In a post last week, we noted that David Koch, an American businessman and philanthropist, has given millions to cancer research while his company, Koch Industries, lobbied against formal recognition of formaldehyde as a carcinogen. In a post today, Think Progress’ Wonk Room pointed out another seeming contradiction: Today, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the “first round of applicants accepted into the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program,” a $5 billion program established by the new health care law to help employers and states “maintain coverage for early retirees age 55 and older who are not yet eligible for Medicare.” According to the agency, “nearly 2,000 employers, representing large and small businesses, State and local governments, educational institutions, non-profits, and unions” applied and have been accepted into the program and “will begin to receive reimbursements for employee claims this fall.” Tags: Health care Economic Death Squad

The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a ballot initiative that sought to amend the state’s constitution to establish that Florida residents have a right to refuse to purchase mandatory health insurance – including under President Obama’s reform effort. The state high court voted 5 to 2 to exclude the referendum issue from the November ballot." Tags: Health care Obama Illusion

California became the first state in the nation to pass the bills setting up insurance exchanges through the legislature. The exchanges would not come online until 2014, but the state now has four years to codify the rules. An excerpt: Many aspects of the exchange are mandated under the federal law, so many features of California’s model will be included in those adopted by other states. The exchange is expected to offer insurance through a website that will provide standardized and detailed information about plans, so consumers can compare them. It will have a toll-free number, and will set up a program of live helpers, or navigators, to help explain plans to consumers. The exchanges aren’t required to be fully up and running until January 2014, when key provisions of the new federal health law kick in, although some exchange operations may start earlier. Following federal requirements, the California exchange will sell insurance in five categories, ranging from rich “platinum”-level benefits to a plan for young people offering catastrophic coverage." Tags: Health care

Stimulus Help for Health Insurance Program Ended May 31, Leaving Many Families Without Affordable Options for Health Care. The change has gone little-noticed, both by the press and by the laid-off persons impacted by it. But a popular stimulus provision, the federal subsidy of COBRA benefits, expired for newly unemployed workers as of the first day of June. That means, for the average worker who has lost her job since May 31, the cost of COBRA has tripled. COBRA — a provision created in the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 — gives workers the option of buying into their old health-care plan when they lose their job. Before the recession, COBRA let workers who lost their job through no fault of their own pay the entire health-care premium plus a two-percent administrative fee to keep coverage, about $8,800 per year for the average enrollee. (Generally, COBRA lasted 18 months.) As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or the 2009 stimulus, Congress subsidized this coverage, given the massive number and economic hardship of laid-off workers. The subsidy paid for 65 percent of health-care premiums for up to 15 months, meaning an average enrollee paid less than $3,000 a year." Tags: Health care Economic Death Squad

The economic crisis has adversely affected access to medical care for millions of Americans, according to a recent study. Cutbacks in obtaining routine medical care have been particularly sharp, and have been much deeper in the US than in countries with government-run health care systems. “Americans, who face higher out-of-pocket health care costs, have reduced their routine medical” much more than people in the other countries, with more than a quarter of US respondents reporting they have cut back on routine care. In all of the countries studied, reductions in income and job loss were strongly associated with cutbacks in routine medical care. In the US, however, where individuals are responsible for paying a much greater proportion of health care costs, reductions in routine care were far more dramatic. The study also noted that about 15 percent of people in the US lack health insurance of any kind, further compounding the economic burden. The study interviewed a total of 6,485 respondents between the ages of 18 and 65, including 2,148 in the US, 1,001 in Britain, 1,132 in Canada, 1,097 in France and 1,107 in Germany. Although the samples were designed to be nationally representative of each country’s population, the authors note that the study likely under-represented the most vulnerable groups in society, including immigrant workers and the homeless." Tags: Economic Death Squad Health care

Carrying out health-care reform presents challenges far beyond those of ordinary legislation or even such landmarks as Social Security and Medicare. After a law establishes a new program, the next steps are usually a bureaucratic process of policy implementation. But the legislation passed by Congress last March, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will need to run a gauntlet of treacherous hurdles and be politically implemented. The reforms will have to be defended in two national elections because the major provisions don't go into effect until January 2014. Assuming the law survives national efforts to reverse it, its implementation will also depend on complementary action in all 50 states, including many where Republican leaders have been hostile to the changes, questioned their constitutionality, and enacted measures to nullify the federal reforms. Although the federal courts are unlikely to uphold these challenges, the same states may resist fulfilling the substantial responsibilities that fall to them under the law. And even some supportive state governments may find it challenging to carry out their role despite the ample federal money they stand to receive." Tags: Health care

