Grace Brewer says she never thought she would be without health insurance at this stage of her life. "I'm a casualty of Obamacare," says Brewer, 60, a self-employed chiropractor in the Kansas City, Kansas, area. She wanted to keep the catastrophic health insurance plan she once had, which she says fit her needs. But under the Affordable Care Act, the government's health care reform law, the plan was discontinued because it did not comply with the law's requirements, and her bills doubled to more than $400 a month. "I wanted a minimal plan and I?m not allowed to have it," she says. "That seems like an encroachment on my freedom."
Rita Gorenflo's 7-year-old son Nathaniel was in severe pain from a sinus infection. But since the boy was covered by Medicaid, she couldn't immediately find a specialist willing to see him. After days of calling, she was finally able to get Nathaniel an appointment nearly a week later near their South Florida home. That was in 2005. Last month, ruling in a lawsuit brought by the state's pediatricians and patient advocacy groups, a federal district judge in Miami determined Nathaniel's wait was "unreasonable" and that Florida's Medicaid program was failing him and nearly 2 million other children by not paying enough money to doctors and dentists to ensure the kids have adequate access to care.
Massachusetts hospitals have some of the worst readmission rates in the country, according to data released by the state's Center for Health Information and Analysis. Based on data from 2011 to 2012, approximately 80 percent of Massachusetts hospitals were penalized by Medicare for excessive, unplanned Medicare readmissions, making the state the fourth-most penalized state in the nation, according to federal data. Only Delaware, Connecticut and New Jersey had worse readmissions, according to a Kaiser Health News report. New York tied with Boston, with 80 percent of its hospitals receiving penalties.
Steven Brill's new book about the process of passing the Affordable Care Act is so meticulously reported, I found myself surprised by many details of a process I myself was deeply involved in. I learned from "America's Bitter Pill," for example, that in October 2009 one of my White House colleagues apparently wrote a memo arguing that I had misled President Barack Obama in highlighting the potential for the legislation to slow the growth of U.S. health-care costs. Brill approvingly quotes a staff member saying that the point of the memo was that "Peter overstated to the president how great the bill was on costs."
Skilled nursing facilities are launching a new campaign to avoid cuts and offer policy proposals ahead of Congress's debate over the next fix for Medicare doctor payments. The American Health Care Association (AHCA), which represents nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other subacute care providers, is blanketing Washington in multimedia advertisements starting Monday to shore up its position ahead of deliberations. "As the doc fix fight heats up again this year, skilled nursing and rehab providers stand ready to help Congress find a permanent solution," said AHCA President Mark Parkinson in a statement.
Like millions of Americans, Brian Hull has high cholesterol and a family history of heart disease. He takes low-dose aspirin every day to reduce his chance of a heart attack. "The concern was I not have a heart attack like my father did," he told CBS News. Hull, 57 years old, said he believes aspirin maintenance therapy has prevented him from having any episodes of cardiac arrest over the last decade. "Knock on wood, I haven't had one yet and I'm hoping I won't have one forever!" However, a new study in Journal of the American College of Cardiology finds more than 10 percent of patients who are being prescribed aspirin to prevent a first-time heart attack or stroke, should not be taking the medicine.