American HealthCare Reform

France’s Model Healthcare System

HealthCareReform — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:09:32 +0000

Click on Original
www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/08/11/frances_model_healthcare_system

France’s model healthcare system
By Paul V. Dutton | August 11, 2007

MANY advocates of a universal healthcare system in the United States look to Canada for their model. While the Canadian healthcare system has much to recommend it, there’s another model that has been too long neglected. That is the healthcare system in France.

Although the French system faces many challenges, the World Health Organization rated it the best in the world in 2001 because of its universal coverage, responsive healthcare providers, patient and provider freedoms, and the health and longevity of the country’s population. The United States ranked 37.

The French system is also not inexpensive. At $3,500 per capita it is one of the most costly in Europe, yet that is still far less than the $6,100 per person in the United States.

An understanding of how France came to its healthcare system would be instructive in any renewed debate in the United States.

That’s because the French share Americans’ distaste for restrictions on patient choice and they insist on autonomous private practitioners rather than a British-style national health service, which the French dismiss as “socialized medicine.” Virtually all physicians in France participate in the nation’s public health insurance, Sécurité Sociale.

Their freedoms of diagnosis and therapy are protected in ways that would make their managed-care-controlled US counterparts envious. However, the average American physician earns more than five times the average US wage while the average French physician makes only about two times the average earnings of his or her compatriots. But the lower income of French physicians is allayed by two factors. Practice liability is greatly diminished by a tort-averse legal system, and medical schools, although extremely competitive to enter, are tuition-free. Thus, French physicians enter their careers with little if any debt and pay much lower malpractice insurance premiums.

Nor do France’s doctors face the high nonmedical personnel payroll expenses that burden American physicians. Sécurité Sociale has created a standardized and speedy system for physician billing and patient reimbursement using electronic funds.

It’s not uncommon to visit a French medical office and see no nonmedical personnel. What a concept. No back office army of billing specialists who do daily battle with insurers’ arcane and constantly changing rules of payment.

Moreover, in contrast to Canada and Britain, there are no waiting lists for elective procedures and patients need not seek pre-authorizations. In other words, like in the United States, “rationing” is not a word that leaves the lips of hopeful politicians. How might the French case inform the US debate over healthcare reform?

National health insurance in France stands upon two grand historical bargains — the first with doctors and a second with insurers.

Doctors only agreed to participate in compulsory health insurance if the law protected a patient’s choice of practitioner and guaranteed physicians’ control over medical decision-making. Given their current frustrations, America’s doctors might finally be convinced to throw their support behind universal health insurance if it protected their professional judgment and created a sane system of billing and reimbursement.

French legislators also overcame insurance industry resistance by permitting the nation’s already existing insurers to administer its new healthcare funds. Private health insurers are also central to the system as supplemental insurers who cover patient expenses that are not paid for by Sécurité Sociale. Indeed, nearly 90 percent of the French population possesses such coverage, making France home to a booming private health insurance market.

The French system strongly discourages the kind of experience rating that occurs in the United States, making it more difficult for insurers to deny coverage for preexisting conditions or to those who are not in good health. In fact, in France, the sicker you are, the more coverage, care, and treatment you get. Would American insurance companies cut a comparable deal?

Like all healthcare systems, the French confront ongoing problems. Today French reformers’ number one priority is to move health insurance financing away from payroll and wage levies because they hamper employers’ willingness to hire. Instead, France is turning toward broad taxes on earned and unearned income alike to pay for healthcare.

American advocates of mandates on employers to provide health insurance should take note. The link between employment and health security is a historical artifact whose disadvantages now far outweigh its advantages. Economists estimate that between 25 and 45 percent of the US labor force is now job-locked. That is, employees make career decisions based on their need to maintain affordable health coverage or avoid exclusion based on a preexisting condition.

Perhaps it’s time for us to take a closer look at French ideas about healthcare reform. They could become an import far less “foreign” and “unfriendly” than many here might initially imagine.

Paul V. Dutton is associate professor of history at Northern Arizona University and author of “Differential Diagnoses: A Comparative History of Health Care Problems and Solutions in the United States and France,” which will be published in September.
© Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

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Books on healthcare

HealthCareReform — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:29:04 +0000

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS

“HEALTHCARE MELTDOWN”
Confronting the Myths and Fixing Our Failing System
by Bob LeBow, M.D.

“AS SICK AS IT GETS”
The Shocking Reality of America’s Healthcare: A Diagnosis and Treatment Plan
by Rudolph J. Mueller,M.D.

“BLEEDING THE PATIENT”
The Consequences of Corporate Healthcare
by David Himmelstein, M.D., Steffie Woodhandler, M.D.
Ida Hellander, M.D.

“INSURING AMERICA’S HEALTH” Principles and Recommendations
by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies

We do not sell books nor are commissioned affiliates. The links provided is for your convenience only. You can search the Internet for other sales outlets or go to your public library. We don’t care where you get the books or reports as long as you read them.

