Opinion
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Health Care Spending in 2001: What the Study Found
Opinion -Hospital Care Hospital spending in 2001 reached more than $451 billion. Between 1999 and 2000, the quantity of services used per patient increased by 2.2 percent; between 2000 and 2001, the rate of increase was 4.2 percent. -
Massachusetts Effort to Tax Prescriptions Leads to Chaos
Opinion -A new tax on prescription drugs has come under heavy criticism from pharmacists, insurers, and consumer advocates. An estimated 55 million prescriptions will be subject to a tax of $1. -
Association Group Health Insurance Sparks Controversy
Opinion -Health insurance premiums are going up by double-digit rates for the third year in a row, and some workers and employers are seeing increases of 30, 40, and even 50 percent. -
States Use HIFA Waivers to Expand Private Insurance
Opinion -Waivers granted through the Health Insurance Flexibility and Accountability (HIFA) initiative give state officials an opportunity to expand health care coverage to the uninsured and help individuals and families escape crumbling public health programs -
A Health Care Reform Agenda: Desirable Federal Changes
Opinion -John McClaughry is president of the Ethan Allen Institute, a nonprofit research and education organization based in Vermont. -
U.S. Spent $1.4 Trillion on Health Care in 2001
Opinion -Americans spent an unprecedented $1. -
Table: U.S. Spending on Health Care, 1980-2001
Opinion -U.S. Spending on Health Care, 1980-2001 Item 1980 1988 1990 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Amount in Billions National Health Expenditures $245.8 $558.1 $696.0 $888.1 $937.2 $990.1 $1,039.4 $1,092.7 $1,150.0 $1,219.7 $1,310. -
America Talks Health Care
Opinion -Tax credits and Medical Savings Accounts took center stage at the Bush administration’s first “Talk to Tommy” public forum on health care, held December 10, 2002 in Minneapolis. -
Long-Term Care Needs Attention
Opinion -Most Americans would be caught completely unprepared if they or a loved one were faced with a medical crisis that required long-term care. One out of five Americans over the age of 50 is at risk of needing long-term care in the next 12 months. -
02/2003 Scandlen at Large: It’s Up to Us
Opinion -Health care reform is going to be the biggest domestic issue in 2003. The private sector keeps developing new financing options, while financially strapped state governments are in a crisis over the rising costs of Medicaid and state employee benefits. -
Cloned Baby Claim Reopens Policy Debate
Opinion -On December 27, 2002, spokespersons for Clonaid claimed to have produced a 7-pound girl named Eve, born to a 31-year-old American woman outside the U.S. -
02/2003 State Legislative Update
Opinion -State Update Compiled and edited by Conrad F. Meier Managing Editor’s Note: With this issue, Health Care News is expanding its coverage of state-based health care news. -
02/2003 The Galen Report
Opinion -President George W. -
Pennsylvania Walkout Averted
Opinion -Forty-two doctors in Pennsylvania agreed to call off their planned walkout after incoming Governor Ed Rendell (D) promised to fight for $220 million in aid for doctors to help pay for their malpractice insurance premiums. -
Frist’s “Big Vision” Gets Bigger
Opinion -Last month, this column reported on Tennessee Republican Senator Bill Frist’s “Big Vision” for Medicare reform. We did not expect at the time that he would soon be occupying the powerful seat of majority leader of the U.S. Senate. -
Maine Rx Discounts Are Illegal, Court Rules
Opinion -The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on December 24, 2002 rejected the Healthy Maine Prescriptions program launched in June 2001. -
Reaping What They Sued
Opinion -Approximately $32 billion has been paid out since the national tobacco settlement was reached in 1998. Most of the money has been used to finance things unrelated to smokers’ health care, health care in general, or smoking prevention programs. -
States Tackle Medicaid
Opinion -Michigan’s state budget deficit could approach $2 billion in the next fiscal year. Eleven other states are on pace to see deficits at or over the $2 billion mark. In Illinois and Wisconsin, the budget gaps may be closer to $3 billion. -
Surgeons Protest Liability Premiums
Opinion -The debate over malpractice insurance reform took a dramatic turn in January, as surgeons at four northern West Virginia hospitals canceled nearly all scheduled surgeries and required at least one patient to be transferred to another hospital. -
Statement on the President’s State of the Union Address
Opinion -In his State of the Union Address on January 28, President Bush called for a prescription drug benefit for seniors and discussed the need to get affordable drugs to AIDS patients in developing countries. -
Magic Beans
Opinion -The coffee bean may offer the best protection against one of America’s surging epidemics--Type 2 diabetes. -
Drug Assistance
Opinion -Anti-business activists are using corporate scandals as an excuse to blame big business for social problems. -
Bill Frist’s ‘Big Vision’ for Medicare
Opinion -Heart surgeon and U.S. Senator Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) is stepping into a political swamp wrought with alligators: overhauling Medicare. -
01/2003 The Pulse
Opinion -The most important, least reported outcome of last year’s elections are what happened in the state legislatures.