Starting in 2014 insurance companies will no longer be allowed to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions. They'll have to take all comers for (almost) the same price, regardless of how healthy they are. The incentive here is obvious: within the confines of the law, insurance companies will do their best to lure the healthiest patients into their programs and convince the sickest ones to switch. But how much leverage do they have to do this? Looking for clues, Aaron Carroll takes us back to a study done in 1997, when Medicare patients were allowed to switch back and forth between HMOs and traditional fee-for-service plans:" Tags: Health care Economic Death Squad

The bill cuts the deficit by $1.3 trillion in the second decade. That more than pays for every dollar we've spent on stimulus since 2008. It also sets up a new -- and credible -- system to keep Medicare's costs under control. So, hear that, fiscal conservatives? Hear that, bond markets? This is progress, baby. We'll lick our deficit problem yet. The bill in question, of course, is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as health-care reform. The numbers come from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. But as always, there's a catch: The savings arrive only if the policies behind the savings are allowed to do their jobs. And in the GOP's zeal to repeal a bill it considers a deficit-increasing nightmare, Republicans are focusing their fire on the parts they should like: The cost controls. Tags: Health care Deficit

At the heart of the right-wing attack on the new health care law’s individual mandate is the fact that it has the potential to become similar to Social Security: a popular entitlement that is an integral part of the American social fabric. Whether that promise is realized depends in no small measure on whether Congress will make improvements to it over time to assure that the individual mandate works. If Social Security was the crowning achievement of the New Deal, health care was its greatest missed opportunity. FDR decided not to include health insurance in the measure for fear that opposition by the American Medical Association would end up sinking the whole package. Now 75 years after Social Security became law, the nation has finally enacted a legal promise to make health coverage affordable. It’s worth taking a look at the trajectory that Social Security took after its passage in order to understand the biggest challenge facing the health care law." Tags: Health care Social Security

Everyone loves to pick on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and well they should. This 2,000+ page contraption, this heap of handouts to the special interest lobbyists with a few shiny baubles thrown in to placate the common folk, was not only written by the for-profit health insurance industry but now will be implemented by former WellPoint/Anthem Vice President Liz Fowler who actually penned much of the law in her role as Max Baucus’ chief healthcare counsel for the Senate Finance Committee. You don’t have to make this stuff up, as emptywheel reported on FDL July 14, 2010, “Former WellPoint VP Liz Fowler to Implement Health Care Oversight” But what about George Will’s fine whine that the insurance industry faces strangling regulation? Robert Pear wrote in the New York Times on August 2 that the new law will lead to more regulation of the industry, and “the transition is full of risks and uncertainty for all involved.” If the Obama administration is going to "regulate the industry for the benefit of consumers," he noted, then “they can’t help but destabilize or disrupt the existing market.” Tags: Single-Payer Health care

It pains me to see a Democratic administration attacking the idea of single payer as an idea so unrealistic that you must be high on drugs to push for it. The push for universal single payer health care, Medicare for all, has been was a goal of the Democratic party for decades. Virtually every single health care economist or policy expert on the left, after examining the domestic and international data, has concluded that single payer either is the best way or is among the best ways to provide universal health care. I guarantee that you won’t find a single expert on the left who thinks the system created by the new health care law is markedly superior to single payer. We know that single payer is a fair and dramatically cheaper way to provide health insurance. America’s single payer health care system for those over 65, Medicare, is very popular and is a clear success. As recently as seven years ago, even Barack Obama was a public supporter of adopting single payer health care. So, according to Gibbs, I guess we should question whether Obama was under the influence of drugs when he advocated for that logical position." Tags: Health care Obama Illusion Single-Payer

"People & Power investigates fraud and corruption running through the veins of the US pharmaceutical industry." Tags: Health care drug war Pharma

Leaders of Cigna, Humana, UnitedHealth, WellPoint and Aetna received nearly $200 million in compensation in 2009, according to a report, while the companies sought rate increases as high as 39%. H. Edward Hanway, former chief executive of Philadelphia-based Cigna, topped the list of high-paid executives, thanks to a retirement package worth $110.9 million. Cigna paid Hanway and his successor, David Cordani, a total of $136.3 million last year. Tags: Health care Economic Death Squad bonuses