RESEARCH

Commonweath Fund
“Health Care Reform Returns to the National Agenda: The 2004 Presidential Candidates’ Proposals”
http://cmwf.org/programs/insurance/collins_reformagenda_671.pdf

State Health Facts – The Kaiser Family Foundation online site for the latest state-level data on demographics, health, and health policy, including health coverage, access, financing, and state legislation www.statehealthfacts.kff.org

WEB LINKS TO HEALTH CARE REFORM

Google
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Healthcare+Reform

Questia Online Library
www.questia.com/Index.jsp?CRID=health_care_reform&OFFID=se1

JOURNALS, MAGAZINES AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS

HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
“The Cost to the Nation, the States and the District of Columbia, with State-Specific Estimates of Potential Savings” by David U. Himmelstein, M.D., Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H. and Sidney M. Wolfe, M.D.

From the Division of Social and Community Medicine, Department of Medicine, The Cambridge Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA and The Public Citizen Health Research Group, Washington, DC

“The U.S. wastes more on health care bureaucracy than it would cost to provide health care to all of the uninsured. Administrative expenses will consume at least $399.4 billion out of total health expenditures of $1,660.5 billion in 2003. Streamlining administrative overhead to Canadian levels would save approximately $286.0 billion in 2003, $6,940 for each of the 41.2 million Americans who were uninsured as of 2001. This is substantially more than would be needed to provide full insurance coverage.” Continued

INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE
“Insuring America’s Health: Principles and Recommendations”
Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States. Although America leads the world in spending on health care,
it is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage. To help policy-makers, elected officials, and others judge and compare proposals to extend coverage to the nation’s 43 million uninsured, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies offers a set of guiding principles and a checklist in a new report, Insuring America’s Health: Principles and Recommendations. Continued

JAMA – Journal of the American Medical Association
Proposal of The Physicians’ Working Group for Single-Payer National Health Insurance JAMA. 2003;290:798-805.

The United States spends more than twice as much on health careas the average of other developed nations, all of which boastuniversal coverage. Yet more than
41 million Americans haveno health insurance. Many more are underinsured. Confrontedby the rising costs and capabilities of modern medicine, othernations have chosen national health insurance (NHI).

The UnitedStates alone treats health care as a commodity distributed according
to the ability to pay, rather than as a social service to bedistributed according to medical need. In this market-drivensystem, insurers and providers compete not so much by increasingquality or lowering costs, but by avoiding unprofitable patientsand shifting costs back to patients or to other payers. Thiscreates the paradox
of a health care system based on avoidingthe sick. It generates huge
administrative costs that, alongwith profits, divert resources from clinical care to the demandsof business. In addition, burgeoning satellite businesses, suchas consulting firms and marketing companies, consume an increasingfraction of the health care dollar. Continued

Beilenson (page 5)

HealthCareReform — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:08:43 +0000

Beilenson (page 4)

HealthCareReform — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:07:15 +0000

Beilenson (page 3)

HealthCareReform — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:55:58 +0000

Beilenson (page 2)

HealthCareReform — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:44:06 +0000

Beilenson

HealthCareReform — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:34:59 +0000

Special Report: “Solving Our Nation’s Health Care Crisis” – September 1990

In 1990, Congressman Anthony Beilenson (D) mailed his constituents in California his Special Report: “Solving Our Nation’s Health Care Crisis” (below).
Bush-41 was President and Congress did little more than direct government panels to study the health problem and make recommendations.

The situation is much worse now. Instead of America spending $600 billion on health care, we’re now spending over $1.3 TRILLION. We have more Americans dying or going bankrupt, more uninsured, STRATOSPHERIC COSTS for insurance, prescription drugs and hospitals, and even our largest corporations that provide health insurance for their employees and retirees are in dire straights.

Where is the leadership and accountability of our lawmakers? We simply cannot let another 19 years go by.

READ Beilenson’s 1990 report, “Solving Our Nation’s Health Care Crisis”.

“Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
- Bob Dylan 1963

Baucus Merck

HealthCareReform — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:33:52 +0000

Baucus Blows It – - “Merck is not ready for single pay”

Yep. he said it…in front of reporters…on March 3, 2009. And here’s proof.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, appeared as the first guest in a new series of Health Care Reform newsmaker briefings sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Families USA and the National Federation of Independent Business. The reporters-only briefings, designed to inform the public about prospects and options for health reform, feature a short presentation by an influential leader followed by an extended question-and-answer session.. Get the video; podcast or .pdf transcript here

Baucus Receives BIG BUCKS from BIG Rx & Insurance

Kaiser Family Foundation
March 3, 2009
Health Care Reform Newsmaker Series: Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)

Q&A

KAREN TUMULTY: Karen Tumulty from Time Magazine. What about, I mean, the concepts that are in a number of plans including yours – would allow people to buy into a Medicare program or a Medicare-like program? You say nothing is off the table, I mean, where does single payer fit in to all of this?

SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-MT): I think single pay – Merck is not ready for single pay. I mean, America. We are a bit different than people in other countries. We are not Europe. We are not Canada. We are America. It is “go west, young man.” It is entrepreneurialism. It is creativity. It is innovation and so forth. And I think we have come up with a uniquely American solution which is a combination of public and private, because we are America. I think that we would be spending capital inefficiently by trying to pursue a single pay system when we have another pathway to meet the health care reform available to us.

