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Ethan Rome: Republicans to America: Death to Medicare

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Ethan Rome - Mar. 15 (News Analysis) - When the Republicans release their budget next week, they'll likely say they have a "new" Medicare proposal that will "save" Medicare instead of eliminate it. That's not true. The Republicans still plan to end Medicare as we know it. But this time they'l

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Fiscal FactCheck

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson - Jul. 15 (Fact Check) - Washington's spending has recently been higher as a percentage of the nation's economic output than at any time since World War II. But by the same measure, Washington's revenues are the lowest in more than 60 years. So does the U.S. have "a spending problem," as Republicans keep repeating in the current debate over how to reduce the nation's record deficits? Or is the problem that taxes are not high enough? Those questions frame a long-running partisan debate, and as usual we won't offer an opinion one way or the other. But for those seeking their own answers, we can offer some fiscal history and factual context.

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House Republicans Face Backlash At Home Over Medicare Vote

Wed, 18 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Lucia Graves - May. 18 (News Report) - House Republicans returning to their districts on Monday faced harsh criticism for voting to turn Medicare, the federal health care program for retirees, into a voucher system. GOP lawmakers faced this same constituent ire mere weeks ago when they first voted to support House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget plan, which would lower tax rates for corporations and the wealthy while replacing Medicare with private-insurance subsidies for those under 55.

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Workers Comp Targeted By Business, Insurance Groups

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Dave Jamieson - Apr. 22 (News Analysis) - While some bipartisan efforts exist, Republicans generally push the reforms, which business groups and insurance trade associations support. And though many of these discussions have been brewing for years, the ongoing efforts seem to dovetail nicely with the anti-labor zeitgeist fostered in Wisconsin and Ohio, as stories of able-bodied workers gaming the system now abound in legislative halls.

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Would Fund Protect US Taxpayers From Nuclear Disaster Here?

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

aolnews.com - By Andrew Schneider - Mar. 18 (News Report) - The U.S. nuclear industry says it would pick up the total tab should a catastrophic wipe-out of multiple reactors, such as the one creating havoc in Japan, occur on American soil. But insurance and risk assessment experts say that's not even close to the truth, and that taxpayers will get stuck funding billions of dollars to cover claims for loss of life, property and business, as well as decontamination.

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Google Ventures, Khosla Make Rain For WeatherBill

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

blogs.wsj.com - By Deborah Gage - Feb. 28 (News) - Google Inc.'s venture capital arm is backing a start-up founded by ex-Googlers that insures farms and other business against the whims of Mother Nature.

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Federal Judge In D.C. Upholds Health Care Reform, Says Some Arguments 'Ignore Reality'

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Talking Points Memo - By Ryan J. Reilly - Feb. 23 (News) - A federal judge on Tuesday upheld the health care reform law signed by President Barack Obama last year and found that Congress had the clear authority to regulate health insurance under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.

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The Truth About Health Insurance Premiums

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Lori Robertson, Eugene Kiely, Kelsey Ferguson - Nov. 19 (News Analysis) - Leading Republicans in Congress are blaming the new health care law for double-digit rate increases being sought by insurance companies in Washington state, New York and Connecticut. But insurance regulators, leading health care experts and the companies themselves mostly blame an old culprit: rising medical costs.

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"Push Michael Moore Off a Cliff": Health Insurance Whistleblower Wendell Potter Details How the Industry Attacked Michael Moore’s Film "Sicko"

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Wendell Potter, Amy Goodman - Nov. 17 (News Report) - When Academy Award-winning film director Michael Moore announced he would be making a documentary about the American healthcare system in 2004, it put the health insurance industry on high alert. One person who immediately went on the offensive was Wendell Potter, who at the time was the chief spokesperson for insurance giant CIGNA. Last year, Potter became the industry’s most prominent whistleblower. We speak to Potter about his role in attacking Michael Moore's film _Sicko_ and the movement for a single-payer healthcare system. [includes rush transcript]

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Koch Industries Fought the Health Care Law, But Sought Funds From It

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Marian Wang - Aug. 31 (Investigative Report) - In a post last week, we noted that David Koch, an American businessman and philanthropist, has given millions to cancer research while his company, Koch Industries, lobbied against formal recognition of formaldehyde as a carcinogen.

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Unemployed Are Seeing a Rise in Health Care Costs

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Laura Bassett - Aug. 31 (News Report) - While the national unemployment rate has been hovering at about 9.5 percent for the last year, the average cost of health care plans for jobless Americans is steadily on the rise. Terminated workers are paying an average of $429 a month this year for individual HMO coverage, compared to $399 for the same coverage in 2009, according to a survey conducted by Aon Consulting. COBRA coverage for an entire family now costs an average of $1,251, up from $1,171 per month at this time last year. With COBRA costs on the rise and the average unemployment check totaling less than $300 a week, a growing number of jobless Americans are no longer able to afford their health insurance plans.

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Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Aug. 03 (Special Report) - The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is a federal statute that was signed into law in the United States by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Along with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (signed into law on March 30, 2010), the Act is the product of the health care reform agenda of the Democratic 111th Congress and the Obama administration. The law includes a large number of health-related provisions to take effect over the next four years, including expanding Medicaid eligibility, subsidizing insurance premiums, providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage/claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance exchanges, and support for medical research. The costs of these provisions are offset by a variety of taxes, fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning, cuts to the Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies;[2] there is also a tax penalty for citizens who do not obtain health insurance (unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons).[3] The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the net effect (including the reconciliation act) will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion over the first decade.[4] There was also a provision that buyers and sellers of gold would be subject to an additional tax on such items.[5]

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How Private Health Insurers Purchased Healthcare Reform

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Dissident Voice - By Billy Wharton - Mar. 31 (News Report) - Senator Max Bacchus has confirmed that former WellPoint Vice President Liz Fowler wrote substantial portions of the recently approved Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Left-wing opponents of the bill had already claimed that private insurers exercised significant influence on the proceedings in the House and Senate.