States will get $26.1 billion in the next few months so they can open their school years with fewer layoffs and help pay health care benefits for the poor. The House of Representatives approved the new spending on Tuesday by 247 to 161, and President Barack Obama signed it. The money should begin flowing in time for school systems to rehire and retain teachers early in the school year, which already is under way in some parts of the country. The school money, $10 billion aimed at preserving education jobs, should be available to the states no later than 45 days after the federal Education Department approves a state's application. The department estimates that about 161,000 education jobs would be saved, but some state officials aren't so sure." Tags: Health care Education congress Economic Justice

Opponents of the new health care reform law notched two victories recently, one at the ballot box and one in court. Voters in Missouri overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure prohibiting residents from being compelled to participate in "any health care system." The measure targeted the law's mandate that almost all Americans obtain health insurance, starting in 2014. And a federal judge in Virginia refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Virginia Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli challenging the new law, setting the stage for a trial on the constitutionality of the so-called individual mandate. Both of these developments may be just temporary setbacks for the Obama administration, however. We believe the two states' challenges to the law ultimately will fail, because the mandate is a legitimate use of Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce." Tags: Health care

As the controversy over health care funding rages on, we must not forget about the quality of the doctors themselves - and the social implications of our nation's deficient resident selection process. We need to pay close attention to how we are selecting MDs for residency - the final and most demanding stage of physician training for two basic reasons. For one, graduating more competent physicians could bolster our ability to make more prudent and cost-effective medical decisions, helping to slow down the explosive growth of health care expenditures in the nearer rather than later future; for two - and more fundamentally - these trainees will eventually be our doctors, providing care for us and those dearest to us at our neediest. As an educator at a major academic medical center, I will see many medical students apprenticing at my department from now until the end of the fall - peak application season for residency. They will put their best faces forward in hopes of getting an interview invitation to be considered for a spot. But who among them is going to make for an outstanding physician? Given our current selection criteria, it is impossible to tell." Tags: Health care

Many of Vermont's health care woes stem from the fact that the state has an ineffective patchwork system of private insurance plans and government-funded programs, a Harvard economist told lawmakers Thursday. Dr. William Hsiao, an economic professor at Harvard's School of Public Health, has been hired by the Vermont Legislature to design three new health care models for the state. Just weeks into his job, Hsiao gave a sobering assessment. Hsiao, who helped Taiwan design its health care system several years ago, told the Health Care Reform Commission that when the private insurance industry doesn't work for certain populations, usually the government steps in with programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and Dr. Dynasaur." Tags: Health care

We just said all comers will have to get insurance and you can't charge -- this is why our bill is so much better than what they passed -- you can't charge more than 20 percent above the basic rate; in the Senate it's 300 percent, based on age. The fact of the matter is that I thought the president was right in the campaign. Academically you want a mandate. The American people aren't going to put up with a mandate. I made this prediction before and I'm going to make it again: by the time this thing goes into effect in 2014, I think the mandate will be gone either through the courts or because it's unpopular. You don't need it. There will be two or three percent of the people who cheat. That is not enough to bring the system to a halt and people don't like to be told what to do. Tags: Health care

The new health care law has significantly improved the prognosis for Medicare, extending the life of its trust fund by 12 years until 2029, and thereby delaying any need for dramatic changes in benefits or revenues, according to a new report. The annual check-up from government actuaries overseeing the nation's two central safety-net programs also found that Social Security continues to be much less of a problem than Medicare, and will remain in strong financial shape at least through 2037. "The financial outlook for the Medicare program is substantially improved as a result of the far-reaching changes in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," concludes the Medicare report -- although the trustees warned that the improvements depend on the successful implementation of the law. Social Security, according to its annual report, is expected to pay out slightly more in benefits than it receives in payroll tax this year, for the first time since changes were made in 1983. But payroll taxes are only one source of income for the program, and with the others -- including interest income on its $2.5 trillion trust fund, held in special issue U.S. Treasury securities -- the program is expected to continue to run a surplus until 2024. " Tags: Health care Social Security

Ezra Klein makes an important point about our nation’s health care problem: it’s not just a government deficit problem. The underlying problem is that health care costs are not only growing faster than prices (inflation), but also faster than GDP (economic growth), and as a result the amount of stuff we as a nation will be able to afford, other than health care, will start to go down at some point in the future. (Picture originally from Joseph Newhouse in Health Affairs.) This means that proposals to solve the long-term budget deficit problem by cutting Medicare benefits are not solutions: they simply shift the problem from the government to individuals–which means they shift the problem from us as taxpayers to us as old people or us as family members of old people.* If, for example, we increase the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 67, the government saves money, but only because people who are 65 and 66 lose money–or, alternatively, all of us lose money because their employers now have to pay more for health care. Tags: Health care Deficit