News Clips

Seizing on the momentum of the presidential election and the promise of change on a historic scale, a grassroots "conversation" about health care reform under the Obama administration began Thursday with town hall meetings around the nation, including several in the Bay Area.
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Faced with widening budget shortfalls, several states are rolling back support services for the elderly and disabled. The move is making it tougher for them to continue living on their own, advocates say.
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The effort to overhaul the nation’s health system will begin next year with one clear advantage over previous attempts: A wide variety of interest groups are rooting for it to succeed rather than plotting to kill it.
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The health insurance industry said Wednesday that it would support a health care overhaul requiring insurers to accept all customers, regardless of illness or disability. But in return, the industry said, Congress should require all Americans to have coverage.
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The median deductible required by Kansas City area employers for employees to participate in preferred provider organization health plans jumped to $1,000 this year from $500 last year.
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Experts say the nation’s hard times may paradoxically quicken a sweeping reform of the healthcare system.
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Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), making his second appearance on Capitol Hill since he began treatment for a malignant brain tumor in June, told reporters yesterday that he would advance a bill early next year calling for universal health care.
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Gov.-elect Jay Nixon won a landslide victory this month by calling for the state to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in human capital — health care, education and jobs.

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More than two months before he is sworn in, Barack Obama already is facing a Congress busily asserting itself on the timing and details of the president-elect’s agenda, including major issues like healthcare and economic policy.
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Congress and the Obama administration should end the two-year wait that people deemed too sick to work by the government face before qualifying for Medicare, lawmakers and leading advocacy groups said Wednesday.
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Without waiting for President-elect Barack Obama, Senator Max Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, will unveil a detailed blueprint on Wednesday to guarantee health insurance for all Americans by facilitating sales of private insurance, expanding Medicaid and Medicare, and requiring most employers to provide or pay for health benefits.
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The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday will release a sweeping proposal to overhaul the health-care system that largely reflects President-elect Barack Obama’s vision, increasing the chances for action next year.
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The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee intends to push Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system during the first six months of next year.
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A proposal that proponents say would improve the health care provided to low-income and vulnerable residents via the Missouri Department of Social Services was outlined Tuesday in Joplin.
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Four leading advocacy groups representing business, labor and retirees are starting a campaign today to press Barack Obama to enact comprehensive healthcare reform, upping the pressure on the president-elect to tackle the issue quickly after he takes office.
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Health care providers and mental health workers packed a hearing Monday in Springfield to testify how bad they think Mo HealthNet managed care would be for southwest Missouri families.
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Democratic governor-elect Jay Nixon campaigned on a pledge to reverse Missouri’s Medicaid cuts. But that is likely to be easier said than done.
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In the first of an expected avalanche of post-election regulations, the Bush administration on Friday narrowed the scope of services that can be provided to poor people under Medicaid’s outpatient hospital benefit.
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Health care played a big role in the presidential campaign. But the administration will face a tough choice: try for a wide-ranging systematic overhaul -- an approach that failed when President Bill Clinton tried it in 1993 -- or make do with piecemeal fixes.
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Health insurers are priming themselves to gain new business from policy changes likely to be approved with Democrats in control of Washington.
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Approximately eight of 10 Americans say they fear that the ongoing global financial meltdown might affect their ability to pay their medical bills, according to the results of a poll produced by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.
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Mo HealthNet Director Dr. Ian McCaslin will conduct four hearings, including one Nov. 10 in Springfield, to start the conversation about whether Mo HealthNet "Managed Care" should come to some 21 southern counties.
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Striking new evidence has emerged of a widespread gap in the cost of health insurance, as women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies providing identical coverage, according to new data from insurance companies and online brokers.
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If McCain is elected president next week, he has said, he would work to remove the tax preference for company health benefits and offer Americans tax credits to put toward any health plan they choose.
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Obama says he would keep the familiar arrangement in which most Americans get health insurance through their jobs, as Massachusetts is doing.
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Economic troubles are forcing states to scale back safety-net health-coverage programs — even as they brace for more residents who will need help paying for care.
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Both presidential candidates say their plans would provide health insurance to millions of people who lack it. The problem is cost: With the federal budget deficit growing, Congress is likely to look at more limited and incremental moves to expand coverage.
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Forget Joe the plumber. Many Americans are wondering what the presidential candidates’ health-care plans would mean for them.
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Advocates and health professionals in Missouri are hailing a mental health parity bill signed into law Oct. 3 as part of the federal government’s economic bailout legislation.
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Whether you survive after a serious accident may depend on your race and your health insurance, a new study concludes.
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Working Americans once could rely on employer-based benefits. But more people are being forced into the individual market, where coverage is costly, bare-bones and precarious.