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Will Health Reform Law Ban Insurers from Rescinding Coverage? Loopholes Threaten to Undermine Effort

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Danielle Ivory - Mar. 31 (Other) - Even as President Obama's health care overhaul gets moving, loopholes threaten to undermine the legislation.Despite a flurry of news reports that the health care package...

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Health Care, Reformed

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Nick Baumann - Mar. 22 (News Analysis) - Insurance companies can no longer impose lifetime coverage limits on your insurance. Never again will you face the risk of getting really sick and then, a few months in, having your insurer tell you "sorry, you've 'run out' of coverage." Almost

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What Are We About to Pass?

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Daily Beast - Mar. 21 (News Analysis) - It’s coming down to the wire, but Democratic leaders now predict they have more than the 216 votes needed to pass historic health-care reform later today. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and a half-dozen anti-abortion Democrats have also reportedly signed on to the bill after working out language for an executive order from Obama that would clarify that taxpayer money would not be used to fund abortions. House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told Meet the Press earlier that the holdout number is in “the low single digits” but now Stupak and the others give the Dems a majority. The House will have three major votes today, the first on the rules of debate, then a vote on the reconciliation package, and a vote on the original Senate bill, expected after 6 p.m. Will pre-existing conditions be covered? What's the fine for not having insurance? Which states got sweetheart deals? A crib sheet to the health-care bill the House will vote on today.

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Goldman Report

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein - Mar. 05 (News Report) - The market concentration for health insurance is so monopolized in some areas that insurance companies are willing to raise prices and lose customers in an effort to improve their bottom line, a leading insurance broker told Wall Street analysts on Wednesday.

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Health Care Summit Squabbles

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson, Viveca Novak, Lori Robertson, Justin Bank, D’Angelo Gore, Jess Henig - Feb. 26 (News Analysis) - We tuned in to watch the president’s health care summit at Blair House today — all six-plus hours of it. And we weren’t surprised to hear some factual missteps in the discussion: Sen. Lamar Alexander said premiums will go up for “millions” under the Senate bill and president’s plan, while President Barack Obama said families buying the same coverage they have now would pay much less. Both were misleading. The Congressional Budget Office said premiums for those in the group market wouldn’t change significantly, while the average premium for those who buy their own coverage would go up. Alexander also said “50 percent of doctors won’t see new [Medicaid] patients.” But a 2008 survey says only 28 percent refuse to take any new Medicaid patients. Sen. Harry Reid cited a poll that said 58 percent would be “angry or disappointed” if health care overhaul doesn’t pass. True, but respondents in the poll were also split 43-43 on whether they supported the legislation that is currently being proposed. Obama repeated an inflated claim we’ve covered before. He said insured families pay about $1,000 a year in their premiums to cover costs for the uninsured. That’s a disputed figure from an advocacy group. Other researchers put the figure at about $200. Sen. Tom Coburn said “the government is responsible for 60 percent” of U.S. health spending. But that dubious figure includes lost tax revenue due to charitable contributions to hospitals and other questionable items. The real figure is about 47 percent.

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Fact-checking Obama's bipartisan health care reform meeting

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan - Feb. 25 (News Analysis) - It's not clear whether Thursday's health care reform summit will be a roll-up-their-sleeves negotiating session, or just another forum to repeat party talking points.

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Litmus Test: The People, or the Insurance Companies?

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Nation - By Darcy Burner - Feb. 22 (News) - Since 1945, health insurance companies have been allowed to collude to fix prices. Members of Congress will soon vote on whether to reinstate anti-trust provisions.

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Health Care Spending Skyrockets and Shows No Signs of Tapering

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Grace Huang - Feb. 07 (News Report) - In 2009, health care spending grew by 5.7 percent, now reaching $2.5 trillion. It is the largest increase since the federal government began tracking these figures in 1960, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

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House Likely to End Health Insurers' Antitrust Exemption

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By David Lightman - Feb. 05 (News) - The House of Representatives plans next week to vote on — and probably approve — a measure to strip health insurers' antitrust protections, which will be Congress' first step this year to try to overhaul the nation's health care system.

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Obama's Engagement On Health Care Has 'Dried Up': Dem Senator

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein - Feb. 04 (News) - Despite urging Democratic senators on Wednesday to forge ahead on health care reform, President Obama and his aides have been largely hands-off in guiding the...

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Insurance Stocks Rise on News of Health Care Deal; What's It Mean?

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

FiveThirtyEight - By Nate Silver - Dec. 22 (News Analysis) - So, I guess the increase in those insured offsets the burdens imposed upon them in the form of no more discrimination due to pre-existing conditions, insurance premiums in the pool at a minimum spend 85% on health care and everything else by a

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Protesters Return To Lieberman's Office, Five Arrested

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By The Huffington Post News Team - Nov. 10 (News Report) - Five demonstrators were arrested after spreading fake dollar bills throughout the building showing Lieberman's face and the words "Insurance Money Kills Democracy."

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