The recent debate between congress and the president over expansion of SCHIP has mostly been in regards to the total spending increase. The president wants a $5 billion increase, while congress wants to increase the SCHIP budget by $35 billion in order to further expand the federal health insurance program. And it doesn’t appear that… Read more about Taxing Our Vices
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Cavalcade of Risk is up
Investments and Loans hosted this weeks edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. Despite a lot of spam getting submitted, he did a great job of weeding it out and putting together an interesting article of posts strictly related to risk.
Blue Ribbon Commission Now Has Five Approved Drafts
Another draft of a proposal to reform Colorado’s health care system was approved on Monday by the Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform. That makes five proposals that have been approved for consideration so far. The Commission will recommend a final version of Colorado’s health care reform, hopefully within the next few months. The… Read more about Blue Ribbon Commission Now Has Five Approved Drafts
Lose Your Love Handles – $2 Per Pound!
It’s official – people will lose weight when money is the incentive. A new study involving 200 overweight employees at colleges in NC has shown that people lose more weight when promised a monetary reward for pounds lost. And not surprisingly, as the financial incentive goes up, more pounds are shed. At Colorado Health Insurance… Read more about Lose Your Love Handles – $2 Per Pound!
Should SCHIP Be A State Program?
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?
Nearly One In Three Without Health Insurance In Colorado
At Colorado Health Insurance Insider, we have written many times about the number of uninsured Coloradoans. Turns out that there are a lot more people in that group than most estimates show. The US Census Bureau estimates that there are 758,800 people in Colorado without health insurance (this is the number that we typically see… Read more about Nearly One In Three Without Health Insurance In Colorado
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
Clinton’s New Plan
Hillary Clinton has unveiled her plan to fix America’s ailing health care system if she becomes the next president. I was especially curious to see her ideas, since she was the person behind the Clinton administration’s efforts to overhaul the health care system in 1993. Her current proposal is much less oriented towards government-controlled health… Read more about Clinton’s New Plan
Health Care Policy Concerns
In the early 90’s, my parents opened a private psychology practice in Colorado, and obtained individual health insurance for themselves and their four children. The bill was about $200/month. Six years later, when my father decided to switch back to a salaried position, their health insurance bill was nearly $800/month, and by then only my… Read more about Health Care Policy Concerns
Health Care in a Changing America
According the the latest data released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, annual health insurance premiums for an average family on an employer-sponsored plan reached $12,106 this year. That’s a 78% increase in the last six years. In that same six years wages rose by 19%, just barely keeping ahead of inflation, which rose by 17%…. Read more about Health Care in a Changing America
Expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program
New York applied to the federal government recently to expand their State Children’s Health Insurance Program to more families, and the request was denied. SCHIP was designed to provide state and federal subsidies to provide health insurance for children in low income families – an admirable project. Last month, federal guidelines were changed to “refocus… Read more about Expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program
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
Preventive Health Care Getting Campaign Time
Of all the presidential candidates, John Edwards probably has the most personal reasons to put health care front and center in his campaigning. Elizabeth Edwards’ breast cancer battle has been in the news off and on for nearly three years. And although he has admitted that they are lucky to have the best care possible… Read more about Preventive Health Care Getting Campaign Time
SWF, 26, Uninsured, With Breast Cancer
A friend of mine was telling me a story about a lady she knows who has just found out that she has breast cancer. She’s 26 years old and has no health insurance. She earns $17,000/year and has been told that she does not qualify for Medicaid. My friend was asking me if there’s anything… Read more about SWF, 26, Uninsured, With Breast Cancer
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
No Easy Fixes for Health Insurance
It seems that about every third client we talk with here in Colorado is unhappy with the current health insurance system. If you look at the clients with pre-existing medical conditions, nearly all of them have complaints about the system. For people with employer-sponsored coverage, the complaint is that the policy costs too much or… Read more about No Easy Fixes for Health Insurance
C-Sections, Maternal Death, and Health Insurance
According to new government data, maternal death from childbirth is on the rise in the US, up to 13 deaths per 100,000 live births – 30 years ago the rate was 10 per 100,000 live births. The increase is attributed to several factors, including changes in how deaths are reported in some states, increasing maternal… Read more about C-Sections, Maternal Death, and Health Insurance
A Pretty Lady, A Puppy, and Some Daisies
I was heartened today to see this article announcing that the FDA is going to start studying whether “relaxing, upbeat images featured in TV drug ads distract consumers from warnings about the drugs’ risks.” According to the article, drug companies in the US spent $29.9 billion on advertising in 2005 – up 330% from a… Read more about A Pretty Lady, A Puppy, and Some Daisies
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.
How Do We Improve Our Health Policy?
According to recent Census Bureau data, life expectancy for a baby born in the US in 2004 is 77.9 years. Of the 222 countries that the Census Bureau tracks, there are 41 with longer life expectancies, including Guam, Andorra, Macau, and Singapore. Something’s wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the… Read more about How Do We Improve Our Health Policy?
Medical Identity Theft
I was thumbing through some library magazines recently, and came across a facinating article in Good Housekeeping. Medical identity theft is still a very rare crime compared with all the other id theft problems, but apparently it’s growing at an alarming rate. The article is full of horror stories, including a pregnant meth addict who stole a… Read more about Medical Identity Theft
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!
Our 1st Blogiversary
August 9th. One year since we started the Colorado Health Insurance Insider. We were on blogspot for about a month before we decided to host the blog on our website. Last year at this time, we knew a lot about health insurance in Colorado, since that’s our market. But being in the health care blogosphere has… Read more about Our 1st Blogiversary