The Carnival of Risk is up over at "The Digerati Life:""Welcome to the Carnival of Risk #24, where we showcase articles that discuss risk in all its forms, particularly touching on the subjects of risk management, insurance, investing and other articles on business and financial risk...read the rest.
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Browse » Home » Archives for April 2007
Humana Caps Annual Increases on Consumer-Driven Plans--Too Bad it Isn't a Real Guarantee
Humana says it will cap annual increases on self-insured consumer-driven plans for three years.Two problems:Humana is capping the costs of its "SmartResults" self-insured plans and only putting 40% of their fees at risk. If they were really putting their money where their mouth is they would be capping the cost of fully insured plans--and if they are so confident on their self-insured product,
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The Medicare Fee-For-Service Product is a Kamikaze Flight for Health Insurers--But Are the LBO Guys Interested in Humana Anyway?
There is plenty of speculation over just what the Congress will do about Medicare Advantage payments to health plans.I have posted on this many times before.To summarize, I believe:Medicare Advantage payments to health plans will not be cut by the Congress for 2008. But health plans will suffer some relative Medicare Advantage payment decreases in 2008 because the average 3.5% increase the plans
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Medicare Drug Negotiation Bill Fails in the Senate
Democrats fell short of the required 60-votes to pass a bill that would have allowed the Secretary of HHS the power to negotiate Medicare Part D drug prices. Democrats did get 55 votes while 42 Senators opposed the bill. The vote generally followed party lines.The Medicare Part D drug negotiation bill was little more than a political charade anyway since the bill would not give HHS any leverage
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Latest "Health Wonk Review" is Up
Health Wonk Review is a biweekly compendium of the best of the health policy blogs. More than two dozen health policy, infrastructure, insurance, technology, and managed care bloggers participate by contributing their best recent blog postings to a roving digest, with each issue hosted at a different participant's blog. For participants, it's a way to network and share ideas, and for those
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Hillary Clinton Doesn't Like Health Insurance Companies and Never Has--But Demonizing Them Again Won't Get Us Health Care Reform
At a recent health care forum attended by Democratic presidential candidates, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton observed, "The insurance companies make money by spending a lot of money employing a lot of people to try to avoid insuring you, and then if you're insured, to try to avoid paying for the health care you received... ." (Newsday 4/14/07)I'm sorry to hear her say that.Health care is
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Democratic Presidential Candidate Bill Richardson Supports the Employer Mandate as a Way to Provide Health Insurance
Democratic Presidential Candidate Bill Richardson has weighed in on the health care debate with comments about what he would do on the issue:"You know, every time a Democrat, it seems, we propose a new [health care] plan, it's more spending or more taxes. I'm not that way...I would have a mandate. I would say every employer...has to have a health care plan. That's how you pay for it."Well
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The Imus Fiasco and the Virginia Tech Massacre—What They Have in Common
Why is it that these campus massacres seem to be a unique American phenomenon?Last week the country struggled to understand why the Imus fiasco hit such a raw nerve.This week, a 23-year-old Northern Virginia kid took some kind of rage out on dozens of innocent people at Virginia Tech.Could it be that the two share some kind of common thread?I believe they do.In my mind that thread has to do with
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Senate Developments on Medicare Advantage Payments to Health Plans and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) Reauthorization
The Senate is back to work and two important developments occurred last week in the debate over Medicare Advantage payments to health plans and the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP).First, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing where its chair, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and ranking Republican, Chuck Grassley (R-IA), both expressed concern about the
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More Than 10 Million Are Now Using Consumer-Driven Health Care Accounts--We Will Soon Have Enough Data to Know How Well HSAs and HRAs Work
Consumer Driven Market Report (CDMR) has issued a report on the success of consumer-driven care in the marketplace.CDMR reports that over 6 million people are participating in health plans that have a health savings account (HSA) as part of their plan—that is an increase of 2.85 million in the last year.Similar health reimbursement accounts (HRAs) now total 4.1 million and are growing at a rate
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Another Victory Declared in Massachusetts--The Connector Exempts 20% of Uninsured State Residents From the Requirement to Buy a Health Plan
The only place there are more victories being declared than in Iraq these days is in Massachusetts.The Massachusetts Health Plan regulator, "The Commonwealth Connector," has issued new rules that will exempt an estimated 20% of the uninsured from a state legal requirement to purchase health insurance.Since the health plan bids came in last month, it has been clear the prices would not make it
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The Medicare Part D Drug Benefit: "The Ugliest Night I Have Ever Seen" - "60 Minutes" Report on How the Medicare Drug Benefit Became Law
As any any of you who know me, or who have regularly read this blog, know, I have great disdain for the Part D Medicare drug benefit--the way it was passed and the horrible health care policy it represents.I do believe seniors are entitled to coverage for their drugs. But instead of layering $8 trillion of unfunded liability (the whole of Social Security has a $4 trillion unfunded liability) on
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A Bipartisan Bill to Ban Genetic Discrimination Continues to Move Through the Congress
The House continues to move toward approving a genetic discrimination bill that would prohibit health plans from collecting genetic information and from requesting, requiring, or purchasing such information for insurance underwriting purposes.Employers would be prohibited from using genetic information in the hiring process.The bill is now working its way through the committee process with
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A Drug Reimportation Bill Continues to Receive Bipartisan Congressional Support
A drug reimportation bill that would enable consumers, drug retailers, and wholesalers to import cheaper foreign drugs from FDA-approved plants and warehouses continues to gain support. The CBO reported that the bill would generate $50 billion in savings for pharmaceutical purchasers over 10 years.While a floor vote has not yet been scheduled in either house, we continue to believe this, or a
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A Mental Health Parity Bill Still on Track for Passage
During the last few weeks we reported that it is likely a bipartisan mental health parity bill will emerge from this Congress after years of inaction on the issue.That prediction still holds today.In past years, the Republican Congressional leadership blocked the bill even though the votes were there for passage--with many Republicans behind it. With the Democrats now controlling the
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The Health Wonk Review--A New and Improved U.S. Health Care System
Jane Hiebert-White host's this edition of Health Wonk Review over at the Health Affairs Blog. Health Wonk Review is a bi-weekly round-up of the best in health care policy blogging. This edition is loaded with commentary on how we might achieve universal coverage--or not.
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The Real Reason Health Care Reform is Hard—Hillary Clinton Leads the Presidential Candidates With $26 Million in First Quarter Campaign Contributions
Reading the press, it’s as though raising money for a presidential run is a sweepstakes to be won—like it’s something to be proud of.Just exactly what should we all be celebrating?Hillary Clinton leads the way with $26 million raised in the first three months of the year before the presidential election. Senator Obama is reportedly going to come in well over the $20 million figure and John
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