Health Reform in the House | Fact of the Day The House bill invests an additional $1 billion in efforts to eliminate fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. For every dollar we invest in these efforts, we see a return of $1.75 to the federal Treasury. | Health Resources |
Don’t Miss President Obama’s Prime Time Speech to the Country on Health Insurance Reform: Tonight at 8:00 P.M. EST Live
At The Time This Daily Dose Was Sent the Hidden Health Tax On Insured Americans Was $29,841,001,543 Under the Microscope STUDY: Increased Spending On Health Care: Long Term Implications For The Nation
This paper updates one published in 2003, describing the implications of continued health care spending growth for the consumption of nonhealth goods and services. Two scenarios, one a more modest health cost growth rate, are both deemed to be unaffordable. Even with the more favorable scenario, the nation would still face important challenges paying for care and dividing up the burden. Thus reforms that would dramatically slow the rate of health care spending growth are necessary, especially if the United States hopes to maintain a reasonable amount of consumption of nonhealth goods and services. [Journal of Health Affairs, 9/10/2009] Nation Cannot Afford Not to Stem Medical Spending, Economists Warn
“We have a really serious health-care cost growth problem,” said Mr. Chernew, one of the authors of the [above] study. “It is bigger than how we finance health care reform.”
[New York Times, 9/9/2009] Watch This Video That Shows Why We Can’t Afford to Wait.
[R.E.M. and MoveOn.org]
Health Care Headlines Despite Fears, Health Care Overhaul is Moving Ahead
The conventional wisdom, here and around the country, is that the centerpiece of President Obama’s domestic agenda — remaking the health care system to cut costs and cover the uninsured — is on life support and that only a political miracle could revive it. Here’s why the conventional wisdom might be wrong. [New York Times, 9/9/09] Obama To Endorse Public Plan in Speech
President Barack Obama, in a high-stakes speech Wednesday to Congress and the nation, will press for a government-run insurance option in a proposed overhaul of the U.S. health-care system that has divided lawmakers and voters for months. [Wall Street Journal, 9/9/09] Read about the President’s comments today. Moderate Democrats Hold Out for Cost Control Measures in Overhaul
Even as President Obama seeks to answer Republican critics of his health care overhaul plan in an address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening, he has yet to close the sale with moderates in his own party. [CQ Today, 9/9/09] Chronic Conditions Crank Up Health Care Costs
Nearly half of Americans have a chronic condition, and 75% of the $2.6 trillion spent annually on health care goes to treat patients with long-term health problems, says Kenneth Thorpe, a professor at Atlanta's Emory University and head of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease. In the Medicare program, which pays for Harris' care because of his kidney failure, 95% of spending is linked to a chronic disease. [USA Today, 9/9/09] EDITORIAL: Rescuing Reform
Making sure that anyone who is sick can receive treatment is, it is often said, a moral imperative for any civilized country. We agree. But here is another moral imperative: ensuring that America's adults do not incur so much debt that they choke off economic opportunity for the following generation. [Washington Post, 9/9/09] Bristling at Health Plan to Cover Early Retirees
Within the battle over President Obama’s health care overhaul, critics of organized labor have latched onto a little-noticed provision in the legislation already circulating in Congress. The provision would cost $10 billion in federal money to subsidize employer-sponsored health plans covering early retirees, as a bridge to Medicare. [New York Times, 9/9/09] The Chance Of A Lifetime Arrives for Tom Harkin
On Wednesday Harkin became the successor to the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts at the helm of one of the two chief Senate panels steering health care policy. [CQ HealthBeat, 9/9/2009] |