THURSDAY, Feb. 5 (HealthDay News) — Last summer, Keith Blessington had just been told that he was eligible for private health insurance to replace his government-funded COBRA coverage when it ran out.
Then, the 55-year-old New Hampshire resident was diagnosed with late-stage stomach cancer, and everything changed.
Although the COBRA coverage paid for most of the cost of his initial surgery, by the time he got out of the hospital having had half Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – The number of Americans
without health insurance could rise by almost 10 million to 54
million in a decade if lawmakers fail to quickly enact policies
that rein in costs and expand coverage, Congress’ top budget
analyst said on Wednesday.
Douglas Elmendorf, director of the non-partisan
Congressional Budget Office, told the Senate Finance Committee it
may be decades before costs savings are realized from any overhaul
of Read the rest of this entry »

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which is aimed at families earning too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance, currently covers close to 7 million youngsters at a cost of $25 billion.
Lawmakers voted 66 to 32, largely along party lines, to renew the joint state-federal program and spend an additional $32.8 billion to expand coverage to 4 million more children. The expansion would be paid for Read the rest of this entry »

Washington (dbTechno) – A new report released this week by Families USA has revealed that a program known as COBRA, which helps unemployed people with health insurance, simply costs too much.
Families USA, the non-profit group, has reported that the COBRA program is simply too expensive.
COBRA is the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985.  The idea behind it is to help workers and families retain their health insurance if they Read the rest of this entry »

Expansion Of SCHIP Passes, Millions Of Kids Get Health Insurance
Washington (dbTechno) – The Senate has agreed with the House and has approved an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), supplying millions of low-income children with health insurance.
The Senate voted 66-32 in favor of the expansion of the childrens’ health insurance program.
The idea is to help families who earn too much money to fall Read the rest of this entry »

A new study by the New York State Health Foundation shows that about one-third of enrollees in the state’s public health insurance programs, including Child Health Plus, Family Health Plus, and Medicaid lose their coverage because they fail to complete the annual re certification process.
Joining with Lake Research Partners, NYSHealth worked to identify the barriers and possible solutions to simplify the process. Senior VP David Sandman says efforts Read the rest of this entry »

For Mathson, who is undergoing chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had knee surgery in September, the news got worse last week. The mill, which shut down, informed him it could no longer afford to offer health or welfare programs to any employees or retirees as of Jan. 1.
Two years short of Medicare eligibility and beset by health problems, Mathson’s options for health care are limited and expensive.
“There is insurance out there, but they’re Read the rest of this entry »

FORT WAYNE, Indiana (AFP) — For many among the growing ranks of unemployed workers in the United States, the scariest part of losing their job is losing their health insurance.
Even before the current economic crisis, 45 million Americans were uninsured. That number is expected to rise to 54 million by 2019 if changes aren’t made to the system, according to the director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
One of the swelling Read the rest of this entry »

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WASHINGTON (AP) — It will get vastly cheaper for most people to keep health insurance after losing a job if the government’s stimulus plan becomes law. Some nickel and dime cuts in health coverage for the poor will be reversed, too. Geek jobs in medicine will grow.
The billions to be poured into health care from the economic stimulus package will do little if anything about the chronic conditions behind the nation’s stubbornly large ranks Read the rest of this entry »