Health Reform News and Research

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Health Research Institute presents top 10 issues in the upcoming year

PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute's Top 10 Health Industry Issues in 2010, puts healthcare cost control at the head of the list as the overarching theme for the year ahead.

17 Dec 2009

Proposed health care legislation to set new standards in employer-based insurance system

If proposed health care legislation is enacted, it would set new standards in the employer-based insurance system. Approximately 18.4 million Californians and 161 million Americans under the age of 65 rely upon employer-based insurance for their health care coverage.

17 Dec 2009

The White House reject Dean's challenge to Senate health bill

USA Today: A White House spokesman today said President Obama rejects the call by former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean to defeat the current Senate health care bill. Dean, "a physician who also was Vermont governor, said on national television Wednesday he believed legislation in the Senate would now benefit the insurance industry more than it helps Americans struggling to gain health coverage or pay for it."

16 Dec 2009

Obama: Government 'will go bankrupt' without health reform

ABC News: "President Obama told ABC News' Charles Gibson in an interview that if Congress does not pass health care legislation that will bring down costs, the federal government 'will go bankrupt.'"

16 Dec 2009

Obama 'cautiously optimistic' on reform after meeting with Senate Democrats

President Obama told Senate Democrats Tuesday in an hour-long meeting that they are on the "precipice" of health reform and said that he was "cautiously optimistic" that health reform would get done, the Los Angeles Times reports. "President Obama, acknowledging that he will have to accept serious compromises in the passage of a healthcare overhaul, insisted today that he would not let the public down on an issue that he had made the centerpiece of his first-year domestic agenda."

16 Dec 2009

A selection of today's opinions and editorials

On the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to take on the drug industry by allowing Americans to import cheaper prescription medicine. "We'll tell the pharmaceutical companies 'thanks, but no, thanks' for the overpriced drugs. ... On Tuesday, the matter came to the Senate floor -- and President Obama forgot the "no, thanks" part (Dana Milbank, 12/16).

16 Dec 2009

On and off Capitol Hill, politicians are taking positions on health bill

Roll Call: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Tuesday said she does not believe that the Senate Democratic health care reform bill will garner her vote, despite significant changes that are likely to be made to rid the bill of a public insurance option and an expansion of Medicare. Democrats have regarded Collins, along with fellow moderate Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, as potentially persuadable on the bill.

16 Dec 2009

Senate Democrats trying to push health reform bill ahead

The Associated Press: "History may be calling but time's running out to act by Christmas, so Senate Democrats are coming to terms with the idea they won't get everything they want from health care overhaul. ... The public plan liberals hoped for appeared dead in the Senate, as did a Medicare buy-in scheme offered as a fallback."

16 Dec 2009

Reid assures Medicare Part D 'doughnut hole' will be closed

CBS News: "With the clock ticking on Senate Democrats' efforts to draw up a health care bill they all can agree on before the end of the year, Senate leaders on Monday said they would commit to providing seniors with better prescription drug coverage through Medicare." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged to close a gap -- known as the "doughnut hole" -- in Medicare's drug coverage.

16 Dec 2009

Liberals agitated by compromise, but appear to back health reform

Politico reports that liberals are accruing a long list of reasons to be upset about the health reform negotiations: "A single-payer plan, a public option, a state 'opt-out' of the public option, a trigger and a Medicare buy-in — all ideas pushed by Democrats and blessed by [President] Obama at various times but now gone from the bill."

16 Dec 2009

Poll: Public cooling to health reform as debate drags on

"As the Senate struggles to meet a self-imposed, year-end deadline to complete work on legislation to overhaul the nation's health-care system, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds the public generally fearful that a revamped system would bring higher costs while worsening the quality of their care," The Washington Post reports. "A bare majority of Americans still believe government action is needed to control runaway health-care costs and expand coverage to the roughly 46 million people without insurance."

16 Dec 2009

First Edition: December 16, 2009

Kaiser Health News staff writer Mary Agnes Carey explores some of the key issues within current health reform proposals related to Medicare and cost. "In an effort to rein in health costs, Senate Democrats are proposing steps that would give federal agencies more power to overhaul how Medicare pays for medical care - and thus reduce Congress' own role in running the giant program for the elderly" (Kaiser Health News).

16 Dec 2009

Consumer Watchdog calls for preserving state authority, ban on annual benefit limits and effective rate regulation

Consumer Watchdog condemned the removal of the Medicare buy-in provision for those over 55 and the public option from the U.S. Senate health reform bill. But the group said that the Senate must still make three essential fixes to the greatly weakened bill to prevent ceding the entire health care system to the insurance industry.

16 Dec 2009

Pharmaceutical manufacturers controlling health reform debate, Senate disallows prescription drug import

The failure of the U.S. Senate to allow importation of prescription drugs to cut costs, much less the more effective direct bulk purchasing of prescription drugs, is just the latest example of how big industry controls the health reform debate, according to Consumer Watchdog.

16 Dec 2009

CDHPs deliver quality and accessible health coverage at lower costs

As overall medical costs continue to increase by double digits annually, medical costs for individuals in account-based consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs) went down 26% over four years, while levels of care for their preventive medicine, chronic disease management and evidence-based treatments were higher than their counterparts in traditional PPO and HMO health plans, according to a new multi-year study of health care claims experience of 655,000 CIGNA customers.

16 Dec 2009

Prostate cancer tests promised but not delivered

Men's Health Network calls on Congress to ensure that healthcare reform does not override the prostate cancer testing benefit currently required of insurance companies in 37 states.

16 Dec 2009

White House report says health reform will cut cost growth

The New York Times: The chair of the White House Council of Economics Advisers said Monday that the Senate health care reform bill would slow the grown of spending by 1 percent each year. "I want to tell you that what's going on on the floor of the Senate right now is probably the most important thing we can do for the long run fiscal health of this country," said Christina Romer, according to the Times.

15 Dec 2009

News outlets check the facts and explain health care reform

MarketWatch/The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on "the five biggest myths about health reform" -- that reform would lead to a government takeover of health care, that it would ration care, that it wouldn't address "out-of-control" growth, that you could keep your insurance if you like it, and that changes would be better suited piecemeal instead of by one large bill.

15 Dec 2009

A selection of opinions and editorials

In the Senate debate over health care reform, our priority should be to lower costs for American families and small businesses (Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, 12/14).

15 Dec 2009

Questions raised on health bills' affordability, cost savings

The Wall Street Journal: "The health-care bills moving through Congress contain little to reward consumers for lowering their health costs, an omission prompting some lawmakers to press for more such incentives. Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) is proposing amendments to the Senate bill that would give people who are eligible for coverage through their employer the option of buying cheaper coverage from the new insurance exchanges -- and pocketing the difference."

15 Dec 2009