Archive for the ‘health care reform’ Category

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North Carolina Still Lacks Employee Health Plan Decision

April 26th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in health care reform, health insurance

The state legislature in North Carolina went home for the weekend last Thursday without coming to an agreement on the cost of health insurance for state employees, teachers, or retired persons. At that point they were already outside the deadline that had been given.

Earlier last week, Governor Beverly Perdue vetoed a proposal that would require all active employees to pay a monthly premium for their own health insurance for the first time in state history. As a result, a new insurance bill is required.

Last Wednesday, the North Carolina House approved a measure to retain an insurance option for those workers that did not include a monthly premium, but Republicans in the state Senate didn’t like the fact that it would cost roughly $16 million in state funding over two years. The vetoed plan had been designed to close a $515 million likely shortfall between expenses and revenues through mid-2013.

Speaking about the issue, Senator Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson) said, “It just wasn’t acceptable to our caucus at this point, so there’s no reason to stay around.” Apocada was the chief sponsor of the bill that Governor Perdue vetoed.
Apocada added that there have been several new options presented, including one that gives retirees also covered by Medicare an option without premiums, but that there hadn’t been enough time to negotiate with the House.

Jack Walker, Executive Administrator of the North Carolina State Health Plan told legislative leaders that he would be moving ahead with July 1 enrollment plans based on the cost of premiums as of last Thursday afternoon. House Speaker Thom Tillis (R – Mecklenburg) explained that the delay will probably mean a second enrollment period once new premiums have been determined.

Last week, Governor Perdue explained that the biggest factor that went into her decision to veto the bill was that teachers – and specifically the North Carolina Association of Educators – were not involved in the original negotiations.

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In Brief: AZ Governor Vetoes Health Care Bill

April 21st, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in health care reform, health insurance

Earlier this week Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona vetoed SB 1592, a bill which directed the Governor to form specific compacts with other states on behalf of Arizona, in order for citizens there to purchase health care insurance across state lines.

Her, reason, she wrote in her veto letter, included the fact that directing the governor to sign such an agreement would violate the separation of powers requirement outlined in Article 3 of the Arizona constitution.

While Governer Brewer was wielding her veto stamp, she also vetoed Arizona’s so-called “birther” bill, which would require political candidates to provide specific documentation (beyond their short-form birth certificates) in order to appear on ballots in the state, and another bill that would have authorized students to carry guns on campus.

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Excerpts From President Obama’s Speech About the Budget

April 14th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in health care reform, health insurance

Yesterday, President Obama made a speech about his plan for sensible budget reform. As health care is one of his pet issues, and one we believe is vitally important, we were pleased to hear his views on that subject.

What follows are a two numbered excerpts from the speech:

1. “Our approach lowers the government’s health care bills by reducing the cost of health care itself.

“Already, the reforms we passed in the health care law will reduce our deficit by $1 trillion. My approach would build on these reforms. We will reduce wasteful subsidies and erroneous payments. We will cut spending on prescription drugs by using Medicare’s purchasing power to drive greater efficiency and speed generic brands of medicine onto the market. We will work with governors of both parties to demand more efficiency and accountability from Medicaid. We will change the way we pay for health care — not by procedure or the number of days spent in a hospital, but with new incentives for doctors and hospitals to prevent injuries and improve results. And we will slow the growth of Medicare costs by strengthening an independent commission of doctors, nurses, medical experts and consumers who will look at all the evidence and recommend the best ways to reduce unnecessary spending while protecting access to the services seniors need.”

2. “But let me be absolutely clear: I will preserve these health care programs as a promise we make to each other in this society. I will not allow Medicare to become a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry, with a shrinking benefit to pay for rising costs. I will not tell families with children who have disabilities that they have to fend for themselves. We will reform these programs, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment this country has kept for generations.”

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Friday Film Strips: Government Shutdown Over Planned Parenthood

April 8th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in friday filmstrips, health care reform, health insurance

As you probably know, there’s a threat of a government shutdown if a budget isn’t agreed to by midnight tonight. One of the issues is funding for Planned Parenthood, but it’s NOT about abortion because there are already laws preventing Planned Parenthood from using government funds for such procedures. De-funding Planned Parenthood would remove access to birth control, cancer screenings, and other health care for low-income women around the country.

