Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
After spending the last part of last week and the better part of this one preparing for two major presentations on ‘US health care 2009’ (both requiring predictions about health reform efforts and results thereof) I’ve been anxious to get … Continue reading What’s up in work comp?
Read More...Colleague Bob Laszewski has ferreted out a couple of health care-related items from Sarah Palin’s brief tenure as Governor of Alaska. One is her push to eliminate Certificate of Need requirements for building health care facilities, the other calls for … Continue reading Gov. Sarah Palin on health care
Read More...Slowly, inexorably, inevitably, the government is becoming the nation’s health insurer. The latest report from the US Census Bureau indicates the number of Americans without health insurance dropped from 2006 (15.8 percent) to 2007 (15.3 percent) – good news, especially … Continue reading The health insurance ‘market’ isn’t working
Read More...They’re at it again. The latest assault on logic and reasoned debate comes from a physician in California (no longer practicing) who claims: “Low birth weight infants are not counted against the “live birth” statistics for many countries reporting low … Continue reading Debunk – ‘US infant mortality rates aren’t so bad’
Read More...Most poor folks who don’t have health insurance would if they could afford it. We’ve settled that. But that’s the problem – health insurance is just not affordable – today. And costs are not going down, in fact the latest … Continue reading At what price will people buy health insurance?
Read More...I think I’ve figured out why analysts have been unable to accurately forecast health plan financials – they don’t know what questions to ask. That’s the only conclusion I can draw after listening to the latest earnings call from Coventry … Continue reading Coventry earnings call – the analysts blew it
Read More...Pundits (myself included) are detecting a sea change on the Hill – the health plans’ power meter is just barely registering while physicians are pegging the needle. If you’re wondering why physicians were so adamantly opposed to the Medicare reimbursement … Continue reading Docs are fighting mad, ready for war, and they’ve got big guns
Read More...Last week the National Coalition on Benefits went public with their position on health reform – they don’t want any reduction in the role of employers. The NCB’s position was laid out in a letter to Sens. Ron Wyden (D … Continue reading Big employers and health reform – they’re kind of right, but for the wrong reasons
Read More...The Medicare vote to rescind the 10% cut in physician reimbursement likely kept many docs in the business of providing medical care to workers comp patients. But that ‘stay of execution’ ends Jan 1 2010 when a 21% cut is … Continue reading Regulators dodged a bullet, but another one’s in the chamber
Read More...Opponents of universal care often cite awful stories of Canadians and Brits hurt, killed, or dead of neglect or bad care. And there’s no doubt that people in Canada and Britain are the victims of poor medical care. There is … Continue reading the horrors of universal coverage
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