I've recounted the story behind this headline before (here) but there's a longer, more detailed version—and lesson. I attended a healthcare event last year that needs to remain nameless. It wasn't a big event. In fact, it was very focused and relatively small. That's about as much as we need to know because our headline came from that conference and the Chief Information Officer (CIO) who served it up wishes to remain anonymous. That's ok, of course, but the story and lesson are definitely worth reviewing.
Payments to healthcare providers from the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be covered for longer than previously forecast, says the fund's annual financial report.
Lower-than-expected spending for most healthcare service categories means that the federal Medicare trust fund will not be exhausted until 2026, according to the Old Age, Survivor's and Disability Insurance (OASDI) board of trustees.
The report confirms that Medicare Part B, which pays outpatient expenses, and Part D, which provides access to prescription drug coverage, will remain adequately financed indefinitely, in accordance with current federal law.
While the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be able to meet its financial obligations for two years longer than projected in last year's report, the trustees recommend that "lawmakers address the projected trust fund shortfalls in a timely way in order to phase in necessary changes and give workers and beneficiaries time to adjust to them."
Social Security benefits are projected to be exhausted in 2033.
WASHINGTON — The new health care law is injecting more competition into health insurance markets nationwide, drawing additional insurance companies into states long dominated by a few carriers, Obama administration officials said Thursday. Such competition offers the prospect of more choices for millions of consumers who will be shopping for insurance this fall. Companies entering the market could also put downward pressure on prices, partly offsetting factors that tend to increase premiums. The competition could pose new challenges to Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, which dominate the individual insurance markets in many states.
Forget the Obamacare "train wreck": The Obama administration thinks the Affordable Care Act is right on track. The key, they believe, is competition between insurers. More than 120 health insurance plans have applied to sell on the federally run health insurance exchange, according to a White House memo published Thursday. One-quarter of those applicants are new competitors in a state's individual insurance market. The federal government is also in the process of reviewing health insurers' applications to run multi-state plans that would, in 2014, sell insurance plans in at least 31 states. By 2017, these insurers would need to offer coverage in all 50 states.
(Reuters) - The White House, seeking to show early success for President Barack Obama's health reforms, said more than 120 insurers have applied to sell plans on federally-run online marketplaces that begin offering subsidized coverage in just over four months. Based on a memo released by senior administration officials, about 5 million consumers could be able to choose from a variety of plans from at least five insurance companies with coverage that meets new quality standards set down by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Each insurance company applicant would offer 15 separate plans on average.
Is health care America's economic savior or scourge? The answer, strangely, might be both. In the short term, growth within the health-care sector provides a boost to a weak economy. But the same rise will eventually be more trouble than help. Over the last decade, the health-care industry has added 2.7 million to payrolls. Not only is that more than any single other sector, but the rise of health care explains half of all net job growth over the last decade. Health care has gone from 6.4 percent of the labor force in 1990 to 9.4 percent this month. Had the sector not expanded over that period, the unemployment rate would stand at 10.4 percent today, all else equal.