| More People Taking Advantage Of Health Savings Accounts
New rules governing health savings accounts are making them more attractive to consumers, who can use HSAs to help reduce health insurance costs now - and, potentially, in retirement. Health savings accounts are like individual retirement accounts for health care. They were created by Congress in 2003 so workers could cover some of their medical costs with pretax money if they have high-deductible health insurance plans. The idea is that workers and their employers can fund the tax-free accounts, with withdrawals used for copays at doctors' offices, prescription and nonprescription medicines, and hospital services not covered by insurance. Because unused balances in the HSAs can be rolled over from year to year, some financial advisers are suggesting that the accounts can be a way for families to accumulate money to be used to cover health care costs in retirement, including Medicare deductibles and long-term care insurance.
Healthy living isn't always easy or affordable
Annette Medina didn't know that asking for a raise would mean the end of health insurance for her 11-year-old son, but that's what happened when she started earning an extra dollar an hour. The pay hike, though modest, put her over the limit to qualify for New York state's Child Health Plus plan. The premium to keep her son insured went from $15 a month to $172. That tops the $140-a-month raise - and is more than she can afford. "The way the health system works is not fair. A lot of people want to be working, but they end up having not to work because they want their kids to have health insurance. So they'll work under the table, or at a low salary, just so that they can have the insurance," said Medina, a 40-year-old single mother who supports her son though her job as a medical assistant.
Private health care failing us
Although today is Easter, I'm off to work at my job as a licensed health care provider for the state of California. Hospitals and long-term care health facilities never close. Cops, firefighters, doctors and nurses fill positions to maintain operations 24/7, 365 days of the year.As the population has increased, Temecula officials have invested in additional emergency service personnel, equipment and technology to provide the best protection for city residents. All those remarkable efforts toward public safety come to an abrupt halt where public service meets privatized health care. One reason I chose a career in civil service some 30 years ago was a benefits package that includes health insurance. I'm very fortunate to be able to see my doctor for checkups and have prescriptions filled for a nominal co-payment, but when it comes to care in a local emergency room, I'm playing the waiting game along with everybody else.
GPPI Hosts Roundtable on Universal Health Insurance
Georgetown Public Policy Institute and the O'Neill Institute on Health Law at the Georgetown Law Center will host Getting from Here to There, a roundtable discussion on the renewed interest in universal health insurance, on Monday April 9, 2007. The session will feature presentations by Katherine Baicker of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation, and Jeanne Lambrew of the Center for American Progress, and will be followed by a roundtable discussion by other experts on health finance. The event will take place from 9 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. at the National Press Club. Every year approximately one million people are added to the rolls of the uninsured. As the number of firms offering health benefits declines, growing health costs stymie growth in earnings. Many insured Americans are seeing their benefits dwindle while health costs consume their wages, leaving some unable to pay their medical bills and others going without much needed care.
Lending a helping hand
Christopher Harper said he learned the hard way that medical insurance doesn't cover all expenses when making a home handicapped accessible. They said it was not a medical necessity, Harper learned after making claims to his insurance company. A Blue Cross/Blue Shield spokeswoman said that home improvement projects are not covered under health insurance plans. But an idea from his 16-year-old son, Joey, gave Harper hope that other families won't have to face the same problem. Joey, who has lived with Duchenne muscular dystrophy since he was 6 years old, founded The Wheeled Scotsman Foundation. The nonprofit organization aims to provide families with equipment needed to make a house more comfortable for a person using a wheelchair, Harper said. The installment of pull bars and ramps as well as the widening of doors are all projects the organization hopes to fund.
Texas Children Must Have Health Care Coverage
Nearly 400 Texas physicians, medical students, and hospital leaders rallied state legislators today to pass legislation that would provide health insurance to thousands of Texas children.Physician and hospital leaders from across the state joined state Reps. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston); House Bill 109 author, John Davis (R-Houston); Elliott Naishtat (D-Austin); and Patrick Rose (D-Dripping Springs) to encourage their colleagues to pass HB 109. The bill would restore 12 months of continuous coverage for kids in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), establish a more realistic asset test for working families, and remove the 90-day waiting period for uninsured children.Health care leaders believe restoring the cuts made to CHIP in 2003 is a critical and important first step in reducing the number of uninsured children.
