News Headline

Uninsured Pay $30 Billion for Health Care

OurFuture.org Staff — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:47:25 -0400

Americans who go without health insurance for any part of 2008 will spend $30 billion out of pocket for health care and they will get $56 billion worth of free care, according to a new report. Government programs pay for about three-quarters, or roughly $43 billion, of the bills for these uninsured people, Jack Hadley of George Mason University in Virginia and a team at the Urban Institute reported. "The uninsured receive a lot less care than the insured, and they pay a greater percentage of it out of pocket. Contrary to popular myth, they are not all free riders," Hadley said.

Caught in Donut Hole, Elderly Forego Medicines

OurFuture.org Staff — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:29:05 -0400

About 3.4 million older and disabled people hit a gap, known as the doughnut hole, in their Medicare drug coverage in 2007. When that happened, they had to pay the entire costs of their medicine until they spent $3,850 out of pocket. Then, insurance coverage would kick in again. About 15 percent of those hitting the coverage gap stopped their treatment regimen. The drug benefit, which began in 2006, has come in under budget. Most participants report they are satisfied with the program. But many lawmakers and health analysts say improvements could be made.

Feds: No Sanctions For Insuring Children

OurFuture.org Staff — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:14:04 -0400

The Bush administration is backing down from a threat to penalize states enrolling middle-class children in a health program intended for the poor. The administration unveiled several new requirements last year for states that use a state-federal health program to cover children in families with incomes above 250 percent of the federal poverty level. States were directed to make the changes in their State Children's Health Insurance Program or potentially face financial penalties. Democratic lawmakers criticized the new guidelines as impossible to meet. They said the final result would be that more children would go without health coverage as states rein in their programs.

Medicare Drug Premiums Up

OurFuture.org Staff — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:05:08 -0400

The typical Medicare beneficiary can expect to see about a $3 increase in their monthly premiums for prescription drug coverage in 2009, federal officials said. Officials made the projection based on bids from private insurers that get the premiums along with a federal subsidy to administer the benefit. The increase of 12 percent will up the monthly premium to $28 for standard drug coverage. Medicare officials cited several factors in the increase. Primarily, people are using more prescriptions, plus the costs of many of those drugs are going up.

Drug Prices Skyrocket

OurFuture.org Staff — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:31:25 -0400

Drug companies are quietly pushing through price hikes of 100 percent — or even more than 1,000 percent — for a very small but growing number of prescription drugs, helping to drive up costs for insurers, patients and government programs. The number of brand-name drugs with increases of 100 percent or more could double this year from four years ago, researchers from the University of Minnesota say. Many of the drugs are older products that treat fairly rare, but often serious or even life-threatening, conditions. "This does drive up the price of health care," says Alan Goldbloom, president of Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. "Hospitals are either eating the cost or passing it along to insurers, so you and I are paying it in increased premiums."

HIV Rate Higher Than Reported

OurFuture.org Staff — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:00:23 -0400

The United States has significantly underreported the number of new H.I.V. infections occurring nationally each year, with a study released showing that the annual infection rate is 40 percent higher than previously estimated. The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that 56,300 people became newly infected with H.I.V in 2006, compared with the 40,000 figure the agency has cited as the recent annual incidence of the disease. The findings confirm that H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, has its greatest effect among gay and bisexual men of all races (53 percent of all new infections) and among African-American men and women.

Lax Oversight Risks Medicare Millions

OurFuture.org Staff — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:56:29 -0400

The government is putting millions of Medicare dollars at risk by authorizing fictitious sellers of wheelchairs, prosthetics and other medical supplies to submit reimbursement claims with only limited review, congressional investigators say. The study by the Government Accountability Office obtained by The Associated Press sought to follow up on oversight gaps that have plagued the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services since at least 2005. Roughly $1 billion of the $10 billion in annual Medicare payments the government makes for medical equipment are later deemed improper. The investigation found that CMS approved two companies in the past year for Medicare billing privileges that the GAO had set up as sham businesses. The companies did not have clients or medical inventory to supply prospective Medicare patients.

Black America Faces Epidemic

OurFuture.org Staff — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:48:04 -0400

If black America were a country, it would rank 16th in the world in the number of people living with the AIDS virus, the Black AIDS Institute, an advocacy group, reported. Nearly 600,000 African-Americans are living with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, and up to 30,000 are becoming infected each year. When adjusted for age, their death rate is two and a half times that of infected whites, the report said. Partly as a result, the hypothetical nation of black America would rank below 104 other countries in life expectancy.

Bush Signs AIDS Bill

OurFuture.org Staff — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:35:58 -0400

President Bush signed legislation that triples U.S. funding to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world. The five-year, $48 billion plan renews a program credited with saving millions of lives in Africa alone and is widely seen as one of the major achievements of the Bush presidency. The program's five-year renewal comes with some significant changes that took months to negotiate: a third of prevention funds will no longer be reserved for abstinence education; a "conscience clause" gives religious groups the right to refuse participation; more focus is placed on women and girls; and HIV-positive people will find it easier to get visas into the United States.

Americans' Lifespan Shorter

OurFuture.org Staff — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:20:49 -0400

Americans live shorter lives than citizens of almost every other developed nation, according to a report from several U.S. charities. The report found that the U.S, ranked 42nd in the world for life expectancy despite spending more on health care per person than any other country. Overall, the American Human Development Report ranked the world's richest country 12th for human development. The study looked at US government data on health, education and income. The U.S. report identifies obesity and the lack of health insurance for some 47 million Americans as the most significant factors in premature death. It also provides a snapshot of the inequalities between the richest and the poorest Americans and between different ethnic groups.