But don’t take my word for it. Watch this week’s video:

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Retiree Reinsurance Program Sent into Retirement

April 4th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in health care reform, health insurance

In all the talk of budget changes and healthcare reform, there are a number of health insurance-related programs not getting much media attention. ModernHealthcare.com recently reported on one of them: the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, a section of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that gives money to employers to assist in offsetting the medical costs of retired employees between the ages of 55 and 64 (as well as their spouses and dependents) will be retired itself as of May 5th, 2011.

This program, which is a $5 billion entry in the budget has, so far, paid out almost $1.8 billion of reimbursements to more than 1,300 businesses across the country.

The program is scheduled to terminate completely by January 2014, with no new applications from employers after May 5th of this year. Last October, payments began to be sent to plan sponsors for claims that were incurred after June 1 of last year.

The largest amount of money, so far, has been given to AT&T ($140 million), and the United Auto Workers Retiree Medical Benefits Trust ($206.8), with other recipients including Boeing, UPS, and BP North America. 97% of those funds were used to help reduce the amount of money early retirees had to pay for healthcare. Employers which are part of the program are allowed to choose to use these funds to offset retiree’s health care costs, company health care costs, or a combination of the two.

While payouts were made to companies in all fifty states, the highest percentage of the monies went to employers in the state of Michigan, which received $320 million.

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Louisiana Says No to Insurance Exchanges

March 29th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in alternative health plans, health care reform, health insurance

Governor Bobby Jindal and the state legislature in Louisiana have decided to opt out of the creation of a state insurance exchange as outlined in the federal health insurance overhaul, choosing to let the federal government administer the program.

Bruce Greenstein, Secretary of the State Department of Health and Hospitals, has confirmed this decision, and said that with it, Lousiana has become the second state to so decide.

The exchanges are insurance markets meant to allow consumers to choose a subsidized private insurance plan from a range of coverage options and levels. The deadline to have them all up and running, whether they’re run by the states or by the feds, is 2014.

Greenstein believes that federal officials haven’t provided enough detail about how the exchanges should be run. He also said he thinks insurance premiums will go up under the new system, and if that happens he doesn’t want the state government to take the blame.

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52 Million American Adults Uninsured in 2010, Study Says

March 16th, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in health care reform, health insurance

Want to hear something really scary? A new study says that roughly twenty percent – or nine million out of 43 million adults who lost jobs in the last two years – ended up without any health insurance, and that nine million represents 57 percent of everyone who lost their insurance when they lost their jobs, at least according to the healthcare research and reform advocacy group The Commonwealth Fund.

Further data from the study showed that 25 percent of people who lost their employer-sponsored health insurance were able to find other coverage, while 14 percent paid COBRA premiums to keep their job-based coverage. For many others, however, 16 million out of an estimated 26 million adults who tried to buy health insurance on the individual insurance market in the last three years found it difficult or impossible to find coverage they could afford, and 9 million said they were either turned down or charged more because of an existing health problem, or had a pre-existing condition excluded from their new policy.

The data gets worse. According to the survey 52 million American adults had no health coverage at some point in 2010 while the number of uninsured adults was only 38 million in 2001. The most likely people to be uninsured were adults in families with low-to-moderate incomes (under $44,100/year for a family of four) with 54 percent of lower income adults and 41 percent of moderate income adults being uninsured, while only 13 percent of adults with higher incomes lacked insurance coverage.

Further information from the survey says that 73 million people were either paying off medical debt or were having trouble paying medical bills, while 25 percent of adults with chronic conditions either skipped regular medications, or skipped filling a prescription.

Sara Collins, the author of the study and vice president of the Commonwealth Fund, explained, “The survey shows that over the last decade, increasing numbers of people across the income spectrum went without health insurance, avoided timely health care because it was too expensive, and struggled with medical debt. Millions of working families reported making difficult trade-offs between paying off their medical debt, buying other life necessities, and saving for the future.”

Collins also said that last year’s federal health care reform laws will, “…ensure that families will have the financial means to get the health care that they need, both in good economic times and bad.”

Well, unless the Republicans in Congress don’t kill it.

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