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 By Dion Lefler
Published by The Wichita Eagle
Posted Nov. 7, 2011

Saying she had benefited as both a small-business owner and a mother, Goddard (Kansas) Mayor Marcey Gregory today pressed Rep. Mike Pompeo to change his view that Congress should completely repeal the national health care law.

Pompeo didn’t back off from his long-held stance that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — which he and other Republicans derisively call “Obamacare” — should be repealed in its entirety.

He did, however, express some support for safeguards against insurance companies denying people coverage.

Goddard Mayor Gregory makes health-care case to Rep. Pompeo | Wichitopekington | Wichita Eagle Blogs

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By JENNIFER HABERKORN | 6/29/11

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld the health reform law’s controversial requirement that nearly all Americans buy insurance, marking a significant win for President Barack Obama in the legal battles over his signature legislation.

The ruling by a three-judge panel — 2-1 in favor of the mandate — is the first from an appeals court on the constitutionality of the law.

The panel included two Republican nominees, who ended up on opposite ends of the opinion. Jeffrey S. Sutton, a George W. Bush nominee and a former clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, is the first Republican-nominated judge to rule in favor of upholding the mandate.

“We find that the minimum coverage provision is a valid exercise of legislative power by Congress under the Commerce Clause,” Judge Boyce F. Martin Jr., who was nominated by Jimmy Carter, wrote for the majority.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/58040.html#ixzz1Qm9FEF2G

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Is Employer Sponsored Health Care the Next Jurassic Park?

By RedBrick Health
If employers have been looking for an exit to employer-sponsored health benefits, they may have found one in the new health reform law. According to the just released employer survey by McKinsey and Company, upwards of 30% of the 1,300 employers surveyed “definitely or probably” will drop health coverage altogether and instead pay the $2,000 per employee government mandated fine.  The flee rate gets even higher when focused on those employers with a high awareness of the new law – more than half (50%+) employers indicating plans to exit health benefits.

Regardless of whether or not the survey findings become reality, the health reform law is likely to have an impact on the landscape of employer sponsored health.  Employers leaning toward getting out of the world of health insurance may feel justified in doing so knowing their employees are ensured affordable coverage options outside of their employment.

Is Employer Sponsored Health Care the Next Jurassic Park? | Health Care Solutions and Benefits Management

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 CHICAGO | Tue Jun 7, 2011

(Reuters) – At least 30 percent of employers are likely to stop offering health insurance once provisions of the U.S. health care reform law kick in in 2014, according to a study by consultant McKinsey.

McKinsey, which based its projection on a survey of more than 1,300 employers of various sizes and industries and other proprietary research, found that 30 percent of employers will “definitely” or “probably” stop offering coverage in the years after 2014, when new medical insurance exchanges are supposed to be up and running.

“The shift away from employer-provided health insurance will be vastly greater than expected and will make sense for many companies and lower-income workers alike,” according to the study, published in McKinsey Quarterly.

Many U.S. employers to drop health benefits: McKinsey | Reuters

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The Affordable Care Act: Immediate Benefits for Hawaii

• Small business tax credits.  18,600 small businesses in Hawaii could be helped by a new small business tax credit that makes it easier for businesses to provide coverage to their workers and makes premiums more affordable.¹  Small businesses pay, on average, 18 percent more than large businesses for the same coverage, and health insurance premiums have gone up three times faster than wages in the past 10 years.  This tax credit is just the first step towards bringing those costs down and making coverage affordable for small businesses.

The Affordable Care Act: Immediate Benefits for Hawaii

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 By Roger Bybee  May 13, 2011

In These Times

Despite its $14.2 billion in profits last year untouched by federal income taxes, General Electric is now demanding that its unionized workers accept a new high-deductible “Health Choice” health savings account plan.

GE’s demands are particularly obscene because it is sitting on $25 billion in savings and is threatening to close more U.S. plants, i.e. move more jobs to Mexico, China and elsewhere. And they’re particularly dangerous because GE is modeling bad behavior for other corporations to emulate.

As UE-GE Conference Secretary Steve Tormey has said, “Nobody is more symbolic of the assault on workers than General Electric.” The United Electrical workers union, one of a handful of unions now negotiating with GE, warned its members:

Corporations, Federal ‘Reform’ Keep Shifting Healthcare Costs to Workers – Working In These Times

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April 28, 2011 By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican plan to privatize Medicare wouldn’t touch his benefits, but Walter Dotson still doesn’t like the idea. He worries about the consequences long after he’s gone, for the grandson he is raising.

“I’d certainly hate to see him without the benefits that I’ve got,” said Dotson, 72, steering a high school sophomore toward adulthood.

The loudest objections to the GOP Medicare plan are coming from seniors, who swung to Republicans in last year’s congressional elections, and many have been complaining at town-hall meetings with their representatives during the current congressional recess. Some experts say GOP policymakers may have overlooked a defining trait among older people: concern for the welfare of the next generations.

“I remember the days when we had poor farms and elderly people on welfare, before we had Social Security and Medicare for seniors, and I’m afraid it will lead right back to that situation,” added Dotson, from the village of Cleveland in rural southwest Virginia.

What’s driving seniors’ Medicare fears? | BenefitsPro

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 April 25, 2011 By Jenny Ivy

Although the cost of claims for employer-sponsored health plans are slightly lower than six months ago, a new study finds these costs are rising at double-digit rates.

Wells Fargo Insurance Services recently surveyed 60 insurance companies between February and March.

Reflecting claim activity over a six-month period, projected increases in the national average cost of claims include

Survey: Claim costs rise for employer plans | BenefitsPro

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Barbour’s Medicaid claims counter facts | BenefitsPro 

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, played fast and loose with his state’s Medicaid enrollment numbers this week as he spoke in Washington and chatted up voters in the early primary state of New Hampshire.

“Our rolls dropped from 750,000 to 580,000 in the first couple of years,” Barbour said Tuesday on Capitol Hill, referring to Medicaid enrollment trends after he took office in January 2004. That would be a 22.7 percent decline.

The problem is, Barbour’s numbers are misleading, according to statistics provided by his own administration.

The Mississippi Governor’s Office Division of Medicaid had a different way of counting Medicaid enrollment under Barbour’s predecessor, Democrat Ronnie Musgrove. The program changed its counting method in 2006, about midway through Barbour’s first term.

Barbour’s Medicaid claims counter facts | BenefitsPro

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By Michelle Andrews

Monday, January 3, 2011

Many expectant parents are pretty savvy these days about making sure that their obstetrician and the hospital where they plan to have their baby are in their health insurance network. Using an out-of-network provider would almost certainly mean higher out-of-pocket costs: The plan might pay just 60 percent of charges, for example, instead of 80 percent or more.

However, fewer parents-to-be realize that they may be in for a nasty surprise if their baby is premature or for some other reason needs special care immediately after birth: The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) personnel at their in-network hospital may be out of network.

Health insurance plans sometimes don’t cover care needed by newborn babies