I think it should be about choice, flexibility in our reform package, and I think this country does not want single pay. This is not a single pay country. Some suggest it, but I don’t think it’s there. I think we could make better use of our time trying to enact meaningful comprehensive reform basically along the lines of the white paper which is very similar to what President Obama is suggesting. It is somewhat similar to the Massachusetts plan, and that, I think, is a better use of our time.
www.kff.org/uninsured/030309reformpkg.cfm

Comment by Don McCanne, PNHP:
Karen Tumulty already knew that our health insurance system was not functioning adequately for too many of us. She knew her brother, Patrick, was vulnerable considering his low income and the $2500 deductible on his health insurance policy. But even Karen Tumulty was caught off guard when she learned of the extremes of insurer innovation in the design of her brother’s coverage.

Assurant Health was selling him six month policies in succession, not pointing out to him that each policy was a new policy that excluded preexisting disorders, even if they developed while he had the same coverage. The story that Karen tells in the rest of this article made her realize more than ever the need for comprehensive health care financing reform.

It is no wonder that she asked Sen. Max Baucus where single payer fits into all of this. If we had a single payer system, her brother would not have had to face all of the financial challenges that were caused by his very unfortunate medical circumstances. Do you think she was satisfied with his answer?

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, during 2003-2008, Max Baucus received $588,185 from the insurance industry and $523,313 from the pharmaceutical/health product industry.

As he brushed off single payer proclaiming that he has a uniquely American solution, do you think it was a Freudian slip when he said, “Merck is not ready for single pay. I mean, America.”? Naw. Merck isn’t ready, but America is.

Bankruptcy

HealthCareReform — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:11:38 +0000

Medical bills are forcing middle-class Americans into bankruptcy. Our laws are supposed to protect the public’s health, safety and welfare. What in Hell is going on in this country?!?!??

Medical bill bankruptcy news – -Not-For-Profit Hospital Class Action Litigation:

If you are uninsured and received medical care from a non-profit hospital that overcharged you; reported you to a collection agency and/or took you to court, please read this: www.nfplitigation.com

Bankruptcy Added Insult to Injured and Ill
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/03NewsHEAD010 31005.htmSick and Broke - – Nobody’s safe. That’s the warning from the first large-scale study of medical bankruptcy. Health insurance? That didn’t protect 1 million Americans who were financially ruined by illness or medical bills last year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9447-2005Feb8.html

Archived Healthcare News

HealthCareReform — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:10:39 +0000

Notice: Some of these articles may have already been pulled off line.
We apologize for any broken links, “page not found”, etc. This is beyond our control.

2005 and earlier. . .

“Five Easy Pieces” to Achieve the Goals of Dirigo Health Care
Magic City Morning Star – Millinocket,ME,USA
… A new study (HEALTH AFFAIRS, December 2005) found that â€œwidespread national adoption of … policy; a worker can get a lot more—health insurance, a growing pot …

Chilean president follows up on new elder care
Seattle Times – United States
… was to monitor the implementation of her first measure as president: free health care for all patients over 60 through the national health-insurance system. …

Expensively Mediocre Health Care
Blogcritics.org – Aurora,OH,USA
… Say what you will about national health care on an individual level, but on a … reducing costs appreciably?” And if we can de-link health insurance coverage from …

National Health Insurance
Daily Graphic – Accra,Ghana
On a daily basis Ghanaians are being encouraged to join the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) because it offers an enormous hope of quality and …

Single-payer plan the only solution
Seattle Post Intelligencer – USA
… that a majority of Americans support government-guaranteed universal health insurance. … because the entities controlling our for-profit health care system have …

Winning the 2006 election: Health Care
TPMCafe – New York,NY,USA
… a singlepayer health insurance plan would make the economy more efficient, since people could switch jobs more easily. …

The crumbling obstacle to universal health care
Newsday – Long Island,NY,USA

Take the politics out of health care
BurlingtonFreePress.com – Burlington,VT,USA

HEALTH-CARE ANSWER: SINGLE-PAYER
City Newspaper – Rochester,NY,USA
… There is an answer, and that answer is universalhealth care. No, not “socialized medicine,” but healthcare for all —

LEGACY COSTS
Patriot-News – Harrisburg,PA,USA
… After World War II, most industrialized nations adopted universal health care, but the United States resisted such “socialistic” measures and stuck with its …

Health-care system needs critical care
Seattle Times – United States
… Something’s wrong. Every few years there arises a movement to reformhealth care, but those plans are easily squelched. …

Healthcare reformers to push for universal coverage for kids
Sacramento Business Journal – Sacramento,CA,USA
… in requiring every Californian to have basic health insurance than in putting the mandate on business, and expressed mixed feelings about a single-payer plan. …

Health group may take on access
Kansas.com – KS,USA
… Among the ideas discussed Thursday were universal health care, or some sort of system that guarantees everyone — regardless of income and insurance — access …

Other views: The marketplace stumbles over health care funding
In-Forum (subscription) – Fargo,ND,USA

