By Zane Backhouse on 14-04-2011
President Obama’s speech unveiling his deficit reduction plan contained few big surprises—by its very premise, it was destined to preserve the faulty assumptions behind the whole deficit discussion—but some of his words were welcome. The president called Social Security and Medicare fundamental American commitments and, in a rebuke to Congressman Paul Ryan, left these entitlement programs largely untouched. He also refused to renew Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy. It’s a pledge Obama has made—and broken—in the past, but let’s take at face value his sincerity on the matter. (All the better
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By Brayden Daley on 14-04-2011
President Barack Obama plans to make a speech on Wednesday that addresses numerous debt issues, including that of the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Media reports predict his discussion will lean towards reducing spending in both programs to contribute to reducing a $4 trillion deficit over the next 10 years.
Cutting Excess Health Care Spending a Must
Some say the president is placing the need to cut excess health care spending in the nation’s biggest benefit programs at the top of his agenda on Wednesday as he proposes ways to reduce the deficit.
While some of his plans contrast the $5 trillion in cuts his Republican opponents propose–including his push to increase taxes for the wealthy–some worry his proposal to make cuts in Medicaid and Medicare fall too closely in line with Republican ideas.
Currently, he is expected to make changes to the programs, but there is no official word beyond speculation of what those changes will be.
Republican Suggestions for Medicaid and Medicare
On the Republican side, lawmakers pushing their $5 trillion deficit reduction proposal also want to make cuts in the benefits programs. Lawma
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By Lilly Syme on 13-04-2011
Elsevier / MEDai, a leading health information company with award-winning solutions for the improvement of care delivery, has announced that Lovelace Health Plan in New Mexico has purchased several products in MEDai’s suite of Risk Navigator products to drive quality outcomes through predictive analytics. Lovelace will use Risk Navigator Clinical®, Risk Navigator Performance® and Risk Navigator Financial®.
Lovelace chose the suite of Risk Navigator products because of its ease of use, reliability and transparency of risk predictions, integration of evidence-based medicine guidelines, and the speed and thoroughness of implementation. Read more…
By Zane Backhouse on 13-04-2011
WASHINGTON — To a greater degree than most insurance company chiefs, Mark Bertolini has encountered his own personal challenges with the health care system.
Bertolini, the head of insurer Aetna, faced a tough time in 2001 when his teenage son Eric was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that was considered incurable. Bertolini moved into his son’s hospital room for more than a year during treatment. At one point, his son’s prognosis was so grim that the family decided to place him in hospice, a move that meant signing “do not resuscitate” orders and making other difficult decisions.
That experience, Bertolini says, later helped guide him to make changes to hospice policy at Aetna to make it easier for families. Read more…
By Brayden Daley on 11-04-2011
Weeks after an earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated Japan, many feared not only that the country wouldn’t be able to rebuild, but that it could succumb to a new threat: radiation caused by .
But concerns about radiation exposure did not stop in Japan. Discussions of exposure threats surfaced as far away as the United States. Many began to wonder what could happen if people or their property were ever seriously exposed to radiation. Would our home insurance policies protect us or is there some type of nuclear insurance out there to help?
Nuclear Radiation Isn’t a New Threat
While the fear of radiation heightened recently as a result of the plant issues in Japan, this issue isn’t entirely new. On Ap
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By Zane Backhouse on 10-04-2011
As an opening salvo from Republicans in the 2012 budget debate, the plan offered by Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan—supposedly a model of “seriousness” and “courage” next to overzealous Tea Partiers and Democrats silly enough to want to keep the government minimally functional—is remarkable mostly for its cynicism.
Consider Ryan’s approach to Medicare. One of the most fundamental tensions in our politics is that senior citizens are, simultaneously, the demographic group that most benefits from the welfare state and the one most sympathetic to the right-wing push to abolish it. The only age group in which McCain beat Obama was voters 60 and older. Part of the rea
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By Lilly Syme on 10-04-2011
The budget introduced this week by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives slashes $41.1 billion in federal funding for Medicaid, Medicare, and other health coverage programs in Wisconsin over the next 10 years, with $23.8 billion cut from Medicaid alone, according to an analysis released today by the consumer health group Families USA.
These cutbacks will have a disproportionate impact on Wisconsin’s seniors. The Medicaid program is the largest payer of long-term care, including half of all nursing home costs. Medicare provides health coverage for seniors over 65 years of age.
The Medicaid cuts will also have an adverse impact on Wisconsin’s children. Read more…
