Medicare Payment Advisory Commission Chairman Glenn Hackbarth wasn't having it. A change in the wording of a proposed recommendation to Congress that, if followed, would seemingly drive up Medicare premiums paid by seniors for doctor care--to say nothing of the already big price tag for erasing a scheduled 21 percent in Medicare payments to physicians next year. Read more »
Looking at the state as a whole, health insurance coverage is now nearly universal in Massachusetts, with the uninsured rate dropping from just over 5 percent in 2007 to 2.6 percent in 2008, according to a new survey. Read more »
Braked by the smallest increase in prescription drug spending since 1963, health spending in the U.S. grew at the slowest pace in a decade in 2007, rising 6.1 percent in 2007, according to new figures released by the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Unlike the drug sector, spending growth for hospital, nursing home and home health services accelerated. Read more »
House Democrats are scaling back plans to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program, as budget scoring problems and rising costs make a five-year reauthorization unlikely. Read more »
Tom Daschle, President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, promised Republicans that the new administration will not try to ram a health care overhaul through Congress under expedited budget procedures. Read more »
Most unemployed families cannot afford to retain their former employer's health insurance through the COBRA program because the premiums eat up more than three-quarters of the typical unemployment insurance benefit, according to a Families USA study released on Friday. Read more »