A complex legacy
Cincinnati Post – OH,USA

Health care remarks explained
Rutland Herald – Rutland,VT,USA

Caldwell woman pushes health insurance reform
Marietta Times – Marietta,OH,USA

Right Plan, Wrong State
The Weekly Standard – USA

High taxes cause numbers in Massachusetts to fall
Fitchburg Sentinel – Fitchburg,MA,USA

Why change Dirigo when it’s working?
Bangor Daily News – Bangor,ME,USA

Remember to first do no harm
Roanoke Times – Roanoke,VA,USA

It’s Time To Dump The Dems, Support The Green Insurgency
ZNet – Woods Hole,MA,USA

Facing delays in health care
Rutland Herald – Rutland,VT,USA

In Session: By John Hopkins
Enterprise-Record – Chico,CA,USA
Talking politics at church
Belmont Citizen-Herald – Lexington,MA,USA

More voices in health care debate
Old Colony Memorial – Plymouth,MA,USA

Pope: Health care reform
Sudbury Town Crier – Framingham,MA,USA

Senate OKs Tisei’s affordable health care for older workers bill
Wakefield Observer – Beverly,MA,USA

Nuciforo talks on health care
North Adams Transcript – North Adams,MA,USA

Illinois Lawmakers OK Program to Insure ‘All Kids’
The Heartland Institute – Chicago,IL,USA
… office estimates 253,000 children who now have no health insurance could participate … for All Kids is to move the state toward a single-payer health care system …

Platania and DeLoach present paper in Washington, DC
Elon University – Elon,NC,USA
… this study finds that moving to a single-payer health insurance system could increase GDP by as much as 3%.

North Adams
Berkshire Eagle – Pittsfield,MA,USA
… council to support some form of single-payer health care …

Food Workers Union Steps up Healthcare Reform Push
The NewStandard – Syracuse,NY,USA
… to make sure workers have a say in the medical-care reform debate, UFCW unveiled a website where union members can easily access a Health Care Working Group …

Doctors sue state over care for poor kids
Miami Herald – FL,USA
.See all stories on this topic

Forum focuses on health care
Rutland Herald – Rutland,VT,USA

Ford Bell Renews Challenge to Senate Candidates on Health Care …
U.S. Newswire (press release) – Washington,DC,USA
… Ford Bell today again challenged candidates in the US Senate race to “take the pledge” to introduce universal single-payer health insurance if elected. …

Seniors aren’t the only ones confused by new drug plan
Tower Timberjay News – Tower,MN,USA
… at the behest of the insurance and pharmaceutical … the Harvard School of Public Health said they … the prevailing conservative myth, a single-payer system, like …

Local Opinion: Gary Harrison | Open Letter to Congressman …
YubaNet – Nevada City,CA,USA
… We spend more money on health care than any industrial nation and have a 2nd rate health care system. We need a single-payer, national health plan now …

Working Families Join National Movement for Health Care Reform …
U.S. Newswire (press release) – Washington,DC,USA
… and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) announced a national effort to engage its 1.4 million members in the first national dialogue on healthcare reform in a …

DC needs the Health Care Reform Act of 2005
Washington Examiner – Washington,DC,USA
By Peter E. Lavine. Mayor Anthony Williams deserves praise for introducing the Health Care Reform Act of 2005. Few politicians would …

Courage Center CEO offers prognosis for health care in Minnesota
Minneapolis Star Tribune (subscription) – MN,USA
… Q Should universalhealth care be a goal in Minnesota? A Absolutely, both as an economic matter and as a matter of good health policy and social values. …

Debate focuses on fixing ‘flawed’ US health-care system
Daily Utah Chronicle (subscription) – Salt Lake City,UT,USA
… The Democrats took a moderate stance, shying away from the more liberal position of universal governmental health care. Although …

Health benefits for gay families hinge on lawsuits
DetNews.com – Detroit,MI,USA
… If anything, we’d like to see the debate moved away from tying marriage and health care benefits together. We support universal health care.”. …

Where is the outrage for universal medical care that equaled that for Ms. Schiavo?
Now let’s put same effort into health care reform
The Decatur Daily – Decatur,AL,USA

Health care above politics
Minnesota Daily – Minneapolis,MN,USA
On Wednesday, Sen. Sheila Kiscaden, I-Rochester, and Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, introduced a comprehensive health-care reform bill before the Legislature. …

Making Colorado Healthcare Better, Affordable and Accessible
Yahoo News (press release) – USA
… more money on healthcare than any other country, the quality of our system is inferior. Patients and providers can benefit from new ideas, reform and emerging …

Health care racism kills 83,000 yearly
People’s Weekly World – USA
… Lack of health insurance and lack of equal access to a single standard of … Troutman supports the call for a single-payer, universal health care system that will …

A historic debate
Barre Montpelier Times Argus – Barre,VT,USA
… article in The New Yorker magazine points out that insurance companies reject … A simplistic faith in single-payer and simplistic opposition will no longer do. …

A grim outlook on health
Berkshire Eagle – Pittsfield,MA,USA
… Also possible is the creation of a single-payer health system in Massachusetts, in which the state would become the insurance provider to every resident. …

The uninsured
Blue Springs Examiner – Blue Springs / Independence,MO,USA
… also brought up a concern often voiced when discussing universal health insurance. … in the group reached a consensus that a state single-payer universal plan …

