Health

All articles about health insurance or related to health insurance from Consumer Insurance Guide

Kids healthcare spending rising faster than adults

By Consumer Insurance Guide Staff
Kids healthcare spending rising faster than adults

Spending on health care for children grew faster than spending for adults between 2007 and 2010 due to increasing prices for all categories of goods and services, according to a new report from the Health Care Cost Institute. The Children’s Health Care Spending Report: 2007-2010 indicates the rise in spending occurred despite a decline in number of commercially-insured children and a drop in the use of costly health care services, such as hospital stays and…

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Employer-provided healthcare falls for older Americans

By Consumer Insurance Guide Staff
Employer-provided healthcare falls for older Americans

Fewer U.S. adults aged 26 to 64 are getting health insurance from an employer in 2012, according to a recent Gallop survey. This continues a downward trend that began in 2008, while employer-provided coverage for younger Americans saw a slight increase. The 55.9 percent who reported having health insurance in the second quarter of 2012 is down from 56.7 percent in 2011 and is the lowest Gallup has found since 2008. At the same time,…

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Health Savings Account enrollment reaches 13.5 Million

By Consumer Insurance Guide Staff
Health Savings Account enrollment reaches 13.5 Million

More than 13.5 million Americans are covered by Health Savings Account-eligible insurance plans, a more than 18 percent increase since last year, according to a survey by America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade association. The census also found that the vast majority of HSA plans provide patients with important decision-support tools to help them make more informed health care decisions. Health Savings Accounts were authorized starting in January 2004.  Since then, AHIP has conducted an…

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Survey sees some vets lacking in healthcare

By Consumer Insurance Guide Staff
Survey sees some vets lacking in healthcare

One in 10 of the nation’s 12.5 million non-elderly veterans report either not having health insurance coverage or using Veterans Affairs health care, according to a study recently published by the Urban Institute. The 2010 American Community Survey, released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, focused on the level of uninsured veterans and their families. The report found that veterans are less likely than the rest of the non-elderly population to be insured.  Both uninsured…

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Obama Administration Approves Wisconsin Medicaid Reforms

By Kendall Antekeier, The Heartland Institute
Obama Administration Approves Wisconsin Medicaid Reforms

In accordance with standards set by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care (PPACA), the federal government has approved changes to Wisconsin’s state Medicaid program, BadgerCare. The federal government asked Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s administration to scale back its originally proposed changes due to an anticipated 60,000 participants becoming ineligible. The newly approved changes reduce to 17,000 the number of adults losing taxpayer funded coverage. Cuts Affect Eligibility, Premiums Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services (DHS) states…

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Awaiting Supreme Court Ruling, Illinois Pauses Exchange Implementation

By Loren Heal, The Heartland Institute
Awaiting Supreme Court Ruling, Illinois Pauses Exchange Implementation

President Obama’s home state of Illinois has become the latest to step back from implementing a health insurance exchange, according to the legislator charged with leading the effort. “I’ve suspended the talks on the Illinois insurance exchange until the Supreme Court makes its decision, which we expect in June,” Rep. Frank Mautino (D-Spring Valley) told NPR affiliate WIUS. “As the negotiator, it’s very difficult to have … businesses decide how much they’re willing to pay…

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Study finds group health insurance better than the individual market

By Consumer Insurance Guide Staff
Study finds group health insurance better than the individual market

More than half of Americans with individual market health insurance coverage in 2010 were enrolled plans that provide an insufficient level of coverage and would not be allowed in health insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Car Act, according to a study by the Commonwealth Fund and published in the journal Health Affairs. The analysis suggests that once the state-based exchanges go into effect in 2014, many of these Americans will be able to purchase…

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Health Care System Traps Doctors

By John C. Goodman, The Heartland Institute
Health Care System Traps Doctors

Health care reform that raises quality, lowers costs, and improves access to care is almost inconceivable without physicians leading and directing the changes. Of all the people in the health care system, none is more central than the physician. Yet of all the actors in modern health care, none are more trapped than our nation’s doctors. No Telephone Sometime in the early part of the last century, all the other professionals in our society discovered…

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Report says prices drive increases in health spending growth

By Consumer Insurance Guide Staff
Report says prices drive increases in health spending growth

Rising prices for care were the chief driver of health care costs for privately insured Americans in 2010, according to the first report from the newly formed Health Care Cost Institute. The per-capita spending on inpatient and outpatient facilities, professional procedures, and prescriptions drugs rose 3.3 percent in 2010 for health insurance beneficiaries under age 65 with private, employer-sponsored group insurance. HCCI data show that this 3.3 percent increase follows spending increases in 2008 (6.0…

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White House Commits Billions to Oregon Coordinated Care Gamble

By Kenneth Artz, The Heartland Institute
White House Commits Billions to Oregon Coordinated Care Gamble

Faced with a massive funding shortfall for a sweeping Medicaid expansion, Democratic Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber successfully convinced President Obama’s administration to gamble on the state’s new, largely untested health care plan to the tune of nearly $2 billion in taxpayer funds. After an eleventh-hour meeting in Washington, DC, Kitzhaber announced he had convinced the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to stake him the estimated $1.9 billion needed to cover the costs to…

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