HCAO News

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Insurance isn’t health care

That’s what the ‘Oregon experiment’ really shows

The Register-Guard
Editorial

Oregon’s experience with an expanded Medicaid program is being used as ammunition by all sides in the national debate over health care. Opponents of the Affordable Care Act claim it shows that providing health insurance to more people doesn’t make them healthier. Supporters cite the same data to support the opposite claim. The fog of war over Obamacare has obscured the real message from Oregon, which is that insurance and health care are not the same thing.

Oregon made itself the laboratory for Medicaid expansion in 2008. The state had funds to add 10,000 patients to the health care program for low-income people, but 90,000 met eligibility guidelines. Oregon conducted a lottery to determine who would enroll. The lottery created an unprecedented opportunity for a randomized controlled study — one that can yield statistically valid results.

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Training offered in Social Media

We are having a social media training Saturday May 11 10 a.m.-12 noon.  It will be put on by Lisa Loving of KBOO and Editor of the Portland Scanner. Lisa feels the more people who come to the training the better.  We would love you all to come and invite everyone in your groups. 

The training will be at Robin Cash's house, 6923 NE Morris in Portland.  People who attend will need EITHER a smart phone, and iPad or other tablet with wi-fi capabilities  or a laptop that has wi-fi capabilities.  Robin has wi-fi at her house.

Space is limited, so please contact Robin at this link or at 503 421 6125, so she can have enough chairs!!

IT WILL START PROMPTLY AT 10 AM AND END AT 12!!  (Robin is tabling at the Unitarian Church at 1 and hopes some of you who attend will table with her.) 

Ross Lampert, Organizer
Health Care for All - Oregon
(503) 206-6709 office

Health Chaos Ahead

By DAVID BROOKS, Op-Ed Columnist
Published in the New York Times: April 25, 2013

It was always going to be difficult to implement Obamacare, but even fervent supporters of the law admit that things are going worse than expected.

Implementation got off to a bad start because the Obama administration didn’t want to release unpopular rules before the election. Regulators have been working hard but are clearly overwhelmed, trying to write rules that influence the entire health care sector — an economic unit roughly the size of France. Republicans in Congress have made things much more difficult by refusing to provide enough money for implementation.

By now, everybody involved seems to be in a state of anxiety.

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The privatization of Medicare by Advantage plans

by Paco Maribona, HCAO-Lincoln City
 
Insurers, lobbyists, and many in Congress successfully lobbied against the minor cuts to the Medicare Advantage plans which were supposed to take effect starting 2014, under ACA, the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). Instead of cutting their generous subsidies (often around $800-$1200/person/month) by only 2.2% , they'll be getting a 3.3% raise. 
 
Medicare Advantage plans, including HMOs, PPOs, and other versions, are steps towards the privatization of Medicare. While some of these programs, like Kaiser, can coexist with the traditional Medicare Part A and B and Supplement plans, they are heavily subsidized by Medicare. Right now about 24% of plans are so called Advantage plans (Advantage Insurers). Which if they grow too much, could ultimately kill traditional single payer Medicare.

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Big Brother Has A New Face, And It's Your Boss

Forbes  4/25/2013
Paul Hsieh, Contributor: I cover health care and economics from a free-market perspective.

Recently, the CVS Caremark Corporation began requiring employees to disclose personal health information (including weight, blood pressure, and body fat levels) or else pay an annual $600 fine. Workers must make this information available to the company’s employee “Wellness Program” and sign a form stating that they’re doing so voluntarily.

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Out-of-Control Hospital Charges Come Under Scrutiny

by Richard Bukata, MD on April 16, 2013, in Emergency Physicians Monthly

http://www.epmonthly.com/features/current-features/out-of-control-hospital-charges-come-under-scrutiny-/

A recent Time Magazine cover article is the latest in a series of eye-opening reports about runaway hospital charges. Here we break down some of the critical numbers to know.

It is unequivocally clear that we need to reduce the amount of money spent on healthcare. Nobody disagrees with this. Between the aging of Baby Boomers and the 30+ million newly insured patients under Obamacare, the perfect storm of healthcare consumption has been created.

Among the many challenges associated with making American healthcare more cost-effective is the irrationality of patient bills. Have you ever seen a patient’s ED bill, or better yet, a hospital bill? They are generally indecipherable except for the bottom line – the total. And the total is invariably an astronomical amount when compared with what we know as physicians to be the true value of what was delivered.

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