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Democratic Governors Voice Concern Over Health Care Bill

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:08:11 +0000

Republican governors are not alone in being concerned about what the proposed health care legislation might mean for their already overstrained budgets: Democrats share the same worries. “We’ve got concerns,” Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware said in an interview Wednesday, hours before getting elected as the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. “And we’re doing our best to communicate them. We understand the need to get something done, and we’re supportive of getting something done. But we want to make sure it’s done in a way that state budgets are not negatively impacted. ”From the start, Republican governors have been more outspokenly critical about the health care legislation – in particular, the bill proposed by Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader – which they said would saddle them with millions of dollars in additional Medicaid costs as insurance coverage is expanded. At their own meeting two weeks ago in Texas, Republican governors declared Democrats felt the same way as they did, but were less apt to say it out of loyalty to President Obama. Asked about that, Mr. Markell responded: “Perhaps we’ve expressed some of our concerns less publicly. But I believe all governors are certainly concerned about what the potential impact is of some of these bills. ”Mr. Markell said that there was no division between governors and the administration on the need to get some sort of health care bill through; he said that he was reminded of the need in conversations with small businesses struggling with health care costs and constituents who have been unable to get health care coverage. He said his concern was some of the bills being considered would do that by shifting some of the costs to the state – but said he remained confident, after conversations with the White House, that would not be the case. Whatever the outcome of the health care deliberations, Mr. Markell said he did not believe it would affect the electoral outcome for governors in 2010, a year in which 19 gubernatorial seats currently held by Democrats are on the ballot. The key issues, the governor said, were jobs and the economy. And to that regard, Mr. Markell said that he was hopeful that the White House and Congress would dispose of the health care deliberations and move on to discussing some sort of jobs creation legislation. “Right now I believe we need to be focused really significantly on the state level on jobs and on the economic climate overall,” he said. Asked if Mr. Markell thought Mr. Obama and Congress were spending too much time on health care at the expense of the economy, he responded: “Well I feel it would be terrific if they could finish health care and move on. ”

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Maryland Health Insurance
Delaware Health Insurance

Extending health care to more kids

admin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:11:55 +0000

OneWorld Community Health Center is looking for 6,000 kids. The agency that generally provides health care to the underserved has received $706,264 from the federal government to create a program to enroll thousands of children in either of two government insurance programs for low-income children. Many metro-area children are eligible but aren’t enrolled because their families don’t know the programs exist or don’t know their kids could qualify, said Andrea Skolkin, chief executive officer of OneWorld. That means some of those children are going without health care or are getting far less than they could. OneWorld’s goal is to enroll at least 6,000 children. The agency’s outreach effort has just begun. OneWorld will place staff members in day care centers, schools, after-school programs, churches, food pantries, organizations and other places. “We want to be where people are versus making people come to us,” Skolkin said. They will contact families at those sites and determine whether they have children who qualify but aren’t enrolled in Medicaid or the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program. The staff members will have laptops to take down information and scanners to scan in citizenship documents and proof of Nebraska residency. Children must be citizens to receive the health care benefits. The agency also will take referrals. For information, call 502-8888. OneWorld, based in the Livestock Exchange Building, 4920 S. 30th St. , has hired a director and will employ five full-time staffers for the program. OneWorld also has a clinic in Plattsmouth. President Barack Obama this year allocated $40 million to agencies in 42 states and Washington, D. C. , for programs to conduct enrollment efforts over the next two years. Through a competitive process, OneWorld was one of 69 entities to receive money. Iowa doesn’t have a program among the 69. An additional $40 million will be distributed in 2012. Enrollment among children in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program has gradually risen in Iowa and Nebraska. The economy has worsened and awareness of the programs has broadened, spokesmen in Iowa and Nebraska say. A child qualifies for Medicaid if his family’s annual income is at or somewhat above the federal poverty level, which is $18,310 for a family of three. Qualifying for CHIP isn’t as stringent. In Iowa, the state raised the CHIP ceiling this year to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or $54,930 for a family of three. Nebraska raised its income ceiling for CHIP from 185 percent this year to 200 percent, or $36,620 for a family of three. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has estimated there may be close to 15,000 eligible children who aren’t enrolled. The Iowa Department of Public Health estimated there could be as many as 38,000 children who aren’t covered.

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Nebraska Health Insurance
Iowa Health Insurance

Health care reform and buying coverage across state lines

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:51:41 +0000

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now that that’s over, Congress is back in session, and the Senate is tackling the health care reform issue. One of the things that is being discussed in reforming our health insurance system is allowing people to buy insurance plans from other states where they might be able to find less expensive plans. I’m not sure how this is supposed to work, and here’s why. One reason the cost of plans is lower in some states than is others is the number of mandated services a health plan is required to cover. The more a plan is required to cover, the higher the cost of coverage. For example, California has 56 required services that each plan must cover. By contrast, Idaho has 13 state mandates. We aren’t at the top of the list by any means; Virginia has 60 mandates and Maryland has 66. Want to check out what kinds of things are mandated, click here. Another area that needs to be addressed is how physicians and others are paid. HMO plans in California tend to be more expensive than PPO plans in the individual market, but you have lower out of pocket costs when obtaining care on an HMO plan. (The opposite is usually true in group health insurance. ) The reason this can be is through very specific networks of contracted doctors. Most people know that you don’t have coverage if you go outside the HMO network unless it’s an emergency. So maybe you just don’t offer HMOs between states. But PPOs have networks too. If you see a contracted doctor you are covered at a higher level than non-contracted doctors. So if you are in California and buy a plan from Kansas, would you always be covered at the lower reimbursement rates? Larger carriers like United Healthcare and Aetna have networks in most states, but what about the smaller, regional carriers without networks in other states? How would that work?Another aspect of provider payment that affects premiums is how much providers are paid. Care in some states is less expensive than others, so how do you pay providers in the ‘expensive’ states versus the less expensive, and what will that do to the cost of insurance in those states where lower costs of care are factored into the cost of insurance? You could still end up with the problem of some people being ‘under insured’ depending on how reimbursement is worked out. So be careful what you ask for, you may gt it. The more you want covered in a plan, the more it’s going to cost. Just remember the old marketing adage, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

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United Healthcare
Golden Rule Insurance