American business is typically a reliable Republican cheerleader, but it is lukewarm about Senator John McCain's proposal to overhaul the healthcare system by revamping the tax treatment of health benefits, officials with leading trade groups say. The officials predicted in recent interviews that the McCain plan, which eliminates the exclusion of health benefits from income taxes, would accelerate the erosion of employer-sponsored health insurance and do little to reduce the number of uninsured from 45 million.
Thousands of newly insured Massachusetts residents are still relying on emergency rooms for routine medical care. Under a 2006 law, nearly every state resident is required to have health insurance, and the law's framers hoped it would ease overuse of ERs as the newly insured went instead to primary care doctors for non-urgent health needs. But a sizable number of patients who obtained state-subsidized insurance have continued to use the ER at a rate 14% higher than Massachusetts residents overall, according to records.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is making an 11th-hour push to deliver on his promise to expand healthcare coverage for the uninsured. Seeking a compromise with Senate Republicans opposed to spending and taxing increases, Rendell has scaled back his original 2007 proposal, and dropped a request for a tobacco tax to help pay for it. The latest proposal would add 250,000 people to the state insurance program by 2012, but they would have more limited benefits than Rendell envisioned. The deal also would extend state subsidies to cover medical malpractice insurance for doctors.
Georgia's top health agency plans to charge health insurers millions of dollars in extra fees to help pay for the state's Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids programs. But the insurance companies are fighting back, saying the fees will drive up rates for people with private insurance and possibly price some people out of their coverage plans.
For months, officials at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center have been buzzing with excitement about the anticipated opening of their new home. But that opening has been delayed repeatedly. There are two main concerns loom over the $1.02-billion medical center's opening: Are there too few beds, and will there be enough doctors to fully staff the expanded emergency room when it opens?
Barack Obama has sharply criticized John McCain's healthcare proposals, saying they could force millions of Americans to struggle to buy medical insurance. Obama gave a detailed outline of his own plans in a 40-minute speech at a waterside park in Newport News, VA. Obama told the thousands in attendance that he would make coverage more affordable to most Americans, he said, paying for the subsidies largely by canceling the Bush administration's tax cuts for people making more than $250,000 a year.