While the new Obamacare insurance marketplaces have been plagued by dysfunction, an existing coverage program curtailed by the health care law appears to be working quite well. In fact, it's even more attractive to consumers than before reforms put in place by the Affordable Care Act. Back in 2009 and 2010, one of the harshest criticisms of President Obama's health care law was that it would hurt seniors. The law's $700 billion in cuts to Medicare over 10 years would deprive seniors of benefits and choices, critics said. Of particular concern was the plan to cut more than $100 billion out of a quasi-governmental program called Medicare Advantage, which allows seniors to get government-funded private insurance plans in place of traditional Medicare.
In dentists' and doctors' offices, hearing aid centers and pain clinics, American health care is forging a lucrative alliance with American finance. A growing number of health care professionals are urging patients to pay for treatment not covered by their insurance plans with credit cards and lines of credit that can be arranged quickly in the provider's office. The cards and loans, which were first marketed about a decade ago for cosmetic surgery and other elective procedures, are now proliferating among older Americans, who often face large out-of-pocket expenses for basic care that is not covered by Medicare or private insurance.
State insurance regulators are encountering sites designed to mimic ObamaCare's enrollment portal, the online hub where millions of people are meant to purchase healthcare coverage. Attempts at imitating healthcare.gov have met with cease-and-desist letters; the sites could confuse consumers seeking to enter ObamaCare's marketplaces. In New Hampshire, the insurance commissioner reportedly cracked down on one webpage last week that could have been mistaken for the state's insurance exchange. And regulators from Washington, Pennsylvania and Connecticut are warning the health insurance industry against creating sites that might mislead the public.
Hospital CEOs' pay isn't linked to their hospital's benefit to the community. Nor is it linked to the quality of care the hospital provides, a new study found. Instead, the chief executive officers, or CEOs, tended to earn more at hospitals with high patient satisfaction ratings and advanced technology. "I was hoping I'd see even some modest relationship with quality performance," said Dr. Ashish Jha. "I think we were a little disappointed." Jha worked on the study at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. He and his colleagues combined data from tax returns, hospital surveys and performance and cost reports.
When Barbara Retkowski went to a Cape Coral, Florida, health clinic in August to treat a blood condition, she figured the center would bill her insurance company. Instead, it demanded payment upfront. Earlier in the year, another clinic insisted she pay her entire remaining insurance deductible for the year -- more than $1,000 -- before the doctor would even see her. "I was surprised and frustrated," Retkowski, a 59-year-old retiree, said in an interview. "I had to pull money out of my savings." The practice of upfront payment for non-emergency care has been spreading in the U.S. as deductibles rise. Now, the advent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is likely to accelerate that trend.
A Maine nurses group on Monday said President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, which is criticized by conservatives as overreaching, doesn't go far enough toward universal health coverage. The Maine State Nurses Association held Monday afternoon health screenings and an evening "town hall" event at the First Parish Church on Congress Street in Portland to advocate for the expansion of the federal Medicare program to cover all Americans, regardless of age. The organization is planning to hold a second wave of screenings and another town hall event Tuesday afternoon and evening at the Bangor Public Library.