Solution is elusive
Times Press – Streator,IL,USA
SPRINGFIELD — In the decade since President Clinton’s universal health care plan failed, the number of uninsured Americans has grown by about 5 million. …

Committees take testimony from public on health care reform
Foster’s Daily Democrat – Dover,NH,USA
… Committee. Those two panels are leading the effort to find a way to reform the way health care is delivered and funded in the state. …

New report finds savings in universal health care bill
KESQ – Palm Desert,CA,USA
SACRAMENTO A Democratic lawmaker says a new report by a Virginia consulting firm shows that her universal health care bill would mean big savings for …
See all stories on this topic

Chamber to hosts health care forum
Barre Montpelier Times Argus – Barre,VT,USA
… State Sen. Phil Scott will address health savings accounts, and Steve Hingtgen will present the case for universal health care. …

Vermont Governor Jim Douglas’ 2005 Budget Address
All American Patriots (press release) – Taeby,NA,Sweden
… offered a responsible health insurance plan that moves us steadily toward universal health insurance coverage, and prioritizes preventative care and policies …

Filling the gap
Florida Today – Melbourne,FL,USA
… As we have said before, the nation must continue to work toward a universal health care system, instead of its current tattered hodgepodge of public and …

Social Security reform is the wrong policy
Bowling Green Daily News – Bowling Green,KY,USA
… In fact, the US average 77-year life span falls a year or two below that of other major nations, all of which provide universal health care coverage and …

NE Editorial Roundup
Newsday – Long Island,NY,USA
… of a single-payer system or other proposals designed to offer universal care. … proposals are comprehensive, addressing most segments of the health care sector. …
See all stories on this topic

West County this week
Contra Costa Times (subscription) – Contra Costa County,CA,USA
… Universal health care workshop — 6-8 pm Jan. 25. El Sobrante Library, 4191 Appian Way. Sponsored by American Institute of Engineers. Free. 510-758-6240. …

VA’s CEO announces resignation
Amarillo Globe News – Amarillo,TX,USA
The head of the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System in Amarillo … was recently named central region group director f

An Alternative Inaugural Presidential Address
Common Dreams – USA
… providing quality health care for all. The time has come not to repair, but to replace our hopelessly flawed current system with nonprofit universal single …

… Dirigo Health still a work in progress
Portland Press Herald – Portland,ME,USA
… believe that some form of universal health care was … In the final deal the various health system stakeholders … particularly Dirigo Choice, its insurance component …

Health care: What price reform?
Vermont Guardian – Winooski,VT,USA
… newly created Health Care Finance and Administration Committee, said his panel would look at plans ranging from health savings accounts to a single-payer system …

Alternative insurance bill readied by Cooper
Tullahoma News – Tullahoma,TN,USA
… announcement regarding TennCare restructuring is a “brave move, and we acknowledge his efforts to reform the program and preserve healthcare benefits for …

Health Biz: Medicaid lines become clearer
Washington Times – Washington,DC,USA
… to be a model for any national approach to Medicaid reform, but rather … some Medicaid populations and use the savings to create a basic healthcare package for …

Synagogue’s new service: healthcare
Boston Globe – Boston,MA,USA
… organize the effort, said a survey interviewing members about their general social concerns showed that many members had an interest in healthcare reform. …

***
(Largest non partisan) GROUP Urges Universal Health Coverage
by Mark Sherman, Associated Press Writer
National Coalition on Health Care says::
“The number of Americans without insurance is projected to top 51 million by 2006,
up from 41 million in 2001, the group said. The average annual premium for employer-sponsored coverage for a family will be $14,565 in 2006, more than double what it was in 2001, the coalition said”

“Former Iowa Gov. Robert Ray, a Republican, said the crisis is constantly worsening. “You cannot have increases in premiums of 14 percent when inflation is 2 1/2 percent,” Ray said.

“You cannot have costs rising four times faster than wages.”
The coalition says it has picked up more than 40 new members in the past 18 months, including Bell South, the energy company Cinergy, General Electric and General Motors.
“When did you last hear some of the largest corporations in America call on government to come in and fix this problem?” Simmons said.

The coalition on Tuesday brought together a number of prominent Americans,
including AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, AARP president Bill Novelli and the
leaders of large corporations, pension systems and religious groups.

FULL STORY HERE:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1500&slug=Health%2 0Care%20Reform

Studies Look at Health Care in the U.S.
By Jeff Madrick, N.Y.Times
“Americans spend some 14 percent of gross domestic product on health care, while other advanced nations spend an average of 8 percent” ……..”What may surprise readers, and certainly surprised this writer, is that Americans, by paying so much more, do not have many more services. In fact, according to recent research, they typically have fewer.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/08/business/08scene.html?ex=1091372015&ei=1&en=1 2886b97642136c5

A health care ideal
Boston Globe – Boston, MA
THE LEGISLATURE gave preliminary approval last week to a sweeping constitutional amendment intended to guarantee health insurance to every Massachusetts resident
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2004/07/19/a_health _care_ideal/

