People in leadership roles for major Midwestern companies seem to have little confidence that the next U.S. president will do much to expand the pool of those with medical insurance. During the Midwest Business Group on Health annual meeting, not one person out of a crowd of 200 thought health benefits would be expanded one year from January 2008. The informal poll came from a group that included consultants, executives and human resource professionals from some of the Midwest's largest employers.
Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell has expressed reservations about a bill that would permit municipalities, nonprofits and small businesses to join the state employee health insurance pool. Rell said she viewed the legislation as "well-intentioned," but possibly harmful to the state employee health system. The bill allows insurers to base rates on the same factors as they would for small employers outside the pool, such as age, gender, group size, location and type of industry.
President Bush plans to give states more flexibility to prove that they have enrolled 95% of poor children from eligible families under the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Hardly any state meets that threshold, and several states have been forced to scale back their plans to expand coverage beyond children from families at twice the poverty level. The new directive will qualify many of the 15 states that may not have met the criteria using data from the Current Population Survey, according to CMS representatives.
Testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, two Bush administration Cabinet members acknowledged gaps in the capability of U.S. hospitals to deal with a mass-casualty terrorist attack or other disaster. They added, however, that a congressional effort to block pending Medicaid cuts will not fix the problem. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said lawmakers could instead target funds more directly, such as by financing the stockpiling of hospital beds, ventilator units or medicines, if needed.
The city of Birmingham will provide $20 million in incentives for a project to expand Children's Hospital. Hospital officials say the $450 million project is the single largest healthcare expansion in the state, creating as many as 500 hospital jobs. The incentive plan involves rebating some of the occupational taxes generated by the expansion for the next 20 years, up to $20 million. The new hospital should open in about four years, said hospital CEO Mike Warren.