In a promising sign that Massachusetts' healthcare initiative is succeeding, use of the "free care pool" dropped by about 16 percent in the program's first year. State officials project an even bigger free care decline in 2008, and that the decline will bring savings of about $240 million. That drop is expected to come not only from insuring more people, but also from changes in the way hospitals are paid and in who is eligible for free care.
While Presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama fight over who has the better health plan for the uninsured, they say little about a more immediate challenge: how to tame the soaring costs of Medicare and Medicaid. Experts say both are unsustainable in their current form, because they are growing much faster than the economy or the revenues used to finance them. The Medicare program is especially endangered, because its hospital insurance trust fund is expected to run out of money in 11 years.
Private audit companies are set to begin scouring mountains of medical records to determine if healthcare providers erred when billing Medicare and require them to return any overpayments to the federal government. In just three years since the program started, the contractors have returned more than $300 million to the federal government. Critics of the program say that contractors have too much incentive to question as many claims as possible because they get to keep about 20 percent of the overpayments.
According to online interviews conducted by American University graduate journalism students, healthcare ranks as the third most pressing concern among young voters aged 18-to-29. Respondents had varying opinions about healthcare affordability: Two-thirds of respondents said they think they will be able to afford insurance in the next five years, while one-third said no or "not sure."
The federal government has approved the Louisiana Children's Health Insurance Program, the state's plan for expanding the availability of healthcare coverage for children from low-income families. Authorities expect an additional 6,500 Louisiana children to get coverage through the program, in addition to the 115,271 already enrolled.
A plan for getting almost all Iowa children health insurance has moved a step closer to reality. Under the plan, about 36,000 children would qualify for free or subsidized health insurance, and the parents of another 12,000 would have to pay for the insurance on their own. Lawmakers removed a proposed requirement that all Iowa adults have health insurance as well.