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Corporations, Federal ‘Reform’ Keep Shifting Healthcare Costs to Workers

May 16, 2011
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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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What’s driving seniors’ Medicare fears? | BenefitsPro

May 2, 2011
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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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Survey: Claim costs rise for employer plans | BenefitsPro

April 28, 2011
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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

April 19, 2011
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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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Health insurance plans sometimes don’t cover care needed by newborn babies

January 6, 2011
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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

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News-- Tags: Health insurance, hospital networks, neonatal care, out of network, physician networks.