From: msnbc.com: Health
Health care costs are weighing heavily on Americans, with nearly
half of those polled in a new survey saying theyre worried about
paying for future care.
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Primary Care: A Critical Review Of The Evidence On Quality And Costs Of Health Care [History & Background]
Despite contentious debate over the new national health care reform
law, there is an emerging consensus that strengthening primary care
will improve health outcomes and restrain the growth of health care
spending. Policy discussions imply three general definitions of
primary care: a specialty of medical providers, a set of functions
served by a usual source of care, and an orientation of health
systems. We review the empirical evidence linking each definition
of primary care to health care quality, outcomes, and costs. The
available evidence most directly supports initiatives to increase
providers’ ability to serve primary care functions and to
reorient health systems to emphasize delivery of primary care.
Trends In Health Care Spending For Immigrants In The United States [Web First]
The suspected burden that undocumented immigrants may place on the
U.S. health care system has been a flashpoint in health care and
immigration reform debates. An examination of health care spending
during 1999–2006 for adult naturalized citizens and immigrant
noncitizens (which includes some undocumented immigrants) finds
that the cost of providing health care to immigrants is lower than
that of providing care to U.S. natives and that immigrants are not
contributing disproportionately to high health care costs in public
programs such as Medicaid. However, noncitizen immigrants were
found to be more likely than U.S. natives to have a health care
visit classified as uncompensated care.
Choose: Choice is good or bad
Boston Globe columnist Steven Syre offers a thoughtful political
view of health care issues in Massachusetts today. An excerpt:The
latest edition of an annual health care poll conducted by Mass
Insight suggests most people don’t find the
price they pay for health coverage to be a serious problem. The
poll, which will be officially released next week, also shows a
large majority of people don’t want to give up
anything when it comes to health coverage or the freedom to choose
whom they see for medical help.... A majority of people polled said
they disapproved of limiting coverage for high-cost and
experimental treatments as well as policies that limit coverage for
prescription drugs. A whopping 80 percent were against limiting
consumer choice of doctors and hospitals.I found th...
How does Obama plan to pay for health care coverage similar to his?
His speech in Indiana – he will provide health care coverage
to everyone for a price; but those who cannot afford it, they will
be given a subsidy by the goverment. Then we will be paying for our
coverage as well as everyone else’s — when they
continue to smoke, drink, use drugs and [...]
No More Free Lunch
Imagine a world where there are copay's and other cost sharing for
health care. Go to a doctor, pay a fee. Get a prescription filled,
pay a fee. Have an X-ray, pay a fee. Need something major like a
new hip or cataract surgery, use a health insurance plan to pay for
it.Pretty far-fetched, right?This is a system our neighbors to the
north may find in the not too distant future. Because of an aging
population and budget deficits, the Canadian provinces are
considering copay's and allowing private insurance for major
procedures.Healthcare in Canada is delivered through a publicly
funded system, which covers all "medically necessary" hospital and
physician care and curbs the role of private medicine. It ate up
about 40 percent of provincial budgets, or some C$183 billion ($174
billion) last ye...
