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Facing the Presidential candidates; pollsters say sweeping health reform unlikely in new administration and congress

Despite the prominent role that health care reform is playing in the 2008 presidential election, leading Republican and Democratic pollsters agree that deep partisan divides among voters -- combined with a worsening economy -- may permit only incremental, rather than sweeping, changes to the health care system. The perspectives of political pollsters William McInturff and Celinda Lake are featured in a far-reaching thematic issue on health reform in the May/June 2008 issue of the journal Health Affairs.

13 May 2008

AP/Miami Herald looks at Democratic Presidential candidates' proposed health plans

The AP/Miami Herald on Sunday looked at the health plans proposed by Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.). While likely Republican nominee Sen. John McCain said the Democratic plans would "move closer to a nationalized health system," AP/Herald describes that characterization as "a stretch."

13 May 2008

Business Week examines college-recommended health insurance plans for students

Business Week recently looked at the health insurance market for college students. Some health plans schools recommend for students "turn out to be scanty at best and inferior to comparably priced alternatives" and can "leave families exposed to crippling medical bills they thought they'd protected against," Business Week reports.

13 May 2008

New Hampshire House passes bill to create plan to lower insurance premiums for small businesses

The New Hampshire House on Wednesday voted 259-93 to approve a bill (SB 540) that aims to lower health costs for employees of small businesses, the Manchester Union Leader reports.

11 May 2008

Next U.S. President should establish center focused on development of cures for diseases, opinion piece states

An expansion of health insurance to more U.S. residents -- with "business, patients and government sharing the cost" -- is important, but unless "we find cures, American families will continue to be plagued by costly and debilitating fatal diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's" disease, former Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.), chair of the Democratic Leadership Council, and Al From, founder and CEO of the council, write in a Memphis Commercial Appeal opinion piece.

11 May 2008

New Hampshire House passes bill to create plan to lower insurance premiums for small businesses

The New Hampshire House on Wednesday voted 259-93 to approve a bill (SB 540) that aims to lower health costs for employees of small businesses, the Manchester Union Leader reports.

11 May 2008

Georgia Gov. Perdue signs bill establishing tax exemptions for employer-provided high-deductible policies

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) on Wednesday signed into law two measures intended to make high-deductible health insurance plans more affordable and accessible, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

11 May 2008

U.S. manufacturers spend twice as much as foreign competitors on health care, report finds

U.S. manufacturers that offer health insurance to employees spend an average of $2.38 per worker per hour on health care, substantially more than the amount spent by foreign competitors, according to a report released on Tuesday by the New America Foundation, the Los Angeles Times reports.

7 May 2008

Senate Finance Committee holds first in series of Congressional hearings on U.S. health system overhaul

The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday hold the first of at least eight congressional hearings focusing on strategies to reform the U.S. health care system, featuring testimony by former HHS secretaries Tommy Thompson and Donna Shalala, CQ HealthBeat reports.

7 May 2008

Workers with no healthcare protecting Kaiser Permanente facilities

In the heart of California's leading healthcare provider, Kaiser Permanente, an increasing number of security officers report they either don't have health insurance or can't afford the plan for their families.

7 May 2008

Newspapers examine issues related to health care proposals of Presidential candidates

Several newspapers recently published articles that examined the health care proposals of presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

6 May 2008

Michigan Senate passes bill that would expand, reduce cost of private health insurance

The Michigan Senate on Thursday voted 23-13 to approve compromise legislation that would expand access to individual health insurance policies and make them more affordable, the Detroit News reports.

6 May 2008

Some states to ask Congress to regulate marketing of private Medicare plans

State officials soon will ask Congress to grant them more regulatory authority over the marketing of private Medicare drug benefit and Medicare Advantage plans to respond to continuing complaints of aggressive marketing practices, the New York Times reports. In a draft report by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, state officials propose creating a set of marketing standards for private Medicare plans that states, if they adopt them, would enforce.

6 May 2008

New York lawmakers, HIV/AIDS advocates working to address HIV/AIDS funds for counties

New York state lawmakers and HIV/AIDS advocates are working to address federal HIV/AIDS funding for Nassau and Suffolk counties following a recent ruling that HHS should restore more than $1 million in Ryan White Program funding, the New York Times reports (Saslow, New York Times, 5/4).

5 May 2008

Uninsured kids in middle class have same unmet needs as poor

Nationwide, uninsured children in families earning between $38,000 and $77,000 a year are just as likely to go without any health care as uninsured children in poorer families. More than 40 percent of children in those income brackets who are uninsured all year see no physicians and have no prescriptions all year, according to new research from the University of Rochester Medical Center.

5 May 2008

New SCHIP enrollees have unmet health care needs

Even with prior private health insurance, patients enrolling in the state children's health insurance program (SCHIP) had unmet health care needs. Instituting a waiting period would further prolong these children's need to address asthma and other chronic health conditions.

5 May 2008

Who pays for health care when workers are uninsured?

Health insurance coverage and unpaid health care for full-time workers and their family members without employer coverage costs the U.S. public $45 billion a year, according to a report from The Commonwealth Fund released today.

2 May 2008

Presumptive GOP Presidential nominee McCain provides further detail on his health care proposal

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) on Tuesday in a speech at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa, Fla., detailed his health care proposal and for the first time proposed a plan to help individuals who cannot obtain private health insurance because of pre-existing medical conditions, the Miami Herald reports (Dorschner, Miami Herald, 4/30).

30 Apr 2008

PBS' 'NewsHour' examines effects of Massachusetts health insurance law two years after enactment

PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on Monday reported on how the Massachusetts health insurance law has affected the state's fiscal situation and uninsurance rates.

30 Apr 2008

U.S. unemployment having impact on kids' health care coverage

Two new studies conducted by researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center point to the negative impact of parental job loss on children's healthcare and the importance of having continuous health insurance coverage to meet children's healthcare needs and reduce healthcare disparities.

30 Apr 2008

Health Insurance News and Research

Facing the Presidential candidates; pollsters say sweeping health reform unlikely in new administration and congress

AP/Miami Herald looks at Democratic Presidential candidates' proposed health plans

Business Week examines college-recommended health insurance plans for students

New Hampshire House passes bill to create plan to lower insurance premiums for small businesses

Next U.S. President should establish center focused on development of cures for diseases, opinion piece states

New Hampshire House passes bill to create plan to lower insurance premiums for small businesses

Georgia Gov. Perdue signs bill establishing tax exemptions for employer-provided high-deductible policies

U.S. manufacturers spend twice as much as foreign competitors on health care, report finds

Senate Finance Committee holds first in series of Congressional hearings on U.S. health system overhaul

Workers with no healthcare protecting Kaiser Permanente facilities

Newspapers examine issues related to health care proposals of Presidential candidates

Michigan Senate passes bill that would expand, reduce cost of private health insurance

Some states to ask Congress to regulate marketing of private Medicare plans

New York lawmakers, HIV/AIDS advocates working to address HIV/AIDS funds for counties

Uninsured kids in middle class have same unmet needs as poor

New SCHIP enrollees have unmet health care needs

Who pays for health care when workers are uninsured?

Presumptive GOP Presidential nominee McCain provides further detail on his health care proposal

PBS' 'NewsHour' examines effects of Massachusetts health insurance law two years after enactment

U.S. unemployment having impact on kids' health care coverage

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