Feb 9 2014
Meanwhile, groups seeking to enroll young people in coverage use techniques honed in political campaigns, and critics of the law call on consumers to take more responsibility for their health.
The Associated Press: Administration Said To Ponder Insurance Extension
The Obama administration is considering an extension of the president's decision to let people keep their individual insurance policies even if they are not compliant with the health care overhaul, industry and government officials said Thursday. Avalere Health CEO Dan Mendelson said Thursday that the administration may let policyholders keep that coverage for as long as an additional three years, stressing that no decision has been made. Policymakers are waiting to see what rate hikes health insurers plan for the insurance exchanges that are key to the overhaul's coverage expansions (Murphy, 2/6).
The Associated Press: A Scramble To Sign Up The Young By Health Deadline
Armed with an Apple laptop and a pile of fliers, [Daniel Bransfield's] part of the army of workers and volunteers fanned out around the country trying to enroll young - and probably healthy - people in health insurance available through President Barack Obama's signature law. Run largely by groups with close ties to the White House, the on-the-ground recruiting effort is based in part on lessons learned from Obama's two presidential bids, which revolutionized the way campaigns tracked and targeted voters (Pace, 2/7).
NBC News: Obamacare Foes To Newly Insured: Put Down The Donut
Commentators like Sandy Pukel, a nutritionist from Coral Gables, Fla., have joined a chorus of scolds who say that expanded access to insurance is just another example of an eroding code of personal responsibility in America. "If you're going to go eat donuts and drink Coke and eat crap, you're setting yourself up to be sick," said Pukel, 68, who operates a line of healthy "food cruises." ... Focusing on the expansion of insurance under Obamacare misses the point, supporters say. People with insurance have always paid for the uninsured, whether it's through direct subsidies, higher premiums or higher costs to cover uncompensated care (Aleccia, 2/6).
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 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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Plant-based diets could curb climate change and infectious diseases, experts say