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Insured parents don’t necessarily mean insured kids.
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Both candidates promise to address the issue. Both say their plans would help as many as 200,000 people, primarily by leveraging federal money.
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From Park Avenue dental offices to the Arlington Free Clinic, the global economic crunch is forcing a growing number of Americans to scale back on medical care.
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John McCain’s health plan would reduce the ranks of the uninsured by about 21.1 million people if fully put in place by 2010, while Barack Obama’s would reduce the number by 26.6 million, an analysis predicts.
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A new report from the Census Bureau provides a detailed analysis of the uninsured population in the U.S., providing breakdowns by state, county, and demographic groups, the Denver Rocky Mountain News reports. For the study, researchers at the bureau’s Small Area Health Insurance Estimates division used 2005 data from all states across gender, age and income.
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More than one-third of all Americans will soon receive better insurance coverage for mental health treatments because of a new law that, for the first time, requires equal coverage of mental and physical illnesses.
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Both presidential candidates want to make health insurance available to more Americans, but each has proposed a vastly different route to reform, a new report shows.
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Springfield hospitals are experiencing increases in the number of patients who come in without health insurance and in the amount of money they are unable to collect each year.
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Health insurance premiums for federal employees will jump almost 8 percent, on average, in 2009, a sharp increase over the 2.9 percent increase this year and the 2.3 percent increase in 2007, the Office of Personnel Management announced yesterday.
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Even as Washington and Wall Street debate the best way to avert an economic disaster, increasing numbers of Americans are struggling with another financial crisis: the growing burden of unpaid medical bills.
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Members of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee and the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday at separate hearings discussed aspects of overhauling the U.S. health care system amid broader economic troubles and "the massive revenue drain likely to result from an expected congressional bailout of the nation’s stricken financial system," CQ HealthBeat reports.
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The cost of health care far outpaced the workers’ earnings in Missouri from 2000 to 2007 according to a national report.
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Congress on Tuesday moved close to final approval of a bill that would require group health insurance plans to provide more generous coverage for treatment of mental illnesses, comparable to what they already provide for physical illnesses.
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Health insurance premiums rose a modest 5 percent this year for coverage that’s getting skimpier, researchers say.
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As energy and the economy consume more of the country’s political discourse, health care is an issue that can seem to vacillate in importance by the day, the place and the audience.
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The Democratic presidential nominee is proposing a National Health Insurance Exchange that would be like a government-run shopping mall for health insurance.
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Candidates for Missouri governor clashed Thursday over health care, jobs and college costs in the first of four debates planned before the Nov. 4 election.
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It’s a one-two punch for many states. First comes the expense of adding thousands of unemployed to its Medicaid rolls. Then comes the decline in revenue that stems from a struggling economy. Together, the combination has dozens of states looking for some relief, preferably from the federal government.
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Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden told a packed gymnasium of largely union, working-class voters Tuesday that one of their key benefits, employer-provided health care, is at risk if Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin win in November.
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Republican Kenny Hulshof unveiled his health-care plan late last month amid predictions that it would help nearly all 729,000 uninsured Missourians acquire health coverage at modest cost.
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For the first time since President Bush took office, the number of uninsured Americans fell—from 47 million in 2006 to 45.7 million in 2007—mostly due to an increase in enrollment in government health coverage programs, reports the Los Angeles Times.
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A survey being released Thursday by the Mercer consulting firm found 59 percent of companies intend to keep down rising health care costs in 2009 by raising workers’ deductibles, copays or out-of-pocket spending limits.
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The cost of health care and insurance, debated and discussed although not resolved at the state and federal levels, is more than just a grumbling point among Missouri consumers.
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Economic issues — rising unemployment, falling home prices, high gas prices and more — are weighing heavily on people’s minds this year. So is health care, which also is an economic issue.
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In a week, Floridians will get details about a state plan designed to improve access to health care for about 4 million uninsured adults in the state. Nine companies submitted proposals in August for Gov. Charlie Crist’s "Cover Florida" program, but the state won’t reveal specifics about the plans until Sept. 8.

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The pioneering Massachusetts program to provide health insurance for all citizens looks more and more successful with each passing month.
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For the uninsured, urban medical schools are one of the largest parts of an unraveling safety net that includes community programs, local health centers and city-run free clinics.
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Major inequalities in health and life expectancy persist worldwide, according to an independent World Health Organization commission which on Thursday called for all countries to offer universal health care.
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Health care "may be taking a back seat" at the Democratic National Convention but "liberal activists are fighting to make sure it is center stage during the presidential campaign," The Hill reports.
