HealthCareForAmericaNow

Reading today's health care news clips you get a real clear picture of how the economic crisis facing this country is throwing people into the worse parts of our failing health care system.

First, the Detroit Free Press reports on a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation on rising Medicaid enrollment in the face of the weakening economy:

Across the country, as more people lost health insurance, Medicaid enrollment grew 2.1% in the 2008 fiscal year, which ends today. Michigan's Medicaid enrollment jumped 3.7%.

It begins the 2009 fiscal year with 1.58 million recipients, more than 1 in every 10 residents, up from 1 million in fiscal 1999.

While it's not surprising or necessarily a bad thing that more people are on Medicaid, we have to remember that Medicaid is a health program for people with low incomes. By definition, these people are not profitable for private insurance companies and they can't afford private insurance on their own, so they are forced into Medicaid. This means the insurance industry gets to keep its profitable customers and throw more people on government rolls, and apparently that's ok. Don't you dare mention that the insurance industry maybe, probably, should lower their rates. No, no, that's not how we fix this mess.

Of course, higher enrollment in Medicare (and Medicaid), given the built in high-risk pool nature of both programs, leads to problems down the line. Medicaid costs are projected to skyrocket:

NEWS

Health Care for America Now protests AHIP in Rhode Island - Turnto10.com

Click on the Health Information link in the sidebar for video.

Paying Workers to Go Abroad for Health Care - Wall Street Journal

Insured Americans are starting to see some unusual options in their health-provider networks: doctors and hospitals in Singapore, Costa Rica and other foreign destinations.

Physician Payments May Take Hit as Medicaid Enrollment Swells in Declining Economy - MedPage Today

Medicaid payments to physicians may be trimmed next year as states seek to offset the cost of growing enrollment in the programs, according to the authors of a Kaiser Family Foundation Survey.

Economic slump finds more people on Medicaid - Detroit Free Press

The nation's slumping economy is triggering growing Medicaid enrollment, a challenge to states like Michigan as they serve more uninsured people, state and national Medicaid experts said Monday.

Medicaid long-term health care costs to soar - Reuters

Fueled by the needs of a growing elderly population, U.S. spending on long-term health care under the Medicaid program will soar in the next 20 years, a report released on Monday predicted.

1. McCain will tax your health care benefits at work

McCain's health care plan will make people pay income taxes on the value of their health care benefits at work. So if your employer pays $10,000 a year for your health insurance, you will start having to pay taxes on that $10,000, just like you do on your wages or salary.

2. And give you a tax credit for less than five months of health care (after that you're on your own).

McCain will give a family a tax credit of $5,000 0 – paid to your insurance company -  but the average cost of a family health care plan in 2007 was $12,680. So McCain's plan will give you enough to pay from January to May. You'll need to come up with the money for June through December!

3. You may be one of 20 million people who will lose your health benefits

A study published in the respected journal Health Affairs found that 20 million will lose their employer paid for health insurance under the McCain plan, because many employers will decide they no longer have a responsibility to pay for health coverage for their workers.

4. And be forced to buy health insurance on your own

When you lose your health coverage at work, you'll need to look for coverage in the individual market. But you'll no longer have your employer doing the shopping for coverage and paying for coverage.

5. You won't be covered for pre-existing conditions - and may not be able to get coverage at all

When you are on your own, health insurance companies do not cover pre-existing conditions and they often refuse to sell any coverage to people who have had asthma, cancer or other common diseases. The federal law that protects people who get health insurance at work doesn't apply when you buy health insurance in the individual market.

6. But you will pay higher premiums as you get older or sicker or if you're a woman

In the individual market, health insurance companies charge higher premiums to people as they get older and charge more for people who have been treated for illnesses. Younger women get charged more than men of the same age, simply because they can become pregnant.

7. You may have deductibles as high as $11,200 a year

You may only be able to afford insurance plans with high deductibles, which under current federal law can be as much as $11,200 for a family plan.

