We Stand Firm has written an interesting article about the Colorado Medical Society and their support of health care coverage for Coloradans that should be “universal, continuous, portable, and mandatory.” I’m strongly in favor of health insurance for everyone in Colorado (and indeed, the US) that is universal, continuous, portable, and mandatory. I know this… Read more about Why Would It Not Work Here?
Archives for June 2008
Health Wonk Review
The Health Wonk Review is up at the Disease Management Care Blog. The Colorado Health Insurance Insider post about HR676 is included. Insure Blog has a good post about Fed Chairman Bernanke’s assessment of health care costs. I agree with Hank that health care costs are driving health insurance premiums. But I think there’s more… Read more about Health Wonk Review
Colorado Businesses Don’t Want Mandatory Health Insurance
The Blue Ribbon Commission for health care reform in Colorado has recommended a mandate for health insurance coverage, but not necessarily coverage that is tied to employment. And it should come as no surprise that business owners on the western slope – just like business owners all over Colorado – are not excited about the idea of being required to provide employees […]
Grand Rounds
A somewhat Apple-biased Grand Rounds is up at Shrink Rap. It’s worth checking out just to see the ultra-cool graphic… an iPhone with nifty little icons for every post… The Colorado Health Insurance Insider post about hospitals and breastfeeding has a little icon of a breastfeeding baby! I appreciated Mother Jones post about cell phones… Read more about Grand Rounds
HR676 Headed In The Right Direction
I agree with PICU that it’s tough for individual voices to be heard in the healthcare reform process. Some stares are making an effort at reform – including Colorado – but it’s going to take unified, nationwide changes to really fix our health care system. Unfortunately there is a long line of deep-pocketed special interest groups who are deeply invested in maintaining the status quo […]
Unhappy Doctors
Here in Colorado, we insureds are lucky to have a multitude of options for our health insurance. But I suppose the more options we have, the more hassle the doctors have with billing. Apparently, doctors don’t have the highest job satisfaction these days. There are many issues involved – I have to say, if I worked these hours, I’d be unhappy with my job too. But I […]
AMA Issues Guidelines For Medical Tourism
The AMA has issued medical tourism guidelines for American patients, employers and health insurance companies. At the Colorado Health Insurance Insider, we’ve written about medical tourism and how health insurance carriers are seeing it as a way to lower costs by encouraging insureds to travel abroad to get quality medical care for far less than… Read more about AMA Issues Guidelines For Medical Tourism
Elective Cesareans Not A Complication Of Pregnancy
We got a notice in the mail yesterday from Humana, one of the health insurance carriers we represent in Colorado. They have revised their definition of complication of pregnancy to include cesareans, but not elective cesareans. I was very pleased to see this, and I’m glad that Humana is differentiating between the two. Obviously someone who schedules a c-section […]
The Caregivers Marketplace
I found a website that may be helpful for our readers and their families. The Caregivers Marketplace allows users to get cash back when they buy eligible products. I checked out the site, and there don’t appear to be any strings attached. The eligible products range from blood pressure monitors to vitamins to diapers to… Read more about The Caregivers Marketplace
New Cavalcade Of Risk
The Cavalcade of Risk is up at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. A Colorado Health Insurance Insider article about what drives health insurance premiums was included in the cavalcade. Hank at InsureBlog has a piece about the rules against purchasing medications privately in the NHS – this is a fascinating subject, and one that I’ve written… Read more about New Cavalcade Of Risk
A Health Insurance Report Card
Included in the ratings are Aetna, Anthem BCBS, Cigna, Coventry, Health Net, Humana, United Healthcare, and Medicare. In the individual health insurance market in Colorado, we deal extensively with Aetna, Anthem, Humana, and United Healthcare, so I was especially curious […]
Grand Rounds from the South Pacific
Yet again, Grand Rounds has opened my eyes to a medical blog that I haven’t seen yet, but I will read regularly from now on. Marianas Eye is a very well written blog with a lot of good stuff including this weeks Grand Rounds, so we added them to our blogroll.
