We at Basic American would like to bring to you some of the most interesting news in long-term care this week.

Health Care Vote Illustrates Partisan Divide

By Robert Pear and David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times. Jul 16, 2009

“If you don’t have health insurance, this bill is for you,” said Senator Christopher J. Dodd, (D-CT). “It stops insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. It guarantees that you’ll be able to find an insurance plan that works for you, including a public health insurance option if you want it.” The bill would also “eliminate annual and lifetime caps on coverage and ensure that your out-of-pocket costs will never exceed your ability to pay.”

However, Republicans on the panel, who voted unanimously against the measure, said that inclusion of a public health insurance option is a deal breaker. 

 

House Dems move to votes on health bill

By Erica Werner, Associated Press. Jul 16, 2009

Democrats on three House committees are shifting into action in an effort to meet Obama’s expectations for a quickly-passed health care revamp. The Education and Labor and Ways and Means committees are expected to vote today on a $1.5 trillion plan that majority House Democrats presented this week. The Energy and Commerce committee faces an uphill battle, as a group of Blue Dog Democrats is insisting on significant changes before approving any health care bill. 

 

Spread the pain of paying for healthcare reform

Higher taxes on the wealthy and businesses send the wrong message to America’s middle class.

Los Angeles Times. Jul 16, 2009

Although the 1,018-page House bill (HR 3200), seeks to slow the increase in costs, it doesn’t go far enough to reduce the incentives for wasteful, inefficient or unnecessary procedures, and puts little pressure on providers to use best practices. A hefty tax on employers that don’t provide insurance would fall hardest on businesses with thin profits and low-wage workers. Another heavy load would be placed on the wealthiest 2 million Americans, even though the benefits of the program would be spread broadly. 

 

Obama Eyes The Purse Strings for Medicare
Lawmakers Now Win Friends at Home by Setting Payout Rates

By Shailagh Murray, Washington Post. July 16, 2009

Obama is pushing lawmakers working on health care reform to face an almost impossible prospect: giving up one of their most effective and lucrative forms of constituent service: boosting Medicare payments to benefit hometown providers. Determined to stem soaring Medicare spending, Obama is pushing for a mechanism that would take Medicare payment authority out of the hands of politicians and invest it in a separate entity, possibly under the executive branch.

“Structures that fundamentally alter the long-term costs are a must for real health-care reform,” said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. He called the Medicare payment debate “the least talked-about, most important issue on the table.” 

 

Big cuts won’t buy better care

Slashing Medicare and Medicaid to pay for health-care reform looks like a shell game.

By Stuart H. Shapiro. Philadelphia Inquirer. Jul 16, 2009

“The baby boomers will continue padding the senior population until it accounts for one in five U.S. residents by 2030. Because Medicare payments support quality care in our nation’s nursing homes, the proposed cuts - approaching $50 billion nationally - are guaranteed to undercut the quality gains of the past decade.” 

 

Report highlights expected loss of health coverage in months ahead

The report, ‘The Clock is Ticking: More Americans losing health coverage,’

By david Goldstein, Kansas City Star. Jul 16, 2009

About 7 million Americans lose their health care coverage between 2008 and 2010 if no changes are made to the health-care system, according to a report by Families USA.

The projections were based upon an analysis of the rising rate of uninsured Americans published in the journal Health Affairs.

In Missouri, 720 people are losing their coverage each week; in Kansas, 320 are losing coverage each week. Skyrocketing premiums and employers who can no longer afford to pay them are responsible for loss of coverage.

Separately, the Department of Health and Human Services yesterday reported that nearly 20 percent of all hospital-based emergency room visits in 2006 were by the uninsured.

 

·         Study: 590 Ala. residents lose health insurance each week

91,710 Alabamians will lose their health care insurance in the next 3 years

By Jimmy DeButts, Birmingham Business Journal. Jul 16, 2009

·         Report: 3,560 Floridians will lose health insurance every week through 2010

556,070 Floridians could lose health insurance within 3 years

By John Dorschner, Miami Herald. Jul 16, 2009

·         Report: 58,450 Utahns will lose insurance by 2010

By Lisa rosetta, The Salt Lake Tribune. Jul 16, 2009 

 

Massachusetts in Suit Over Cost of Universal Care

By Abby Goodnough, New York Times. Jul 16, 2009

Boston Medical Center, facing a $38 million deficit for the fiscal year ending in September, yesterday sued the state, charging that money has been siphoned away from Boston Medical in order to cover the costly universal health care law, forcing the hospital to cover too much of the expense of caring for the poor. 

 

 26 nursing homes in Iowa with deficiency-free inspections

Newton Daily News. Jul 16, 2009

“These facilities and programs should be recognized for the quality of care and service they provide to their residents and tenants,” DIA Director Dean Lerner said. “The quality of care being provided to the residents, tenants and clients serves as a model for all of Iowa’s health care providers.”

 

A. Holly Patterson nursing home gets five-star rating

Amazing Recovery

By Michael Amon, Newsday. Jul 16, 2009

A long beleaguered and maligned publicly financed nursing home has made an astounding turnaround, earning a 5-star rating from CMS. 

 

Learning of Risk of Alzheimer’s Seems to Do No Harm

By Denise Grady. New York Times. Jul 16, 2009

“There has been this extraordinary worry that disclosing risk was going to devastate people,” said Dr. Robert C. Green, lead author of the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine. “This has upended those assumptions.” 

 

America’s Best Hospitals: Here’s how we selected them

Deaths, reputation, and patient safety were among the factors the rankings took into account

By Avery Comarow, U.S. News & World Report.  July 15, 2009