– President Obama pledged Tuesday night to cure Americans from what he called “the crushing cost of health costs,” saying the country could not afford to put health-care reform on hold.
“This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds. By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes,” Obama said in his speech to a joint session of Congress.
Obama pointed to the increasing number of uninsured Read the rest of this entry »

President-elect Obama is about to take
the reins of the government and officially begin his policy of “Change.” A
central pledge of his campaign: health care reform. But with the economy mired
in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and policy makers
focusing on righting the ship, enacting meaningful reform quickly might seem
unlikely.
As business leaders, we should encourage health
care reform. Simply doing nothing about Read the rest of this entry »

A good percentage of the premiums or catastrophic health insurance amounts is going to health care fraud every year. GAO est of minimum fraud have consistently been in 10% to teens. Comment by Comment by patient – January 27, 2009 at 11:01 pm
This comment leads in a direction mentioned several times here between us: FRAUD. I served on a Federal Grand Jury for 18 months and became intimately involved with details of Medicare/Medicaid Fraud. Most Read the rest of this entry »

pledged on Thursday to work with lawmakers of both parties in a grass roots, ideology-free campaign to revamp the nation’s struggling health care system.
“We will be guided by evidence and effectiveness, not by ideology,” Mr. Daschle told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions after saying that he wanted “to work with each of you” on ways to improve health care for all Americans.
“When Read the rest of this entry »

Like other analysts, Jennings identifies patients with chronic illnesses as the drivers behind increased health care costs. “If we are going to deal with quality, value and cost, we will need to do a better job of prevention and caring for the chronically ill,” he says.
“I can think of no physician group better positioned to make that case than family doctors,” says Jennings, who refers to family physicians as the “first line of defense” in the Read the rest of this entry »

Americans will pay $2.6 trillion for health care this year. According to the Congressional Budget Office, that’s $8,300 per person, or 18 percent of GDP. If we continue on the current course, by 2017 that will rise to $13,000 per person, or 20 percent of GDP.
With so much money being doled out for medical procedures, drugs and the latest devices, it would help to know which treatments, among the myriad possibilities, deliver the best results. But Read the rest of this entry »

Many of those working on health-reform issues in Congress and the new administration were part of the failed effort during the Clinton administration. One of their lessons learned was to make the effort more of an open process — so now is the time for HR leaders to make their views known.
Tomorrow, the nation will enter the era of President Barack Obama. The initial efforts of national health reform are likely to be signed into law before he Read the rest of this entry »

Cue the one-note chorus from Colorado Springs…
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, chaired by Ted Kennedy,
from Health and Human Services Secretary-Nominee Tom Daschle today.
This isn’t a confirmation hearing, but it signals the high priority
that both Congress and the Obama Administration plan to give to serious
health care reform this year.
The prominence of health care on
Washington’s radar even in the midst of Read the rest of this entry »

GATE CITY — A small group of medical professionals met in Scott County last week to take part in nationwide series of meetings initiated by the Barack Obama-Joe Biden transition team to collect ideas for national health care reform.
Held Dec. 26 at Scott County Administrator Rufus Hood’s residence, attendees discussed various ways to solve the nation’s mounting health care problems. After the meeting, those possible solutions were Read the rest of this entry »

Testimony by Grace-Marie Turner, Galen Institute, before the
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, February 24, 2009
There is little debate about the need to make sure that all Americans have the security of insurance that protects them from medical bills they can’t afford and that provides them access to the care they need.  But no part of the health sector, and no one goal, can be considered in isolation from the impact Read the rest of this entry »