Posts Tagged ‘insurance’
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Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 02:30 | Comments Off
As Health-Care Finale Gets Closer, Both Sides Boost SpendingCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
It’s crunch time in the fight over a health-care bill, so groups for and against the legislation are getting ready for a final push before congressional votes that could come later this month.
These efforts take money, of course, and advocate groups have put together war chests, much of it slated to go to advertising. Here are some of the spending plans outlined in a WSJ report this morning:
A business coalition backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups ..read more -
Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 03:46 | Comments Off
Health-Insurance Top Hats Take Heat at White HouseCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
Five CEOs from the health-insurance big dogs (UnitedHealth, WellPoint, etc.) are at the White House this morning to discuss — or more accurately, take flack — over the health overhaul’s issue de jour: rising insurance premiums.
The leadup to the meeting has been disorganized and it’s hard to figure out what’s going on or who is really going to take the CEOs to task. HHS pushed out a press release on Feb. 24 saying the meeting would be yesterday at the ..read more
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Saturday, February 27th, 2010 at 01:52 | Comments Off
Summit Aftermath:The Health-Care Divide in FocusCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
Yesterday’s health summit produced seven hours of televised history but little evidence of movement toward a health-care overhaul. No surprise there, but the dividing lines between Democrats and Republicans are clearer now and there could be a silver lining in that.
The big gulfs come down to three basic philosophical disagreements, the WSJ’s Capital Journal column says this morning:
• Is the goal comprehensive or incremental change? Dems want a big ball of wax that expands coverage, curbs costs and revamps insurance ..read more
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Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 10:14 | Comments Off
Health Summit: They Came, They Talked, They Left Much UndoneCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
Well, there was no breakthrough of understanding between Democrats and Republicans over health care at today’s summit, but there were areas of agreement on some issues. Of course even where there were shared goals, there was division over how to achieve them.
But the aim of the summit was to find shared ground, so here are some small patches of agreement during the session:
Medicare malpractice: Republicans have push hard for curbs on malpractice suits to cut costs, something the Democrats ..read more
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 01:29 | Comments Off
Obama to Push for Control Over Health-Insurance PremiumsCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
President Obama is to post his unified proposal for overhauling the health-care systemon the Internet today so it’s time to start getting use to a new acronym: HIRA.
HIRA stands for the Health Insurance Rate Authority, a new seven-member panel that would be set up to determine what’s a reasonable rate increase for health-insurance policies. The proposed authority would include consumer and industry representatives as well as a doctor and others, reports say.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would be given the power ..read more
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 00:30 | Comments Off
AM Report: Obama Tackles Insurers -
Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 02:19 | Comments Off
Obama Readies Single Democratic Plan Before Health SummitCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
President Obama is making headway on coming up with a single Democratic overhaul proposal before next week’s televised health summit with Republicans, according to reports this morning.
The presidential plan is supposed to be posted on the Internet by Monday, which — given the differences between the bills already passed by House and Senate Democrats — is taking some doing. Nonetheless, “There will be one proposal” with “some of the best ideas” form both bills, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said yesterday.
The ..read more
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Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 03:04 | Comments Off
Mass. Governor Wants to Cap Hospital, Doctor Rate IncreasesCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
Now that it’s expanded health-insurance coverage to nearly all of its citizens, Massachusetts is trying to figure out what to do about the rapid rise of health costs.
The latest proposal comes from the state’s governor, Deval Patrick, who yesterday proposed a bill that would give the state the power to review — and, in some cases, reject — rate increases by doctors and hospitals.
Here’s a key paragraph from the bill:
Any contract under which provider payments increase by an amount ..read more
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Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 08:05 | Comments Off
How Much Should Cancer Drugs Cost?Categories: Wall Street Journal
Suppose a hypothetical drug cost $10 million, was likely to extend life by only a day or two and didn’t improve quality of life. Should insurance pay for the drug?
Probably not — it would increase the cost for everyone paying premiums, without doing much to help the sick. But where do you draw the line?
Real-world drugs are both cheaper and more helpful than our hypothetical example. Still, many new cancer drugs costs tens of thousands of dollars per ..read more
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Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 09:17 | Comments Off
Study: Health Costs Higher Where Hospital Competition Is LowerCategories: Wall Street Journal, insurance
Spending by private insurers tends to be higher when the hospital market is less competitive, a new study finds.
The study, published in the American Journal of Managed Care, compared geographic patterns of Medicare spending, using the Dartmouth Atlas data, with spending by big employers that cover their workers. The upshot was that the two didn’t correlate.
The reason didn’t seem to be that insurers (in this case, acting on behalf of big employers) are better than Medicare at saying no ..read more