Radical new approach to health care
Dunkan, Oklahoma
..Out-of-control health care costs forced the city of Duncan to take some drastic action to rein them in earlier this year……..Physicians earn only 17 cents for every dollar of health insurance premium, Green said. Hospitals take 28 cents of that dollar, he said, while health insurers claim 27 cents and pharmacies take 22 cents.

http://www.newsok.com/article/1280161/?template=business/main

UNIVERSAL health care could solve the cash crunch, hospitals say
Centre Daily Times – Centre County, PA
… This situation is unfair and unjust.”. Hospitals said the cash crunch would best be solved through universal health care coverage for Americans. … Hospitals routinely charge uninsured Americans up to four times as much for health care than patients whose insurance plans foot the bill, financial experts told lawmakers Thursday…………….That overbilling, largely caused by hospitals seeking to cover growing indigent care costs, puts already financially strapped people at the mercy of aggressive debt collectors who threaten to deduct their wages, put liens on their homes and otherwise ruin their credit ratings…………”We’re talking about people who don’t have insurance because either they never had it, can’t afford it, they’ve lost it,” said Rep. Jim Greenwood, R-Pa., who chaired the hearing in front of a House oversight panel.

HOSPITAL board backs SB 921: Bill calls for a single-payer health in California …
Sonoma Index-Tribune – Sonoma,CA,USA
… rancorous debate Wednesday, the Sonoma Valley Hospital board approved a measure supporting Senate Bill 921, calling for single-payer health insurance. …

SUPPORT single-payer healthcare insurance
Delaware Coast Press – Rehoboth Beach, DE
I support a single-payer healthcare insurance for Delaware. This plan would not only include everyone, but also include small businesses …

DOCTOR recommends strong medicine for nation’s health care ills
Seattle Post Intelligencer – Seattle,WA
… want to get physicians’ representatives excited, ask them about tort reform, not patient care. Elected officials give lip service to health care issues, but at ..

MINERS rally to retain benefits
Kentucky.com – Lexington ,KY
… The miners stood across the street from the court for nearly two hours and shouted for health care reform and justice as some 60 lawyers debated Horizon’s ..

HEALTHSOUTH Announces Closing of HealthSouth Metro West Hospital
Yahoo News (press release) – Birmingham, AL…Healthsouth announced that it will permanently close HealthSouth Metro West Hospital effective midnight September 2, 2004. The Company says its efforts to recruit and retain the physicians necessary to make the hospital profitable have been unsuccessful,,,,,

Healthcare, litigation manufacturers toughest burdens
Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal – PA
“Losing the competitive edge due to the cost of healthcare can slash companies’ profits, which may lead to downsizing or even plant closures or relocations.
To help combat the nationwide problem, manufacturers need to band together to advocate for healthcare reform says, Eric Esoda, director of finance and administration at the NEPIRC.”
< http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12123241&BRD=2231&PAG=461&dept_i d=449419&rfi=6 >

NOW Can We Talk About Health Care?
New York Times – USA
“In 1993, there were 37 million uninsured Americans. …..But now some 43.6 million Americans are uninsured, . . .

FORD MOTOR COMPANY Sick About Health Care
Washington Post – United States
DETROIT – Alarmed by his company’s escalating health insurance costs and a frightening scarcity of remedies, Ford Motor Co. chief executive William C. Ford Jr. declared in December that the nation needs an entirely new health care system. Then he tapped Ford’s vice chairman to craft a proposal to develop one.
< http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55729-2004May25.html >

AMERICANS Say Health Care Access Threatened by Liability Crisis
Yahoo News (press release) – USA
A new poll released today by the Health Coalition on Liability and Access (HCLA) reveals that Americans believe a growing crisis in health care liability is pushing health care costs up and forcing good doctors out of medical practice. By overwhelming margins (82 percent), Americans say their ability to get the health care they need is threatened by excessive litigation.

HEALTH care system serves moneyed interests
Seattle Post Intelligencer – Seattle,WA,USA
… We need health care that is less profit-driven, eliminates waste and gets more … to nudge our present system toward more efficient and universal coverage have …

MEDICAL lawsuits jeopardize health care
Myrtle Beach Sun News – Myrtle Beach,SC,USA
… system is driving up the cost of health care and forcing many … This reform would have still allowed plaintiffs to be compensated for all medical care and all …

THE Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune – Salt Lake City,UT,USA
… Aside from tort reform, Carter and others believe arbitration is a good … lawyers staged protests on Capitol Hill against Intermountain Health Care, the state’s …

Middle-Class Misery Index Hits Record Under George Bush …
U.S. Newswire (press release) – Washington, DC, USA
… billion in middle-class tax cuts, and a series of policies aimed at reducing health care premiums, helping … John Kerry’s agenda to promote universal access to …

US Group Encourages Canadians to Report ‘Artificial Shortages’ …
PRNewswire (press release) – USA
… America, a project of the nonprofit Civil Society Institute, is not involved in any way in the health care industry or the recent lobbying on Medicare reform. …

BUSH Doesn’t Answer Health Qs
TheCarConnection.com
… and government in partnership – to make a pact for reform.”. According
to a Gallup Research poll published Tuesday, Americans in general say
that healthcare …

KENNEDY to propose universal health care
Boston Globe
… night that criticizes President Bush’s own health care … More than
44 million Americans have no health insurance, but previous proposals
to provide universal …

UNIVERSAL health care sought
Boston Globe, MA
WASHINGTON — The United States must find a way to provide health care
… for president on the Democrat side [who] are talking about a universal
health …

NATIONAL health insurance recommended
A nonpartisan scientific advisory board says that the U.S. government should support expanded health coverage by 2010
Miami Herald, FL
..

