Hammered by a persistent recession and healthcare expenses that continue to climb, South Florida's employers are responding in dramatically different ways—from offering greater benefits at no cost to asking workers to pay up to 35% more for insurance.
While insurers nationwide say it's important that healthcare reform offer people plenty of insurance alternatives, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida has decided that one basic plan is best for its employees next year. Its agents will continue to offer businesses and individuals dozens of options in health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations, and other possibilities, but in 2010, the 5,000 employees of the state's largest health insurer will be required to go into a high-deductible product linked to health savings accounts.
A group of Utah doctors, medical professors, and scientists are warning about global warming's threat to public health. As temperatures rise, they say Utah residents can expect more pollution, more heat-related illnesses, more frequent and intense dust storms, and more infectious diseases.
House Democrats are at an impasse over whether their remake of the nation's healthcare system would effectively allow federal funding of abortion. At least two dozen anti-abortion Democrats believe it would, and while their opposition is unlikely to stall the legislation in the end, they are at odds with Democratic leaders just weeks ahead of anticipated floor action on the bill.
About 1 in 5 U.S. children had a flu-like illness earlier this month—and most of those cases likely were swine flu, according to a new government health survey. About 7% of surveyed adults said they'd had a flu-like illness, the survey found.
President Obama will travel today to Massachusetts, one of only two states to implement a universal healthcare program similar to his ambitions for the entire country. But he does not plan to use the trip to make his case for far-reaching reform; he will tout clean energy and raise money for the Democratic governor. The president's critics say his reluctance to spotlight the Massachusetts model is real-world evidence that his vision would not work on a national scale. High costs have forced the state to trim benefits for legal immigrants and prompted one safety-net hospital to sue over a $38 million shortfall.
House Democrats are coalescing around an $871 billion healthcare package that would create a government-run insurance plan to help millions of Americans afford coverage, raise taxes on the nation's richest families, and impose an array of new regulations on private insurers, in part by stripping the industry of its long-standing exemption from federal antitrust laws. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top lieutenants said Thursday that they are close to corralling the 218 votes they need to move forward with comprehensive legislation that would include a version of the public option prized by liberals as a fundamental pillar of reform.
The Senate on Wednesday voted down a measure that would have permanently prevented Medicare payment cuts to doctors, with a split in the Democratic vote showing there remains room for disagreement on the healthcare front within the party. Meanwhile, congressional Democrats moved to stiffen antitrust laws on insurance companies. The two actions could influence whether the broader health-overhaul legislation Democrats are pushing in Congress wins support from doctors and insurers.
WellPoint Inc., the nation's largest health insurer by members, is striking out against proposed health-overhaul legislation with new data it presented to members of Congress Thursday. The insurer's conclusions, building on a study the insurance lobby put out last week, purport to show state by state how proposed changes to the nation's healthcare system would drive up premiums for some individuals and small businesses. Democrats on Capitol Hill criticized the findings as biased and self-serving.
In pushing to include a government-run health insurance plan in the healthcare bill, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is taking a calculated gamble that the 60 members of his caucus could support the plan if it included a way for states to opt out. Reid met with President Obama at the White House Thursday to inform him of his inclination to add the public option to the bill, but did not specifically ask the president to endorse that approach, a Democratic aide said.