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Massachusetts has the highest rate of residents with health insurance in the nation, according to a federal report released yesterday that provides fresh evidence of success in the state’s bold experiment to insure nearly everyone.
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USA Today examined how many of the 1.6 million baby boomers at age 62 who will become eligible for Social Security this year "have postponed plans to retire" because of health care costs and other economic concerns.
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Republican gubernatorial candidate Kenny Hulshof on Tuesday outlined a health care proposal he said could decrease costs and increase accessibility by allowing consumers to shop for health insurance offered by private companies.
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The number of people lacking health insurance dropped by more than 1 million in 2007, the first annual decline since the Bush administration took office, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.
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Americans who lack health insurance will spend about $30 billion out of pocket on medical care this year, but others — mainly the government — will end up covering another $56 billion in costs, according to a new study.
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Analysis of the 2007 Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey finds the proportion of working-age Americans who struggled to pay medical bills and accumulated medical debt climbed from 34 percent to 41 percent, or 72 million people, between 2005 and 2007.
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The economic downturn is forcing working families across the United States to make tough financial choices, often involving sacrificing needed health care and health insurance.
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Americans are struggling to pay medical bills and are accumulating medical debt at an increasing rate, according to a survey released today.
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Nearly a quarter of Americans have reduced the number of times they see their doctor because they want to save money in these tough economic times, according to a survey released Tuesday by the country’s state insurance regulators.
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The uninsured population is increasingly made up of immigrants…New Americans still account for the majority — three-fourths — of the persons without health insurance, but the percentage of immigrants in those ranks has grown from 18.8 percent in 1994 to 26.6 percent in 2006.
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Health care costs are expected to rise more than 10 percent into next year, according to a survey of insurers by Aon Consulting Worldwide.
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The average time that hospital emergency rooms patients wait to see a doctor has grown from about 38 minutes to almost an hour over the past decade, according to new federal statistics released Wednesday.
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Patients who need immediate care for injuries and illness, be it a nail-gun puncture or a severe stomach bug, are increasingly turning to walk-in urgent-care clinics. These facilities aim to fill the gap between the growing shortage of primary-care doctors and a shrinking number of already-crowded hospital emergency departments, with no appointment necessary and extended evening and weekend hours.
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Economists at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Thursday discussed how tax code changes to employer-sponsored health insurance premiums could fund health care coverage for the uninsured…
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The older you get, the more likely you are to develop a chronic illness such as heart disease, high blood pressure or cancer. The more chronic illnesses you have, the more health care you need.
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A "long-stalled" bill supported by Democrats that would expand SCHIP likely will return to the House floor this fall, and the legislation will become law this year or next year unless the "political winds shift," according to an editorial in The Hill.
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A story last week on the consequences of living without medi­cal insurance generated heavy response from readers.
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A rising number of uninsured patients are going without necessary care and are raising medical costs for those who have insurance coverage, according to a report released Tuesday by the Missouri Foundation for Health.
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American medical care may be the most expensive in the world, but that does not mean it is worth every penny. A study to be released Thursday highlights the stark contrast between what the United States spends on its health system and the quality of care it delivers, especially when compared with many other industrialized nations.
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The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee on Wednesday by voice vote approved to extend a bill (HR 2851, S 400) that would allow college students who are forced to leave school for a serious illness to continue to receive health care benefits under their parents’ health insurance policies, CongressDaily reports.
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As the number of people without health insurance continues to rise, many states and Congress have begun to focus on one of the biggest causes: the growing number of small business owners and their workers who are unable to afford coverage.
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This issue brief by Kaiser Family Foundation researchers uses examples of workers with different wages earnings to illustrate how the current tax code affects families depending on whether they have health coverage, and whether that coverage is provided through their employer.
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A coalition of unions, think tanks and other groups launched an advertising campaign on Tuesday saying they want to ensure that health-care reform tops the U.S. political agenda after the November elections.
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Long before workers at the San Diego Food Bank began distributing cardboard food cartons from the back of a truck on a recent day, elderly men and women, many needing walkers and metal canes, formed a line in a church parking lot.

The free food amounts to a lifeline for these seniors, who have seen inflation wring much of the value out of their fixed incomes. For these retirees, the prices of essentials — notably, gas and food — have galloped beyond reach. Perhaps most of all, they’re straining under the weight of crushing medical costs.
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The number of U.S. residents who delay or forgo necessary medical care because of cost concerns has increased significantly in the last four years, according to a report recently released by the Center for Studying Health System Change, the Wall Street Journal reports. For the report, researchers surveyed about 18,000 residents in 2007 and compared the results to those of a similar survey conducted in 2003.
