I missed this news last week, but apparently I wasn’t the only one: Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 88 into law last Monday, granting dental and health insurance benefits to domestic partners of gay and lesbian state employees. Even the bill’s sponsors didn’t know until after the fact that it had been signed by the governor. […]
Gender, Age, Geography, and Health Insurance Premiums
The new proposal put forth by AHIP would take into account only age and geography (not gender) when setting rates. Jaan points out that while this is all well and good, doesn’t it leave things open to cries of foul regarding ageism and geographism? In my opinion, it does. Age and gender are both factors that are beyond our control, and to a large part, so is geographical location. […]
Gay Marriage And Health Insurance Benefits
I am not sure where to begin dissecting the logic in RNC Chairman Michael Steel’s recent attempt to sway public opinion on gay marriage. He is trying to turn gay marriage into an economic issue by maintaining that it will hurt profits for businesses if they have to provide health insurance benefits to partners of gay employees. […]
Steps Towards Health Care Reform
The House has pledged to have a sweeping health care reform bill on the floor by the end of July, and details are starting to come out about the direction they want to take. Requiring everyone to have health insurance coverage is one of the cornerstones of the reform, and I strongly believe that without this piece of the puzzle in place, no reform will truly be effective. […]
Some Government Can Be A Good Thing
I always appreciate it when someone actually throws a potential solution into the mix, rather than just complaining about the way things are/were/will be. The Happy Hospitalist has outlined his ideas for healthcare reform in a comment on his blog. I like his out of the box thinking, and the simplicity. But there are some issues that immediately come to mind […]
Insuring Low Income Children Through Tax Returns
[…] In Colorado, there are 100,000 children who are eligible for Medicaid or CHP+ but remain uninsured. The state is working to expand access to these programs, but getting those 100,000 kids enrolled would make a good dent in the number of uninsured children in Colorado. And tax returns are a great way to identify families that qualify for state-funded health insurance. […]
Reid Absent In Sick Around America
[…] Reid wanted to make Sick Around America into a push towards national health insurance, and the producers wanted more of a documentary of how the health care system currently works. Reid withdrew from the film and asked that his interviews be edited out – he’s not in the new documentary at all, which will make it quite a bit different from last year’s show. […]
Colorado House Kills Oral Chemotherapy Bill
The Colorado House killed a bill today that would have required Colorado health insurance companies to cover oral chemotherapy pills. Diane Primavera (D-Broomfield), sponsored Senate Bill 250 in the House, and had support from patient advocate groups and the pharmaceutical industry. But the House Health and Human Services Committee voted 7 – 4 to kill the bill. […]
Hard To Please Everyone With A Single Health Plan
[…] There really is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to health insurance. In terms of health care reform, unless someone just starts handing out free health care (without tax increases or premiums…), it will be tough to get people to agree on a single plan, or even a handful of coverage options. […]
Many Laid Off Workers Not Getting COBRA Assistance
[…] People who worked for a company that went out of business or stopped offering health insurance won’t qualify, because there won’t be a health insurance policy for them to opt to continue via COBRA. In addition, people who were laid off from small businesses might not qualify if their state doesn’t have a “mini-COBRA” law allowing these workers to continue coverage […]
Cervical Cancer And Uninsured Women
[…] With early detection through Paps responsible for the drop in deaths from cervical cancer, I’m curious as to what percentage of the 4000 women who die from cervical cancer each year are low income and/or uninsured? Most women who have health insurance typically have fairly good coverage for Paps. […]
Colorado Single Payer House Bill Abandoned
[…] it really doesn’t make sense for an individual state to set up its own single payer health insurance system. We absolutely need to focus on providing access to health care for the people of Colorado who don’t have health insurance. But it makes more sense to expand programs that are already here.
Too Important To Fail
[…] I would argue that instead of being considered too big to fail, major health insurance carriers might be seen as too important to fail. AIG’s collapse would have been primarily indirect, but health insurance companies work directly with individual Americans. Even in large groups, individual employees are the ones who carry the id cards with the insurance carrier’s logo on them. […]
Looking For Solutions
[…] I have yet to see an article that is critical of the public health insurance idea and also proposes alternative solutions. Here in Colorado, we have 800,000 people who are uninsured. Nationwide, that number is 47 million, and that was last year, before the recession hit and unemployment numbers started to climb. I have no doubt that it is higher now. […]
Cesarean Risks
Kathy’s article highlights the importance of truly informed consent, and points out the ways that women are swayed (manipulated?) towards opting for repeat c-sections in the name of safety, without being truly informed about the risks on both sides of the issue.
Yet Another Out Of Network Charge
[…] it’s all fine and good for a surgeon to have assistants, but doesn’t it seem that those assistants should be part of the same health insurance networks as the primary surgeon? After all of the effort we went through to make sure that we wouldn’t get hit with another out of network charge, this is frustrating to say the least.
Health Insurance Reform Will Only Work With Cost Controls
[…] without mechanisms for cost control, health insurance premiums aren’t going to become more affordable anytime soon. If the government steps in with subsidies, premiums will go down, but what will happen to taxes? Or other public programs that get cut? We can shift costs around, but unless we lower them across the board, we’re not going to see much relief in terms of health insurance premiums paid by individuals and employers.
Getting Rid Of Underwriting Does Not Contain Health Care Costs
[…] So while reform that involves getting rid of underwriting and requiring everyone to purchase health insurance would help some people, it won’t make much of an impact for the millions of people who can’t afford health insurance, regardless of underwriting. It might end up being a piece of the puzzle, but it’s not going to dramatically expand access to health care.
Medical Mistakes
[…] I believe that most people who become medical providers do so out of a genuine desire to help people. But then they get caught up in paperwork, health insurance regulations, overcrowding and under-staffing, malpractice litigation fears, and a whole range of other things that don’t really have anything to do with providing care. I was struck by how many articles mentioned sincerely listening to patients as advice for providers.
Free Health Care For Some Laid Off Workers
[…] It’s laudable that the clinics are offering free health care at all; they have to structure this in such a way that they don’t end up driving themselves out of business in the process. By requiring that a patient (who might think that a job/health insurance loss is on the horizon) come in for a paid visit first, the clinics will likely boost their revenue in the early phase of this program.
Doctors And Government Health Insurance
[…] Our health care system is built around patients and doctors. Whatever health insurance reforms we consider – here in Colorado, and on a federal level – we need to make sure that we don’t create a system that is so distasteful to providers that they decide they’d rather spend their time doing something else instead of medicine.
What Patients Need
[…] the big disease advocacy groups that are focused on finding cures do provide an important service. But Duncan’s article serves as a reminder that just donating money to a disease advocacy organization isn’t all that is needed. And there are plenty of smaller, lesser-known organizations that are working to address other, more tangible needs that sick people face. […]
Colorado HB 1224 Passes Senate
[…] I would like to see lower utilization of health care across the board. Overall, I think that the focus needs to be on reducing health care costs (which requires addressing all aspects of the health care system, from patients and doctors, to pharmaceutical companies and health insurance carriers) rather than redistributing the costs among men and women.
Colorado Is Not An Island
[…] Imagine a scenario where the rest of the country still has private health insurance combined with public programs like Medicare and Medicaid, but Colorado has universal health care. What would prevent an influx of sick people from moving to Colorado? […]
Paying For An Office Visit
[…] Some people don’t have a car or health insurance, especially in our current economy. Programs like Medicaid and Colorado’s Child Health Plan Plus are very necessary, and I support efforts to expand those programs to more low-income families. But there are people willing to pay more than $150/month for a car, but hate the idea of paying $150 to see a doctor. […]