health care costs

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Insurance Group Bashes Baucus Bill With Report

White House betrayed by 'hatchet job' predicting cost hikes

(Newser) - The White House is steamed this morning over a report, sponsored by the insurance industry, saying the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill would cause premiums and costs to rise. The report was commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group that has until now supported reform...

Soda Tax Deserves to Fizzle
 Soda Tax Deserves to Fizzle 
OPINION
Sep 30, 2009 1:39 PM CDT

Soda Tax Deserves to Fizzle

It won't help fat people, or poor people, but will line gov't coffers

(Newser) - Taxing soda is at best a stupid idea and at worst a cynical ploy by a money-grubbing government, writes Katherine Mangu-Ward for Reason. Here's why:
  • Sin taxes don't work: "None of the nickel-and-dime proposals on the table is large enough to discourage soda drinking," Mangu-Ward writes. "And
...

Premiums Likely to Soar Under Obamacare

(Newser) - Current health care legislation would require every American to buy health insurance, but would do little or nothing to control the skyrocketing premiums they’d have to pay, the LA Times reports. Versions of the bill try to address the problem indirectly—with a public option in the House bill...

Sometimes a Bad Bill Is Good Enough
Sometimes
a Bad Bill Is Good Enough
opinion
Sep 18, 2009 10:26 AM CDT

Sometimes a Bad Bill Is Good Enough

Reformers must see Baucus' effort as starting point: Krugman

(Newser) - Progressives will soon face their "long-dreaded moment of truth" on health care reform, Paul Krugman writes in the New York Times. Any bill that emerges is bound to disappoint, and "the question is where to draw the line," he explains. "How bad does a bill have...

40% of Employers to Hike Health Plan Costs Next Year

Another 8% to drop coverage entirely, survey reveals

(Newser) - Many Americans are happy with their employer-sponsored health care plans and eager to keep them, but they won't be keeping them at the current price, the Washington Post reports. In a survey released yesterday, some 40% of employers said they expect to increase the amount their employees paid for health...

America Needs to Embrace Death
 America 
 Needs to 
 Embrace 
 Death 
OPINION
Sep 13, 2009 1:26 PM CDT

America Needs to Embrace Death

Lowering health care costs means cutting unnecessary end-of-life treatment

(Newser) - Nobody wants to talk about rationing health care, but “the need to spend less money on the elderly at the end of life is the elephant in the room in the health-reform debate,” Evan Thomas writes in Newsweek. To expand coverage and lower costs, Americans must overcome their...

To Cut Health Costs, Fix the Food Industry

Obesity 'accounts for nearly a tenth' of health-care spending

(Newser) - There’s an “elephant in the room” when it comes to health care reform: American health care costs a bundle in large part because we’re so fat, writes Michael Pollan for the New York Times. President Obama has touched on the issue, but the country hasn’t, and...

Forget Health Reform&mdash;We Can't Afford It
Forget Health Reform—We Can't Afford It
OPINION
Sep 10, 2009 8:50 AM CDT

Forget Health Reform—We Can't Afford It

The economy should be Obama's top priority: Henninger

(Newser) - Barack Obama makes health care sound like the most pressing issue in American life, but with unemployment at 10% and the country still officially in recession, Daniel Henninger wonders why he's "draining a dwindling reservoir of presidential capital." The cost of health care may be a problem for...

More Americans Think They Can Cover Health Costs: Poll

But uninsured far less likely to think they can pay medical bills

(Newser) - One reason more Americans may not be backing President Obama's health care overhaul: increasing numbers of citizens say they don't need help. A Reuters poll shows that the percentage of Americans who think they can pay for medical treatments rose 12 points since March, with the wealthy feeling more confident...

Current Care Kills More Than 'Army of Death Panels'

System 'takes lives and breaks apart families'

(Newser) - Despite screeches that a government-run health care program will bump people into an early grave, "it’s a good bet that our existing dysfunctional health system knocks off far more people than an army of ‘death panels’ could, even if they did exist," writes Nicholas Kristof in...

