Welcome to this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. In this installment, we will look at a trio of interesting articles discussing different facets of the health insurance industry as well as dealing with it as a consumer. Our first article comes from The Seattle Times and is entitled, “Health care reform must focus on individuals too.” In this article, author Greg Vigdor first looks at some alarming statistics in their own state of Washington, such as obesity being up 176 percent since 1990, for example.
The author then looks at efforts to reform our health care and health insurance systems, and how they “must include a federally supported social-marketing campaign to address obesity and prevention” that is on the same level as government anti-smoking advertising campaigns. It makes sense, as many health problems can be caused by obesity, and reducing the amount of obesity would reduce the costs of health care for related health problems and their treatment.
The author then goes onto say that the rising costs of health care itself are also hurting the health of America as a whole, going onto say many Americans go without health insurance and regular checkups due to high costs. He then states that 25 percent of people without insurance are eligible for Medicare and SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program), but don’t enroll. The author then suggests states incentivize enrollment in order to get more people into these programs. The author then goes into how prevention must be focused upon, as early detection and proper management of chronic illnesses can help cut costs, as treating illnesses such as asthma, cancer, diabetes and so on. The author also repeatedly praises President-Elect Obama for pushing for the types of changes necessary to make these reforms happen.
Next we will look at a more business-focused — yet very interesting — article in BusinessWeek. Entitled, “A Less Healthy Health Insurance Sector,” author Robert McNatt looks at how health insurance companies are suffering with less revenue, smaller margins, rating downgrades and more. Smaller insurance companies in particular are feeling the pinch of declining revenues and credit downgrades, while larger companies are weathering the storm better, and some non-for-profit health insurance companies are actually doing quite well despite this current financial situation.
The author goes onto say that with smaller budgets and smaller margins, health insurance companies will be putting up less new offerings and services in order to keep costs manageable, as well as fewer mergers and acquisitions. However, they will be more aggressive with renewals in order to compensate with less revenue from Medicare, Medicaid and so on. While health insurance companies have tried to streamline operations in order to save money, many times the streamlining can have unexpected costs. The article finally states that health insurance and health care reform will likely take place slowly, giving insurance companies time to adapt and influence the upcoming changes.
Our final article comes to us from Forbes, and is entitled, “The Worst Places To Be Sick And Poor.” In this article, they discuss a recent study by the watchdog group Public Citizen, in which they looked at several states that offer Medicaid and looked at several factors to determine which states are better or worse for those patients needing government aid for their health insurance. These factors include how long it takes for a doctor to get paid, how well claims are resolved, the variety and scope of services offered and more.
According to the article, Mississippi ranked last due to excluding medically needy patients with Idaho coming in second to last for the same reasons, including no Medicaid fraud office and poor nursing care, while Texas did badly across the board. Oklahoma did a better job by having a large amount of people eligible, yet got dinged for their limited number of services. Overall, it’s a fairly depressing article that hopefully will bring to light these issues in these respective states and help bring about positive change.
This concludes this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. I hope you have enjoyed it and found it interesting and education, and hope you have a happy and healthy day.
Other Health Insurance News Options:
Return to Articles Page.
The Health of Health Insurance, Reform, and The Worst Places to be Uninsured
Welcome to this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. In this installment, we will look at a trio of interesting articles discussing different facets of the health insurance industry as well as dealing with it as a consumer. Our first article comes from The Seattle Times and is entitled, “Health care reform must focus on individuals too.” In this article, author Greg Vigdor first looks at some alarming statistics in their own state of Washington, such as obesity being up 176 percent since 1990, for example.
The author then looks at efforts to reform our health care and health insurance systems, and how they “must include a federally supported social-marketing campaign to address obesity and prevention” that is on the same level as government anti-smoking advertising campaigns. It makes sense, as many health problems can be caused by obesity, and reducing the amount of obesity would reduce the costs of health care for related health problems and their treatment.
The author then goes onto say that the rising costs of health care itself are also hurting the health of America as a whole, going onto say many Americans go without health insurance and regular checkups due to high costs. He then states that 25 percent of people without insurance are eligible for Medicare and SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program), but don’t enroll. The author then suggests states incentivize enrollment in order to get more people into these programs. The author then goes into how prevention must be focused upon, as early detection and proper management of chronic illnesses can help cut costs, as treating illnesses such as asthma, cancer, diabetes and so on. The author also repeatedly praises President-Elect Obama for pushing for the types of changes necessary to make these reforms happen.
Next we will look at a more business-focused — yet very interesting — article in BusinessWeek. Entitled, “A Less Healthy Health Insurance Sector,” author Robert McNatt looks at how health insurance companies are suffering with less revenue, smaller margins, rating downgrades and more. Smaller insurance companies in particular are feeling the pinch of declining revenues and credit downgrades, while larger companies are weathering the storm better, and some non-for-profit health insurance companies are actually doing quite well despite this current financial situation.
The author goes onto say that with smaller budgets and smaller margins, health insurance companies will be putting up less new offerings and services in order to keep costs manageable, as well as fewer mergers and acquisitions. However, they will be more aggressive with renewals in order to compensate with less revenue from Medicare, Medicaid and so on. While health insurance companies have tried to streamline operations in order to save money, many times the streamlining can have unexpected costs. The article finally states that health insurance and health care reform will likely take place slowly, giving insurance companies time to adapt and influence the upcoming changes.
Our final article comes to us from Forbes, and is entitled, “The Worst Places To Be Sick And Poor.” In this article, they discuss a recent study by the watchdog group Public Citizen, in which they looked at several states that offer Medicaid and looked at several factors to determine which states are better or worse for those patients needing government aid for their health insurance. These factors include how long it takes for a doctor to get paid, how well claims are resolved, the variety and scope of services offered and more.
According to the article, Mississippi ranked last due to excluding medically needy patients with Idaho coming in second to last for the same reasons, including no Medicaid fraud office and poor nursing care, while Texas did badly across the board. Oklahoma did a better job by having a large amount of people eligible, yet got dinged for their limited number of services. Overall, it’s a fairly depressing article that hopefully will bring to light these issues in these respective states and help bring about positive change.
This concludes this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. I hope you have enjoyed it and found it interesting and education, and hope you have a happy and healthy day.
Other Health Insurance News Options:
Return to Articles Page.