The push by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for a public health-insurance option is creating new obstacles for healthcare legislation in the Senate, despite new poll data suggesting a plurality of Americans support the idea. Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman said that he would vote to block passage of the Senate healthcare bill in its current form, dealing an initial blow to Reid's effort to gather 60 votes. But a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll suggested the public option is gaining support: 48% of respondents supported the idea; 42% were opposed, and 10% weren't sure. In a September poll, 46% of respondents supported it, 48% opposed it and 6% were undecided.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid's decision to bring to the chamber's floor a healthcare bill containing a government insurance plan was met with skepticism by moderate Democrats, who said they still do not know whether they could support a public option on a final vote. Democrats expect Reid to attempt to secure commitments from all 60 members of his caucus to allow the Senate to begin debate on the legislation, aimed at lowering healthcare costs, reforming insurance practices, and expanding coverage to about 30 million uninsured Americans.
New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced the details of a new national database that would help determine how much insurance companies should reimburse patients who go out of network to see a doctor. Consumers would also be able to check a new Web site to see what an insurer was likely to pay before they went to an out-of-network doctor. The announcement is part of a settlement reached with more than a dozen insurance companies concerning the industry's controversial payment of out-of-network claims.
People have lined up across the country in recent days in the hope of getting a H1N1 vaccine, but a dearth of the vaccine has forced local government officials, hospital workers, and doctors in private practice to be conscripted as ad hoc swine flu police. The goal is to make sure that those Americans with the highest risk for contracting the virus get injected first. But the somewhat haphazard nature of the vaccine's distribution in some areas and the rather large population legitimately considered high risk have brought hundreds of thousands of people to vaccine distribution points, the New York Times reports.
The Minneapolis-based nonprofit MN Community Measurement has become a model for a tool now proliferating around the U.S., in which local and regional healthcare providers and insurers cooperate to make performance data public. In Minnesota, the state legislature recently passed a law requiring all medical practices to participate in the ratings system starting in 2010. In all, there are more than 50 regional health-improvement collaboratives in the U.S., according to the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement, a Pittsburgh-based association of the nonprofits.
Naples, FL-based hospital company Health Management Associates Inc. reported net income of $25.4 million, or 10 cents a share, for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with net income of $10.8 million, or 4 cents a share, in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue for the three months ended Sept. 30 was $1.12 billion, up 5.8% from revenue of 1.06 billion a year earlier. HMA owns and operates 56 hospitals throughout the United States.