8. With barebones benefits and no consumer protections

John McCain's plan would take away the protections that your state now offers people who buy health insurance on their own. Your state law requires health insurance to provide standard benefits and consumer protections. McCain's plan allows health insurance companies to get out of following your state's health insurance laws.

9. McCain protects health insurance profits - by passing the cost to taxpayers and the sick.

McCain's solution for people whom health insurance companies won't cover - because they've been treated for an illness - is to put them in a high-risk pool, paid for by state taxpayers and by charging high premiums.

10. Of course, John McCain won't have to worry about any of this for his health care.

You may not be covered, but John McCain will. As a Senator, he'll still get good coverage paid for by the federal government. As a veteran, he can also get cared for through the Veteran's Administration. And as a senior, he can get Medicare. That's three ways that the government provides health care for John McCain.

Health Care for America Now! (“HCAN”), a section 501(c)(4) issue advocacy organization, is a broad coalition of nonprofit and political organizations that are working to promote quality, affordable health care for all Americans.  HCAN and each of its members conducts and funds only activities appropriate to its tax and election law status. This statement was not funded or endorsed by HCAN’s 501(c)(3) members.

On Friday, Health Care for America Now supporters in Ohio and Rhode Island confronted the insurance industry. Braving heavy weather, folks in Rhode Island crashed the insurance industry's "listening tour:"

Now, as both presidential candidates have put forth proposals for health-care reform and public sentiment leans toward change, the health insurers say they want a different role in the debate –– that of helpful participant rather than opponent. Yesterday, AHIP held a “roundtable discussion” in Providence as the seventh stop in its Campaign for an American Solution, meetings to discuss what citizens want from their health-care system.

And the first thing the “listening tour” encountered was a protest. A group called Health Care for America Now!, comprising unions and other activists, gathered a dozen or so people under umbrellas outside the Foundry building. Their signs and fliers getting soggy in the rain, they denounced the profit-making and high executive salaries of private insurance companies.

“They’re insuring less people and making more money,” said Patrick Quinn, state director of the Service Employees International Union. “They’re part of the problem. They’re not the solution.”

AHIP's response was characteristically bad:

One of the participants, Karen Malcolm, executive director of Ocean State Action –– continuing the argument from the street –– said the “elephant in the room” was the administrative costs and high salaries at health-insurance companies. She noted that government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid operate with very low overhead.

Ignagni said that government programs, unlike private insurers, don’t offer such services as care coordination and disease management –– programs that most experts believe the health-care system needs. “It’s quite reasonable,” Ignagni said, “for the public to ask us to demonstrate our value.”

The only thing private insurance has the public insurance doesn't is "care coordination and disease management?" That's a pretty weak case for private insurance, and even so, what's stopping public insurance from adding these services? It seems the insurance industry is finally admitting public insurance can be just as good as private. If that's the case, the industry's attempts to block the creation of a widely available public insurance plan can only be read as a move to preserve their profits.

Health Care for America Now was also out protesting in Ohio on Friday against Anthem:

The Rev. Gregory Chandler, president of the Amos Project, said he wants to know why, if health-care keeps getting costlier, profits for Anthem and other insurers keep going up.

From 2003 to 2007, the group said, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, a subsidiary of Wellpoint Inc., saw earnings rise from $203 million to $420 million.

In 2006, Wellpoint's chairman of the board, Larry C. Glasscock, earned more than $23.8 million.

"We will request a meeting with Anthem president Erin Hoeflinger to raise our concerns regarding the disconnect between profit-making and providing care to regular people, like Stephanie's father," Chandler said. "There are numerous practices that insurance companies seem to engage in to limit actual provision of care and to minimize the number of sick people in their insurance, rendering the least of these the most vulnerable. That doesn't square with our faith values or our American values. We hope to have a productive conversation about what can be changed."

And once again, the insurance industry's response was lackluster:

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is committed to all Ohioans having access to affordable, quality health coverage," said Kim Ashley, spokeswoman for the insurer. "We believe there is a role for both public programs and a private, choice-based system to achieve that goal. Increasing access to care, improving health-care quality, controlling health spending and building on the current private-public system are priorities for Anthem and we believe should be priorities for this country.

