Healthcare

The inclusion of this item in Senator Tom Coburn’s national healthcare proposal…Keeping Medicaid on mission: The bill liberates the poor from substandard government care and offers states the option to provide their Medicaid beneficiaries the kind of health care coverage that wealthier Americans enjoy. The bill creates incentives for states to achieve private universal coverage…

Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma has introduced major healthcare reform legislation into the U.S. Senate. Kimberley Strassel had a short summary of the proposal in last week’s OpinionJournal…[Senator Coburn’s proposal] would remove the subsidy corporations get for health care, and instead give the money to individuals–putting them in charge of their health expenditures. It would…

For a while now, I have been hearing that the inefficient delivery of routine healthcare, especially through the over-use of emergency rooms, is a primary source of America’s runaway healthcare costs. If this is true, CVS’ proposal to place “MinuteClinics”, staffed by a nurse practitioner, in a number of their stores, should at least an…

According to Felice J. Freyer in today’s Projo, just about everyone in Rhode Island not on the United Healthcare payroll, including most of the state’s healthcare providers, Attorney General Patrick Lynch, and Governor Donald Carcieri, opposes United’s attempt to transfer $36.8 million from RI to their parent company in Minnesota…United is seeking state permission to…

Liz Boardman has a report in this week’s South County Independent on a presentation given to the South Kingstown Republican Town Committee by Sean O’Donnell and Roland Benjamin on “Consumer Driven Health Plans”, i.e. health savings accounts combined with high-deductible insurance. Ms. Boardman provides a straightforward example of how CDHPs work…Under CDHPs, employees put pre-tax…

I’ll admit to being surprised by the spirited defense of employment-based healthcare offered by commenters on this blog and in a few face-to-face discussions I’ve had. Mark Schmitt, writing just yesterday on the American Prospect’s weblog, adds an angle to this discussion not yet mentioned here, suggesting that many people prefer employer-based health insurance for…

The issues in the looming Stop & Shop strike are all too familiar, centering on health benefits and retirement benefits. From Gregory Smith and Talia Buford in today’s Projo…[Stop & Shop], based in Quincy, Mass., wants union workers to contribute to their health-care premiums and allow it to switch from an employer-paid pension fund to…

I truly want to know the motivation behind proposed legislation such as this: Sen. John C. Revens Jr. (D-Dist. 31, Warwick) has introduced legislation that would extend private health insurance coverage to dependents up to the age of 25. The legislation, (2007 – S0327), targets individuals between the ages of 19 and 25 who are…

Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat from Oregon), a Senator with a creative healthcare plan of his own, wants to compromise and combine his proposal with President Bush’s healthcare proposal. Michael Barone of U.S. News and World Report has the details…Bush’s proposal in a nutshell is to end the preferential tax treatment for employer-provided health insurance….This decision…

President Bush outlined a serious healthcare reform plan in last night’s State of the Union. The President’s plan is to replace the existing tax-exemption that applies only to money spent on employer-sponsored health insurance with a standard deduction that can be taken by any individual who purchases health insurance, regardless of employer or employment status.…