News tagged with 'Managed Care'

Americans could be hit with hefty fines for failing to buy health insurance under a new plan put on the table by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) a moderate who heads the influential Finance Committee.

President-elect Obama got an early present fulfilling his promise to provide health care for all children when the House passed a version of SCHIP Wednesday. The Senate tackles its own version next week with immigrant children coverage promising to be a focus of debate.

After a new ruling by the California Supreme Court, consumers will no longer be caught in the middle of fee disputes between their HMO and ER hospitals and doctors.  The HMO and doctor/ hospital will have to work it out on their own without harassing the consumer to pay.

One thing is unlikely to change under the Obama administration: growing support for federally funded community help centers. President Bush has doubled federal financing for clinics which serve the poor and underinsured in urban neighborhoods and rural counties where health care is lacking, reports the New York Times.

A national trade association representing 1,300 member companies such as WellPoint Inc., United Health Group Inc., Humana Inc. and Aetna Inc., has spent more than $1.6 million on lobbying efforts in the third-quarter. Meanwhile Big Insurance and Pharma as well as AMA doctors are expected to show up at meet and greet gatherings with the incoming president.

Cover Florida offers low-cost health insurance to those who have been without for at least six months or whose COBRA payments have run out. It's predicted up to 3 million Floridians could take advantage of the 25 plans which are not subsized by the government.

The Commonwealth Fund's survey of 7,500 from eight countries finds the U.S. spends the most and offers the least for chronic conditions.  82 percent of the uninsured go without care because of the cost, half of the insured. Patients raise the cost for all when they go without care. 

What consumers need to watch out for is contained in this, the fourth in a series of reports on the "Tricks of the Trade" behind the multi-trillion dollar insurance industry. The sick and vulnerable are often the victims of denied or cancelled policies.

Six days and counting and a brief overview is presented here on both candidates health care plans.  Health care and the economy are the top issues. Elizabeth Edwards, who has made health care her top priority, says neither plan offers universal coverage, the cheapest way to go.

Whoever is elected president in two weeks will have to face the realities of "Three Inconvenient Truths" about health care. The current delivery of the least health care for the highest dollar is not sustainable and will impact all other sectors, this Stanford professor of economics explains in a very understandable way. 

Having employer-sponsored health coverage does not necessarily extend to the children in the family, this published study finds. Millions of children are going without insurance, even when one parent is covered.

A hospital in Palm Beach County, Florida  has medical residents in training seeing patients for up to an hour at a time at a low cost. It seems to be working for everyone.

Obama and McCain are looking for a solution to our health care crisis, and now with a $10 million prize, private citizens are being incentivized to do the same. The X PRIZE Foundation along with WellPoint want the public to compete to "make health care available to everybody." 

Injuryboard asks: Is health care a right or a privilege?  Consider the IB Talking Points - More health care is delivered in developed countries for less, while more Americans are going without insurance. Given the realities of today- what direction should we go in? 

Internal medicine is the specialty of last choice among medical students a survey of more than 1,000 finds. Money is the reason. Internists make the least, while specialists can collect a seven-figure salary. Expect the income gap to lead to a health care "crisis" as fewer doctors try to see a doubling of the patient population by 2030.