Health Insurance Reform

The Democratization of Health Care: Medicare and Original Intent

Gary Puckrein | Posted 05.18.2012

Read More: Social Security, Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Health Insurance Reform, Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform, Politics News

When government launched the Medicare program, it made a pact with the American people that President Lyndon Johnson articulated (his statement) at th...

Read Post

Supreme Court Health Care Ruling Could Mean Life Or Death For Some

AP | RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR | Posted 05.18.2012

Read More: Supreme Court, Video, Health Care Law, Obamacare, Supreme Court Obamacare, Health Care Mandate, Supreme Court Health Care, Health Care Reform, Uninsurables, Supreme Court Health Care Case, Individual Mandate, Health Insurance, Health Care, Health Insurance Reform, Politics News

WASHINGTON — Cancer patient Kathy Watson voted Republican in 2008 and believes the government has no right telling Americans to get health insur...

Read Whole Story

The Democratization of Health Care: Private Insurers and the Diabetes Epidemic

Gary Puckrein | Posted 05.01.2012

Read More: Health Care Reform, Affordable Care Act, Health Insurance Reform, Diabetes Epidemic, Healthcare Financing, Diabetes Care, Health Insurance, Health Insurance Market, Politics News

Diabetes is a national disaster, and private insurers and their clients do not have the capacity to respond to it. They have a role to play, but government is the only structure in our society that can design market stimuli on the scale required.

Read Post

Health Insurance and Strip Searches: The Public as Constitutional Thinkers

Peter J. Woolley | Posted 04.05.2012

Read More: Frank Newport, Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, US Supreme Court, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Rights, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Health Insurance Reform, Pollster, Pollster Analysis, Politics News

Only small segments of the public pay substantial, sustained attention even to high-profile cases like this one, never mind the particulars of the full reach of the interstate commerce clause, or whether requiring health insurance is akin to mandating consumption of broccoli.

Read Post

How You'll Be Affected If The Supreme Court Overturns Health Care Reform

Reuters | Posted 03.29.2012

Read More: Supreme Court, Obama Care, Medical Insurance, Health Care Law, Reuters, Supreme Court Health Care, Affordable Care Act, Health Insurance, Medicare, Health Care, Health Insurance Reform, Money News

(The author is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.) By Mark Miller CHICAGO, March 28 (Reuters) - Ordinary Americans ...

Read Whole Story

Coming Soon: The End of Health Insurers As We Know Them -- By Self-Inflicted Wounds

Wendell Potter | Posted 05.05.2012

Read More: Obamacare, Health Care Reform, Affordable Care Act, Cigna, Health Insurance, Aetna, Humana, Health Care, Health Insurance Reform, Mark Bertolini, Insurance, Politics News

Now you know why more than 50 million of us are uninsured. It is not because most of those people are being irresponsible. Most of them either can't afford to buy coverage or can't buy it at any price.

Read Post

The Democratization of Health Care: Whose Money Is It?

Gary Puckrein | Posted 04.17.2012

Read More: Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform, Affordable Care Act, Health Insurance, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance Reform, Essential Benefits, Politics News

Perhaps we should leave it to the conscience of the worker to determine what legal, medical products and services they use without subordination to their employers' faith or personal predilections.

Read Post

The Burr/Coburn Medicare Plan: 10 Deceptions - and a Free-Market "Death Panel"

Richard (RJ) Eskow | Posted 04.17.2012

Read More: Tom Coburn, Ron Wyden, Alice Rivlin, Richard Burr, Ryan Plan, Coburn/Burr, Joe Lieberman, Medicare, Independent Payment Advisory Board, Insurance, Death Panels, Health Insurance, 112th Congress, Medicare Reform, Health Insurance Reform, Politics News

Burr and Coburn want you to believe that they can raise the Medicare eligibility age, make you pay more in premiums, turn your health care over to the same insurers that are bankrupting you before you're sixty-five -- and that somehow you'll save money!