On the road with Gov. Blagojevich
I was probably more surprised than anyone when I was invited to tag along on Gov. Rod Blagojevich's road trip last week. The governor toured the state to push his universal health insurance plan and his gross receipts tax on business. I was on the bus with him for three days, and we talked for countless hours. I had a cordial relationship with Blagojevich back when he was in the Illinois House, but that was a long time ago. Over the years, the governor granted interviews to almost every other news bureau in the Statehouse, but I was excluded. He has visited the editorial boards of every major, and quite a few minor, newspapers in the state -- but I was kept away. During one press conference a few years ago, Blagojevich refused to answer any questions from me at all, so I whispered my questions to a couple of willing Chicago TV reporters who relayed them on my behalf, knowing he couldn't ignore them.
Independence Holding Company Announces Acquisition of Actuarial ...
STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2007--Independence Holding Company (NYSE: IHC) today announced that it has closed on the previously announced acquisition of Actuarial Management Corporation ("AMC"). AMC is a leading, full-service actuarial firm headquartered in Concord, CA that focuses on fully insured health coverage for small groups, individuals and families, short-term medical and employer medical stop-loss. AMC is responsible for all actuarial aspects of IHC's entire book of fully insured health business, but will remain an independent business unit providing services and resources to clients outside the IHC Group of Companies. AMC's team of 19 professionals has extensive experience providing clients in the health insurance industry with development and management services, underwriting and benefit design review, data reporting, compliance support and strategic and tactical management services.
Congress seeks more money for children's health insurance
WASHINGTON -- Congress took the first step Thursday to double the budget for a program running out of money that provides health insurance for 6 million low-income kids. The Senate Budget Committee voted 12-11 to approve $50 billion over five years for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, up from $25 billion. That would allow the program to cover an additional 6 million children. .
Health Insurance Promotions Fair
The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) at Virginia Tech will hold its first Health Insurance Promotions Fair April 9 in the Graduate Life Center Multipurpose Room. Students, as well as members of the community, are being strongly encouraged to attend free of charge. &ldqou;People should come because this is a great opportunity to learn about health care insurance, which is something that everyone needs,&rdqou; said Jiadi Wang, senior biochemistry major at Virginia Tech and AMSA Vice President. The fair is being held to inform individuals about the importance of obtaining health insurance and will feature guest speakers from multiple insurance companies. These speakers will present twice on the day of the event – the first at 2:30 p.m. for students and 3 p.m.
Firms promote workforce health
But the request came from her employer, the Judson Center in Royal Oak, Mich., where she has worked nine years. The nonprofit social services agency is one of 200 companies in the state to sign up for Healthy Blue Living. The Blue Care Network program, started in October, offers enhanced insurance benefits, such as lower co-pays for medical care, to employees and their spouses who commit to healthy lifestyle goals. For now, the program centers on six high-impact health modifications that can contribute to lower health costs: Smoking cessation or at least reduction; alcohol moderation; weight reduction; and diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol management. Lifestyle modification products like these are one of the newest trends in the health insurance industry.
Study Finds Lack Of Health Insurance May Be Associated With ...
The lack of health insurance prompts people to forego routine physical exams and have a reduced awareness of cardiovascular risk factors and is associated with increased rates of stroke and death, researchers have concluded.
A study in the April issue of the Journal of the Society of General Internal Medicine found people without health insurance are more likely to forego routine physical exams and had a higher risk of being unaware of a personal diagnosis of high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol levels - all risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Surprisingly, researchers say, the lack of health insurance did not translate into a higher risk for myocardial infarction, of heart attack.
