A survey taken last month shows that 78% of voters say healthcare is a very important or extremely important issue. Both presidential candidates have promised that, if elected, they'll propose significant changes to the way Americans purchase health insurance. The process as it currently stands is often cumbersome and confusing, and has left 47 million people in the United States uninsured.
Doctors and hospital executives say collecting payments from insurers has become an expensive headache that is driving up the nation's healthcare costs. Billing disputes and protracted payment delays are one consequence of a massive consolidation among health insurers that has created de facto monopolies in much of the country, according to findings. In response, the insurance industry lays much of the blame for billing problems on doctors and hospitals.
Birmingham, AL-based Physicians Medical Center Carraway is closing after 100 years and filed for bankruptcy protection to liquidate the assets. The bankrupt hospital transferred its last patient to another hospital late on October 22, for a total of 88 patients discharged or transferred since Physicians Carraway announced its closure two days earlier. This is the second bankruptcy for the hospital. A group of 52 local doctors bought Carraway Methodist Medical Center at a bankruptcy auction in November 2006 and attempted to revive the struggling institution, but they suffered from too little operating capital and too few patients.
Louisiana's efforts to improve healthcare outcomes must put more power in the hands of doctors and patients and should also include broad public health measures, said Gov. Bobby Jindal. The administration is weeks away from unveiling a sweeping overhaul of the $7.5 billion-a-year Medicaid program for the poor, elderly, and disabled. The Louisiana Health First plan would turn over large chunks of the program to privately run managed-care organizations, which would oversee the healthcare of as many as 380,000 residents, mainly children.
Americans should be required to buy health insurance, bringing healthier people into plans that will help bring down costs, Ron Williams, chairman and CEO of Aetna, told a Detroit audience. Williams said he favors plans similar to those adopted by some states that require everyone to have health insurance: either through a workplace plan or through a plan consumers buy on their own, with help from state subsidies for those who can't afford it. A mandatory system would help bring down costs and end the problem of enrolling healthy applicants and rejecting those with prior medical problems because costs and risks would be spread over a larger group of people, Williams said.
Although far more Massachusetts residents have health insurance coverage than residents nationwide, a significant portion of state residents are still struggling to pay for needed healthcare, according to a new survey. Some are postponing treatments, and others are not filling prescriptions, because of high costs or an inability to pay bills from earlier procedures, according to the survey. A third of those surveyed said the cost of care is their biggest health concern, and 39% ranked it among their top two health concerns.