No, Joe, We Can't Put Off Health Care
No, Joe, We Can't Put Off Health Care
OPINION
Aug 26, 2009 10:18 AM CDT

No, Joe, We Can't Put Off Health Care

Procrastinating will only inflate costs in the long run

(Newser) - Joe Lieberman recently opined that, given our deficit woes, we should wait to reform health care, saying “There’s no reason we have to do it all now." Well, he’s dead wrong, writes David Lazarus of the LA Times. Without reform, costs will keep going up, and...

Is Teddy's Care Too Costly for Real Reform?

(Newser) - Edward Kennedy’s terminal illness has become a powerful symbol in the health care debate, Politico reports, though not necessarily in the way the Massachusetts senator would like. Although Kennedy recently wrote that he wants all Americans “to get the same treatment that US senators are entitled to,”...

Health Reform's Enemy No. 1? Seniors

(Newser) - Scan the ranks of health care reform malcontents at your local town hall, and you’ll notice a lot of older faces. With Democrats aiming their sales pitch mostly at middle-class Americans and the uninsured, seniors have come to fear that Medicare, their own beloved government-run health care, will face...

Ambinder: Town Halls Backfiring on Conservatives

(Newser) - Only a week ago, it seemed that conservatives had all the momentum in the fight against health care reform. Now, it's clear "they ramped up too quickly," writes Marc Ambinder in the Atlantic. The first town hall activists were "itching for a fight," and "the...

Obama Takes On Rationing, 'Death Panel' Rumors
 Obama Takes On Rationing,  
 'Death Panel' Rumors 
health care town hall
Aug 11, 2009 1:21 PM CDT

Obama Takes On Rationing, 'Death Panel' Rumors

(Newser) - Barack Obama took the stage in New Hampshire today to set the record straight about Democratic health care reform efforts. Though the crowd was all applause, Obama took on the raucous protests that have characterized recent town halls. “Let's disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations,...

Health Care Opponents Aren't (All) Crazy
Health Care Opponents Aren't (All) Crazy
OPINION
Aug 11, 2009 12:12 PM CDT

Health Care Opponents Aren't (All) Crazy

They aren't 'delusional' for equating reform with fewer choices

(Newser) - There are definitely crazy black helicopter watchers amongst the screaming masses of health care foes, but most of the people filling town halls are “confused and concerned Americans,” writes Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post. “And they have a point.” Robinson’s a self-proclaimed “true...

GOP 'Flat-Out' Lying About Health Care
 GOP 'Flat-Out' Lying 
 About Health Care 
OPINION
Aug 7, 2009 9:17 AM CDT

GOP 'Flat-Out' Lying About Health Care

Republicans trying to scare US out of discussion

(Newser) - When it comes to health care reform, Republicans have become “political terrorists,” trying to scare Americans in an effort to block consensus, writes Steven Pearlstein for the Washington Post. “There is no credible way to look at what has been proposed and conclude that these will result...

A Digital Pill a Day May Keep the Doctor Away

Wireless monitoring aims to cut visits and billions in health costs

(Newser) - As Congress debates ways to save on health care, Silicon Valley has an idea of its own: cutting costs through wireless technology, the Wall Street Journal reports. One startup has built a tiny, edible chip that attaches to pills and keeps track of whether patients are taking their medication. Remote...

Costs Soar as Docs Order and Perform Tests
Costs Soar as Docs Order and Perform Tests
investigation
Jul 31, 2009 12:25 PM CDT

Costs Soar as Docs Order and Perform Tests

Fishy practice highlights challenge of medical regulation

(Newser) - As Congress wrestles with health-care reform, studies show it’s tough to regulate the status quo: Doctors’ “self-referrals” for medical imaging have continued despite efforts to legislate against them, the Washington Post reports. Doctors who own the equipment that scans patients stand to make more cash—and tend to...

Why Congress Won't Face the Fat Problem
 Why Congress Won't 
 Face the Fat Problem 
analysis
Jul 30, 2009 11:10 AM CDT

Why Congress Won't Face the Fat Problem

Lawmakers fear giving US 'bad news'—especially while munching Doritos

(Newser) - Congress is “in denial” on one key health issue: obesity, writes Lisa Lerer for Politico. Obesity-related illnesses reportedly cost $147 billion, or 10% of medical spending, last year—and lawmakers say they’re focused on cost-cutting. But, experts say, “no one wants to tell Americans the bad news....

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