"We speculate that this may relate to the relative importance of hypertension as a risk factor for stroke, says Angela Fowler-Brown, MD, MPH, the lead author, a physician in the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Florida Health Insurance Consultants Needed For Best Rate Quote
Jean Chatzky of Money Magazine said in a recent interview, "the leading cause of personal bankruptcy is not wasteful spending or reckless investing but unpaid medical bills. Thats surprising, but only until you consider that at any moment some 40 million Americans are without health insurance and another 40 million have experienced a gap in coverage sometime over the past two years." Q: WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? A: With the slow economy, some employers particularly small ones are faced with a choice, they can cut jobs or they can cut benefits. Many, for understandable reasons, opt to cut the latter. If you are laid off, you can often maintain your health coverage for up to 18 months through your former employers plan under a law called COBRA (the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act).
State plan must cover just the basic services
The Oregon Legislature is considering two significant health care reform proposals. Senate Bill 27 and Senate Bill 329 both aim to reduce the number of Oregonians who have no health insurance. Both warrant serious study. The Oregon Office for Health Policy and Research puts the number of Oregonians who, in 2006, did not have health insurance at 575,000, or 15.6 percent of the state population. Who are these uninsured? • Approximately 182,000 of the uninsured have incomes of 2 1/2 times the federal poverty level or less. The health policy office concludes that these people can't afford to purchase health insurance. The Oregon Health Plan, the state's system of Medicaid coverage, essentially uses the federal poverty level as the cutoff point for eligibility. • Approximately 393,000, or 10.7 percent of the state's population, have incomes greater than 2 1/2 times the federal poverty level.
Employer-built ‘wellness’ plans
How much does your company spend on health insurance, and what does it get in return? How would you like to pay $309 per employee per month for a plan with only a $750 deductible, free annual checkups and immunizations, and 90-percent coverage for hospitalizations? If that sounds like an employers dream, its because employers, for the most part, were the ones who put it together, with guidance from Health Insurance Commissioner Christopher F. Kollers office and plenty of feedback from insurers. So when a reporter asked Donald R. Nokes, president of NetCenergy LLC and one of the plans architects, whether he planned to offer this coverage next year, he answered promptly: Oh, absolutely! The new wellness health plans unveiled by Koller last week, which are expected to be available to groups of up to 50 by Oct.
Health to Pay
As health care costs continue to rise, the calls for a single-payer system have become increasingly vociferous. Recent polls have even suggested that many Americans are receptive to the idea. But the arguments from single-payer advocates are riddled with misconceptions and half-truths. A single-payer system would treat a system of America's health care problem, while leaving the problem itself untreated. The most frequently cited statistic by those who favor single-payer health insurance is that the United States has similar or even lower life expectancies than other developed nations, despite spending more on health care as a percentage of GDP. But the use of life expectancy in measuring health outcomes is erroneous. Life expectancy, and overall health in general, is determined by a variety of factors, not merely how much one spends on health care.
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire Introduces Tonik
MANCHESTER, N.H., March 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Comprising almost 17 million Americans, young adults between the ages of 19 and 34 have one major thing in common when it comes to their health care -- they typically choose to go without health insurance. To help address this issue, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire, the state's largest health benefits provider, has introduced "Tonik" a unique health insurance option for New Hampshire's "young invincibles," those who have disposable income, but no health insurance. "Tonik is an important product that allows this growing demographic to purchase coverage on their own terms," said Lisa M. Guertin, president, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire. "Our company asked young people what they were looking for in a health plan, and we listened.
News From USW: USW Condemns Appalachian Regional Healthcare Claim ...
Pittsburgh - PITTSBURGH -- News From USW: Appalachian Regional Healthcare made public a proposed contract yesterday despite the fact that it had promised the United Steelworkers additional information that could significantly change what ARH is offering. "This just isn't right," said Ernest R. "Billy" Thompson, director of USW District 8. He has led negotiations for the 2,700 striking workers in Kentucky and West Virginia since January and said that until yesterday, ARH never gave the steelworkers a comprehensive written proposal, and this one can't be considered complete because ARH has promised USW additional information that may well alter health insurance and other aspects of the document. "They offer us something, then take it back, offer it again later. This is the craziest bargaining I've ever been involved in.
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