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NEWS ABOUT: health care costs

Sinking Health Bill Packed With Hidden Costs

Dems scramble to pass bill before true price emerges

(Newser) - The Democrats are in a race against time to get a health care bill passed before the public realizes the scale of the hidden burdens involved, writes Michael Gerson. The money to provide comprehensive coverage to everyone has to come from somewhere, and young people, seniors and union workers who... More »

Surgery Marathons Raise Questions on Cost, Ethics

One man's procedure cost $300K, but it could push the field

(Newser) - After 43 hours of on-and-off “ex vivo resection”—organs removed, operated on, and replaced—a Wisconsin man is free of the 10-pound tumor strangling his liver. Along with it went parts of his stomach and intestine, and his abdomen contains not only Gore-Tex tubing but parts of his... More »

Medicaid Kids Given Antipsychotics 4X More

Seen as most effective treatment; counseling often goes by wayside

(Newser) - Kids on Medicaid rolls are prescribed antipsychotic drugs at an eye-popping rate four times that of kids with private insurance, federal data show, underlining how pills rather than counseling are often seen as the most efficient way to deal with underprivileged children. And not only are Medicaid kids receiving more... More »

The Senate's Health Care Plan: Try Everything

Pilot programs might be the best way to solve the cost problem

(Newser) - The Senate health care plan ensures universal coverage, but when it comes to controlling costs, all it offers is…pilot programs. Sounds pretty flimsy, right? “Two thousand seventy-four pages and trillions of dollars later, this bill doesn’t even meet the basic goal,” complained Mitch McConnell, “to... More »

CBO: Most Premiums Won't Rise Under Health Bill

People under employer plans will see rates fall or remain steady

(Newser) - Fears that the health bill before the Senate will send the cost of most health insurance plans skyrocketing are unfounded, according to a Congressional Budget Office report. The CBO found that premiums for people covered by employer plans will remain steady or drop slightly under the bill, while people buying... More »

White House Backs Senate On 'Cadillac' Health Tax

Advisers outline cost control measures for health plan

(Newser) - The White House has come down firmly on the Senate's side over big discrepancies between the House and Senate health bills. Senior advisers to President Obama said yesterday an excise tax on expensive, "Cadillac" health plans and a commission to control Medicare spending were among the “four pillars"... More »

We Must Reduce Health Care Costs*

*But please don't touch mine, no matter how wasteful

(Newser) - The brouhaha over mammograms proves that we’ll never corral health care costs for one simple reason: no one wants to give up any care. Intellectually, women may understand that life-threatening breast cancer is pretty rare before age 50, but rare doesn’t mean non-existent. “Many women would rather... More »

Public Doesn't Want to Pay for Health Care Fix

Americans support goals, but not if it will cost them personally

(Newser) - Americans are enthusiastic about health care reform, but only as long as it doesn't drive up the price of their own premiums, a new AP poll finds. Whenever questions were framed broadly, voters seemed to support Democrats’ plans, but when asked about specific trade-offs they balked. A whopping 82%, for... More »

GOP Health Plan Would Leave 52M Uninsured

Bill saves some money, expands coverage by only 3M

(Newser) - The GOP health care bill has no chance of passing—but if it did, most people who already have coverage would see their premiums drop, while 52 million Americans currently uninsured would stay that way. So says a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which largely confirms Dems' claims... More »

US Health Care Wastes $700B a Year

A third of spending is lost to pointless treatment, paperwork, fraud

(Newser) - A study by Thomson Reuters released today confirms President Obama's contention that the American health care system is hemorrhaging billions of dollars a year, with one-third of the cost of care wasted on inefficiency, mistakes, and fraud. The report, which cites dozens of research papers, finds that about $700 billion... More »

Dour Industry Report Backfires

Dems, GOP alike have hard time believing Hail Mary predicting higher costs

(Newser) - The health insurance industry report presented yesterday that predicts the reform bill will do little to stop rising costs appears to have backfired. Dems are up in arms at the timing and content of the “misleading and harmful” attack from their erstwhile ally in the effort. Sen. Jay Rockefeller... More »

Insurance Group Bashes Baucus Bill With Report

White House betrayed by 'hatchet job' predicting cost hikes

(Newser) - The White House is steamed this morning over a report, sponsored by the insurance industry, saying the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill would cause premiums and costs to rise. The report was commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group that has until now supported reform... More »

Soda Tax Deserves to Fizzle

It won't help fat people, or poor people, but will line gov't coffers

(Newser) - Taxing soda is at best a stupid idea and at worst a cynical ploy by a money-grubbing government, writes Katherine Mangu-Ward for Reason. Here's why:
  • Sin taxes don't work: "None of the nickel-and-dime proposals on the table is large enough to discourage soda drinking," Mangu-Ward writes. "And
... More »

Premiums Likely to Soar Under Obamacare

(Newser) - Current health care legislation would require every American to buy health insurance, but would do little or nothing to control the skyrocketing premiums they’d have to pay, the LA Times reports. Versions of the bill try to address the problem indirectly—with a public option in the House bill... More »

Sometimes a Bad Bill Is Good Enough

Reformers must see Baucus' effort as starting point: Krugman

(Newser) - Progressives will soon face their "long-dreaded moment of truth" on health care reform, Paul Krugman writes in the New York Times. Any bill that emerges is bound to disappoint, and "the question is where to draw the line," he explains. "How bad does a bill have... More »

40% of Employers to Hike Health Plan Costs Next Year

Another 8% to drop coverage entirely, survey reveals

(Newser) - Many Americans are happy with their employer-sponsored health care plans and eager to keep them, but they won't be keeping them at the current price, the Washington Post reports. In a survey released yesterday, some 40% of employers said they expect to increase the amount their employees paid for health... More »

America Needs to Embrace Death

Lowering health care costs means cutting unnecessary end-of-life treatment

(Newser) - Nobody wants to talk about rationing health care, but “the need to spend less money on the elderly at the end of life is the elephant in the room in the health-reform debate,” Evan Thomas writes in Newsweek. To expand coverage and lower costs, Americans must overcome their... More »

To Cut Health Costs, Fix the Food Industry

Obesity 'accounts for nearly a tenth' of health-care spending

(Newser) - There’s an “elephant in the room” when it comes to health care reform: American health care costs a bundle in large part because we’re so fat, writes Michael Pollan for the New York Times. President Obama has touched on the issue, but the country hasn’t, and... More »

Forget Health Reform—We Can't Afford It

The economy should be Obama's top priority: Henninger

(Newser) - Barack Obama makes health care sound like the most pressing issue in American life, but with unemployment at 10% and the country still officially in recession, Daniel Henninger wonders why he's "draining a dwindling reservoir of presidential capital." The cost of health care may be a problem for... More »

More Americans Think They Can Cover Health Costs: Poll

But uninsured far less likely to think they can pay medical bills

(Newser) - One reason more Americans may not be backing President Obama's health care overhaul: increasing numbers of citizens say they don't need help. A Reuters poll shows that the percentage of Americans who think they can pay for medical treatments rose 12 points since March, with the wealthy feeling more confident... More »

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