A well-used but misleading Medicaid statistic
“Cash-strapped states are also feeling the burden of the Medicaid entitlement. The program consumes nearly 22 percent of states’ budgets today, and things are about to get a whole lot worse.” — Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), June 23, 2011, at a hearing of the Senate Finance...
First Study of Its Kind Shows Benefits of Providing Medical Insurance to Poor
When poor people are given medical insurance, they not only find regular doctors and see doctors more often but they also feel better, are less depressed and are better able to maintain financial stability, according to a new, large-scale study that provides the first rigorously controlled...
Medicaid Payments Go Under the Knife
To curb rising Medicaid costs, about a dozen states are starting a new budget year by reducing payments to doctors, hospitals and other health care providers that treat the poor. Some health care experts say the cuts, most of which went into effect July 1 or will later this month, could add to a...
Preserving Health Coverage for the Poor
The poor and disabled people who rely on Medicaid to pay their medical bills could be in grave jeopardy in this sour I’ve-got-mine political climate. Older Americans, a potent voting bloc, have made clear that they won’t stand for serious changes in Medicare. Medicaid, however,...
Deadline? What Deadline?
The state will miss tomorrow's deadline to pass a bill on health insurance exchanges—and its best chance to access up to $100 million in federal grants from a fund that will be depleted over the coming months. Health Committee Chairman Kemp Hannon said the state Senate is likely to...
An Unfair Burden
For all of the economic hardship of the last several years, there was reason to hope that the nation could avoid a crushing increase in the number of Americans living in poverty. That hope is fading fast. In 2008, amid a deepening recession, a Census Bureau measure showed that the number of...
New York State Lawmakers Are Set to Fulfill a Part of the President’s Health Care Plan
ALBANY — New York State lawmakers, eager to end their annual legislative session, were poised on Thursday to put into effect the central provision of President Obama’s health care plan. Lawmakers also recently voted to move the state’s presidential primary to April 24 from Feb...
Hospitals Courting Primary-Care Doctors
In one of the first concrete steps to remake the way medical care is delivered, hospitals are competing to hire primary-care physicians, trying to lure them from their private practices to work as salaried employees alongside specialists. The push is forcing doctors to make decisions about how...
Will New York Pass an Exchange Bill this Session?
The Cuomo administration officially announced it submitted a governor's program bill to create a health insurance exchange, but the release was silent on the fact that there may not be an exchange bill passed this legislative session. The governor's bill is more far-reaching and...
Cuomo Prescribes BamCare
ALBANY -- Gov. Cuomo moved yesterday to implement Obama Care in New York by creating a state-run Health Benefit Exchange in which individuals and small groups can purchase subsidized health insurance, starting in January 2014. The proposed legislation would establish the exchange as a public-...