STATE must lead the way
San Francisco Chronicle, CA
… A statewide universal health care bill, introduced by Sen. Sheila Kuehl,
D-Santa Monica, was approved by the Senate last summer. …

FIRST STEPS ‘ in health reform controversial
KOB-TV, NM
(Santa Fe-AP) — Governor Richardson says his legislative proposals are
first steps toward ensuring health care for all New Mexicans, but he expects
some …

NATION’S Medical Students Continue Advocating for Universal …
Common Dreams
… AMSA wants to make universal health care a reality by 2005. AMSA believes
that equal access to comprehensive health care is a fundamental …

FROM health care to hog lagoons: Presidential candidates on the …
San Francisco Chronicle, CA
… of Bush’s tax cuts to free money for health care … Sees health plan
and pension reform as primary engines for … credits of up to $2,000
a year for the universal …

IDEA of the Week: Health Information is Good Medicine
NDOL.org
… Measuring and improving health care quality is a big reform that can
produce huge benefits for the health of Americans, the fairness of our
health care system …

YOUTHS focus on health care reform
Utica Observer Dispatch
DURHAM, NH – For Will Regii, a senior at the University of New Hampshire,
health care is a personal and political dilemma — like many youths across
the nation …

DEMOCRATIC Presidential Candidates: Health Care
WIS
… Edwards’ plan would also require all parents to provide health insurance
to their … health care” a step further, “Medicare for all, guaranteed:
single-payer …

THE candidates on health care
Portsmouth Herald
… The Kucinich plan is enhanced ‘Medicare for All,’ a universal single-payer
health insurance system that addresses the needs of every American. …

DAVE Zweifel: Drug firms pull out stops on imports
The Capital Times, WI
… The Bush administration, doing the bidding of the big drug corporations, wants to make it next to impossible for U.S. citizens to buy their drugs in Canada. …. and …”A car company can move its factories to Mexico and claim it’s a free market.”…”But heaven help the elderly who dare to buy their prescription drugs from a Canadian pharmacy.”

PRIVATE health plans divert money from care
Times Picayune, LA
… The money that people now pay for high insurance premiums could be
used to pay for a single-payer system to provide care for everyone. …

WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST from Cover the Uninsured Week
Some of the nation’s top stories are published here each week.

http://covertheuninsuredweek.org/news

HEALTH Care For Dummies
Newtown Bee, CT
… That’s not a bad start. Such universal care is also cheaper. The United States spends about 31 cents of its health dollar on administrative costs….

HEAL Health Care System? Start Anew
New York Times
… With a single-payer system, we could save $209 billion a year by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private insurance industry. …

SINGLE-PAYER health care system advocated by physicians
Modesto Bee, CA
… Several studies show that a single-payer system could save enough in administrative costs to fund insurance for all the uninsured. Critics are unimpressed. …

UNION official urges health care reform
Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter, WI
… We are rapidly getting to the point where the health care system is close to collapse,” Newby said at the Manitowoc County Democratic Party’s recent …

SINGLE payer the most logical system
Modesto Bee, CA
… If you are tired of these twisted priorities, support a single-payer system in which every patient has the same insurance coverage, and every hospital or …

HEALTH crisis needs national solution
The News-Press, FL
The United States is the only industrialized nation without some form of universal health coverage for all its citizens. Health care costs are rising rapidly. …

HAMPTON Falls man sees a different side of Cuba
Hampton Union, NH
… According to Bornstein, Cuba has a universal health-care system that is three-tiered in its approach to wellness. There are the

PROZAC may be hazardous to your health insurance
MSN Money
… may wind up being shared with a third-party payer … Thomas, who was once a small-group health insurance … so not every individual insurer can deny every single …

BAD MEDICINE?
Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX
… bottles of prescription drugs sent to the Star-Telegram: Speed Scripts of Miami; Prescriptions and Travel of Miami; Universal … Even improved health care …

SAM Newlund: Free health care for all, cradle to grave? It’s time
Minneapolis Star Tribune (subscription), MN
… Universal health care, or something close to it, is as normal as fingernails in Britain, Canada, France, Germany and elsewhere. …

SENIORS find it pays to shop around for medicine
Tulare Advance Register, CA
… The group advocates for the passage of SB921 Health Care for All Californians Act which aims to achieve universal health care, including prescriptions, for all …

REPUBLICANS Turn Efforts to the Uninsured
New York Times
… Howard Dean, a physician, advocates “a repeal of Bush’s tax cuts so that we can provide universal health care,” and he points to his record as governor of …

YES universal health coverage
Morgan Hill Times, CA
… only group that wouldn’t benefit are the health insurance companies themselves, which may explain the opposition there is to the idea of universal health care …

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE FOR MASSACHUSETTS / BEACON Hill Roll Call
Newton Tab, MA
… Sponsors of a proposed constitutional amendment providing universal health care to all Massachusetts residents filed more than 71,000 …

KUCINICH criticizes health insurance system
San Jose Mercury News, CA
… High School students, favors a government-run single-payer system. Kucinich criticized the other Democratic candidates for offering Americans health insurance …

PANEL seeks to heal pain of health care
Duluth News Tribune, MN
… Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s push to reform health care in Minnesota arrives in Duluth today seeking input from patients, employers and consumer advocates….

