EAST LANSING, Mich. — President Obama and the Democrats passed the 2010 health care law to make medical insurance available to more than 30 million people who do not have it. But with recent studies showing that as many as three-fourths of those people are unaware of their new options, health care providers are joining community organizers and insurance companies in an ambitious effort to spread the word in the six months remaining before the health plans become available. Here in Michigan, a small army of doctors and nurses, hospital employees, insurance agents and advocates for low-income people is mobilizing for the next phase of this revolution in domestic social policy: finding people who are eligible for health insurance and getting them enrolled.
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Days after they were badly hurt in a car accident, Jacinto Cruz and Jose Rodriguez-Saldana lay unconscious in an Iowa hospital while the American health care system weighed what to do with the two immigrants from Mexico. The men had health insurance from jobs at one of the nation's largest pork producers. But neither had legal permission to live in the U.S., nor was it clear whether their insurance would pay for the long-term rehabilitation they needed.
The recession and the slow recovery from it are the major driving forces behind a recent slowdown in health care spending, while higher patient cost-sharing and other changes to the health system play a smaller role, according to a study released yesterday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Altarum Institute, The Hill's "Healthwatch" reports. For the study, analysts developed a model that tracked health care cost growth using economic indicators over the past 50 years to predict future growth rates for health care spending.
ST. PAUL — Rochester residents would be allowed to serve on the authority board overseeing Mayo Clinic's Destination Medical Center plan under a Senate plan unveiled Monday. It's a sharp contrast to the previous proposal, which would have prohibited any Rochester residents from serving on the authority. That group will decide how to spend millions of dollars on public infrastructure. The Senate plan also requires Mayo Clinic to spend $250 million on construction before state dollars could be tapped for Mayo's 20-year expansion. That's $50 million more than in the House version of the plan.
(Reuters) - The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, accused by the City of Pittsburgh of not deserving its status as a tax-exempt charitable institution, has fired back with its own suit, alleging that Pittsburgh violated the healthcare center's constitutional rights. In a lawsuit filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the university medical center claimed that Pittsburgh violated its rights to equal protection and due process, and to engage in interstate and international commerce. Friday's suit was responding to a March 20 case filed by the city and its mayor, Luke Ravenstahl, in a Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas.
SACRAMENTO -- In the healthcare world, there's not a whole lot that insurers, doctors and union workers all agree on. But a new coalition of powerful Capitol players from all three groups is hoping to reverse recent budget cuts, pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown, to those who provide care to the poorest Californians. But doctors, hospital officials and others say the rate cuts could threaten the success of the federal law. They say lower reimbursements for treating poor patients will reduce the number of people who agree to treat Medi-Cal patients.