Characteristically, the insurance industry wants to "build on the current private-public system" instead of creating a widely available public health care plan it knows will cut its profits. Building on a failed system doesn't sound like the way forward towards health care for all, it sounds like throwing more money down a hole.

As supports around the country have been demonstrating, people want real health care reform, not platitudes and band-aids from the insurance industry.

NEWS

Protesters greet health-insurance executives at roundtable in Providence - The Providence Journal

When the Clinton administration attempted to overhaul the health-care system in the 1990s, among the loudest voices raised in opposition was that of the health-insurance industry. The insurers financed the notorious “Harry and Louise” commercials that contributed to the Clinton plan’s failure.

Crowd protests Anthem profits - Cincinnati Enquirer

Shouting "Health-care now!" about 200 protesters Thursday afternoon rushed into the lobby of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield at its Ohio headquarters in Mason.

House Backs Stimulus Bill, but It Stalls in Senate - New York Times

The House on Friday passed a bill intended to revive the economy with $61 billion of federal spending, but the Senate blocked consideration of a similar bill, and President Bush issued veto threats against both.

Churches Flex Influence on Health - The Orlando Sentinel

There are lots of reasons why many Americans don't go to the doctor. They don't have insurance. They're too busy. They don't trust the traditional health-care system.

Providence Journal: The first thing the “listening tour” encountered was a protest.

Read more…

Check this new documentary from POV on PBS next week:

"What happens if you fall sick and are one of 47 million people in America without health insurance? Critical Condition puts a human face on the nation's growing health care crisis by capturing the harrowing struggles of four critically ill Americans who discover that being uninsured can cost them their jobs, health, home, savings, and even their lives." Watch it>

Cincinnatti.com: They were there to protest the high cost of health care, coupled with Anthem's big profits.

Read more…

NEWS

Health Insurance Premiums More Than Doubled Since 1999, Report Finds - PND News

Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose a modest 5 percent this year, to $12,680 annually for family coverage, but they have more than doubled since 1999, when total family premiums stood at $5,791, a new report from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust finds.

Federal Health Official to Step Down - New York Times

Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health, who shook up the agency when he barred scientists from consulting for drugmakers, announced that he would leave at the end of October.

We've been following the health insurance industry, represented by America's Health Insurance Plans, around the country, telling the real story and deriding AHIP's "listening tour" as nothing more than cheap propaganda.

First, we were there in Ohio, where Kim from SEIU asked AHIP's CEO Karen Ignagni what she thought of health care CEOs making millions while Americans get denied the health care they need.

We were there when AHIP tried to hide their events, giving out no notice to the public even as they professed they were committed to "listening" to the public.

We were there during AHIP's virtual stops at the Democratic and Republican conventions, bombarding them with over 1,700 questions you submitted - which they refused to answer.

And we were there in New Mexico, getting the industry to admit they aren't for real reform because they have to make a profit.

Tomorrow, we'll be following AHIP to Rhode Island, to unmask their propaganda. If you live near Providence, come by a join us:

Come Rally for "QUALITY, AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL, NOT INSURANCE PROFITS" outside of the America's Health Insurance Plan's "Listening Tour" stop.

The health insurance industry is doing a national "listening tour" around the country in an attempt to convince Americans that private, for-profit insurers want to fix the health care crisis. Health Care for American Now believes that private for-profit insurers are a major part of the problem - denying claims for legitimate care, and denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions - and that a real solution to the health care crisis has to include real serious regulation of the insurance industry to make sure that health care for people, not insurance profits, come first.

Join us as we "take the mask off" the insurance industry's effort to express concern about the health care crisis.

When:
Tomorrow, Friday, September 26th at 12:00 pm

Where:
Outside the Foundry Building
235 Promenade Street
Providence, RI 02908

(map)

We'll see you there!