health insurance coverage

National Health Service in U.K. Continues to Deteriorate

By Michael Bruce
National Health Service in U.K. Continues to Deteriorate

By Linda Gorman, reprinted from Health Care News, Heartland Institute The United Kingdom’s single-payer health care system provides an important model, and cautionary tale, for those who advocate such a system in the United States. Over the Christmas holidays, the waits for emergency care in the British National Health Service (NHS) reached what the nation’s press called “crisis” levels. Compared to 2013, twice as many ambulances had more than 30 minute waits outside of overcrowded…

Read More

Vermont Embraces Single Payer Despite Obamacare Uncertainty

By Loren Heal, The Heartland Institute
Vermont Embraces Single Payer Despite Obamacare Uncertainty

Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of President Obama’s health care law this summer, Vermont will move forward in creating the first single-payer health insurance system in the United States. Under the system signed into law by Democrat Gov. Peter Shumlin in May 2011, a universal, taxpayer-financed government-managed system, Green Mountain Care, will replace private health insurance. All decisions about health care in the state will be made by a five-member,…

Read More

Health insurance and food safety

By Bob Bland
Health insurance and food safety

Foodborne outbreaks are scary and unfortunately more common than we think. There is nothing worse than not knowing if your next meal may land you a stay in the hospital. Long-term effects of foodborne pathogensWhile healthy adults often recover from foodborne illnesses, children infected by these pathogens are at the most risk of developing serious long-term, debilitating illnesses. Campylobacter: Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) E. coli 0157:H7: Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), leading cause of kidney failure in…

Read More
Pages: 1 2 3

Health insurance tips for college students

By Rick Richards
Health insurance tips for college students

As your college student gets ready to return to campus, there is a long checklist of things they need to go through to make sure everything they need is packed inside the family’s minivan. Clothes? Check. Shoes? Check. Toiletries? Check. The laptop? Check. Insurance coverage? What? That’s right. What should be added to the long list of things that need to go off to college with your child is the family’s health insurance policy. Parents…

Read More
Pages: 1 2

Interested in new age treatment? Insurance might cover it

By Hollie Smith
Interested in new age treatment? Insurance might cover it

Many people may not consider energy stones and or group meditation medically beneficial, but some firmly believe in their mysterious powers when coping with trauma, finding inner peace, or when actively trying to stay healthy. But not long ago, several mainstream techniques were also considered alternative: Chiropractic care, massage therapy and acupuncture, treatments that are now covered by a modest percentage of health insurance companies. Insurance experts say that this could soon be the case…

Read More
Pages: 1 2

Value-Based Purchasing May Hurt Patients

By Sarah McIntosh, The Heartland Institute
Value-Based Purchasing May Hurt Patients

GUEST EDITORIAL By Sarah McIntosh, Esq., The Heartland Institute As the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services releases details about its new reimbursement plan under President Obama’s health care law, fresh concerns are arising regarding the concept of value-based purchasing of health-care services, which may affect patients across the country. Under the CMS proposal, value-based purchasing will be used to provide bonuses to hospitals that exceed average scores on several measures. To implement this system,…

Read More

Shortage of Surgeons on the Way

By Jay Lehr, Ph.D., The Heartland Institute
Shortage of Surgeons on the Way

GUEST EDITORIAL By Jay Lehr, Ph.D., The Heartland Institute It’s difficult to believe that the highest-esteemed and best-compensated of all medical doctors could be in short supply in the future. But in The Coming Shortage of Surgeons (Praeger, 2009), Drs. Williams, Satiani, and Ellison—three eminent surgeons and professors at The Ohio State University—make the case clearly, based on an exposition of warning signs not obvious to those of us outside the medical profession. The book…

Read More

Low-Wage Employers Need Obamacare Waivers

By Kenneth Artz, The Heartland Institute
Low-Wage Employers Need Obamacare Waivers

GUEST EDITORIAL By Kenneth Artz, The Heartland Institute Beginning in 2014, ObamaCare will require employers with fifty or more full-time employees to offer affordable coverage to all of their employees or risk a hefty per-employee fine. As industries weigh the benefits of cost of coverage versus paying the fines, officials for trade groups representing nursing homes and other low-wage employers are considering asking the Department of Health and Human Services for a waiver excusing them…

Read More

Faith-Based Cost-Sharing Runs Into Challenges in Washington State

By Benjamin Domenech, The Heartland Institute
Faith-Based Cost-Sharing Runs Into Challenges in Washington State

GUEST EDITORIAL By Benjamin Domenech, The Heartland Institute A controversial decision in Washington state pitted state health care regulators against a cooperative charitable organization, exemplifying some of the hazards of increased government regulation of the industry. Samaritan Ministries International, one of the nation’s largest faith-based health care cost-sharing ministries, was targeted by a Cease and Desist order from the Office of Insurance Commissioner (OIC), headed by Washington state insurance commissioner Mike Kreidler. In the order,…

Read More
1 2