students, physicians lobby Congress on uninsured
Congress saw students, physicians and other healthcare industry stakeholders lobby for expanded coverage during the American Medical Association’s 2007 National Advocacy Conference on Feb. 12-14. More than 300 American Medical Association medical students and residents from across the country visited 200 members of Congress to urge they pass legislation to provide healthcare for all Americans. The conference also included discussions of stricter tobacco laws, a repeal of the sustainable growth rate formula for physician reimbursements, and proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.
Healthcare expenditures to continue rapid growth
Healthcare expenditures in the United States, which outpace the economy and workers’ earnings, will continue to rise rapidly over the next decade unless there are major healthcare policy changes, a recent Commonwealth Fund report contends. According to the report, short-term factors that currently drive expenditure and waste include overuse, inappropriate or ineffective use of care; payment incentives that reward productivity over quality and value; and the market power of business entities, such as insurers and pharmaceutical companies, to set prices above competitive levels.
DEMs seeking presidency push universal Healthcare
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) proposed a 2012 deadline for universal health coverage during his speech at the Families USA Health Action conference. Other presidential contenders, including Senators John Edwards (D-N.C.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) have also spoken in support of universal healthcare.
medicare drug costs vary by state, study finds
Annual out-of-pocket expenses for a Medicare patient enrolled in his or her state’s cheapest Part D prescription drug plan could be thousands of dollars higher than those for a patient in another state’s cheapest Part D plan. A study by the Center for Studying Health System Change looked at Part D costs in every state and used the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ online cost calculator to determine out-of-pocket expenses for four real patients.