Read Post

Even the Catholic Bishops Should Bless This Health Insurance Mandate

Wendell Potter | Posted 04.14.2012

Read More: Ahip, Health Care Reform, Affordable Care Act, Health Insurance, Health Care, Health Insurance Reform, Catholic Bishops Health Care, Health Insurance Clear Summary, Health Care Clear Summary, Politics News

While the media was obsessing about the contraceptives controversy, the Department of Health and Human Services unveiled a final rule that even the Catholic bishops should support.

Read Post

U.S. Bans Health Insurance Company Fine Print, Allows Baffling Terms

HuffingtonPost.com | Jeffrey Young | Posted 02.09.2012

Read More: Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Obamacare, Kathleen Sebelius, Health Care Costs, President Barack Obama, Health Insurance Reform, Business News

The Obama administration aims to demystify shopping for health insurance and has created a standard form that explains in plain language without the f...

Read Whole Story

Will Patients Beat Blue Shield Again... This Time With the First Online Ballot Petition for Rate Regulation?

Jamie Court | Posted 04.09.2012

Read More: Insurance Rate Hikes, Health Insurance, Blue Shield, Ballot Initiative, Consumer Watchdog, Health Insurance Reform, Video, California Justify Rates, Politics News

Shouldn't the CEOs of health insurance companies like Blue Shield have to sign under penalty of perjury that their rate hikes are justified? Californians will vote on that proposition in November, and are almost sure to approve.

Read Post

Health-Care Reform's Fate Won't Alter Health Care's Larger Problems

Steve Jacob | Posted 04.07.2012

Read More: Health Insurance, Health Care Reform, Obamacare, Health Care, Health Care Costs, Affordable Care Act, Health Insurance Reform, Politics News

The overarching goal of health care reform was to attempt to ensure affordable access to health insurance and medical care for most Americans. It barely touches skyrocketing health-care costs and accelerates primary-care physician shortages.

Read Post

It's a Crime to Deny Our Care

Richard Kirsch | Posted 04.04.2012

Read More: Insurance Companies, Tea Party, Health Care, Occupy Wall Street, America?S Affordable Health Choices Act, Health Insurance Profits, Health Care Reform, Obama Health Care, Health Insurance Reform, Politics News

The public hates health insurance companies. They believe they are greedy and put profits before people's health. This is personal for people, so many of whom have their own health insurance horror stories.

Read Post

Sporadic Health Insurance As Bad As No Health Insurance: Study

The Huffington Post | Jillian Berman | Posted 01.05.2012

Read More: Video, Poverty, Preventative Healthcare, U.S. Health Care, Business News, Americans Sporadic Health Insurance, Diabetes, Health Insurance, Diabetes Prevention, Health Insurance Reform, Business News

When it comes to preventative care, having on-and-off health insurance might be as bad as not having it all. A study of diabetics by the Kaiser Per...

Read Whole Story

Med Mal Caps Hurt Patients

Shirley Svorny | Posted 01.23.2012

Read More: Medical Malpractice Caps, Health Insurance, Insurance, Jobs Through Growth Act, Medical Malpractice, Health Insurance Reform, Politics News

Placing caps would reduce malpractice insurers' incentives to oversee physician practice patterns and reduce incentives to manage risk in our health care system, and make health care that much riskier for all of us.

Read Post

Governors Group To Facilitate Health Care Exchange Talks

HuffingtonPost.com | John Celock | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: State-Insurance-Regulators, State-Health-Care-Exchanges, Video, Governors and Health Care, Health Care Exchanges, State Health Departments, State and Local Government, Health Care Reform, National Governors Association, Health Insurance, Obama Health Care, Health Insurance Reform, Politics News

The National Governors Association will be helping six states facilitate discussion on the creation of health care exchanges, which are required to be...