A healthy approach to rising health care costs
Doral Tribune, FL
… liquidate investments with early withdrawal penalties or sales charges to cover health care … and deductions to help you take full advantage of tax reform …

BILLS would force health care provider to repay claims faster
Oakland County Press, MI
… I believe people deserve to be reimbursed promptly and I think these delays add increased costs to our health care system.”. “.. To reform their process and …

AS Congress adjourns, Wyden notes successes
Bend.com, OR
SECURING QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR ALL OREGONIANS …Congress passed Wyden’s bipartisan “Health Care That Works for All Americans” legislation, a bipartisan measure written with U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) which maps out a national dialogue on health care to be followed by guaranteed hearings in Congress. It provides for a series of open, public community meetings at which Americans can state their health care preferences, and creates a Citizens’ Health Care Working Group to synthesize and relay those preferences to Congress and the White House. …

A single-payer plan
Salt Lake Tribune, UT
… for approximately 2.5 million New Englanders, had more people administering its program than Canada’s single-payer program employed to administer insurance for …

BUSH signature won’t end Medicare debate
Christian Science Monitor
… Neither can anyone predict whether private insurance firms will be … party-payer model” back to a “market-mediated binary-payer model” would be “the single …

KUCINICH sees Iraq as key election issue
NH Primary, United States
… HEALTH CARE: Wants to establish a streamlined, single-payer national health insurance and rid current system’s ties to HMOs and other private health …

HOPEFULS take issue with debate
NH Primary, United States
… Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun said as the only woman in the race, she’s also best able to take on Bush with a bold plan for a single-payer health-insurance …

HEALTH-CARE debate focuses on US vs. Canadian systems
Palm Beach Post, FL
… About 44 million Americans lack health insurance and too many dollars are … Floridians for Health Care, a West Palm Beach group that advocates single-payer …

ROSE: Portents and pills
Carolina Morning News, SC
… of the medical profession are actively promoting what is known as “single payer … to all Americans, including the 60 million now without health insurance …

BRAUN pushes single-payer health-care plan
Nashua Telegraph, NH
… Moseley Braun told business leaders Monday that her plan for a single-payer … owners have to incorporate what they spend for private health care insurance …

DEMOCRATIC Candidates for President Debate in Iowa
New York Times
… I mean, as long as insurance companies control the health care, the cost … have a bill in HR 676 with John Conyers that establishes universal, single-payer …

TOWN health costs too high
Brattleboro Reformer, VT
… Her suggestions ranged from a single-payer system, which would take an act by the state Legislature, to having the town become its own insurance provider, to …

CAN America Afford Not To Provide Universal Health Care?
Forward, NY
… Finding a politically feasible path to universal coverage will not be easy. … Determining how best to spread these costs among businesses, health care
www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.12.05/oped2.html

VIGIL stresses need for health care for everyone
Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH
Advocates for universal health care held a brief candlelight vigil last night to call attention to the millions of Americans who have no, or very little …
www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1070793012229900.xml

UNIVERSAL health care option
Washington Times, DC
… national health insurance with a single-payer method of health-care provider reimbursement. The foundation of an optimum system is mandatory universal health …

http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20031126-075003-7262r.htm

UNINSURED a risk to public health
St. Petersburg Times, FL
… Public Health Association. A disease outbreak whose spread was scientifically linked to uninsured people might motivate politicians to advocate universal care, …
www.sptimes.com/2003/12/07/Tampabay/Uninsured_a_risk_to_p.shtml

CITY votes in support of universal health care
Daily Pennsylvanian, PA
… re-elected John Street as mayor last Tuesday, but what is perhaps less well known is that voters also came out strongly in support of universal health care. …
www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/3fb495ba1aa92

FOGARTY unveils health-care reform proposal
Providence Journal Bulletin (subscription), RI
Gov. Charles Fogarty presented a health-care reform package today that he said will help meet the health care needs of Rhode Islanders and negotiate lower …

http://www.projo.com/digitalbulletin/content/projo-20031202-healthcare.62000226.html

HEALTH-CARE reform advocate dies at 63
KTVB, ID
BOISE — Health care reform advocate Doctor Bob LeBow died Saturday of complications from a bicycle accident last year. The Boise …

GROUP pushes health care reform
Edwardsville Intelligencer, IL
Even as the US House and Senate debated the future of Medicare programs, representatives of the Illinois Foundation for Quality Health Care (IFQHC) were …

HEALTH care reform petition submitted
North Adams Transcript, MA
WILLIAMSTOWN — With eight initiative petitions circulating statewide, one seeking to reform health care in Massachusetts, was submitted to Town Clerk Mary …