Health Savings Accounts
Commentary
Private Health Insurance in Canada
Returning to Canada for Christmas, I was surprised to see that the country’s life and health insurers were lobbying the government for health savings accounts and pressing ever closer for the right to compete against the failing state monopoly on health insurance (a.k.a. so-called “single-payer” health care). Today, I was ...
Commentary
Health Savings Accounts in Canada – Ground Zero of Single Payer?!
Born and raised in Canada, by the time I got to adulthood I was pretty fed up with my contemporaries’ claim that Canada’s uniqueness, relative to the U.S., was so-called “universal” health care. (I was born in 1962, so my contemporaries and I had no conscious experience of Canadian health ...
Commentary
Arizona’s Prop 101: It’s Always Darkest Before It Goes Totally Black
Before the election, I concluded that Sen. McCain had a health care plan which would have allowed states and families more freedom to choose health care that they prefer, instead of that which the federal government prefers. Sen. Obama’s choice of Dr. Tom Daschle as the next U.S. Secretary of ...
California
California Governor Plans to Wield Veto Pen
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), November 1, 2008 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is expected to veto several bills passed by the state legislature, even though the measures are similar to a sweeping health care plan he proposed but failed to get through the General Assembly earlier this year (“California ...
California
California’s High-Risk Pool Is Not Working
California’s high-risk pool for medically uninsured residents, MRMIP, is in trouble – poorly funded and lots of eligible folks are on the waiting list to enrol – according to the Los Angeles Times. The article notes that other states, with more successful progams, assess levies on health plans to fund ...
California
Los Angeles Times’ Campaign for Government Health Care
Lisa Girion and Michael A. Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times have relieved themselves of a feature-focus of three stories about how awful private health plans are. They managed to interview key leaders of the campaign for government-mandated health insurance, such as Bruce Bodaken of Blue Shield of California and ...
Commentary
Even Blue Cross/Blue Shield Likes Consumer-Driven Health Care
The latest presentation from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) continues the steady drumbeat of positive data about the take-up of consumer-driven health plans (CDHP), which has reached (fingers crossed) its tipping point. It’s an outstanding presentation, prepared by Maureen Sullivan, senior VP at BCBSA (with whom I’m not ...
Commentary
Doctors and Consumer-Driven Health Care: The Glass Is Half Full
The American Journal of Managed Care just published an article asking family doctors whether they were ready to practice in a consumer-driven environment. Call me an optimist, but I think the results are quite promising. The article cites a January 2007 survey from the health plans’ major trade association, AHIP, ...
Commentary
Enrollment in Consumer-Driven Plans Doubles in Two Years
The newly released annual Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust (KFF/HRET) Employer Health Benefits Survey is out! I’m about to criticize KFF’s spin, so let me start by congratulating them on another outstanding achievement. The annual publication is an invaluable resource for those of us who want to understand ...
Commentary
It’s a “Wrap”: Brokers Harm Consumer-Driven Health Care
For months now, I’ve heard stories about a technique that insurance brokers use to sell health insurance to small businesses, which want the lower premiums that come with a consumer-directed health plan, but are nervous about convincing their employees to face a deductible of at least $2,200 for a family ...
Private Health Insurance in Canada
Returning to Canada for Christmas, I was surprised to see that the country’s life and health insurers were lobbying the government for health savings accounts and pressing ever closer for the right to compete against the failing state monopoly on health insurance (a.k.a. so-called “single-payer” health care). Today, I was ...
Health Savings Accounts in Canada – Ground Zero of Single Payer?!
Born and raised in Canada, by the time I got to adulthood I was pretty fed up with my contemporaries’ claim that Canada’s uniqueness, relative to the U.S., was so-called “universal” health care. (I was born in 1962, so my contemporaries and I had no conscious experience of Canadian health ...
Arizona’s Prop 101: It’s Always Darkest Before It Goes Totally Black
Before the election, I concluded that Sen. McCain had a health care plan which would have allowed states and families more freedom to choose health care that they prefer, instead of that which the federal government prefers. Sen. Obama’s choice of Dr. Tom Daschle as the next U.S. Secretary of ...
California Governor Plans to Wield Veto Pen
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), November 1, 2008 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is expected to veto several bills passed by the state legislature, even though the measures are similar to a sweeping health care plan he proposed but failed to get through the General Assembly earlier this year (“California ...
California’s High-Risk Pool Is Not Working
California’s high-risk pool for medically uninsured residents, MRMIP, is in trouble – poorly funded and lots of eligible folks are on the waiting list to enrol – according to the Los Angeles Times. The article notes that other states, with more successful progams, assess levies on health plans to fund ...
Los Angeles Times’ Campaign for Government Health Care
Lisa Girion and Michael A. Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times have relieved themselves of a feature-focus of three stories about how awful private health plans are. They managed to interview key leaders of the campaign for government-mandated health insurance, such as Bruce Bodaken of Blue Shield of California and ...
Even Blue Cross/Blue Shield Likes Consumer-Driven Health Care
The latest presentation from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) continues the steady drumbeat of positive data about the take-up of consumer-driven health plans (CDHP), which has reached (fingers crossed) its tipping point. It’s an outstanding presentation, prepared by Maureen Sullivan, senior VP at BCBSA (with whom I’m not ...
Doctors and Consumer-Driven Health Care: The Glass Is Half Full
The American Journal of Managed Care just published an article asking family doctors whether they were ready to practice in a consumer-driven environment. Call me an optimist, but I think the results are quite promising. The article cites a January 2007 survey from the health plans’ major trade association, AHIP, ...
Enrollment in Consumer-Driven Plans Doubles in Two Years
The newly released annual Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust (KFF/HRET) Employer Health Benefits Survey is out! I’m about to criticize KFF’s spin, so let me start by congratulating them on another outstanding achievement. The annual publication is an invaluable resource for those of us who want to understand ...
It’s a “Wrap”: Brokers Harm Consumer-Driven Health Care
For months now, I’ve heard stories about a technique that insurance brokers use to sell health insurance to small businesses, which want the lower premiums that come with a consumer-directed health plan, but are nervous about convincing their employees to face a deductible of at least $2,200 for a family ...
