Loophole in health care law could stick doctors with tab By Jim Sanders The Sacramento Bee, May 22, 2013 A loophole in California’s upcoming health care overhaul could be exploited by families gaming the system or responding to hardship in a way that doctors say could leave a pile of unpaid bills. A chain of [...]

The Evolving Role of Emergency Departments in the United States By Kristy Gonzalez Morganti, Sebastian Bauhoff, Janice C. Blanchard, Mahshid Abir, Neema Iyer, Alexandria Smith, Joseph V. Vesely, Edward Okeke, Arthur L. Kellermann RAND Health, May 20, 2013 To develop a more complete picture of how EDs (emergency departments) contribute to our modern health care [...]

Employers Eye Bare-Bones Health Plans Under New Law By Christopher Weaver and Anna Wilde Matthews The Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2013 Employers are increasingly recognizing they may be able to avoid certain penalties under the federal health law by offering very limited plans that can lack key benefits such as hospital coverage. Benefits advisers [...]

Growing risk of inequality and poverty as crisis hits the poor hardest OECD, May 15, 2013 Income inequality increased by more in the first three years of the crisis to the end of 2010 than it had in the previous twelve years, before factoring in the effect of taxes and transfers on income, according to [...]

Publicly Financed Health Care in Canada: Who Pays and Who Benefits Over a Lifetime? Canadian Institute for Health Information, May 2013 Conclusion All Canadian taxpayers contribute to publicly financed health care, regardless of their use of the system. Publicly funded health care services are available to all on the basis of need, regardless of ability [...]

GOP Candidates’ Top Campaign Issue Will Be Obamacare ‘Train Wreck’ By Wendell Potter The Huffington Post, May 6, 2013 Will the implementation of some of the most important provisions of ObamaCare this fall and next year result in the “train wreck” Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) predicted a few days ago? No. But you [...]

Healthcare puts Jerry Brown, Capitol Democrats on different sides By Anthony York and Chris Megerian Los Angeles Times, May 10, 2013 With California’s deficit wiped out and its economy starting to hum, this was to be a year when Gov. Jerry Brown was free of the budget logjams that have paralyzed the Capitol. But instead, [...]

Medicare Overpayments to Private Plans, 1985-2012: Shifting Seniors to Private Plans has Already Cost Medicare $282.6 Billion By Ida Hellander, David U. Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler International Journal of Health Services, Volume 43, Number 2 / 2013, Posted online May 10, 2013 Abstract: Previous research has documented Medicare overpayments to the private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans [...]

Administration Offers Consumers an Unprecedented Look at Hospital Charges Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, May 8, 2013 New data released today show significant variation across the country and within communities in what hospitals charge for common inpatient services. “Currently, consumers don’t know what a hospital is charging them or their insurance company for a [...]

Primary physician shortage calls for intervention By Sen. Bernie Sanders Politico, May 7, 2013 The American approach to primary health care is one of the more glaring failures of a dysfunctional health care system that costs almost twice as much per capita as that of any other major country — often with worse results. Instituting [...]