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. […]
Health Care Goodies
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. […]
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.
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. […]
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. […]
The Conscience Clause And Access To Healthcare
[…] Instead of requiring doctors to provide services that go against their moral beliefs, why not work to make sure that every community has providers who will perform a wide range of reproductive services? If clinics like Planned Parenthood get adequate funding, doctors practicing nearby could invoke the conscience clause without depriving the community of medical services.
Doctors and Patients and Healthcare Reform
[…] Our system doesn’t reward doctors who spend time with their patients. Instead it rewards doctors who see the most patients in the least amount of time (writing a prescription for an antibiotic is a good way to move patients along). Expecting change to come from patients isn’t fair. But it’s also not fair to expect change to come from the medical profession as a whole until we make some changes to how doctors are reimbursed for the services they provide.
Medical Home Pilot Program
[…] I’m curious to see what the outcome is for the IBM/United medical home pilot program. We work with United Healthcare here in Colorado, and are eager to see if United can come up with a program that would ultimately lead to lower healthcare costs (and thus lower health insurance premiums). If the pilot is successful, I imagine we’ll see other health insurance companies implementing similar medical home programs.
New Ideas In Healthcare Cost Management
[…] spreading healthcare costs over a large population doesn’t do anything to lower the actual cost of healthcare, and might be seen as putting a layer of paint on a crumbling wall. I’m not quite as quick to discount this idea, although I agree with Jaan that more needs to be done than simply increase the number of people paying into the health insurance system.
Government Research And Health Care
[…] There are plenty of people who advocate a free market approach to health care, and are complaining that the government shouldn’t be allowed to dictate that a particular treatment isn’t cost effective. But private health insurance does exactly the same thing. They don’t pay for unproven treatments, and it wouldn’t make sense for them to do otherwise […]
HB 1256 Not Really A Benefit To Consumers
[…] The Colorado Insurance Commissioner regulates the health insurance market in Colorado to make it as beneficial as possible for consumers. Opening the health insurance market to allow for out of state plans to be sold here in Colorado would mean that consumers might end up with lower quality health insurance products, regulated by another state’s rules. […]
Maybe A Chronically Ill Person Could Become President
[…] A presidential nominee with a chronic illness might very much appeal to voters looking for someone would would make health care reform a priority. The perspective of living with a chronic illness would likely make a president much more sympathetic to the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance and no realistic access to health care.
Tough Times For Health Care Reform
[…] everywhere I look these days, the outlook seems pretty bleak. I wonder how many of the optimistic ideas that were tossed about during last year’s campaign will be scrapped for the time being. Hopefully the people who don’t have health insurance (and all the people who are at risk of joining them) will not become a forgotten minority.
The Real Price Of Brand Name Prescription Meds
[…] If a rep presents a new med to a doctor, mentions that it’s a whiz-bang drug, and brushes the cost off by saying something like “it’s a brand name drug, but the copays on brand names are usually only about 20 bucks more than generics” the fact that the drug actually costs more per month than most car payments will probably not factor into the doctor’s prescribing decisions. […]
Women And Healthcare
[…] If you’re up for a little controversy, PalMD at White Coat Underground has written about conscience clauses that allow medical providers to refuse to to provide care if it conflicts with their personal beliefs. A very good point raised in the article and comments is that the conscience clauses tend to be invoked in matters of reproductive health. […]
Salaries For Healthcare Executives
[…] With other private industries, we have more of a choice in terms of quality, price, and whether we want the product in the first place. Somehow it doesn’t feel right that healthcare is set up just like all of our other industries, with executives making 7 and 8 figure salaries while millions of Americans are without health insurance and don’t have realistic access to healthcare at all.