Monthly Archive for September, 2009

Page 3 of 13

CBO Estimates for the Gazillionth Time that Public Option Saves Money

by Tim Foley (Universal Health Care – Change.org)

OK, this is just getting plum silly.

You don’t hear as much these days about how giving people the choice of enrolling in a government-administered insurance plan based on Medicare as one of many options in the Exchange marketplace will cause the end of private insurance as we know it (the Congressional Budget Office score predicting only 10-15 million people would enroll in a public option certainly put the damper on that myth). But you do hear all the time from Republicans and so-called moderate Democrats that “we can’t afford a public option.” They’re playing on the confusion that “the public option” is the entirety of health reform, which it certainly is not. In fact, the public option is a net cost-saver.  The Congressional Budget Office confirmed for the umpteenth time today that having it as part of health reform saves money for all of us.

CBO Estimates for the Gazillionth Time that Public Option Saves Money (Universal Health Care – Change.org)

Did you like this? Share it:

White House Announces Grants for Patient Safety, Medical Liability

News digest – Quality/Equality newsroom – Quality/Equality – RWJF

The White House has announced that $25 million in grants is now available for states and health systems to develop, implement and evaluate evidence-based patient safety and medical-liability demonstrations, AHA News Now reports. Starting in 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) will make available grants for demonstration projects aimed at reducing preventable injuries, improving communication between physicians and patients, ensuring fair and timely compensation for injured patients, reducing frivolous lawsuits and reducing liability premiums.

White House Announces Grants for Patient Safety, Medical Liability – News digest – Quality/Equality newsroom – Quality/Equality – RWJF

Did you like this? Share it:

Free Market Healthcare Reform – A Bad Idea

Republicans want a free market solution to health care?

What exactly is that?image026 bird ejecting sh

Why does that idea resonate at all?

Does a free market solution means no direct government involvement in health care?

The United States completely abandoned that position when it adopted Medicare and Medicaid.  Those programs recognize that free market health care doesn’t work if you don’t have money.

Does a free market solution to health care mean that individuals have free choice of doctors?

Where does that exist?  It exists in Medicare – a government plan.  Among those with employer sponsored health insurance, 80% are enrolled in either HMOs or PPOs.  That means that if you don’t get your health care from network providers, you pay a penalty.  Is that freedom of choice?

So are Republicans proposing that the health care system do away with HMOs and PPOs?  If so, I missed it. Continue reading ‘Free Market Healthcare Reform – A Bad Idea’

Did you like this? Share it:

GOP Health Proposals:Opt Out of Medicare « Unsilent Generation

September 25, 2009

The Republican Study Committee, which consist of more than 100 conservative members headed by Tom Price,have set forth a slew of proposals on health care which are sure to be used to protect members on the stump in 2010
The most important of these concerns Medicare, which the Right long has viewed as a foot in the door to socialism.At least two of the RSC committee proposals provide seniors the right to opt out of the program entirely.

GOP Health Proposals:Opt Out of Medicare « Unsilent Generation

Did you like this? Share it:

Business owners address health-care costs

By Stacey Burling   09/25/2009

Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer

After enduring years of rising health-care premiums, Rolf Poeting, who owns a Latrobe glass-etching company, took a step this year he’s not happy about. He stopped offering health insurance that covers the families of his 30 employees.

He knows his workers, who make $25,000 to $40,000 a year, cannot afford coverage on their own. But it seemed unfair that, by providing coverage to spouses who worked at other companies, he was subsidizing owners who do not offer insurance.

Business owners address health-care costs | Philadelphia Inquirer | 09/25/2009

Did you like this? Share it:

Archives

Bloggers - Meet Millions of Bloggers