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Health Care News
December 2008
‘Perfect Storm’ on Horizon for Consumer-Directed Health Care
Will 2009 see a surge in health savings account enrollment among federal employees? Premium increases in federal employee health plans, combined with the ... (read more)

Champion of Consumer Empowerment Dies at Age 80
Proponents of consumer-directed health care lost a giant when J. Patrick Rooney, former chairman of Golden Rule Insurance Co., passed away on September ... (read more)

December 2008 Health Care News: Mental Health Parity (PDF)
The December 2008 issue of Health Care News leads with passage of the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act—a “mental health ... (read more)

Democratic Leadership Postpones SCHIP Vote
Congressional leaders have decided to postpone a vote on legislation pertaining to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program until 2009, when ... (read more)

Employer Survey Reveals Strong Concerns about Health Care Regulation
There is great uncertainty about the future of American health care among corporate health benefit professionals, according to Miller & Chevalier and ... (read more)

Georgia Cuts Spending to Save Taxpayer-Funded Insurance Programs
Georgia health officials have implemented $1.6 billion in spending cuts in order to keep those enrolled in the state’s two key taxpayer-funded health ... (read more)

Health Care Costs Are Rising Slower than Expected, Three Surveys Show
A number of consulting firms, including Mercer, Aon, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, are reporting a slowing of health care cost increases around the nation. The ... (read more)

House Committee Considers Tax Breaks for Individual Health Insurance
Members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee are debating the merits of enacting tax breaks for individuals who buy private insurance, which ... (read more)

Less Government Involvement Holds Key to Affordable Health Insurance, Experts Say
Experts are pointing to the troubling growth of health care costs to justify making cost containment, rather than covering the uninsured, legislators’ ... (read more)

Malpractice Reform: Five Steps to Liability by Contract
Excerpt from The Handbook on State Health Care Reform, coauthored by John C. Goodman, Michael Bond, Devon M. Herrick, Gerald L. Musgrave, Pamela Villarreal, ... (read more)

Massachusetts Insurance Mandate Is Causing Longer Wait Times and Physician Shortage
The dramatic increase in the insured population that followed Massachusetts’s imposition of an individual health insurance mandate has caused an increase ... (read more)

Massachusetts, San Francisco Expand Government’s Reach
Massachusetts has won another round in its ongoing effort to force taxpayers across the country to help fund its experiment in so-called universal health ... (read more)

Medical Licensing Impedes Quality, Affordability of Care
Medical licensing is ineffective and inefficient, and patients would be better served by relying on brand recognition when choosing their doctors, writes ... (read more)

Medicare Benefits Fall Short of Employer-Provided Health Care Plans
Employer-provided health plans provide more generous benefits to seniors than Medicare does, according to an analysis conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation ... (read more)

Mental Health Parity Act Passes Congress
Mental health legislation served as the vehicle for the highly publicized $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program passed by Congress and signed into ... (read more)

Mississippi Corrects 2003 Accounting Error, Hospitals, Medicaid Providers Dodge New Tax
The correction of an accounting error has allowed Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) to withdraw a controversial proposal to make up a $90 million Medicaid ... (read more)

New Welfare Reform Study Finds W. Va. Medicaid Options Confusing
Almost 60 percent of West Virginians enrolled in the state’s two-year-old reduced-benefit Medicaid program are unsure whether they are enrolled in ... (read more)

Rhode Island Seeks Caps on Medicaid, Will Shift Costs to Emergency Room Patients
In response to an ongoing state budget crisis, Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri (R) has requested the federal government relax its strict Medicaid regulations ... (read more)

San Francisco Employer Mandate Can Go Forward, Circuit Court Rules
San Francisco’s “pay-or-play” health care mandate will be allowed to continue operating following a ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court ... (read more)

Senate Uses Lawsuit Protection Bill to Promote Taxpayer-Funded Health Coverage
The U.S. Senate is considering a bill that would shield from out-of-pocket liability doctors who donate their services to indigent patients. The legislation, ... (read more)

South Carolina Eliminates Medicaid Payments for Treatment Mistakes
In an effort to stop what a state official calls “encouraging sloppy practices by reimbursing hospitals,” South Carolina’s Medicaid program ... (read more)

States Seek to Remedy Shortage of Professional Nurses
Several states are offering aid to universities in an effort to address the current shortage of professional nurses. Experts say the shortage is being ... (read more)

Tennessee Expands Welfare Benefit Eligibility to Include New Taxpayer-Funded Health Care
Unemployed Tennesseans are now receiving taxpayer-subsidized insurance benefits as a result of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s (D) decision to expand the state’s ... (read more)