Blue Shield of California has notified individual policyholders that their coverage could be immediately dropped if they miss a single payment. Blue Shield says in a letter to customers that they can reapply for insurance, but with potentially higher premiums and stricter conditions. This represents a significant change from Blue Shield's former practice of giving customers two special grace periods annually to make up for missed payments without any change to coverage or premiums, reports Los Angeles Times columnist David Lazarus.
Senate Democratic leaders appeared poised to abandon efforts to create a government-run insurance safety net in their push for healthcare reform, as they attempted to close ranks around a bill they hoped would win the backing of all 60 members of their caucus, the Washington Post reports. Party leaders conceded that a key portion of the compromise they crafted to replace the public option—a proposal allowing people as young as 55 to buy into Medicare—did not have sufficient support from Democratic moderates to overcome a likely Republican filibuster, reports the Post.
Federal health officials are casting doubt on a funding scheme by California to keep nearly 700,000 children from being yanked from a government health insurance program for the working poor. U.S. health officials said the plan adopted by the state in the final days of the legislative session and signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may not meet regulatory muster, the Los Angeles Times repors. As a result, children's health advocates are warning that by the end of 2010, hundreds of thousands of children could lose their health insurance.
The University of Michigan Health System announced it has received a $15-million gift from the Ted and Jane Von Voigtlander Foundation to help support the construction of a new women's hospital. The gift will be used to help fund the $754-million C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Women's Hospital complex now under construction and scheduled to open in 2012.
Mortgage rates in the United States have dropped to their lowest levels since the 1940s, but the banks that once handed out home loans freely are imposing such stringent requirements that many homeowners who might want to refinance are effectively locked out, the New York Times reports. The scarcity of credit not only hurts homeowners but also has broad economic repercussions at a time when consumer spending and employment are showing modest signs of improvement, the Times reports.
Republicans seized on a report by government actuaries that said the Senate health bill would cause national health costs to rise, the Wall Street Journal reports. The report, compiled by the chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, estimated that total health costs in the U.S. would be $234 billion higher than if the bill weren't passed. The report said measures in the bill to restrain Medicare costs and trim generous insurance plans "would have a significant downward impact on future healthcare cost growth rates," but said those gains would be outweighed in the initial years as newly insured people sought to get more healthcare, the Journal reports.