health insurance

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Daschle Will Play Hardball on Health Reform

Incoming HHS Secretary will avoid Hillary's pitfalls

(Newser) - Tom Daschle, Barack Obama's incoming Director of Health and Human Services, has an aggressive strategy for reforming health care, and no intentions of seeing it fizzle the way the Clintons' efforts did in 1993, reports the Los Angeles Times. The key will be reeling in major health-care interest groups, along...

Abortion Foes: Cut Funding for Flush Planned Parenthood

They seek to keep the nonprofit from getting public funds

(Newser) - Abortion opponents’ newest strategy includes lobbying state and local governments to cut public funding for Planned Parenthood, the Wall Street Journal reports. Religious conservatives have taken to arguing that the organization is running a surplus and doesn’t need public dollars, which account for a third of the nonprofit's budget....

Laid-Off Workers Stuck With Mega-Medical Bills

Abrupt loss of coverage leaves massive bills behind

(Newser) - As firms collapse and abruptly cut off insurance, some laid-off workers face staggering medical bills without any clear way to pay for them, the Wall Street Journal reports. In many cases, workers rush to take care of medical needs upon hearing their employers are going under, only to find those...

Daschle Begins Push to Reform Health Care

Would-be secretary will ask Americans to contribute ideas

(Newser) - Although his nomination as health secretary hasn't yet been announced, Tom Daschle is already beginning his push for a comprehensive overhaul of the system, the Wall Street Journal reports. In a speech today, Daschle will emphasize that the economic downturn makes it all the more important to lower health care...

Now You Can Buy Insurance for Insurance

Think you'll lose health coverage? Firm will insure your right to it

(Newser) - Healthy and insured but afraid you might someday lose your medical coverage? UnitedHealth has just launched a new product that lets consumers pay now for the guarantee that they’ll be able to get insurance later—even if they get sick, the New York Times reports. Critics are skeptical of...

Signs of Consensus Emerge on Universal Health Care

Government action is needed, but plan details remain murky

(Newser) - Washington is approaching a broad consensus: It’s time for the government to step in to create universal health care, the Los Angeles Times reports. Both left and right have abandoned pet plans in favor of a middle ground that maintains the current employer-based system, while driving down costs and...

Critics Rip Gender Gap in Health Insurance Charges

Advocates call for an end to higher premiums for women

(Newser) - Health advocates and some politicians are crying foul over the huge price difference between men's and women's health insurance, the New York Times reports. Healthy young women are regularly charged up to 50% more than their male counterparts, even when maternity care is excluded. The practice is prohibited under job-based...

Docs Stop Taking Insurance, Offer 'Boutique' Care

More doctors offer "boutique" care to make ends meet, provide better service

(Newser) - Increasing numbers of doctors are bagging the insurance model to offer much better service to fewer patients, at a much higher cost, the Baltimore Sun reports. Many doctors are struggling to pay their own bills, and the quality of service they offer patients is suffering. But such “boutique” care...

Tight Budgets Pinch Health Care Spending

As consumers prioritize, medical expenses lose out

(Newser) - Yet another casualty of the recession could wind up being an irreplaceable one: Americans' health. Consumers are increasingly skipping doctor visits and skimping on prescription meds, the Wall Street Journal reports. "It's hard to get people to follow up when they're having to decide between the gas bill, the...

Insurers Balk at Paying for Autism Therapy

Schools now foot the bill, but advocacy group pressing for change

(Newser) - A national autism advocacy group is pushing insurance companies to pick up the tab for intensive new therapies now footed by local school districts, the Boston Globe reports. They say the rising number of autism cases will swamp school budgets and make it unlikely that kids will get the help...

US Health Costs to Rise 5.7% in '09

Insurance costs go up for 4th straight year

(Newser) - Get ready for another increase in co-pays and deductibles. A survey being released today found that 59% of employers intend to keep down rising health care costs by sharing them with workers. Costs will go up by an average 5.7% for both parties next year, rising faster than inflation...

Ranks of Uninsured Drop by 1M
 Ranks of
 Uninsured
 Drop by 1M
Aug 26, 2008 1:11 PM CDT

Ranks of Uninsured Drop by 1M

Poverty rate unchanged, median incomes rise

(Newser) - There were a million fewer uninsured Americans last year, the first annual decrease under the Bush administration, according to Census Bureau data released today. Median household incomes also rose slightly for the third consecutive year, while the nation’s poverty rate held steady at just over 12%, AP reports. The...

Medicare Fudged Fraud Figures: Report

Claims to have cut bogus charges overstated

(Newser) - Medicare's boasts of having reduced fraud by billions are misleading, a draft report obtained by the New York Times finds. Auditors were told to ignore procedures that would have accurately measured fraudulent claims for medical equipment, the draft report says.   Proper methods would have revealed an estimated $2.8...

Mass. Trumpets Success of Health Mandate

Under new law, state says 75% of uninsured are now covered

(Newser) - About 75% of Massachusetts residents who had been uninsured now have health coverage, thanks to the state’s closely watched, near-universal health care mandate, says a new report from Gov. Deval Patrick. Nearly half of the 439,000 newly insured bought private insurance, rather than taxpayer-funded plans, the Boston Globe...

In Sickness and for Health Insurance

Health benefit concerns force couples into marriage and divorce

(Newser) - Health insurance worries are pushing a growing number of Americans both into and out of marriages, the New York Times reports. Couples in which one party has better health benefits are marrying hastily as medical needs outweigh any doubts about each other. One survey this year found health insurance was...

New Databases Share Test Results, Prescriptions

Info used to assemble health 'credit reports'

(Newser) - The prescriptions and medical test results of more than 200 million Americans are being assembled into commercial databases, the Washington Post reports, which then sell health "credit reports" to insurance companies trying to evaluate whether to accept an individual for coverage. The companies not only disclose drug and test...

McCain, Aides Often Part Ways on Policy
McCain, Aides Often
Part Ways on Policy
ANALYSIS
Jul 31, 2008 2:10 PM CDT

McCain, Aides Often Part Ways on Policy

Politico documents the differences

(Newser) - Much has been made recently of John McCain’s difficulty in driving a message from his “eclectic and occasionally politically inconvenient hodgepodge of policy positions,” Politico says, but little has been said about how often the candidate’s top aides disagree with him. And while fewer public disagreements...

Obama Health Care Cure May Prove Elusive

Quick reform isn't likely, say analysts

(Newser) - In a campaign that has made several big promises, perhaps Barack Obama's most ambitious vow is that he will bring down health care premiums by $2,500 by the end of his first term as president. But whether he can deliver that is an open question, writes the New York ...

Mac Speechless on Fiorina Birth Control Slip

Can't say how he thinks insurers should handle contraceptives

(Newser) - A full day after the blogosphere was lit up over Carly Fiorina’s decidedly un-conservative suggestion that health insurers should cover birth control, John McCain still had no comment when asked about it, the Wall Street Journal reports. And a decidedly awkward no-comment, at that:
  • McCain: “I certainly do
...

Employers Use Law to Withhold Benefits

Think you're covered? Not if your company decides you're not

(Newser) - Thomas Amschwand was dying, but made sure his wife would collect on his $426,000 life insurance policy. Yet when he died, his boss withheld the money, and his wife was powerless—because a federal law stops workers from suing employers for large sums of health, life, or retirement benefits....

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