Congressional Democrats have scrapped plans for another vote on expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program, after concluding that President Bush would not sign their legislation and that they could not override his likely veto. Bush vetoed two earlier versions of the legislation, which he denounced as a dangerous step toward "government-run healthcare for every American." The fight over CHIP prefigures a larger legislative debate over the future of healthcare and the role of government in providing it.
A University of Chicago Medical Center strategy to steer poor and uninsured patients with less serious injuries to other facilities to focus on treating the most challenging cases is attracting growing criticism. In the last three years, the medical center has expanded an effort to educate the uninsured on how to get proper medical care without showing up in its expensive ER. But despite its successes, the initiative has prompted questions from a wide array of skeptics.
Young surgeons at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have regularly worked more hours than allowed by national safety limits, according to an oversight organization and hospital officials. The group that oversees training of new doctors cited Beth Israel Deaconess for hours violations in a letter in January. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education said that the hospital would jeopardize its accreditation as a surgery training program if it does not correct the problems by September 9, when council staff plan to review the hospital again.
California's budget impasse is threatening to force the shutdown of many healthcare services across the state if a deal is not struck soon. Without a budget, hospitals, clinics, and homes for disabled residents that rely on state funds to operate will have lost as much as $5.4 billion in state funds by the end of September. State payments for most of them ended in July, and many service providers said they've already received loans, maxed out their credit cards, and even poured in personal funds to keep their centers open.
At free clinics in the Charlotte, NC, area, the demand for healthcare keeps growing as the economy continues to sour and people lose jobs and health insurance. In North Carolina, three out of four uninsured people are from working families, according to the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. Most of these uninsured work in low-wage or part-time jobs.
Missouri's Republican gubernatorial candidate Kenny Hulshof unveiled his healthcare plan amid predictions that it would help nearly all 729,000 uninsured Missourians acquire health coverage at modest cost. The plan contrasted sharply with the proposal floated by Democrat Jay Nixon, which focuses on expanding coverage for the very poor and universal coverage for Missouri children. But as details of Hulshof's plan emerge, questions have arisen about the plan's funding, its practicality, and whether it really addresses the problem.