Kaiser Health News explains how United Health’s CEO claims the company’s $2.1 billion profits last quarter just aren’t enough. They want taxpayers to pony up even more to subsidize their participation in Medicare.
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#politics #medicare #healthcare #united healthcareNCPSSM MENTION
NCPSSM President Max Richtman accepts the 2014 Winn Newman Equality Award (VIDEO). – VIMEO. Acceptance speech from ADA’s 2014 Winn Newman Equality Award Honoree Max Richtman, President and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
United Healthcare to cut doctors for Mass. Seniors. – BOSTON GLOBE. National insurance giant United Healthcare plans to cut up to 700 Massachusetts doctors from its physician network for seniors enrolled in its private Medicare plan as a way to control costs, according to company officials.
MEDICAID
More Than 1.7 Million Consumers Still Wait For Medicaid Decisions. – KAISER HEALTH NEWS. While an unprecedented 6 million people have gained Medicaid coverage since September, mostly as a result of the Affordable Care Act, more than 1.7 million more are still waiting for their applications to be processed—with some stuck in limbo for as long as eight months, according to officials in 15 large states.
MEDICARE
Wash. Times Editorial Spreads Slurs, Lies, on Medicare’s Trans Coverage. – ADVOCATE. An editorial for the right-wing Washington Times claims that Medicare’s new willingness to cover transgender-related health care will lead to taxpayer-funded ‘tranny grannies.’
One simple drug switch could save Medicare $18 billion over the next decade. – VOX. Suppose Medicare pays for two drugs that do the same thing, but one drug is forty times more expensive than the other. Sounds like an easy target for savings, right?
A Doctor Takes A Look In The Medicare Mirror. – NPR. After decades of fighting to keep how much Medicare pays individual doctors a secret, the federal government bowed to pressure from journalists and consumer groups and released the information in April.
HEALTHCARE
Coast-to-Coast Health Care Woe: Cost. – KAISER HEALTH NEWS. Recently, I moved across the country, from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. I drove the Southern route and decided to conduct an informal survey, asking folks I met along the way a question relevant to the health care reporting I’ve been doing for the past five years.
BLOGS
Frank Bruni Is Angry That the Government Pays 1000 Times as Much to Peter Peterson as It Does to the Average Kid. – CEPR. Actually he is not angry about how much money the government pays to Peter Peterson but if he were consistent in his logic he would be.
Half of Americans say gay marriage is a constitutional right. – WASHINGTON POST. Support for gay marriage has backed away slightly from its record high in March, but a solid majority supports it, and half go so far as to say that it is a right protected by the Constitution’s Equal Protection clause, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The next big fight over the safety net. – WASHINGTON POST. Word has it that Democrats are set to take a shellacking in the 2014 elections, in part because midterm electorates tend to be older and whiter. So what if Dems campaigned on expanding Social Security, rather than allowing themselves to get drawn into another debate over how much to cut the program?
In Today’s News!
POLITICS:
Eric Cantor Booed, Heckled By Tea Partiers In His Home District. – HUFFINGTON POST.
MEDICARE:
CMS moves to improve Medicare quality of care. - THE HILL.
Pain and gain: An Alabama clinic stands out amid data on Medicare payments. – WASHINGTON POST.
HEALTHCARE:
Seniors Flock To Star-Rated Medicare Plans Under ACA Rollout. – FORBES.
How curbing health care spending will affect the deficit. – CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR.
BLOGS:
Fix the Social Security discrepancy DOMA left behind. – WASHINGTON POST.
Top Boehner aide leaves Capitol Hill. – THE HILL.
NCPSSM MENTION:
Here’s to Shaheen and Kuster. – LEDGER TRANSCRIPT.
POLITICS:
Chamber Of Commerce President To GOP: Pass Immigration Reform Or Sit Out 2016. – HUFFINGTON POST.
MEDICARE:
NM-Sen: Tom Udall (D) Calls On Congress To Pass The Medicare Protection Act. – DAILY KOS.
HEALTHCARE:
Kentuckians Hate Kynect A Lot Less Than Obamacare. – HUFFINGTON POST.
Hospitals see blue-red divide early into Obamacare’s coverage expansion. – WASHINGTON POST.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday will vote on legislation to avert a pay cut for doctors who participate in the Medicare health care program for the elderly, House Speaker John Boehner said on Wednesday, adding that he expected the Senate would follow “pretty quickly”.
To maximize profits, private insurers in Medicare will continue to try
to enroll younger, healthier, low-cost enrollees leaving sicker, older
and higher-cost seniors in traditional Medicare, creating what is known
in the healthcare industry as a “death spiral” making traditional
Medicare too costly to sustain.
via Reflector.
Three Democratic congressmen have joined senior advocacy groups in calling for Medicare to cover hearing aids and other audiology services, backed by research that says impaired hearing can socially isolate seniors and may contribute to their risk of developing dementia.
Reps. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Jim McDermott of Washington state and Debbie Dingell of Michigan have separately proposed legislation to remove the specific exclusion of hearing aids from the 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act. Some bills include vision and dental coverage as well. No estimate of the potential cost was given.
The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report was just released, and it will presumably inspire the predictable scaremongering about those programs by many in the media and in politics. We’ll be told that those programs are running out of money, that they’re going to go bankrupt, and that they’ll be insolvent.
The survey showed more than 93% of adults 50 and older said they favored the Medicare price negotiations, a policy advocated by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. President Obama included such price negotiation authority for drugs known as biologics and “high-cost drugs” in his recent budget proposals.
via USA TODAY.
The truth is, our nation still faces a system-wide healthcare crisis. Obamacare is a good start but we need to finish the job of bringing down the high cost of healthcare in America, not just in Medicare but in our private system.
On this date in 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the #ADA into law — making it easier for older Americans and others with #disabilities to get around at home, participate in their communities, and go to work. #ADA31
