for America“, over my med body played host to the Medical Grand Rounds this week. He did a great job! Keeping with the patriotism theme, I stumbled on a post from InsureBlog about Medical Terrorism. I thought Bob would be talking about the doctors that committed acts of terror in… Read more about I’m A Patriot – You’re A Terrorist
The Freedom of Individual Health Insurance
She said she realizes that the money they’ll be saving on their health insurance now is much greater than what she would have saved by having the group insurance through her employer for the 2 years she worked there. And the freedom it gave her and her husband is priceless.
Testimonials
We know we’re not perfect. Who is? And we want to constantly improve what we do and how we help you with your insurance needs. Consequently, getting honest testimonials and feedback from our customers is important to helping us serve you better. Most importantly, we don’t sell your name or email address. (privacy policy) During… Read more about Testimonials
I Got the Bill
Note: This is the third entry in my experiment with price transparency in the US health care system. See the first entry here, the second entry here, the fourth entry here, and the fifth entry here. I finally got the bill for the surgery (pdf). It was quite high compared to the estimate I received…. Read more about I Got the Bill
It’s All About Inspiration
Grand Rounds is up at the Wandering Visitor. She made the theme “things that inspire you”. She got over 3 dozen posts. I think you’ll find the inspiration to read what medbloggers find inspiring themselves. Enjoy!