Opinion
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Consumer Choice Matters: AHIP Announces One Million HSAs Sold
Opinion -America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) released its latest survey of HSA enrollment on May 4. It finds that in just 14 months, more than one million people have enrolled in HSA-qualified high-deductible plans. -
DC City Council to Regulate Drug Prices
Opinion -On May 3, the District of Columbia City Council unanimously passed a measure that would make it an illegal trade practice to charge too much for prescription drugs. -
Employers Cannot Reduce Retirees’ Benefits, Judge Rules
Opinion -In a closely watched case, a federal district court judge in Philadelphia has ruled employers are prohibited by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) from varying retiree benefits according to their age. Judge Anita B. -
How to Reduce the Risk of Nutritional Diseases
Opinion -The United States is experiencing an epidemic of diseases related to poor nutrition. Rates of heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes, and obesity are all rising rapidly. -
Obesity Crisis May Not Exist at All
Opinion -In late April, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released newly revised estimates of weight-related mortality in the United States, casting doubt on whether the country faces an obesity crisis at all. -
Private Initiative Solves Drug Access Problems
Opinion -Prescription drugs not only improve health and save lives--they can save money by reducing the need for expensive surgery or other costly treatments. -
The Uninsured Problem Needs Tough Minds, Soft Hearts
Opinion -"Cover the Uninsured Week" is an eight-day media campaign spearheaded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a tax-exempt organization with $80 million in active grants dedicated to "ensuring that everyone in America has affordable and reliable health -
Three ‘Crisis’ States Show Improvement after Tort Reform
Opinion -Physicians aren't ready to celebrate just yet, but tort reform efforts are showing signs of positive effects in Ohio, Texas, and West Virginia, where reform legislation was enacted in 2003. -
Vermont Considers Canadian-Style Health Care
Opinion -State legislators in Vermont are considering proposals that would turn the state's health care system into a government-run single-payer system similar to Canada's. Early in the 2005 session, State Sen. Ed Flanagan (D-Chittenden) and State Rep. -
Three Strikes and More for Drug Importation
Opinion -Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's (D) I-Save-Rx prescription drug program, launched in October 2004, came under attack on several fronts in March. -
Health Insurance: Why Rent When You Can Own?
Opinion -Most people agree it is better to own than rent. Ownership allows people to build equity and gives them positive incentives to take care of what they possess. -
Analysis: State Mandates Drive Up Insurance Costs
Opinion -Five numbers tell us a lot about health insurance and the health care issue in the United States. They are 4,044; 1,188; 1,823; eight; and 4662. States' Insurance Prices Vary The first number is $4,044. -
Feeding the 800-Pound Gorilla
Opinion -Medicaid--the nation's program to reimburse hospitals and physicians for health care provided to the poor--has become an 800-pound gorilla sitting on the back of state budgets. -
Consumers Lose Round in Battle over Specialty Hospitals
Opinion -On March 8, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC)--ignoring its own research and new studies showing the benefits of competition and specialization--recommended to Congress that it extend the moratorium on development of new specialty -
Obesity Scandal
Opinion -In March 2004, Tommy Thompson, then Secretary of the U.S. -
Technology Can Improve Long-Term Living
Opinion -Dramatic changes in science and technology are under way. Our country will experience as much scientific discovery and innovation over the next 25 years as it did the entire last century, which will profoundly impact our concept of aging. -
A Jaundiced Look at Consumerism
Opinion -The New Republic has published a major article called "Medicine and the Free Market. The Health of Nations," by Arnold Relman, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. The article is broken into several sections. -
Advertisement: Pre-Conference Workshops Announced for Institute 2005
Opinion -At "Institute 2005," the annual meeting of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), to be held June 8-10, 2005 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, more than 2,300 health care professionals will gather to discuss issues ranging from health care's changing -
How to Reduce the Risk of Nutritional Diseases
Opinion -The United States is experiencing an epidemic of diseases related to poor nutrition. Rates of heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes, and obesity are all rising rapidly. -
Liability Study Criticized
Opinion -The American Medical Association (AMA) and other physician groups are criticizing a recent study by four law professors who concluded there never was a liability crisis in Texas--that rising insurance premiums over the past several years had not been -
Massachusetts Governor Battles Harvard and Legislature on Stem Cell Research
Opinion -On March 30, the Massachusetts Senate passed a bill sponsored by Senate President Robert Travaglini (D-East Boston) that would allow embryonic stem cell research and so-called "therapeutic" cloning. The bill passed by a vote of 35-2. -
What Hunger Insurance Could Teach Us about Health Insurance
Opinion -To understand what lies at the heart of the failure of our current health care financing system, imagine, if you can, what the world would be like if we tried to buy food the same way we buy health care services. -
Advertisement: AHIP Institute 2005 to Meet in June
Opinion -More than 2,300 health care professionals will gather in June at Institute 2005, the annual meeting of America's Health Insurance Plan (AHIP), to learn about and discuss issues ranging from surviving health care's changing marketplace to consumer choice -
State Plan for Genomics Research Under Fire in Minnesota
Opinion -A David and Goliath battle has arisen in Minnesota over ownership and use of patients' genetic data. On one side of the heated debate is Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) and two of Minnesota's major research institutions, the Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota.
