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Patients need doctors to advise them on health care decisions

"Sick people need to be able to rely on their doctors not just for an expert recital of choices" when it comes to medical treatment, "but also for advice about what to do, and doctors should accept responsibility for the outcome," Marcia Angell, a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and guest columnist for the Boston Globe, writes in an opinion piece.

5 Mar 2007

Call for decent, sanitary housing for recuperating soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center

The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) has called upon Defense Secretary Robert Gates to take immediate action to provide decent, sanitary housing for recuperating soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and to consider moving them to Department of Veterans Affairs facilities closer to their homes.

5 Mar 2007

NYT examines 'gray market' for in-home long-term care aides

Many middle-class families facing the "crushing burden of indefinite home-care expenses" have begun to hire in-home long-term care aides through the "gray market," an "over-the-back-fence network of women," although the practice "is fraught with risks," the New York Times reports.

4 Mar 2007

Bush's health care proposal would increase tax revenues by $526 billion through 2017

President Bush's health insurance proposals for the tax code would increase tax revenues by $526 billion through 2017, according to a preliminary estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation that "is stunningly different from the administration's estimates as well as those from other independent analysts," the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

4 Mar 2007

HHS Secretary proposes creating local health care collaborative to provide cost, quality reports of health care providers

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Wednesday at a breakfast with reporters announced a new proposal to establish local collaboratives to provide public reports on the cost and quality of health care providers as part of an effort to increase health care transparency, CQ HealthBeat reports.

4 Mar 2007

New York Gov. Spitzer defends proposed health care cuts in TV ad

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) on Wednesday began airing a television advertisement defending a plan included in his fiscal year 2007-2008 budget proposal that would reduce state health care spending by about $1 billion, the New York Times reports (Hicks, New York Times, 3/1).

4 Mar 2007

Texas Rep. proposes legislation to increase SCHIP enrollment

State Rep. John Davis (R-Texas) on Tuesday introduced a bill (HB 2049) that would ease SCHIP enrollment restrictions imposed by lawmakers in 2003, the Houston Chronicle reports.

4 Mar 2007

Indiana House rejects cigarette tax increase to fund health care coverage

The Indiana House on Tuesday voted 52-44 against a bill (HB 1008) that would have raised the state's cigarette tax by 25 cents per pack to fund health coverage for low-income, uninsured residents, the Evansville Courier & Press reports.

4 Mar 2007

UNISON condemns NHS pay rise

UNISON has condemned the government's decision to stage the pay rise for NHS staff covered by the pay review body as a "real let down".

4 Mar 2007

British Medical Association slams new settlement as a pay cut for all doctors

The British Medical Association [BMA] today said the 2007-08 settlement for doctors was a pay cut and that UK doctors would feel betrayed and insulted to be offered such a derisory pay deal.

1 Mar 2007

NHS crisis in cabinet's back yard

Every one of the government's 21 elected cabinet ministers faces severe NHS cuts in or affecting their own backyard, according to a new report published by UNISON today.

1 Mar 2007

Proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage plans would lead to higher costs, reduced coverage for beneficiaries

BlueCross BlueShield Association officials at a press briefing on Tuesday said that proposed federal cuts to the Medicare Advantage program could lead to sharp increases in beneficiaries' premiums, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

1 Mar 2007

California Senator Sheila Kuehl reintroduces single-payer health system legislation

California state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D) on Tuesday for the third time introduced legislation (SB 840) that would eliminate health insurers and create a state-run, single-payer health insurance system, the Los Angeles Times reports.

1 Mar 2007

Democrats awaiting MedPAC report to begin discussing Medicare physician payment reform

Members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission on Thursday will testify before House and Senate committees with jurisdiction over Medicare about their annual report, which likely will include recommendations on revisions to the Medicare physician reimbursement formula, the Palm Beach Post reports.

1 Mar 2007

NHS report raises spectre of private sector

UNISON's call for a time-out in the increased use of markets in the NHS has helped raise public awareness of the issue in the run up to this weekend’s NHS Together day of action.

28 Feb 2007

Delays and lack of communication to primary care physicians common after hospital discharge

Primary care physicians often do not receive adequate patient information from the hospital-based physician following discharge, according to a review article in the February 28 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

28 Feb 2007

Pennsylvania could save on health care by working with physicians

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell's (D) proposal to expand health care coverage in the state "goes further" than plans offered by "most politicians," but it does not "target the underlying causes of high cost," including "unnecessary care, financial paperwork, excess prices and fraud," Alan Sager and Deborah Socolar, directors of the Health Reform Program at Boston University's School of Public Health, write in a Harrisburg Patriot-News opinion piece.

28 Feb 2007

Lawmakers discuss plans for SCHIP reauthorization

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) on Monday at a forum co-sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said that Congress likely will have the ability to authorize the $50 billion over five years needed to enroll all children eligible for SCHIP but "hedged on whether it would do so this year or over the next several years," CQ HealthBeat reports.

28 Feb 2007

Automakers' health care costs to exceed savings from concessions

Health care expenses for General Motors and Ford Motor likely will increase at a rate that exceeds savings from health care concessions made by the United Auto Workers in agreements reached in 2005, according to a report issued on Monday by credit rating company Fitch Ratings, the Wall Street Journal reports.

28 Feb 2007

President Bush in weekly radio address promotes proposal to implement standard tax deductions for health insurance coverage

President Bush during his weekly radio address on Saturday promoted his proposal to offer a standard tax deduction for health insurance, Bloomberg/Bergen Record reports.

27 Feb 2007

Healthcare News

Patients need doctors to advise them on health care decisions

Call for decent, sanitary housing for recuperating soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center

NYT examines 'gray market' for in-home long-term care aides

Bush's health care proposal would increase tax revenues by $526 billion through 2017

HHS Secretary proposes creating local health care collaborative to provide cost, quality reports of health care providers

New York Gov. Spitzer defends proposed health care cuts in TV ad

Texas Rep. proposes legislation to increase SCHIP enrollment

Indiana House rejects cigarette tax increase to fund health care coverage

UNISON condemns NHS pay rise

British Medical Association slams new settlement as a pay cut for all doctors

NHS crisis in cabinet's back yard

Proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage plans would lead to higher costs, reduced coverage for beneficiaries

California Senator Sheila Kuehl reintroduces single-payer health system legislation

Democrats awaiting MedPAC report to begin discussing Medicare physician payment reform

NHS report raises spectre of private sector

Delays and lack of communication to primary care physicians common after hospital discharge

Pennsylvania could save on health care by working with physicians

Lawmakers discuss plans for SCHIP reauthorization

Automakers' health care costs to exceed savings from concessions

President Bush in weekly radio address promotes proposal to implement standard tax deductions for health insurance coverage

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