Read Whole Story

Supremes Will Uphold Obamacare to Keep Insurance Market from Collapsing

Wendell Potter | Posted 01.17.2012

Read More: Supreme Court, Tort Reform, Obamacare, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Anthony Kennedy, Gallup, Health Care, Health Insurance Reform, Supreme Court Obamacare, Supreme Court Health Care, Politics News

Moderate conservative Anthony Kennedy will, I'm confident, recognize that without the law, the free-market system of health insurance, so highly valued by conservatives, will implode, sooner rather than later.

Read Post

Health 2.0: Innovators, Opportunists and Delusionals

Dave Chase | Posted 12.07.2011

Read More: Clayton Christensen, Clayton-Christensen, Arthur Schopenhauer, Arthur-Schopenhauer, Laura Tyson, Health Insurance, Health Care, Laura-Tyson, Health Insurance Reform, Technology News

Health 2.0 just had its largest ever event, with 50 percent more attendees than their previous largest event. A number of companies launched during th...

Read Post

Study: As More Workers Are Employed Part-Time, Fewer Are Insured

Posted 12.06.2011

Read More: Video, Uninsured, Health Care Reform, Department of Labor, Business News, Part-Time Jobs, Joblessness, Health Insurance, Health Care, Unempoyment, Uninsured Workers, Health Insurance Reform, Business News

More than one-fifth of employed Americans lack health insurance, according to a recent survey, and that number is may be poised to grow as more worker...

Read Whole Story

Premiums Skyrocketing Where Health Insurers Have Their Way With State Legislators, As in Maine

Wendell Potter | Posted 12.06.2011

Read More: Health Care Reform, Paul Lepage, Health Insurance, California, Jerry Brown, Health Insurance Reform, Maine, Paul Lepage Health Insurance, Health Insurance Maine, Maine Health Insurance, Health Care Costs, Health Care Costs Maine, Politics News

It would be hard to find a state where the investment in campaign contributions by the insurance industry has paid better dividends than in Maine.

Read Post

Downturn May Provide Relief In Employer Healthcare Costs

Posted 11.21.2011

Read More: Affordable Care Act, Employer Health Care, Employee Health Care, Economic Downturn, Health Insurance, Preventative Healthcare, Health Care, Health Insurance Reform, Video, Business News

The economic downturn may provide businesses with an unexpected benefit: A bit of relief in employer health care costs. Health care benefit costs ...

Read Whole Story

Who's Cost-Shifting Now?

Deane Waldman | Posted 11.07.2011

Read More: Obama Healthcare, Healthcare System, Healthcare Spending, Health Care Cost-Shift, Health Insurance, Healthcare Reform, Health Care, Moral Hazard, Healthcare, Health Insurance Reform, Politics News

Everyone agrees that healthcare spending is out of control and the cost spiral is unsustainable. The cure for this sickness seems, however, elusive.

Read Post

Doctor Shortage? No Problem

Jim Jaffe | Posted 09.10.2011

Read More: Health Care Reform, Medicare, Health Insurance Reform, Medicare Advantage, Doctor Shortage, Health Care, Doctor Shortages, Medicare Reform, Politics News

In medicine, supply creates demand. Show me an area with more hospital beds and I'll show you one with higher hospital utilization that doesn't improve population health status.

Read Post

Giving Americans Better Health Insurance Choices

Sec. Kathleen Sebelius | Posted 09.09.2011

Read More: Health Insurance, Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services, Health Care, Insurance Exchanges, Health Insurance Reform, Obama Health Care Reform, Politics News

Bipartisan support for Exchanges isn't surprising. When they are up and running, state Exchanges will save money for their residents by making the health insurance market more competitive and accessible, a goal that leaders from both parties can get behind.

Read Post

Despite New Health Law, Americans To Keep Job-Based Coverage

Posted 08.21.2011

Read More: Healthy Living Health News, Employer Health Reform, New Research, Employer Health Insurance, Health Insurance Reform, Business News

Even though the number of Americans with health insurance through employers has declined, most will continue to get coverage through their jobs af...

Read Whole Story