Hospitals Are Not Doing Enough To Support Breastfeeding
according to a newsletter published by the Colorado Breast Feeding Task Force last fall, only one in five breastfeeding Colorado mothers had a hospital experience that exclusively promoted breastfeeding […]
HR 6210 Won’t Solve The Problem For Small Groups
We frequently get calls from employers here in Colorado who have three or four employees and would like to offer health insurance. But when they find out that the premiums are going to be a few thousand dollars a month, they realize that there is no way they can fit health insurance into their budget. Pooling together with other small businesses will help, but not […]
Number Of Underinsureds Rising Rapidly
While an employee at a big company might consider $500 to be a high deductible, the majority of our individual health insurance clients in Colorado choose deductibles between $2000 and $5000, in order to keep the premiums down. That same employee at the big company may only be paying a few dollars a week for health insurance (with the employer paying […]
Health Wonk Review – Washington Week
Check out the latest Health Wonk Review: “Washington Week” on Health Affairs Blog. An article from the Colorado Health Insurance Insider is in the “Consumer and Patient Rights” section. And my favorite article this week comes from Ezra Klein with an article about “Why Doctors Overprescribe.” But just as interesting is an article from Bob… Read more about Health Wonk Review – Washington Week
What Drives Health Insurance Premiums
Aetna CEO Ron Williams, who spoke today with the Senate Finance Committee about rising health insurance premiums. Williams cited the 6.6% profit margin reported for Aetna last year, and made the case that rising health insurance premiums are a reflection of rising health care costs, and that health insurance carriers have to raise prices in order to […]
Mandatory Health Insurance Not Likely
In Colorado, two of the top five proposals being considered last year by the Blue Ribbon Commission included mandatory health insurance, and they’ve done it in MA – residents there are currently paying fines if they don’t have health insurance in place. But with Clinton out of the race, nationwide mandatory health insurance isn’t likely to come to […]
Individual Health Insurance Won’t Work For Everyone
We work primarily in the individual health insurance market. Colorado is one of the healthiest states in the US, and yet we still have about one applicant in ten unable to obtain coverage. Luckily we have a high risk pool – Cover Colorado – that we can present as a last resort, but the high premiums and out-of-pocket expenses can be a bit off-putting. Although 9 out of 10 applicants […]
Ending Tax Breaks For Buyout Firms
Colorado for Health Care is working to end the tax breaks and corporate loopholes that allow big “buyout firms” like KKR to purchase health care companies and then profit handsomely while jobs are cut and patient care deteriorates. The concept is simple enough – health care should be about patients, not profit. But unfortunately that… Read more about Ending Tax Breaks For Buyout Firms
Uninsured Patients Not Causing ER Overcrowding
and thus three emergency rooms – are within 20 minutes of our home in Broomfield Colorado (and if we were to go a few miles down the road to Denver, there are several more). But I don’t know the location of any urgent care facilities near our home. So in the event of a serious illness or injury, my first reaction would probably be to head for an emergency room […]
Cavalcade of Risk 2’nd Anniversary!!
Two years ago Hank Stern started up the Cavalcade of Risk, a place for those of us interested in insurance related risk management topics. Two years later, it is a well known place to find some of the most interesting stuff in the blogosphere. On the second anniversary of “The Cav,” Hank is playing host… Read more about Cavalcade of Risk 2’nd Anniversary!!
Caesareans Make It Harder To Get Health Insurance
I just finished reading this article from the NY Times about how people who have had caesareans face more hurdles when they try to get individual health insurance. The article focuses on individual health insurance in Colorado, which made it especially interesting for me. Golden Rule – one of the companies mentioned in the article… Read more about Caesareans Make It Harder To Get Health Insurance
Happy Hospitalist Has Grand Rounds
Well, Blog do gooders, [Happy Hospitalist] will show you how every brilliant blogger this week can be traced to Happy in six links or less.
How closely can we be traced to Happy?
Colorado Health Insurance Insider–>Managed Care Matters–>KevinMD–>Happy (3 degrees)
Young And Uninsured
Most individual and group health insurance policies drop children once they are no longer full time students, although the rules on that have been changing in recent years. Colorado now allows dependent children to stay on their parents’ health insurance policy until age 25, and many other states have taken a similar position, with some allowing […]