A total of 28,100 Connecticut residents will lose their health coverage in 2009 as a result of losing their jobs, according to an estimate by Families USA to be released in a report. By the end of the year, the consumer advocacy group projects that Connecticut will have 303,000, or 14.1% of all adults between the ages of 19 and 64 without healthcare benefits. That compares with 275,600, or 12.9%, in 2008.
Barry Dubin, who was selected as a $425-an-hour consultant for Miami-based Jackson Health System, has been linked to accusations of fraud in the closing of a Chicago window company. The case involves Republic Windows and Doors, where 200 employees made national newscasts when they refused to leave the plant for six days last December after the company lost its bank financing. After learning of the allegation, Jackson Chief Executive Eneida Roldan announced she had "formally requested that Mr. Barry Dubin be removed from the consulting team. This is no reflection on his expertise, but this has caused a distraction and we need to turn things around quickly. The hospital cannot afford this distraction."
As the White House and Congressional leaders turned to working out big differences in the five healthcare bills, perhaps no issue loomed as a greater obstacle than whether to establish a government-run competitor to the insurance industry, the New York Times reports. One day after the Senate Finance Committee approved a measure without a public option, the question on Capitol Hill was how President Obama could reconcile the deep divisions within his party on the issue.
Days after the insurance lobby began an aggressive campaign against a Senate plan to overhaul the nation's healthcare system, senior Democrats threatened to revoke the industry's long-standing antitrust exemption. Health insurance is one of only a few industries exempted from certain federal antitrust regulations, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) said the exemption was "one of the worst accidents of American history. It deserves a lot of the blame for the huge rise in premiums that has made health insurance so unaffordable."
Seniors across the country revel in the free perks that private insurance companies bundle with legally mandated benefits to entice people 65 and older to forgo traditional Medicare and sign up for private Medicare Advantage policies. But the extra benefits are not exactly free; they are subsidized by the government. And some of the plans pass their costs on to seniors, who pay higher co-pays and additional fees to get care, reports the Washington Post.
Struggling to improve its difficult financial situation, Miami-based Jackson Health System is planning to hire a firm of high-priced consultants. James R. Malone, managing partner of Qorval consulting services, will serve as Jackson's interim chief operating officer at a rate of $595 an hour for the next nine months. Barry Dubin will become chief restructuring officer, at $425 an hour. Altogether, Qorval could get up to $1.8 million for the services of three to six consultants in the next nine months. The contract was approved unanimously by a committee of the Public Health Trust and is expected to be accepted by the full trust board at its meeting later this month.