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Viewpoints: Many weigh in on contraception controversy; NEJM on essential benefits

Critics are missing the larger point. Why should the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decree that any of us must pay for "insurance" that covers contraceptives? ... Insurance is a bad idea for small, regular and predictable expenses. There are good reasons that your car insurance company doesn't add $100 per year to your premium and then cover oil changes, and that your health insurance doesn't charge $50 more per year and cover toothpaste.

10 Feb 2012

State roundup: Iowa ponders HPV awareness program; Md. workers will see pharmacy plan change; Mass. changes saving money for cities

Iowa's health department would launch a $250,000 public awareness program about the human papillomavirus vaccine under a bill approved today by a Senate subcommittee. ... Senate Study Bill 3097 would allocate $250,000 for the program, which includes vaccinations for low-income women between the ages 19 and 26 who have no other health coverage. The bill was approved today by a Senate Human Resources subcommittee and now heads to the full committee for further consideration.

10 Feb 2012

Insurers shift more costs to patients; Washington state insurance commissioner wants to consider surpluses in rate increases

More insurers are shifting a growing amount of the cost of providing care to patients, Kaiser Health News reports. In other insurer news, UnitedHealth will overhaul how it pays doctors, and Washington's state insurance commissioner is asking for permission to consider insurer surpluses when mulling proposed insurance rate increases.

9 Feb 2012

Congress struggles to tackle doc fix, payroll tax cut extension

It's Groundhog Day in Congress, where lawmakers appear to have glimpsed their shadows and are entering a newly intense period of negotiations over whether to extend the payroll tax cut that is shaping up to be remarkably similar to a bruising December fight over the same issue.

9 Feb 2012

On Santorum's big day, GOP candidates hit Romney on contraception rule

Rick Santorum snapped his four-state losing streak Tuesday with wins in three GOP presidential caucuses. Meanwhile, the GOP candidates are hitting front-runner Mitt Romney on the similarity of a rule he presided over in Massachusetts that required even Catholic hospitals to provide the morning-after pill -- comparing it to a recent Obama administration controversy on contraception.

9 Feb 2012

Roundup: State legislatures consider nursing home, insurance exchange bills

Even as Massachusetts business and government leaders celebrate the most modest premium rate hikes in years for small employers and individuals, speakers at a health insurance seminar here yesterday warned that the main trend restraining bigger increases - fewer people seeking health care in the past year - already may be changing.

9 Feb 2012

Obama aides seek to calm storm over contraceptive rule

Administration suggests there may be ways to meet religious groups' concerns but insists that the president is committed to the policy. Sen. Mitch McConnell suggests Congress may change the rule if the administration doesn't.

9 Feb 2012

Viewpoints: Political furor on contraceptive policy; Confusing estimates of Medicare's costs

The political furor over President Obama's birth-control mandate continues to grow, even among those for whom contraception poses no moral qualms, and one needn't be a theologian to understand why. The country is being exposed to the raw political control that is the core of the Obama health-care plan, and Americans are seeing clearly for the first time how this will violate pluralism and liberty.

9 Feb 2012

Legal challenges likely next step as flap over birth control rule continues

News outlets report on the clash between the Obama administration and Catholic leaders.

8 Feb 2012

Obama administration rejects Calif. Medicaid co-pay proposal

The Obama administration said "no" Monday to a California proposal designed to help close a budget gap. Elsewhere, Texas is planning a change to how it pays for charity care in its Medicaid program.

8 Feb 2012

New survey highlights health insurance gaps faced by poor

According to the Commonwealth Fund, low-income adults who were surveyed were less likely to have insurance and to receive medical care including preventive screenings.

8 Feb 2012

States busy implementing local, federal health reforms

Vermont may for the short term allow small businesses to offer low-premium, "bronze" insurance plans. In other news, a N.J. legislative committee approved a bill to establish a state health insurance exchange, and a California plan to move 875,000 children to Medicaid raises concerns.

8 Feb 2012

Communities with small, locally-owned businesses have healthier populations

Counties and parishes with a greater concentration of small, locally-owned businesses have healthier populations - with lower rates of mortality, obesity and diabetes - than do those that rely on large companies with "absentee" owners, according to a national study by sociologists at LSU and Baylor University.

8 Feb 2012

Pointing to health care, contraception policies, Mitt Romney goes on offense against Obama

Romney and GOP presidential primary rival Rick Santorum also trade barbs, while the Associated Press takes a look at Newt Gingrich's ties to lobbying.

8 Feb 2012

Opponents argue the health law 'went too far'

Briefs filed by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business argue that Congress overstepped its constitutional authority when it mandated that individuals buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

8 Feb 2012

State roundup: Mental health problems complicate immigrant detention hearings; Penn. hospital replacing nursing assistants with all RNs

Immigrant advocates say there are hundreds of mentally ill immigration defendants such as [Ever Martinez Rivas], left to fend for themselves without any meaningful protections in court. As with Martinez, their cases are delayed repeatedly while immigration judges struggle to deal with them fairly. A recently certified federal class action suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Los Angeles-based pro bono law firm Public Counsel and other advocacy groups, seeks to address the issue by compelling the government to provide competency hearings, lawyers and bond hearings for defendants such as Martinez.

7 Feb 2012

State roundup: Legislatures, govs juggling costs and health programs

Medicaid spending is a matter of urgency almost everywhere in the country right now, but in few places is the urgency as palpable as it is here, where the governor refers to the federal-state health insurance program for the poor as "welfare," says it's necessary to eliminate coverage for 65,000 adults, and wants to stop paying room and board for some 2,000 elders who live in group homes. All these ideas are part of Republican Governor Paul LePage's plan to close a $220 million hole in the state's biennial Medicaid budget.

7 Feb 2012

Viewpoints: Religious freedom and insurance coverage for contraception

In an election-year hothouse, the issue has quickly become caricatured as the Obama administration's "war on Catholics" versus the Republicans' "war on contraception." It is neither. The administration tried to strike a balance and simply failed. The First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom deserves more weight than the administration allowed.

7 Feb 2012

New report on state of health insurance in California

Hard hit by one of the worst recessions in nearly a century, hundreds of thousands of Californians lost insurance coverage across the state as employers shed jobs and the health plans that came with those jobs, according to a new report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

6 Feb 2012

Dust-up continues over Obama administration's contraception rule

Although administration officials defend the rule and some political strategists see limited political damage, the Catholic Church continues a counterattack.

6 Feb 2012