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"Public and Private Insurance: Stacking Up the Costs," Health Affairs: The Web exclusive study — by Leighton Ku, a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, and Matthew Broaddus, a research analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities — finds that providing health coverage to low-income people through public programs such as Medicaid and SCHIP, rather than through private health plans, results in lower per-person medical spending and out-of-pocket expenses.
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The nation’s cities pay an increasingly burdensome share of the health care bill for the uninsured and their own employees, diverting dollars from other essential services including police and fire protection, U.S. mayors say in a study released by Families USA.
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A bi-partisan group in Congress is pushing a proposal to extend health care to millions more Missourians. Congressman Russ Carnahan (D-St. Louis) says it’s important that the Small Business Health Options Program Act, known as SHOP, has bi-partisan support. He says that without support from both Democrats and Republicans, any effort to extend health care or make it more affordable would fail.
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Bolstering the performance of the U.S. health care system is one of the biggest challenges facing the country, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday.
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A new report from a national health-care advocacy group noted that Missouri is one of many states across the union that do not require admitting people to insurance plans regardless of pre-existing health conditions.
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It is well known, by now, that almost 50 million Americans lacked health insurance for all or part of last year. What is less well known is that 25 million Americans who did have health insurance often found it pitifully inadequate when a medical crisis hit. They were only marginally better off than those who had no coverage at all.
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Health care reform in Washington is usually a recipe for partisan division and political gridlock. But Tuesday it inspired bipartisan comity, as a wide-ranging coalition of lawmakers and outside interest groups unveiled a new proposal they said could kick-start efforts to address the spiraling health care crisis.
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The number of American adults who had inadequate health insurance to cover their medical expenses rose 60 percent from 2003 to 2007, from 16 million to more than 25 million people.
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Race and place of residence can have a staggering impact on the course and quality of the medical treatment a patient receives, according to new research showing that blacks with diabetes or vascular disease are nearly five times more likely than whites to have a leg amputated and that women in Mississippi are far less likely to have mammograms than those in Maine.
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It’s anyone’s guess whether the same door Gov. Matt Blunt closes when he leaves office in December will hit Insure Missouri on his way out. The Legislature didn’t pass Mr. Blunt’s proposal to provide insurance to roughly 200,000 Missourians this year.

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Starting this summer, there’s a good reason to take a second look at long-term care insurance — at least if you live in Missouri. That’s because, starting Aug. 1, Missouri will allow the sale of "partnership" plans that allow people to keep more of their assets when they’re trying to qualify for Medicaid coverage of long-term care.
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The number of young adults without health insurance rose again in 2006, so 38 percent of high school graduates and 34 percent of college graduates will spend some time uninsured in the year after graduation, a new report shows.
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The dust has begun to settle on the corpse of Insure Missouri, Gov. Matt Blunt’s rather sudden and unexpected conversion to using the state government’s power to expand access to basic 
health care.
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For many of their largest clients, health insurance companies no longer provide insurance at all. The employer or union takes on the risk and the health insurer is paid to negotiate discounts with hospitals and doctors, process paperwork and help employers establish the plan’s benefit design such as how much patients will pay in co-payments and deductibles.
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The Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) has launched Cover Missouri, a project to develop, publish and promote specific options for policymakers to increase the number of Missourians with quality, affordable health insurance coverage.
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A national health insurance "connector" program that allows individuals and small businesses to buy public and private health coverage could provide insurance for up to 44 million uninsured U.S. residents, according to an article by the Commonwealth Fund published in the May/June issue of the journal Health Affairs, CQ HealthBeat reports.
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Six out of 10 colleges and universities now recommend specific health insurance plans for their students, and three of 10 require them. But as the Giuntas discovered, many of the policies turn out to be scanty at best, and inferior to comparably priced alternatives. This can leave families exposed to crippling medical bills they thought they’d protected against. Insurers, meanwhile, have found that the student market can be quite profitable.
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About a year ago, a group of local religious leaders and social justice advocates gathered to hear Vinny DeMarco. DeMarco, an attorney, had launched a grass-roots effort in Maryland that grew into a statewide tour de force and created a long-term plan to provide health care for all Maryland residents.
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It is often said that emergency rooms are crowded because of the disproportionate number of uninsured people using them. But data based on telephone surveys and in-person interviews, published on April 14 in The Annals of Emergency Medicine, tell a different story. The number of uninsured people nationwide rose to 15.7 percent in 2004 from 15.4 percent in 1995. Yet in that period, the proportion of uninsured people using emergency rooms declined.
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The economic slowdown has swelled the ranks of people without health insurance. But now it is also threatening millions of people who have insurance but find that the coverage is too limited or that they cannot afford their own share of medical costs.
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