Medicare beneficiaries will be able to choose prescription drug plans with monthly premiums of $20 or less, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced. That means premiums are coming in considerably below the $35 per month Congress assumed for working purposes when it considered the Medicare drug law (PL 108-173). Plans in many states will charge premiums as low as $10 per month, HHS Secretary Michael O. Leavitt said in remarks to seniors at a Vienna, Va., senior center. Read more »
Uninsured workers aren't likely to purchase individual health insurance, even if they are offered subsidies that would lower their premiums, a Congressional Budget Office report says. The report found that insurance prices do not have a significant impact on whether workers—who don't have health insurance available through their employers—purchase it. A 10 percent cut in insurance premiums would only increase health insurance coverage in the individual market by 5.7 percent, according to the report. Read more »
Sickness and health problems among working-age Americans and their families cost the United States $260 billion in lost productivity each year, according to a study released by The Commonwealth Fund. Researchers said that figure reflects economic losses from three different groups: 18 million adults ages 19 to 64 who have a chronic disease, disability, handicap, or other health problem and are not employed as a result; 69 million workers who reported missing days due to illness; and 55 million workers who said they were unable to concentrate at work because of their own illness or that of a family member. Read more »
The Bush administration's Medicaid Commission released its recommendations for reducing the growth in Medicaid spending by $11 billion over the next five years. The proposals, which include tougher asset transfer rules, changing the way states pay for drugs and establishing tiered co-payments for beneficiaries, were approved by the commission Aug. 19. As part of the budget reconciliation process, the Senate Finance Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee must compile a list of potential cuts to the program by Sept. 16 to meet a $10 billion savings target for Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor. Read more »
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials said they've loaded more data onto their Hospital Compare Web site, including information that for the first time allows users to compare efforts by local facilities to prevent surgical infections. The data added to the site (www.medicare.gov) also shows how individual facilities stack up against statewide and national averages on surgical infection prevention. One measure indicates the percentage of surgery patients who receive preventative antibiotics one hour before incision, and the other the percentage of patients whose preventative antibiotics are stopped within 24 hours after surgery. Read more »
The number of Americans without health insurance rose 800,000 to 45.8 million in 2004, but the percentage of the nation's population without health insurance remained unchanged at 15.7 percent, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. In addition, the number of people with health insurance rose by 2 million, to 245.3 million, between 2003 and 2004, the government reported. The Census Bureau also reported that fewer people received health care coverage from their employer in 2004—down to 59.8 percent from 60.4 percent in 2003—while the percentage of people covered by government health insurance programs rose from 26.6 percent to 27.2 percent. Read more »
The rising cost of health care continues to be a challenge for many American families, according to a report. The survey of 1,531 adults, released by USA Today, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard School of Public Health, found that nearly one-fourth of Americans have had problems paying medical bills in the past year, even though 61 percent of those people were covered by health insurance. Eighteen percent of Americans say health care costs are their biggest monthly expense, excluding rent or mortgage payments. Read more »