Health Reform in the House | Fact of the Day H.R. 3962 requires HHS to have a “nursing home compare” web site similar to today’s Hospital Compare web site. The public online tool would be required to include staffing data, summaries of complaint data, and other information to promote competition and help seniors and families choose the best home for a loved one. | | Follow Health Insurance Reform
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At The Time This Daily Dose Was Sent, Insured Americans Had Paid a “Hidden Tax” of $43,822,785,827 This Year In Additional Premium Costs To Cover Care For The Uninsured. Under the Microscope HEALTH CARE SPENDING EATING UP GREATER SHARE OF BUDGETS Today the actuaries at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services released their annual report on national health spending. The new data showed the continued trend of health spending growing faster than wages and eating up a greater percent of America’s economic output. Despite the slowest rate of cost growth in 50 years, the share of family income spent on health care grew from 5.3% to 5.9% in one year. The slower cost growth is largely attributed to Americans rationing the health care they receive and provide to their families in the face of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Read the report and data. US Health Spending Grew to $2.3 Trillion In 2008
The recession dramatically slowed U.S. health care spending to $2.3 trillion in 2008, but it still grew much faster than the economy as a whole, accounting for more than 16 percent of the nation's economic output, says a new federal analysis. [Associated Press, 1/5/2010] Read White House Office of Health Reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle’s blog post on the latest findings in health cost growth.
Read the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog: Another Way To Look At Those Health-Spending Numbers
Read how H.R. 3962 would Controls Costs
Read how H.R. 3962 would Prevent Waste, Fraud, and Abuse HOUSE-SENATE COMPARISON OF KEY PROVISIONS Yesterday the Daily Dose suggested Kaiser Family Foundation’s comprehensive side-by-side comparison of the House and Senate health insurance reform bills. The House Tri-Committee has since released a more focused document showing the top line differences between the House and Senate bills. Read the Tri-Committee House-Senate Comparison of Key Provisions
Health Care Headlines New Consumer Poll Suggests Some Could Be Delaying Coverage
When given a choice between waiting for health reform legislation to pass or researching and seeking health insurance coverage immediately, 24% of adults surveyed would choose to wait before seeking coverage if they lost their coverage today, according to a new poll. [CNNMoney.com, 1/5/2010] Health Debate Resumes With WH Meet
The health care debate resumes in earnest on Tuesday after more than a week of quiet following Senate passage of its landmark bill on Christmas Eve. [Politico, 1/4/2010] Congress Proposes New Physician Payment System
The health care overhaul bills on Capitol Hill do not upend traditional "fee for service" payment for doctors, but they do include financial incentives for doctors to cut medical costs and improve patient care. [NPR, 1/4/2010] OPINION: Health-Care Reform Requires Healthy Living Choices
By Steve Case, co-founder of America Online and chairman of the Case Foundation
With passage of health-care reform legislation imminent, this is a significant moment. Many have fought for decades to bring about meaningful change on this issue. [Washington Post, 1/1/2010] COMMENTARY: Republican Deficit Hypocrisy
By Bruce Bartlett, former Treasury Department economist and policy advisor to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush
The human capacity for self-delusion never ceases to amaze me, so it shouldn't surprise me that so many Republicans seem to genuinely believe that they are the party of fiscal responsibility.
[Forbes magazine, 11/20/2009]
Read a related narrative and document on passing the Medicare Part D benefit in 2003. | 